Innes Ireland

This is a photograph I took with my Kodak Brownie 127 camera at Aintree in the late 1950s, but I don't remember at which meeting this was.

It's Innes Ireland, and he's standing in front of the transporter of Ecurie Ecosse, a team for which he had several drives in 1958 and 1959, sharing a drive in a Jaguar D-Type with Masten Gregory for fifth place in the 1958 Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood. He started his driving career in 1954 with a Riley 9, moving on to a Lotus Eleven the following year. By 1957 in addition to his own car he was driving a Lotus Eleven for Team Lotus, and in 1959 as well as the Lotus 15 in Sports Car racing he drove a Lotus 16 for the team in several of that year's Grand Prix races. He continued driving for Team Lotus in 1960 and 1961, but at the end of the 1961 season he lost his place in the team, despite having won the last race of the season, the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. In 1961 he had also driven Aston Martins for the Essex Racing team in both Sports Car and GT racing. In 1962 Innes Ireland drove a Lotus 24 for the UDT Laystall team in Grand Prix races and also a Lotus 19 for the same team in Sports Car races, but his most notable race that season was his winning drive in the Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood which he won in UDT Laystall's Ferrari 250 GTO. In 1963 the UDT Laystall team had become the British Racing Partnership and he drove a Lotus BRM then a BRP BRM for that team in Grand Prix races in 1963 and 1964. In Sports Car racing in those two years he showed his versatility by driving Ferraris (250 GTO & 275 P), Aston Martins (DP214 & DP215), Lotus 19, Shelby Cobra, Porsche 904 and Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. In 1965 and 1966 Grand Prix races he drove a Lotus for Reg Parnell Racing and then a BRM for Bernard White Racing, but continued to drive a varied selection of cars in Sports Car racing. He was always a very popular driver and in his later years became president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, but sadly died from cancer in 1993 at the age of 63.