I'm sure we all know that Tony Brooks passed away a couple of days ago at the grand age of 90. Charles Anthony Standish Brooks, a dentist who happened to drive racing cars rather well. It would be interesting to know what profession was stated on his passport - he always considered that his racing career was a sabbatical from his real job, although when he retired he opened a car dealership instead.
I didn't know much about him when I was a child. I was a huge Moss fan, and then there was Mike Hawthorn who was just too louche for my taste. It's only with hindsight that I realise his huge ability. He didn't seek the limelight like the many playboy drivers of the time - he'd rather go home to a book and a cup of tea. His attitude to racing was so much different to all the others, he never took risks, didn't see why you needed to rush straight into a lead when there was 3 hours racing ahead. He was a family man to whom his wife Pina and his kids were far more important than headlines and silverware.
His loyalty and refusal to break a promise were the undoing of his career. Tony Vandervell and David Yorke kept making vague references to a comeback for Vanwall and Tony kept waiting for something which never happened. The last 2 years of his racing career were a real letdown for someone of his talent.
Here's the much-seen photo of he and Stirling celebrating their historic win in the 1957 British GP - Tony is all smiles but remember that he is in considerable pain from injuries received only 4 weeks earlier at Le Mans. By all accounts there was a hole in his side into which a fist would fit.
(PS His autobiography "Poetry in Motion" is a masterpiece. Expensive but a real insight into racing in the 1950s, properly written by an educated and articulate man.)
