Mike Hawthorn

If ever there was a way to describe Mike Hawthorn, then the words fast, young and full of life wouldn't go amiss. Large and boisterous, Mike Hawthorn was known to race, sometimes, with a bow tie and a broad grin. For Mike, motorsports was just the fastest way to do something he enjoyed - drive.

Mike Hawthorn was born near the Brooklands circuit in Farnham, Surrey. This proximity surely played a major role in inspiring the young Brit to take up racing as one of his favourite hobbies and passions. Although he wasn't probably the best ever driver to win the championships, he certainly was the most colourful. Hawthorn's career was strung by tragedy, scandal and even personal losses.

Mike's father, another racing enthusiast, had bought a garage near the Brooklands circuit, two years after mike was born. The Hawthorn garage was a bustling place where, before races, cars and motorcycles were prepared for competition. A nine year old Mike saw this, took it all in, and decided that it would be what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

His education was pushing him towards a career at the Farnham-based garage. Mike's father, though, kept encouraging his son's need for speed by providing him with motorcycles first, and then cars, to participate in local competitions. Mike was also part of a group of friends who created mayhem as they raced around the countryside looking for pubs and women. In 1950, Mike finally started winning races in a small Riley sportscar that his father got for him. It took him three years, from his first ever win, to get behind the wheels of a Formula One car owned by Enzo Ferrari.

His rise to the top level was exactly similar to how he had lived his life - fast. In 1952, his first ever competition in a single seater Formula Two Cooper Bristol gave him the opportunity to drive alongside people of the likes of Froilan Gonzalez and Juan Manuel Fangio. Mike qualified at pole, and led the race all the way to the finish. He also finished first in the Formula Libre race that same Easter gathering and came an incredible second at the main event - a Formula One cars' race. Mike was always one to race in his everyday clothes but for his single seater debut, he decided to go all-white and that was to become his trademark.

After Goodwood, Mike and his dad had enough incentive to enter their Cooper into the remaining races of the Formula One season in 1952. Mike ran the last three races and a podium finish, along with two fourth places, saw him end up at an incredible fourth place overall. Enzo Ferrari had seen enough and in 1953, Mike Hawthorn was a Ferrari man.

A single inch separated Mike's Ferrari from Fangio's Maserati at the 1953 French Grand Prix. The race became the highlight of his career as he burst into tears when he heard "God Save the Queen" place on the podium. His bowtie gave him the nick-name, "Le Papillon" or "The Butterfly" by the French. His partying habits didn't go down too well with purists of the sport and the British media was as harsh on him as on any one in today's date. They subjected Hawthorn to the tightest of scrutiny and flaws that saw him being accused of evading the compulsory military service although the reality was that he had been rejected due to chronic kidney ailment.

His reputation, though, was in tatters and early in 1954, Mike Hawthorn suffered a terrible crash in which his arms and legs were badly burnt in a non-championship race in Sicily. Soon after, he lost his father in a road accident.

Mike left Ferrari to join Vanwall and the BRM teams for two uneventful years at the top level. His only win came at the ill-fated 1955 Le-Mans 24 hour race where a Mercedes crashed into the crowd resulting in the death of 80 spectators. Mike was, initially, accused of causing the accident though he was cleared later but the deaths were beginning to have a psychological effect on his mind.

Mike decided to return to Ferrari in 1957 and in Peter Collins, found an equally fun-loving team mate. The two raced hard and partied harder and soon became known to play pranks on various people. Both drivers were extremely flamboyant in their racing styles and seemed to defy death with every maneuver.

In 1958, Mike won his first Formula One championship but that was to come at a major cost. At the notorious Nurburgring, Peter Collins' Ferrari crashed and Collins didn't survive the accident. Mike was shocked and barely contested for the rest of the season. He finished just one point ahead of Vanwall's Stirling Moss who had won four races that season compared to Hawthorn's single win at France.

Mike had lost the will to race and after marrying a beautiful fashion model, Jean Howarth, he retired from the sport. However, Mike's fast driving was not restricted to race tracks and even on public roads, he displayed the need to be fast. On 22nd January, 1959, Hawthorn's Jaguar skidded off a wet corner on a road near his home and Mike Hawthorn died in the accident.

For all it was worth, the blond race driver from England brought his country the biggest glory in the sport and led a life that was as quick as he had always lived it. Mike was 29 when he died.