Drivers

Bob Anderson

From Hendon in the north of London, Anderson was born in 1931 and thus was just too young to serve in World War II, the war coming to a close just a few weeks after his 14th birthday. He was, however, an adventurer and made his name in the 1950s as a motorcycle racer and at the end of the decade was a regular competitor in the 350cc World Championship against the likes of John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Geoff Duke. He came closest to victory at the 1958 Swedish GP where he finished inches behind Duke but he never won a Grand Prix race.

He switched to car racing at the age of 30, racing a Lola in Formula Junior. He moved up to race for Lotus and won a race at Montlhery and was runner-up in the Monaco FJ event. At the start of 1963 he bought an ex-Bowmaker F1 Lola and began racing as a Formula 1 privateer with a team based at Haynes in Bedfordshire which consisted of himself and his French wife. He switched to a Brabham for the 1964 season and had a brief moment of glory when he finished third behind Lorenzo Bandini and Richie Ginther at the Austrian GP that year at the Zeltweg airfield, when most of the fancied runners went out with mechanical trouble caused by the incredible bumps on the runways of the circuit.

Bob Anderson Racing never had sufficient budget to compete with the top teams but he did have sufficient money to take part in races all around the world, notably in the winter months in South Africa. He was considering retirement by the start of the 1967 season but fell victim to an accident during testing in the wet at Silverstone. The car slid off the circuit and collided with a marshal's post. He suffered serious chest and neck injuries and died later in Northampton General Hospital.