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Page 1 - 1950s - 1960s: Part 1
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THE FASTLANE :: Features :: Willy Mairesse - A Tribute:: Page 2
Impression of the 1963 Spa 500 km:
Like in 1957 during his very first appearance at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, but this time in a Ecurie Garage Francorchamps (EGF) entered Ferrari 250 GTO, Willy came, saw, and won! He outclassed and almost 'punished' the entire field. He took the lead early on and gave it away just once during a refuelling stop. Willy came to Spa with a fix target: He wanted to break his own lap record (set in 1961) and break the 200 km/h barrier. And he did just that. He brought in a lap time of 4’07.4 or 205.173 km/h speed average. The 'Willy Mairesse/Ferrari 250 GTO' partnership was a lethal one at the time.
Impressions of the 1963 Nürburgring 1000 km:
  
Mairesse shared this 250 P with 'Big' John Surtees. They won the race.
Impressions of the 1963 Le Mans 24h:
The 'Surtees/Mairesse' combination had proved successful at the Nürburgring, three weeks earlier. They were on a hat trick at Le Mans. If only this poorly handled refuelling stop had not overshadowed what could have been Mairesse's biggest achievement: a Le mans win.
 Instead, it all ended in tears. Willy came out of this inferno alive, but badly burnt. 'Bad luck' had struck, again. He would not return until that fateful German GP, two months later.
Impressions of the 1963 German F1 GP:
*** WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PICTURES DEPICT A CRASH THAT CAUSED THE DEATH OF A SPECTATOR ***
These are single frames taken from a 40 years old 8mm film format and show a detailled view of Mairesse's accident at the 'Flugplatz'. It was  rumoured and believed at the time, that a wheel of the Ferrari that had come undone, struck a Red-Cross helper sitting nearby and killed him instantly. It took some weeks until a German spectator came out with a spectacular photo that showed something different. The poor Red-Cross helper, who was sitting at the wrong place at the wrong time, was not struck by the car's wheel, but worst, by the car itself!
The accident: The front wheels of the Ferrari had started to skid at the beginning of the curve. Willy tried to counter steer, but his left wheels started to  spin on the grass verge. The car went out of control and crashed in the embankment at high speed. On impact, the rear left wheel broke loose, flying sky high into the air, and finished its flight onto spectators' cars, parked behind the crowd's paddock! Willy himself was thrown clear of the car and catapulted some forty meters away from the initial impact point, whereas the car had carried on and struck the Red-Cross helper in its wake.
Mairesse had been severely wounded. He had fractures on both legs and arms. The right arm was particularly seriously damaged. The nerve was sectioned and would require several operations. And so, a long, long convalescence time started for our 'unlucky' hero...
 
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