Saturday 27th June 1942
Born on this day, Chris Irwin, British former racing driver who participated in 10 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 16 July 1966. He scored two championship points.
Irwin’s career was ended prematurely by an accident he sustained when driving a Ford P68 sports prototype during practice for the 1968 1000km Nürburgring endurance race. He lost control of the notoriously twitchy car at the Flugplatz, the P68 flipping end over end after landing on its tail following a jump. He suffered severe head injuries but eventually recovered. However, it prevented him from racing again.
Irwin is still alive and reasonably well, but his whereabouts are largely unknown as he stays out of the public eye and away from motor racing events. In 2006 it was reported that he had become re-acquainted with a racing rival from the 1960s after a chance meeting in London, and that he sometimes still suffers flashbacks to his accident. Irwin was reported, however, to be in generally good condition.
In a rare appearance at a race meeting, Irwin attended the Thruxton circuit’s 40th anniversary celebrations in April 2008. A three-quarter page interview and a current photograph of him posing with old 1960s rivals and a Formula 2 car appeared in the June 2008 issue of Motor Sport magazine. He is currently living in rural Rutland in the UK.
