What a weekend - first saw the news of Colin McRae, his son and other family friends(and others), then the Hurricane pilot at Shoreham yesterday, and then Bill Blydenstein
Each in different circumstances, but so close together in time. All of them are great losses in many ways. Condolences and thoughts to the families of all of them.
MG Mark
I was simply stunned when I heard this. I last saw Colin McCrae at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June. The whole Clan McCrae were there with various rally cars and seemed to be having an absolute ball. I first met Colin when his was a young hotshoe in a Vauxhall Nova. I was a sector marshall on the RAC rally for some years and we used to run the starts/finishes. One of the pleasures of the job was getting to talk to the great drivers of the day. Whereas his old man was a right chatterbox, Colin was quite taciturn and focussed. It was blindingly obvious he was a very very fast, yet wreckless, driver. Once he'd sorted out the wrecklessness, the rest was motorsport history. It's a terrible loss and a complete tradgedy in any terms.
For what it's worth, I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever go to Goodwood again. Last year I met Peter Brock, he was killed a couple of days later. This year at Goodwood I was shown around by the pilot and allowed to crawl all over the same Hurricane that crashed at Shoreham on saturday. Blue skys Brian.
Thank God Dave Richards and wife managed to escape from their own helicopter crash. Several of us original Sebringers never cease to go about when Aston beat Vettes in 2005 and he asked us if we'd mind having our photo taken with him. I mean, FFS! Mrs Richards duly supplied the camera and obliged...
On saturday my next door neighbour came round to tell me that their son's best pal had been killed when his microlight crashed in South Africa due to a structural failure on wednesday.
I also met Bill Blydenstein on a professional basis twenty years ago, the company I worked for looked in the 80's looked after some financial arrangements for Blydenstein Racing Ltd. I guess he's have been quite old by now.
I'm sorry if this appears to be a mass obituary, I'd prefer to start the week on a less sombre note but there you go, that's the way the cookie crumbles.
