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Rob Walker

Rob Walker
Rob Walker at the 1969 German Grand Prix
Born	Robert Ramsay Campbell Walker (1917-08-14)14 August 1917 Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
Died	29 April 2002(2002-04-29) (aged 84) Frome, Somerset
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	Motor racing team owner and journalist
Known for	Rob Walker Racing Team

Robert Ramsay Campbell "Rob" Walker (14 August 1917 – 29 April 2002) was a British motor racing team owner and entrant. As owner and team principal of the privateer Rob Walker Racing Team he ran his dark blue liveried cars in many classes between 1953 and 1973 – including Formula One, Formula Two and sports car racing – and took race wins in each. With his long-time driving collaborator, Stirling Moss, Walker claimed the first Formula One World Championship victory for a car whose engine was mounted behind the driver, as well as the first Championship victories for both the Cooper and Lotus marques. Jo Siffert's win at the 1968 British Grand Prix, driving Walker's Lotus 49, is widely credited as the last World Championship victory for a genuinely privateer entry. Away from the World Championship, Walker and Moss took victory in the 1961 Oulton Park Gold Cup, the only Formula One race ever won by a four-wheel drive car.

Early life

Rob Walker was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on 14 August 1917. His father, Campbell "Cam" Walker, was a scion of the Johnnie Walker whisky family, but he died at the age of 32, when Walker was only three years old. On his death, Walker's mother, Mary Marshall Ramsay, inherited a substantial annual income of £50,000 a year, but the capital sum was held in trust until Walker and his brother, John, were 28 years old. Walker's mother later remarried and the family moved to Warminster, Wiltshire. Throughout his life, Walker's independent means meant that he never had to enter into regular gainful employment. A close friend once described him as "self-unemployed", and his occupation was listed in his passport as simply "gentleman".

At the age of seven Walker attended his first international motor race, the 1924 Boulogne Grand Prix, and from this grew a lifelong interest in motorsport. He was schooled at Sherborne, before going up to Magdalene College, Cambridge. In breaks during the school year he returned to his stepfather's estate, and to fill the time he and his brother took to racing a modified Morris Cowley up and down the estate's three-quarter mile driveway. Over the next few years he worked his way up through a sequence of motor cars and motorcycles, such that the Delahaye touring model that his mother bought him as a 21^st birthday present was already his 21^st car.

Toward the end of his degree studies at Cambridge, in early 1939, on impulse Walker bought a second Delahaye: a 1936 3½-litre racing model formerly owned by Prince Bira of Siam. Using this car, Walker entered a number of races at Brooklands in the first half of the year, taking some commendable results including victory in a handicap race on the Mountain Circuit. That June, Walker and his friend Ian Connell entered the car for the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. The pair finished the gruelling event in eighth position overall, and fourth in class, despite taking a lengthy stop with two hours to go so that the the drivers their crew could enjoy a bottle of champagne to refresh themselves.

Also while at Cambridge, Walker qualified as a pilot. However, having flown to a point-to-point meeting in his de Havilland Tiger Moth, he decided to entertain the crowds during the lunch break by flying the course. Unfortunately for Walker, a policeman spotted him skimming across the field, hopping the fences, and reported his details to the Air Ministry, who promptly rescinded his licence and banned him from flying for life.

Fleet Air Arm

At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Walker enlisted as an Ordinary Seaman in the Royal Navy. However, his interest in aviation rapidly led him to apply for a flight position, and he was accepted as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm.

RRC Walker Racing Team

Main article: Rob Walker Racing Team

In 1940, in the early months of the war, Walker had married and promised his new wife that he would no longer take part in circuit races. Sprints and hillclimb competition held little appeal for Walker, so with the resumption of racing in the years after the war he decided to use his resources to enter his cars into races for other drivers. Bringing the 3½-litre Delahaye out of storage he entered it into the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans race for Tony Rolt and Guy Jason-Henry. Walker's nascent team retired at around 3:30am, having completed 126 laps, when the 15-year old car ran its bearings. As Walker later admitted "I was something of a novice entrant at the time, because I realised during the race that I had not changed the bearings since it ran at Le Mans ten years earlier!"

Relationship with Stirling Moss (1958–1962)

Moss's first World Championship victory for Walker came at the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix, and brought with it the first Formula One victory for a non-manufacturer-entered (i.e. privateer) car, the first for a car with its engine mounted behind the driver, and the first for a car made by the Cooper Car Company. Driving Walker's Cooper T43 – a Formula Two chassis modified with an enlarged 1964 cc Coventry Climax FPF engine by Walker's team – Moss finished the race less than three seconds ahead of Luigi Musso's factory Ferrari. The team's victory came largely as a result of not having to stop to change tyres, unlike the heavier and more powerful Italian rival cars.

In 1961, former driver Rolt chose Walker's team to run the Ferguson P99, an experimental four-wheel drive Formula One car. Rolt and his business partner Fred Dixon had spent much of the previous five years developing four-wheel drive systems in collaboration with Ferguson Research, and wanted to use Formula One to showcase their work. After a failed debut at the 1961 British Empire Trophy at Silverstone Circuit in the hands of Jack Fairman, who crashed the car, and disqualification in its only World Championship entry at the 1961 British Grand Prix, things finally came good at the 1961 International Gold Cup event at the Oulton Park circuit that September. The race was run in damp conditions, and with Moss at the wheel the P99 finished over three-quarters of a minute ahead of second-placed Jack Brabham's Cooper. Moss and Walker's triumph was the first Formula One victory for a four-wheel drive car, and despite many later experimental cars remained the only one at the time the sport's governing body banned four-wheel drive from the Formula One in 1982.

Relationship with Jo Siffert (1964–1969)

Toward the end of the 1964 season, Swiss driver Jo Siffert decided to bring his own BRM-powered Brabham BT11 car into the Walker racing equipe. Walker ran the new combination as an additional entry in the 1964 United States Grand Prix, alongside local driver Hap Sharp in an identical car and regular team driver Jo Bonnier in an older Climax-engined BT7. Although Siffert only qualified in twelfth position, following a string of retirements amongst more fancied competitors he finished on the podium, in third place. It was an auspicious start to a close relationship that would last until the end of the decade.

Following another season entering both Siffert and Bonnier using the Brabhams, with the introduction of new 3-litre engine regulations in 1966 Walker acquired Maserati-powered Cooper T81 cars. However, although Walker focused the team's efforts solely on Siffert – Bonnier having left to set up his own team – these proved to be overweight and under-powered, and Siffert scored only a handful of minor placings and a total of nine championship points over the 1966 and 1967 seasons. Despite this, Siffert remained loyal to Walker.

Jo Siffert brakes hard in his Rob Walker Racing team Lotus 49B car, on his way to second place in the 1969 Dutch Grand Prix

In early 1968, Walker persuaded Chapman to sell him the first Lotus 49 to be released to a non-works team. Introduced by Lotus a year earlier, in 1968 the 49 was still the most competitive car in the field. However, Siffert crashed the ex-works chassis R4 (Jim Clark's 1968 South African Grand Prix-winning car) during the team's first test of the car prior to the 1968 Race of Champions in March. The next day, while the vehicle was being stripped down for repair in Walker's Pippbrook Garage workshop in Dorking, a spark from a drill ignited residual fuel and the chassis caught fire. The resulting blaze quickly spread through the building and completely destroyed not only the Lotus, but also Walker's entire store of racing memorabilia, trophies and old cars, including the ex-Seaman Delahaye.

Walker lacked the funds to replace the state-of-the-art car, but following a contribution of £15,000 from his brother-in-law and additional finance from a long-time sleeping partner, businessman Jack Durlacher, Walker was able to obtain an interim loaned substitute in time for April's International Trophy meeting at Silverstone. With the replacement car, chassis R2, over the following few races Siffert was commonly able to run at the front, sometimes even outpacing the leading Lotus works driver, Graham Hill.

Walker and Siffert's most successful race of their six year partnership came following a mid-season upgrade to a current 49B-specification car – complete with newly-introduced, high mounted aerodynamic wings to provide extra grip – at the 1968 British Grand Prix. Siffert qualified the new car in fourth position, behind the Lotus works drivers, Hill and Jackie Oliver, and the Ferrari of Chris Amon. At the start, Siffert nipped past Amon into third position, and the Lotus cars ran 1-2-3 for the first 26 laps with only Amon able to keep pace with them. However, on lap 27 Hill's lead car broke a halfshaft and he was forced into retirement, and on lap 44 Oliver's car also dropped out when its gearbox failed. This left Siffert in the lead, with Amon close on his tail, but the Swiss drove "faultlessly" for the remainder of the race and eventually crossed the finishing line over four seconds ahead of the Ferrari. In an era of inflating budgets and increasing professionalism, Siffert's victory came to be recognized as the last ever achieved by a truly privateer team.

The following year, Walker's lead driver took two podium finishes from the opening four championship races, but his privateer 49B was slowly overhauled by Jochen Rindt's Lotus works car and development of challengers from Matra and Brabham. During the remainder of the 1969 season Siffert scored points in only one further World Championship race after finishing in 11th place in the 1969 German Grand Prix, albeit beaten on track by six Formula Two entries. By the end of the year, Siffert's performances in both Formula One and sportscar racing had attracted the attention of the works teams. Walker's small private team was unable to offer a competitive car, although Walker and his wife Betty "adored" Siffert, and in later years he recalled him as "a wonderful man, with unbelievable courage and a great sense of humour." Wanting to retain his services in their sportscar team, and to dissuade him from signing with Scuderia Ferrari, Porsche paid for Siffert to join the works March team for the 1970 Formula One season.

Later life

Walker died on 29 April 2002, following a bout of pneumonia. He was 84 years old.

References

Citations

Bibliography

• "Rob Walker". The Daily Telegraph. 1 May 2002. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
• "The Argentine Racing Season". Motor Sport. Vol. 34, no. 3. March 1958. pp. 127, 151.
• "Rob Walker (1917 – 2002)". Uniquecarsandparts.com. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
• Bryant, Thos L. (1 July 2002). "My Favorite Gentleman, Rob Walker, 1917–2002". Road & Track. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
• Diepraam, Mattijs (Summer 2001). "The start of the 3-litre era". 8W. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
• Diepraam, Mattijs; Muelas, Felix (September 1998). "Hallowed privateer". 8W. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
• Henry, Alan (May 1975). "Rob Walker's 3½-litre Delahaye". Motor Sport. Vol. 51, no. 5. pp. 505–506, 509.
• Henry, Alan (1 May 2002). "Rob Walker: Pioneering formula-one team owner who backed Stirling Moss". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
• Jenkinson, Denis (August 1968). "The British Grand Prix: Win for a Sportsman". Motor Sport. Vol. 44, no. 8. pp. 692–693.
• "Lotus 49 R2". OldRacingCars.com. Allen Brown. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
• "Lotus 49 R4". OldRacingCars.com. Allen Brown. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
• Roebuck, Nigel (June 2002). "Legends: Rob Walker". Motor Sport. Vol. 78, no. 6. pp. 698–699. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
• Roebuck, Nigel (26 November 2008). "Rob Walker: far from a 'bland' character". Motor Sport online. Retrieved 18 September 2016.

• http://www.research-racing.de/RobWalker.htm
• http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/cref-walrob.html
• http://ucapusa.com/race_drivers_rob_walker.htm
• http://blog.roadandtrack.com/tags/rob-walker/
• http://chicanef1.com/query.pl?action=Submit&exact=on&team=R.R.C.%20Walker%20Racing%20Team&nc=0

Brian Lister

Brian Horace Lister (12 July 1926 – 16 December 2014) was a British engineer, automobile designer and businessman, best known as the founder of racing and sports car manufacturer Lister Cars.

Early life

Brian Lister was the second son of Horace and Nell Lister. Horace was himself the son of the founder of Cambridge-based civil and general engineering firm George Lister & Sons. Brian Lister was educated at The Perse School, before being apprenticed to the family firm as an engineer in 1941. In addition to his engineering training, Lister also developed an interest in jazz music and became a proficient drummer; he briefly considered turning to music as a profession with his award-winning band The Downbeats. In early 1946, Lister joined the Royal Air Force for compulsory National Service for two years, as a Flight Mechanic; his decision to join the RAF was in part because it "had the best bands".

It was while he was serving with the RAF that Lister bought his first car: a well used former police-owned MG TA. He kept this car for only a year before upgrading to a Morgan 4/4 in 1947, and it was with the Morgan that Lister first became actively involved in motor sport. With the assistance of a fellow apprentice, Lister lightened the Morgan and prepared it for entry into local time trial sprint races.

Racing career

On demobilization in 1948, Lister rejoined his family's firm to work under his father and his elder brother, Raymond. In 1950, together Josephine "José" Prest (whom he married in 1951), Lister co-founded the Cambridge '50 Car Club in order to take a more active role in the organisation of competition events. In the same year he also bought his first purpose-built racing car, a Cooper-MG. However, the Cooper was not as successful as Lister had hoped and when its engine failed, rather than repair the car, he replaced it with a new chassis designed by fellow Cambridgeshire resident John Tojeiro.

Lister knew Tojeiro as he was a customer of George Lister & Sons. The chassis he ordered was only the second that Tojeiro had produced. For motive power, Lister decided to install an air-cooled 1,100 cc (67 cu in) JAP V-twin engine, driving through a Jowett Jupiter gearbox, as a prototype for a production run to be manufactured by Listers in collaboration with Tojeiro. Entered in local Cambridge events Lister found the Tojeiro-JAP to be quick but temperamental and tricky to drive; he named it The Asteroid. Despite its speed, during a Cambridge University Automobile Club sprint meeting at Bottisham in 1951 Lister found that the Tojeiro was only marginally quicker than the apparently standard production model MG TD driven by Archie Scott Brown.

Although the car had been mildly improved for racing, even with these modifications the MG should have been no match for the Tojeiro and Lister recognised that the difference was more than likely down to Scott Brown's superior driving ability. Lister later commented that Scott Brown "was so impressive; I thought 'to get the best out of the car I need someone who can drive like this, and here he is.' So I offered him a drive." Of his own driving, Lister was less complementary, claiming that he "had too much imagination" to be truly successful. Lister was so impressed by his opponent's talent that he immediately took the decision to end his own driving career and start entering Scott Brown in the Tojeiro. Very soon Lister and Scott Brown became good friends and regular collaborators.

Lister Cars

During 1952 and 1953, Lister's Tojeiro-JAP, driven by Scott Brown – with its engine prepared by Don Moore, the preparer of Scott Brown's MG – took class wins regularly in national level competition. Scott Brown's successes encouraged Lister to construct his own, more powerful, vehicle to enter for his friend. In late 1953, Lister persuaded his father to allow him to use the family firm's Cambridge premises to design and build the car, and the Lister company also provided the funding.

Further reading

• Skilleter, Paul (2010). Lister-Jaguar: Brian Lister and the Cars From Cambridge. Paul Skilleter Books/PJ Publishing. p. 270. ISBN 978-0955010231.

Susan Brantley

This page is about the geochemist. For the literature scholar, see Susan Brantly.

Susan L. Brantley is an American geologist and geochemist who is Distinguished Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. Her research dominantly studies the movement and chemistry of water-rich fluids within soils, and the geochemical processes that convert rock into soil. During her career, Brantley has published over 200 research papers, has been awarded academic prizes and fellowships by many of the world's leading geoscience societies, and has been described as "one of the leading aqueous geochemists of her generation."

Academic career

Susan Brantley graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1980, with an A.B. degree in chemistry. After graduation, she took up a one-year Fulbright Scholarship in Peru. On her return to the USA she continued her graduate studies at the same university, and completed an M.A. in geological and geophysical sciences in 1983.

Immediately following the completion of her Master's thesis she began

Awards and recognition

Fellowships and memberships

• Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
• Fellow of the Geological Society of America
• Fellow of the Geochemical Society
• Fellow of the European Association of Geochemistry
• Fellow of the International Association of GeoChemistry
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences

Professional awards

• Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London (2016)
• Presidential Award of the Soil Society of America (2012)
• Arthur L. Day Medal of the Geological Society of America (2011)

Jean Bloxam

Jean Noel Edwina Salmon (née Liver, formerly Bloxam; 24 December 1923 – 9 September 2016) was a motor racing driver who as Jean Bloxam rose to fame during the late 1950s driving various Aston Martin sports cars in high level British national competitions. Immediately following her retirement from competition, together with Patsy Burt Motor Sport magazine cited Bloxam as "the most successful post-war lady competition driver."

Early life

Jean Noel Edwina Liver was born in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, on 24 December 1923. She was the youngest daughter of Ethel and Arthur Liver, part of one of Lancashire's wealthy cotton mill-owning families, but her father died when she was only seven years old. Liver's mother was an enthusiastic motorist and had been one of the first women in England to obtain a driving licence. She would regularly take Jean and her brother John to events at the United Kingdom's two dedicated motor racing venues – Brooklands and Donington Park – in the family's Lagonda.

Liver was sent to boarding school in 1938, joining her sister Dorothy at Poltimore College. Following the closure of the school at the outbreak of World War II, she transferred to Queen Mary School in Lytham, near her family home. After the end of the war she worked as a stewardess for airlines including BOAC and British European Airways, before meeting and marrying Roy Bloxam.

Racing career

Roy Bloxam was an enthusiastic amateur racing driver, and owner of the Gerrards Cross Motor Company garage. With her husband's encouragement, Bloxam learned to drive and bought herself an Aston Martin DB2 sports car. In addition to driving very rapidly on the road, Bloxam also started to compete in timed sprints and hillclimbing events in her Aston.

Roy entered his wife for her first circuit race at the BARC International Meeting on Whit Monday in May 1955, without her knowledge, giving her only one week's notice before the race to prepare. Despite it being her debut racing other competitors rather than the clock, against experienced drivers such as Betty Haig and Patsy Burt in more powerful cars, Bloxam took third place.

In 1957, she was awarded the Aston Martin Owners Club Peter Bell Trophy as the most successful Aston Martin driver in domestic competition. By the end of her career she had accrued more than 60 trophies and 15 top-three finishes, including outright race victories in open, mixed gender races at Goodwood, Silverstone and Aintree.

Bloxam retired from racing following Roy's death in an accident during the Whit Monday meeting Goodwood in early 1961.

Life after racing

Her second husband, fellow racer and Gerrards Cross Motor Company director Michael Salmon, died in January 2016, and Jean Salmon herself died nine months later. She was 89 years old.