Alan Stacey

Former F1 driver
Name = Alan Stacey
Nationality = flagicon|UK British
Years = F1|1958 - F1|1960
Team(s) = Lotus
Races = 7
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Points = 0
Poles = 0
Fastest laps = 0
First race = 1958 British Grand Prix
First win =
Last win =
Last race = 1960 Belgian Grand Prix

Alan Stacey (August 29 1933 in Broomfield - June 19 1960 Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium), was a British racing driver from England. He began his association with Lotus when he built one of the MkVI kits then being offered by the company. Having raced this car he went on to build an Eleven , eventually campaigning it at Le Mans under the Team Lotus umbrella. During the following years he spent much time developing the Lotus Grand Prix cars, most notably the front engined 16 and then the 18. He participated in 7 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on July 19, 1958. He scored no championship points. He also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races.

ports car driver

Stacey teamed with P.H. Ashdown in a Lotus 1.098 c.c. in the1957 24 hours of Le Mans. They finished 9th with an average speed of 159.458 kilometers per hour. The top four places were taken by British Jaguar Racing teams. ["Jaguars Sweep Top Four Places", New York Times, June 24, 1957, Page 40.] Staceydrove a Lotus-Climax to victory at Aintree, in a July 1959 race for sports cars of 1,400 cubic centimeters to two liters. His time was 37 minutes 39.4 seconds. ["Jack Brabham First In Auto Grand Prix", New York Times, July 19, 1959, Page S1.]

Belgian Grand Prix tragedy

Stacey was killed during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix, at Spa-Francorchamps, when he crashed at 120 m.p.h. after being hit in the face by a bird on lap 25, while lying in sixth place with his Lotus."2 Rookie Drivers Die In Grand Prix", New York Times, June 20, 1960, Page 40.] Stacey was driving the same type of Lotus as Stirling Moss was nearly killed in the previous day. ["Man and Machine", New York Times, April 8,1968, Page 66.]

He went off the road on the inside of a fast curve. The inside of a turn is where great forces push a car out. Stacey's Lotus climbed an embankment that was waist-high. It penetrated ten feet of thick hedges and fell into a field. ["Why Men Race With Death", New York Times, October 1, 1961, Page SM37.] He died within a few minutes of Chris Bristow who was driving a Cooper entry which belonged to the Yeoman Credit team. The two Englishmen were killed only a few hundred feet apart, on the same right hand bend where Moss crashed the previous day. Moss came away with broken legs, three broken ribs, and a broken nose. In a mid-1980s edition of Road and Track Magazine, Stacey's friend and teammate Innes Ireland wrote a touching article about Stacey's death, in which he stated that some spectators claimed that a bird had flown into Stacey's face while he was approaching the curve, possibly knocking him unconscious, or even possibly killing him by breaking his neck, before the car crashed. [Thomas O'Keefe, "Clark and Gurney, The Best of Both Worlds", Atlas F1, Volume 7, Issue 5.]

Personality

Stacey was described as quiet and gregarious. His driving was "conservative" according to one observer. He had an artificial leg and conspired with his team mates to fool medical examinations for Le Mans. He would cross his legs with the real leg on top as the doctor checked his reflexes. His teammates would then cough violently. Stacey would uncross his legs and then recross them when the doctor turned back to him with the good leg still on top. He used a motorcycle twistgrip on the gear lever to adjust the engine speed during downshifts, because he could not "heel and toe".

Complete World Championship Formula One results

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References