KILLED IN FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1937, Page 30

KILLED IN FRANCE

GREAT LE MANS DISASTER

Britain lost her .premier racing driver, P. G. Fairfield, after terrible injuries he received at Le Mans, Fi-ance, in one of the most ghastly crashes in motor racing history. In a desperate 100 m.p.h. endeavour to avoid a dying man, he deliberately drove off the road through a hedge. His car rolled over three times before it came to a.stop, lying on its side 50 yards away. ■ . Amid scenes of amazing confusion, for six cars had piled up and injured men were lying all around, Fairfield was eventually pulled from the car and rushed to hospital, where doctor? performed a dangerous abdominal operation. There was little hope of his recovering, and he died two days later.

Fairfield was Britain's most successful driver. He had won five important races already this season, his last victory being the . .uffield trophy at Dinington. He was a member of a motor firm, in partnership with Cyril Paul, also a well-known driver. They met when they served as mechanics to Freddy Dixon, who taught Fairfield to drive'racing cars.

■■- Fairfield, who war, 28, was born in Liverpool, hut he lived most of his life in South Africa, where he scored some of his greatest racing successes. He was married, with one small daughter.

The event was a 24-hour race. Fiftyfive minutes from: the start, six cars, all of them travelling at over 100 miles an hour, suddenly crashed and shot off the road at a gentle bend, just after the notorious Maison Blanche corner, the scene of many previous crashes. The noise of the crashing cars, with the consequent clouds of dust, could be heard from the packed grandstands half a mile away. Rene Kippeurt, driving a Bugatti in his first race, attempted to pass two other cars, skidded hit the fence, and turned over. The driver was , thrown out into the road just' as Forestier (Riley), Tremoulet (Delahaye), and Ralph (Taltaot) arrived to crash into the wrecked car. Kip-

peurt was run over as he lay in the road by one of the cars, and he died soon after removal to the roadside. When Fairfleld' arrived in his German 8.M.W., travelling at 100 miles an hour, he swerved to avoid the dying man, shot into the field, and rolled over.

Other cars arrived in a fast travelling bunch during a scene of absolute confusion. Miss D. Stanley Turner,-driv-ing in her first big race, was stopped and saw the injured men being carried away. John Hindmarsh, driving k big Lagonda, came round the bend al 110 m.p.h., and just succeeded in pulling up in time.

Fairfield jumped into the front rank of'racing drivers when he won the Round-the-Houses race for small cars at Douglas, Isle of Man, in May, 1935. After that he had many racing successes in England and abroad.