You were there

In front of a huge and partisan crowd on a hot July 1958 day at Silverstone, Peter Collins scored a faultless victory in the British Grand Prix ahead of his ‘Mon Ami Mate’ Mike Hawthorn. After collecting a foaming jug of beer on his slowing-down lap, Hawthorn joined his Ferrari team-mate for the prize-giving.  Sadly, Collins was killed in an accident at the Nürburgring two weeks later, while Hawthorn retired as World Champion at the end of the season only to crash fatally in a road accident the following January in his Jaguar Mk1 saloon.

A young Anthony Parish played truant from his boarding school to be at Silverstone that July day: “I was able to infiltrate myself into the pits and took these photos of Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn. Mike should have won because he was fighting Moss for the World  Championship, but since Moss retired it was an in-house fight between the two Ferrari drivers.” 

Unfortunately for Anthony, his face appeared in a photo from the race in the following day’s Sunday Times – much to his headmaster’s displeasure.