Vic Elford, 2022
Rainer Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images The guy on the right has a rectal thermometer shoved into his mouth.
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Marshall Pruett | March 13, 2022 7:06 PM ET
Among the world’s greatest drivers, there are soloists and all-rounders. England’s Vic Elford, who died on Sunday at the age of 86 after a prolonged fight with cancer, will be remembered as possibly the most talented artist to delight crowds on tarmac, sand, gravel and ice.
The man nicknamed “Quick Vic” had a penchant for racing and taming some of the fiercest cars and circuits the sport has known, all done in a seemingly endless list of series and disciplines, and all throughout an era where primitive safety standards were the norm and driver deaths were common.
At his peak, he was in demand and like Gan Gurney he raced anything he could get paid for...and became famous for it.
Of Elford’s many feats that added to his European World Rally Championship title and class win for at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967, the incredible week in 1968 where he won for Porsche at the Rally Monte Carlo in a 911S and traveled to Florida and won the 24 Hours of Daytona in a factory 907 prototype is upheld as one of the Londoner’s matchless achievements. From dancing and sliding in peril on snow in the hills overlooking Monaco to rocketing around the high banking at NASCAR’s hallowed home, Elford was never out of his element. The big win for Porsche at Daytona also opened the brand’s endurance racing account with its first overall triumph in a major 24-hour race.
The rigors of Italy’s Targa Florio — a widowmaker of an event — were endured and met with victory by Elford and Porsche in the same year. And in yet another expression of his diverse capabilities, he made his Formula 1 debut as well in 1968, placing fourth in his first race for the Cooper team at Rouen in France — in the wet, no less.
It was there at the French endurance classic in Le Mans where all manner of Porsches, most notably the terrifying 240mph 917 which maimed a number of unfortunate drivers, became his muse. Tales of harrowing passes at Circuit de la Sarthe and controlling 200mph drifts coming off of Daytona’s Turn 4 in the 917 only served to elevate Elford’s status as a giftedly brave practitioner of speed.
The glorious, yet terrifying Porsche 917 was in no better hands than Elford’s, like here in 1971. Rainer Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images
He drove booming Chevrolet Camaros in SCCA’s Trans Am series, winning for Jim Hall’s Chaparral team, and continued with Hall in Can-Am, racing the incredible 2J “vacuum car” along with McLarens, Lolas, and Shadows for other Can-Am entrants. A regular winner at the Nurburgring, Sebring, and all the most renown tracks, Elford was hired by Alfa Romeo after his departure from Porsche, and more outings for Shadow in the marque’s crazier Can-Am creations followed into the early 1970s.
From 13 sporadic F1 starts spread over four seasons, three teams and four unique car and engine combinations, Elford placed inside the top six on four occasions, earning eight world championship points. As if Elford’s
CV wasn’t already full beyond measure, he raced in the Daytona 500, producing a best finish of 10th and two 11ths in four tries.On nearly every continent or principality where motor races were held, for auto manufacturers hailing from America, Germany, England, Italy and Japan, in cars with and without fenders, with and without roofs, powered by boxer engines, naturally-aspirated monstrosities and turbocharges missiles, Elford won or ran at the front and made it look easy.
So what the heck is a
CV.....make up something since the writer didn't tell us what a
CV is...or is not. I never heard or read of him being called Quick Vic, but the writer is probably making that up too...and this article will be copied by other writers......There is no doubt that Vic Elford was a talented professional driver, and deserved every victory he worked for. I keep thinking that Vic Elford also raced at Sebring....