Yahoo News Rob Walker: celebrating F1's most successful private entrant
The centenary of Rob Walker, founder and owner of the eponymous privateer Formula One team, will be celebrated with a parade of his cars through the town centre of Dorking in Surrey on October 21.
The organisers have confirmed that all nine historic Rob Walker Racing cars targeted for the event have been secured thanks to the generosity of their owners.
As well as Walker’s son Robbie, the parade will be graced by David Brabham, the son of Sir Jack, who drove for the Rob Walker Racing team. He will partner the first Walker-entered car to win a Formula One race; the Cooper T43 Climax in which Stirling Moss took victory at the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix.
Sam Bird, currently participating in Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, will drive the Cosworth DFV-engined Surtees TS14B that came fourth in the 1973 German Grand Prix.
Walker, an heir to the Johnnie Walker whisky family, founded his team in 1947 at the Pippbrook service station on the A24 near the Surrey town.
The nine Rob Walker Racing cars confirmed for the parade include: the Cooper T43 in which Stirling Moss drove to the team's first F1 victory in 1958 (and the first F1 victory for a rear-engined car); the 1961 Lotus 18 Climax, which Moss drove to victory in Monaco; the innovative Ferguson P99 that won the 1961 Gold Cup at Oulton Park, becoming the only four-wheel-drive car to win an (admittedly non-championship) F1 race, again with Moss at the wheel; Walker's own Ferrari 250 GT SWB, in which Moss won at Goodwood while listening to Raymond Baxter's commentary of the race on the car's radio to keep his winning distance; and a 1927 Delage S15 grand prix car.
The team didn't produce its own F1 machinery, but purchased cars from companies like Lotus, Cooper and Connaught and built up and entered them in its own right.
Walker's private outfit also became the first team to enter a four-wheel-drive car in a World Championship Grand Prix, when it ran the Ferguson P99 at the British Grand Prix in 1961.
Among the many renowned drivers to have driven Walker-entered cars are Moss, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham and Mike Hailwood.
Rob Walker Racing took nine grand prix victories between 1958 and 1968, its last victory being at the 1968 British Grand Prix. It remains the most successful privateer team in the premier category.
Although no longer running an eponymous team, Walker continued in F1 with Surtees until 1974, when he retired from the sport at the age of 57. He died in 2002, aged 84.
The cars will be on display and will run once around the town centre from Dorking Halls. The event takes place between 10am and 4pm.
Further details of the Rob Walker Centenary Parade at www.dorkingtownpartnership.co.uk/news-and-events.html.
For tips and advice, visit our Advice section, or sign up to our newsletter here
More classic car stories at Telegraph Cars
