Ivor Bueb

Who was Ivor Bueb?

Ivor Léon John Bueb was a sports car racing and Formula One driver from England.

Bueb started racing seriously in a Formula 3 500cc Cooper in 1953, graduating to the Cooper works team in 1955 when he finished second in the British championship. He made occasional starts in Grands Prix in 1957 with a Connaught and a Maserati run by Gilby Engineering. The following year he raced Bernie Ecclestone's Connaught at Monaco, and drove a Formula Two Lotus at the German Grand Prix. In 1959 he had two outings for BRP, firstly a non-qualification at Monaco, then another Formula Two entry at the British Grand Prix. He participated in 6 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix in all, but scored no championship points. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races.

He is best known for sharing the winning works Jaguar D-type with Mike Hawthorn in the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans; a success he repeated with Ron Flockhart in the ex-works Ecurie Ecosse car in 1957.

Bueb suffered serious injures in 1959 when he crashed his BRP Cooper-Borgward Formula Two car at the Charade Circuit near Clermont-Ferrand, France. He crashed at Gravenoire, a multiple apex-section at the very far end of the circuit, and was thrown out of his Cooper. He died six days later at a hospital near the circuit.