1962 Lotus 24

This is a photograph that I took at Aintree on practice day for the British Grand Prix in July 1962. It was actually a colour slide that had deteriorated, but I’ve managed to restore it to a recognisable picture.

It's the UDT Laystall Racing Team's 1962 Lotus 24 which was driven in the race by Innes Ireland. The Lotus 24 was a spaceframe car offered to customers instead of the monocoque Lotus 25 used by the Lotus works team, and was powered by the Coventry Climax FWMV 1,496cc V8 engine. Innes Ireland qualified the car in third position on the grid, but because of some wear in the gearbox it was rebuilt overnight by the mechanics. During the warming-up lap before the race one of the selector forks in the gearbox broke and the mechanics quickly removed the top to remove the broken parts before the start leaving Innes Ireland with no second or third gear. When the flag fell he couldn't find any gear and sat on the grid as all the other cars dodged round him and went on their way. The car was then wheeled to the pits and the mechanics spent several laps getting the gearbox to work, Innes Ireland starting the race on lap 10 with only 1st, 4th and 5th gears but he soldiered round to finish in 16th and last place 14 laps behind the winner, Jim Clark.

Innes Ireland

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the Aintree 200 meeting in April 1962.

It's Innes Ireland, who drove one of the UDT-Laystall Racing Team's Lotus 18/21s in the Aintree 200 race. He qualified the car in fifth position on the grid, but retired after 26 laps of the 50 lap race with a broken valve. In the 1962 World Drivers Championship a series of retirements, and only one points-scoring finish - fifth place in the South African Grand Prix - left him in sixteenth place in the table at the end of the season.

1962 Lotus 24

I took this photograph on the approach to Waterway corner at Aintree during the Friday practice session for the British Grand Prix in July 1962.

It's Innes Ireland in the UDT Laystall Racing Team's 1962 Lotus 24. The Lotus 24 was a spaceframe car offered to customers instead of the monocoque Lotus 25 used by the Lotus works team, and was powered by the Coventry Climax FWMV 1,496cc V8 engine. Innes Ireland qualified the car in third position on the grid, but because of some wear in the gearbox it was rebuilt overnight by the mechanics. During the warming-up lap before the race one of the selector forks in the gearbox broke and the mechanics quickly removed the top to remove the broken parts before the start leaving Innes Ireland with no second or third gear. When the flag fell he couldn't find any gear and sat on the grid as all the other cars dodged round him and went on their way. The car was then wheeled to the pits and the mechanics spent several laps getting the gearbox to work, Innes Ireland starting the race on lap 10 with only 1st, 4th and 5th gears but he soldiered round to finish in 16th and last place 14 laps behind the winner, Jim Clark.

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.