Silverstone memories: First lap crash at the 1973 British Grand Prix

That certainly brings back memories. I was sitting in the main grandstand with my father and we saw the whole thing unfold. The rookie Schectker ran wide onto the grass on the exit from Woodcote, and rather than riding it out, he immediately tried to steer the car back onto the track, with dire results. I remember seeing Stewart and the other leaders come through at racing speed at the end of the second lap and thinking that they were going to plow into the cars still strewn about the track! Fortunately, they were able to slow down in time. Luckily, no one was seriously injured.

Very uncharacteristically, Stewart spun out shortly after the restart (with a much thinned-out field) and American Peter Revson won the race.

 

Roger Williamson was also involved in that first lap accident. It was his first GP. And unfortunately, the next round at Zandvoort was his last GP.

 

Great story, and yes, they did come flying around for the second lap. Love the 3 -2 pattern of the grid back then. Good thing JYS got involved with safety, even Silverstone looks relatively bereft of the essentials...

 

In 1977, chain link catch fencing was all the rage. I was attending the Jim Russell School at the time, and we were able to volunteer for a catch fencing repair team. Toward the end of qualifying, David Purley was trying too hard and had a horrendous high-speed accident when he plowed straight through the rows of catch fencing into the embankment, which was basically a wall of old railway ties backed up with about eight feet of dirt. While we were repairing the fences, medical personnel were extricating him from his car, which was about two feet shorter than before the accident. It was a very sobering experience for a 24 year-old with dreams of becoming a racing driver. I recall that Andretti won the race, but the sensation was a certain young Canadian driving a McLaren...

 

Thanks for sharing your experience, just for inormation the LEC of Purleys had suffered a small fuel fire on the engine in themorning and an over zealous person (not sure if it was a team member or a pit lane marshal) sprayed the car with an extinguisher.
It is thought that some of the extinguishant caused the throttle to stick open causing the crash... he went from about 110 mph to a standstill in a little over 2 foot... something like 130g.. the tub of the car is still in the Donington Collection.






And its interesting that Purley and Williamson should be discussd together in the thread as they will be forever linked after Zandvoort 1973

 

Thanks. I was not aware of the throttle issue, and stand corrected. Those photos look much worse than my recollection. (To be honest, at the time I could not bring myself to look too closely.)

 

Yes, bit of confusion with the flags as well.