Obituaries

Rodney Felton

The vintage racing scene is mourning the loss of this determined racer who died in mid-May. Best known for his fearless handling of vintage Alfa Romeos in VSCC events, he was a prime mover in the club’s activities for more than a decade.

Felton was an Alfa Romeo enthusiast and seldom, if ever, raced anything else. First in an 8C and later in a Tipo B, he claimed a number of major VSCC trophies at the expense of the ERA pack. He did all of the work on his cars and even rebuilt a pair of fire-damaged cars imported from the USA.

Felton also competed in trials in a Bugatti Brescia, and it was in this car that he was badly injured when he was an innocent party in a road accident in France in the mid-1990s. He never fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in the crash.

Motor Sport sends its condolences to his family and many friends.

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Cyril Kieft

The man behind Kieft Racing cars who died recently at the age of 92, took his firm all the way to the verge of grand prix racing in the early 1950s.

Kieft came to prominence after a brief driving career. He acquired the assets of the defunct Marwyn marque and then built his own 500cc Formula Three cars. By 1951, in the hands of Stirling Moss and Don Parker, Kieft threatened the Cooper domination and Parker went on to claim two 500 titles.

Kieft moved on to conceive a Godiva-engined GP car for 1954, but the project was still-born and it was 50 years before it raced. Kieft turned his back on the sport, but his cars continue to compete with success

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Tim Fry

One of the men responsible for the design and development of the Hillman Imp died in mid-May.

As an engineer with Rootes in the 1950s and early ’60s, Fry was responsible for the creation of the sportscar version of the Imp, the Asp, which never reached production. And along with work colleague Mike Parkes, he built a Formula Two car.

Motor Sport sends its condolences to his wife Karen and family.

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Umberto Agnelli

Following soon after the death of his elder brother Gianni, Umberto Agnelli died at the end of May.

This ex-lawyer led his family’s industrial combine for more than a decade and had had a spell as the head of Fiat in the 1980s. He was a key supporter of Ferrari’s F1 team.

After his brother’s death, Umberto again took control of Fiat and worked to turn around the company’s fortunes against the backdrop of a possible sell-out to General Motors.

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Euan Sarginson

This New Zealand racing photographer has died after a six-month battle with cancer.

As well as earning a strong reputation as a leading fashion photographer in his home country, Euan acted as Autosport‘s official ‘snapper’ during the heyday of the Tasman Series in the 1960s. In that role, he became well known to the numerous GP drivers who took part in those races each winter.

He is survived by his wife Min, daughter Alice and son Finlay.

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Doug Shierson

One of the most prominent team owners in America has died of cancer at the age of 62.

Shierson (below) raced SCCA sportscars in his youth, but it was as a CART team boss that he became best known. His biggest success was winning the 1990 Indianapolis 500 with Arie Luyendyk.

However, back in 1973, Shierson scored another famous win when Peter Gethin beat the Formula One cars at the Brands Hatch Race of Champions in a Shierson-backed Chevron B24 Formula 5000.

Howdy Holmes and Jacques Villeneuve Snr won three F Atlantic titles between them before the team first entered at Indy in 1982.

Danny Sullivan, Al Unser Jnr and Bobby Rahal all raced for Shierson in the 1980s.