Welcome to another week of TheJudge13 F1 Bar Exam.
Last week’s question(s): Can you name the driver, team and race where the photo was taken. Can you also name the car (type) and where the driver qualified and finished in the race?
The answer(s) I was looking for were: The driver in the photo is Brian Naylor, a private entrant from Britain, taking part in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix held at Monza. The car he drove was a JBW Type 2 – Climax S4 Engine. He qualified a lowly 31st but did not finish the race, retiring after 6 laps with engine failure.
Brian Naylor was a motor dealer from Stockport who in 1953, at what would now be considered the advanced age of 31, bought an Alta which he entered in numerous British club events. He proceeded to drive a variety of cars over the next few years and in 1955 he won 13 races. At the end of 1955 he imported a new Maserati 150S sports-car but the car struggled to compete with its lighter opponents and so Naylor’s mechanic Fred Wilkinson transferred its Maserati engine into a Lotus Eleven chassis. In 1957 Naylor used this car to win 27 races including the sports-car race at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone. Unfortunately the Lotus was written off when Naylor crashed it after its front wishbone failed catastrophically while racing at Goodwood.
Naylor and Wilkinson then decided to build their own chassis for 1958, the design of which was based on the Lotus Eleven but stronger. This was the first JBW – JB being Naylor’s initials and W for Wilkinson. Stirling Moss drove this car at the Roskilde Ring in Denmark after his Maserati broke a con-rod, winning the race despite starting from the back of the grid. Naylor won 14 races from 21 entered during 1958.
Their first chassis had been so successful that they aimed even higher for 1959, building their first JBW F1 car. The chassis design was based on the Cooper and it was powered by a 4 cylinder Maserati 250S engine. Unfortunately it proved not to be competitive in Formula One but Naylor did have more success driving it in Formula Libra where he won a 10 lap race at Snetterton.
Naylor was one of three British privateers represented at the 1960 Italian Grand Prix after the other British teams all withdrew in protest about safety when at the last minute the track layout for the race was changed to include the banked sections which had not been used for a Formula One race since 1956. Bill France, co-founder and manager of NASCAR (as well as the force behind the building of the Daytona International Speedway) was a spectator at this race. He was so impressed by Naylor’s handling of the banked sections at Monza that he invited Naylor to the United States to attempt to break the 180m/hr record at the Daytona International Speedway. As a result of his performance France arranged for Naylor to drive a Pontiac at the 1961 Daytona 500 and Naylor became the first European to enter a NASCAR race. He started the race last on the grid and retired on lap 85 with a classification of 42nd.
The 1961 Italian Grand Prix was Brian Naylor’s last F1 race. He put a Climax engine in his JBW chassis but unfortunately it failed on lap 6. This was also the last race to be held using the full 10 km Monza circuit which included the two banked sections. After Von Tripps fatal accident the circuit was shortened and the banked sections removed. The accident hadn’t occurred on the banked section but the high speeds associated with them were deemed to be unsafe. At the end of 1961 Brian Naylor retired from racing for health reasons and went back to his car business. He later moved to Spain where he ran a café until he died in 1989 at the age of 66.
Well done Taflach, Milestone11, Cassius42, Ken, Bernard and The13thDuke!
This week’s question(s): Can you name the driver, team and race where the photo was taken. Can you also name the car (type) and where the driver qualified and finished in the race?
Please provide your answers in the field below:
