KEEPING THE SPIRIT ALIVE SINCE 1999
Mike Beuttler
13/4/1940 - 29/12/1988
Mike Beuttler showed great promise in Formula 3 before graduating to Formula 2 and then Formula 1 in 1971. He raced March F1 cars financed by a group of wealthy stockbroker friends. He continued in 1972 and 1973 but retired from racing at the end of the year. He eventually moved to San Francisco where he died of AIDS in 1988.
Mike Beuttler died 33 years ago, he was 48 , He would have been 81.
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Born in Cairo in 1940 of English parents while his father was serving in the Army, Mike became involved in the motor racing world immediately upon leaving school at the age of 19, assuming administrative duties with the Chequered Flag team. He had occasional chances to drive their front-engined Gemini car, but only when he struck out on his own - at the comparatively late age of 24 -with a Brabham F3 in club and Libre events did his racing career start in earnest. With the backing of stockbroker colleagues Ralph Clarke and David Mordaunt -which was to be so vital to his progress to Formula 1 - Beuttler moved into F3 for the end of 1967 with encouraging results given the calibre of opposition. Staying with the class for three another seasons, Mike won three high-profile events, at Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Montlhery, in 1970, gaining third place in the Shellsport F3 championship and second place in that year's Grovewood Awards for his efforts.
For 1971 ambitious plans were laid to race a March 712 M. Alistair Guthrie joined the roster of backers and with the factory 'overseeing' his efforts, Mike undertook a full European F2 series. However, it was to prove a bitter disappointment, with the car beset by sundry maladies until the last round when he won the Madunina GP at Vallelunga. March had also helped him into Formula 1, without any great success.
It was the same recipe for 1972, with the addition of another backer - Jack Durlacher - to help pay the bills but no worthwhile results in Grand Prix. The most interesting aspect of the season, in fact, was the team's decision to adapt their 722 F2 car to accept the Cosworth engine : the 721 G. So much better was this machine's handling than that of the notorious 721X that the full-works cars were quickly consigned to history and Peterson and Lauda found themselves the beneficiaries.
Beuttler and his partners gave it one more shot in 1973, starting the season with the old car, but he was no more competitive when the new March 731 finally arrived. Mike called it quits and, after a single outing in the Brands Hatch 1000 Km in 1974 in a 2 liters 74 S March 2 liters, turned his back on racing and went into business. He later moved to San Francisco, where he died of AIDS in 1988, at the tragically young age. of 48.
historicracing.com
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Christian Lautenschlager 1877 - 1954 -
Anni Roosdorp 1920 - 2003 -
André Testut 1926 - 2005 -
Dan Gurney 1931 - 2018 -
LeRoy Van Conett 1935
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David Hobbs 1939
A likable versatile driver who could turn his hand to anything from Formula 1 to sports cars and from touring cars to Indycars. -
Neil Corner 1937
Neil Corner is one of the best historic racing drivers and collector of some wonderful cars. He won the very first race organised by the HSCC (Historic Sports Car Club). Driving a D Type Jaguar to victory. He did have occasional outings in more modern machinery, and in 1969 he drove Colin Crabbe's Cooper 86B/F1-2-67 - Maserati Tipo 10 in the non championship Spanish GP in 1969, finishing 4th. -
Richard Attwood 1940
Richard Attwood was a good F2 and sportscar driver who achieved one podium and scored a total of 11 championship points in Formula One. In 1970 he won the Le Mans 24-hour race in a Porsche 917 with Hans Herrmann. -
Alan Rees 1938
Alan Rees was a useful Formula Junior driver winning the British title in 1961. He started in three Grands Prix, two in a Winkelmann F2 car and a single outing in a rather tired works Cooper at the 1967 British GP. Later he was one of the founders of March Engineering and was also involved with the Shadow and Arrows teams. -
Colin Davis 1933
Son of the legendary S C H 'Sammy' Davis, Colin started racing in 500cc F3 before moving up to Sports Cars and GP racing. He won the Targa Florio in 1964 with Antonio Pucci in a works Porsche 904.