MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 19

TOM PRYCE
GRANDS PRIX - 42
BEST FINISH - 3rd twice
POLE POSITIONS - 1
POINTS SCORED - 19
--- F1 CAREER ---
1974 - Token Ford & Shadow Ford - 18th - 1pt
1975 - Shadow Ford - 10th - 8pts
1976 - Shadow Ford - 12th - 10pts
1977 - Shadow Ford - 0pts








Born in Ruthin in the Vale of Clwyd in Wales, he always had an interest in cars from when he was working in a bakers van at a young age, but he didnt begin racing seriously until he was 20 when he first shot to fame by winning the Daily Express Formula Ford Crusader Championship in 1970, the final round held in torrid conditions in which Pryce was at his best. He then made his way up dominating Formula F100 in 1971 before moving up through the lower formulae including Formula 3, he again made headlines on his debut in the category, winning easily in the support race for a non championship F1 event, this was made even more spectacular when that field included the likes of Jochen Mass and James Hunt, both of whom would go on to be Grand Prix winners and in the latters case, a world champion too.

Pryce would not win a Formula 3 or Formula Atlantic title (in which he competed in 1972) but throughout F3, he again displayed some brilliant speed and excellent car control but suffered from bad luck and a nasty crash in Monaco which hospitalised him for a few days. Royale (his team in Formula 3) wanted to keep the Welshman under their wing and planned to graduate together to Formula 2 but when funding dried up, Royale were forced to abandon the plans meaning Pryce was forced to go it alone in F2, for that he teamed up with Rondel Racing who were racing an F2 car called a Motul, the team was the first project undertaken by a young upstart called Ron Dennis (now the main figurehead at McLaren Mercedes) Pryce raced in 9 F2 events for Rondel with his best finish being 2nd in Germany, before the team went bust and Dennis moved on to his next venture.

Before the team's closure, the sponsor Motul had released funds for Rondel to build an F1 car to be ready in time for the 1974 season. But because the team had gone out of business, the car was aquired by 2 wealthy backers Tony Vlassopoulo and Ken Grob, the team were reformed as "Token" and thanks to some backing from a good sponsor, Pryce was hired to drive the car. The car itself though was riddled with problems and was pathetically uncompetitive. After he made his world championship debut that year at the Nivelles circuit in Belgium where he qualified 20th out of 29 and failed to finish. But then the FIA deemed he was too inexperienced and refused him entry into the Monaco GP, Pryce was then dismissed and replaced by Ian Ashley. Instead he entered the supporting race the Formula 3 event, which he won very easily, after which he did some select events in Formula 2 where again he impressed.

This caught the attention of Don Nicholls, the owner of the Shadow F1 team who was looking for a suitable replacement for his lead driver Peter Revson who was killed during practice in South Africa, after a stint with Brian Redman, Nicholls hired Pryce in time for that years Dutch GP less than a month since he was forced to leave Token. But he immediately impressed, in only his 2nd drive for the team (and his 3rd GP overall) he qualified an incredible 3rd for the French GP and then scored his first points in just his 5th race with a 6th place finish on the famous 14 mile Nurburgring track, Nicholls knew then he had a star on his hands.

Pryce was now hot property and because he had only signed a short term contract, he was beginning to attract interest from the biggest team in F1 at the time, Lotus. Colin Chapman (the design genius behind the Lotus team) liked what he saw and with Lotus at the time going through some tough financial problems, and with Shadow realitively new to the scene, Chapman reportedly tried to do a driver swap with Pryce going to Lotus with superstar Ronnie Peterson going the other way, it never materialised and Pryce stayed with Shadow for 1975. But at Shadow, he was at first not considered their lead driver, that honour was bestowed upon the frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier who as the lead driver got priority to run their new car first (the Shadow DN5) in which Jarier scored 2 pole positions. But when Pryce got his hands on the new car, he quickly put Jarier in the shade, he won a non championship race at Brands Hatch, only his 2nd race in the new car, he would later take his one and only pole position at the British GP on the same circuit. He also showed some great form at the end of the season, the high point being a podium finish in appalling conditions in Austria. As a result, he ended the season in the top 10 in the drivers championship also helping Shadow to the top 6 in the cosntructors.

Pryce remained loyal to Shadow and stayed for 1976 and he was now the team's lead driver, Pryce began the season in stunning fashion with his 2nd career podium finish in Brazil but the Shadow team would suffer in mid-season due to a late change in regulations which really affected the team because before the new rules were implemented for the 4th round in Spain that season, the Shadow's were regular top 10 runners, now Pryce and teammate Jarier were condemned to slug it out near the rear of the field until a new car could be built. That car (the DN8) would not come until the 12th round in Holland. Pryce gave the new car a spectacular debut, qualifying 3rd and finishing 4th. This enabled Pryce to finish the season on 10 points, good enough for 12th in the championship, in comparison to teammate Jarier (who went pointless) it was seen that Pryce was a driver punching well above his weight and deserving of a better car and team so he could fight for a championship.

1977 didnt start well, Jarier left to join ATS and the Shadow team were suffering financial troubles, so in came a pay driver to partner Pryce, the italian Renzo Zorzi. While Zorzi scored a points finish in Brazil, Pryce suffered mechanical gremlins despite qualifying well, but then came the now infamous South African Grand Prix. Tom Pryce came into the weekend in good spirits, despite 2 retirements he was happy with the car's competitiveness after qualifying in the top 12 for both races and Zorzi's point finish in Brazil despite starting down in 18th. Optimism later proved in the wet practice session where Pryce displayed his wet weather prowess posting a time a full second quicker than the next best set by Niki Lauda. He would suffer though in qualifying running on the same wet weather settings as the track dried, qualifying down in 15th. After a poor start to the race itself, he was down in last position but he then went on a great herculean charge through the field going from 23rd to 13th in just 20 laps. What followed after that was one of the most bizarre yet sickening incidents Formula 1 had ever witnessed.

On lap 21, Pryce's teammate Renzo Zorzi pulled over on the long pit straight at the top of a hill, the rear of his car then caught fire due to a fuel metering problem, so 2 track marshals had to cross the track to get to him, but because Zorzi's car was on a crest, it was difficult to see oncoming cars. The marshals waited for a lull in the traffic to cross and deal with the fire but when they did, they did not see the battle for 12th place coming up on them, in this there were 4 cars, Pryce's Shadow, Hans Joachim Stuck in a March, the Ligier of Jacques Laffite and Gunnar Nilsson's Lotus. Stuck swerved to avoid the 2nd of the marshals (a 19 year old carrying a fire extinguisher) but Pryce who was following directly behind Stuck could'nt react quickly enough and struck the unfortuante marshal killing him instantly, his fire extinguisher then struck Pryce on the helmet which ripped off the helmet and killing him instantly too as the force of the impact partially decapatated Pryce. The marshal was flown in the air and his torso landed a few yards in front of Zorzi's car, his legs a good 50 feet down the road. Pryce's car continued down the road, slightly went off the course in a straight line and clattered into the side of Laffite's Ligier. Laffite jumped out of the car and angrily went over to Pryce's car demanding an explanation but that was when he saw Pryce's shattered body and his anger turned to shock.

The shock of Pryce's death was felt right down the pitlane and a potential future world champion was gone forever.