Derrick Astle's Fatal Crash @ Tulpenrallye 1963 (Aftermath)
- 8 months ago
Derrick Astle was a talented British rallyman and sportscar driver, active in the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1961 he shared a BMC works drive with Peter Roberts in the RAC Rally of Great Britian. The pair came tenth overall and won their class in a MG Midget. Early in that same year Astle had raced a Morris Mini 850 and did not finish the Rallye de Monte-Carlo with Saville Woolley as co-driver, and the Acropolis Rally, with Michael Sutcliffe. He and Sutcliffe with Robert Glenton from the Sunday Express as third passenger, entered the 1962 Rallye de Monte-Carlo in an Austin Westminster A110. While journalist Glenton driving, the car hit a wall when the brakes overheated and they failed to finish.
In 1962 Astle raced an ex-works Austin-Healey 3000 MkII, scoring an outright win in a BARC meeting at Oulton Park. Then he drove an Austin 1100 in the Derbyshire Regent Rally, with Don Barrow as co-driver. In 1962 he also made his debut in the World Sportscar Championship, sharing a MG Midget entered by Octagon Racing with Jed M. Noble in the 1000 Km of the Nürburgring. Astle set the fastet class time in practice but on race day the car did not finish the event, Noble crashing it on 13th lap. Later in the same season Astle retired from the RAC Rally when the rear axle of his works Reliant Sabre 4 he was co-driving with Peter Roberts, broke.
Derrick Astle was killed on Tuesday, 23 April 1963, during the fourth special stage - the Trois Épis hillclimb, in Alsace region, north-eastern France - of the 1963 Internationale Tulpenrallye, then a round of the European Rally Championship. His Austin-Healey 3000 MkII went off the road and sideswiped a tree. Astle sustained fatal head injuries, his co-driver Donald Grimshaw was unhurt.
According to Don Barrow, formerly Astle's co-driver, Derrick hated wearing seatbelts and did not use them throughout his career; hit is suspected that this factor contributed top his death at Trois Épis. After the accident many of his British friends entered in the Tulpenrallye wanted to retire from the event, but Derrick Astle's co-driver Don Grimshaw convinced them to carry on. Almost at the same place, shortly before Astle's crash, the Vauxhall VX4/90 of Sam Nordell-Peter Bone rolled off the road, with little damage.
R.I.P
In 1962 Astle raced an ex-works Austin-Healey 3000 MkII, scoring an outright win in a BARC meeting at Oulton Park. Then he drove an Austin 1100 in the Derbyshire Regent Rally, with Don Barrow as co-driver. In 1962 he also made his debut in the World Sportscar Championship, sharing a MG Midget entered by Octagon Racing with Jed M. Noble in the 1000 Km of the Nürburgring. Astle set the fastet class time in practice but on race day the car did not finish the event, Noble crashing it on 13th lap. Later in the same season Astle retired from the RAC Rally when the rear axle of his works Reliant Sabre 4 he was co-driving with Peter Roberts, broke.
Derrick Astle was killed on Tuesday, 23 April 1963, during the fourth special stage - the Trois Épis hillclimb, in Alsace region, north-eastern France - of the 1963 Internationale Tulpenrallye, then a round of the European Rally Championship. His Austin-Healey 3000 MkII went off the road and sideswiped a tree. Astle sustained fatal head injuries, his co-driver Donald Grimshaw was unhurt.
According to Don Barrow, formerly Astle's co-driver, Derrick hated wearing seatbelts and did not use them throughout his career; hit is suspected that this factor contributed top his death at Trois Épis. After the accident many of his British friends entered in the Tulpenrallye wanted to retire from the event, but Derrick Astle's co-driver Don Grimshaw convinced them to carry on. Almost at the same place, shortly before Astle's crash, the Vauxhall VX4/90 of Sam Nordell-Peter Bone rolled off the road, with little damage.
R.I.P