6/7/1930 - 19/5/2012
Record updated 05-Jul-20
Formula One driver from England. He participated in 19 grands prix, debuting on July 19, 1958. He scored 0 championship points.
Burgess caused quite stir when in 1951 he won the Eifelrennen 500 cc race in the pouring rain at the Nurburgring ahead of more seasoned practitioners Wharton and Whitehead. Unfortunately he could not build on this triumph, and the next few seasons brought only moderate success.
It was only when he began working for the Cooper team at their Surbiton factory that his career started to prosper. Although employed in part to help run the Cooper's racing drivers school from Brands Hatch, Ian was cajoling the management into letting him race their new Formula 2 cars.
Fourth place in the 1957 Gold Cup at Oulton Park led to a season in Tommy Atkins' similar car for 1958. A brilliant start to the year saw Ian win at Crystal Palace and Snetterton and take fourth at both Montlhery and Reims, until a broken leg sustained in a crash at AVUS curtailed his season.
He was back in 1959, driving for Atkins in F2 and also handling the Italian Scuderia Centro Sud team's Maserati-engined F1 Cooper, while a trip to New Zealand at the start of 1960 saw Ian win the Teretonga Trophy in Atkins' Cooper. For 1961 Burgess became involved with the American Camoradi Team, racing their Lotus 18 with only moderate success at minor events.
He concentrated on the plethora of non-championship races in 1962, driving a Cooper under the Anglo American Equipe banner. The season's highlight was an excellent drive to fourth at Solitude. For the 1963 season, his last in racing, Burgess joined the Scirocco team, bankrolled by wealthy American businessman Hugh Powell, but it proved to be a dismal and costly exercise for all concerned.
(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000