Remembering Roy Salvadori - 07/06/2012
It was very sad to hear of the death of former grand prix driver and Le Mans winner Roy Salvadori at the age of 90.
I never got to photograph the great man in his heyday other than with a box Brownie while, as a schoolboy, I was watching from the crowd at Oulton Park in 1961.
This was the first competition appearance of the E-type Jaguar - entered by John Coombs - which Roy drove to third place.
Failing brakes led to him being overtaken by Graham Hill in an Equipe Endeavour E-type and Innes Ireland in an Aston Martin.
I also photographed Roy at the 2004 Gold Cup where he did a few demonstration laps in an E-type with Jack Brabham as passenger.
The cars that he drove during his illustrious career read like a what's what of motor racing, including Vanwall, Cooper, Aston Martin, Connaught, Maserati and Ferrari.
Roy was a great all-rounder whose death occurred less than a month after that of Carroll Shelby whom he partnered to victory in the 1959 Le Mans 24-hour race in an Aston Martin DBR1.
