Following a hard-fought battle with cancer, two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner and European Rally champion Vic Elford passed away on Sunday 13 March.
Born in 1935, Elford had a varied motorsport career, mainly driving Porsche machinery. In 1967 he won the European Rally championship in a word Porsche 911 and would go on to win the Class C championship in the same car in the touring car championship that would become BTCC. 1968 saw him take victory at the Rally Monte Carlo in a 911, before switching disciplines and taking Porsche’s first overall win at the 24 hours of Daytona in a Porsche 907.
Elford took part in 13 races in Formula 1, scoring a total of eight points between 1968 and 1971. During his time in F1 he drove a Cooper T86B, Cooper T86, McLaren M7B, and a BRM P160, with his best result coming at the French Grand Prix in 1968, where he narrowly missed out on a podium finish, taking fourth place on his debut.
The Brit took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans eight times between 1967 and 1974, driving a variety of cars including a Porsche 906K Carrera 6, Porsche 908, Porsche 917L, Porsche 917LH, Alfa Romeo Tipo 33TT3, Ferrari 365 GTB/4 and a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR. He also was hired as part of the driving team for the Steve McQueen Le Mans film.
He scored a class win in 1967 and then repeated that in 1973, while he never won the race outright, he was part of the works team for four years. During his career he also won the Twelve houts of Sebring in 1971.
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