THS OF PALS AND HIS MISSION TO CURE DEMENTIA

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Jackie with n his wife Helen winning the and Helen after Jackie TEAM The star from left,

Prix in 1969. Right, Clark French Grand Hill and Jim drivers Graham and fellow F1

It’s almost 50 years since the day Sir Jackie Stewart climbed out of a Formula One car and vowed never to race again.

But as Jackie, 81, watched last month’s Bahrain Grand Prix from his home in Switzerland and saw flames engulf the car of an F1 driver, he felt himself reverse straight back in time.

The Scot, who fought for safety changes in the sport after being haunted by the deaths of so many close friends, picked up his phone to call the crown prince of Bahrain, whose country’s speedy emergency response saved the life of French driver Romain Grosjean.

During the 60s and 70s, Jackie became a pioneer for driver safety, pressing for change in everything from race track design to the standard of medical facilities on offer.

Jackie, who grew up in Dunbartonshire, said: “Grosjean surviving that accident was a miracle. When I saw the crash, I – honest to God – thought he was a dead man. I was watching the race at home with my wife Helen, looking at it as it happened.

“I immediately called up the crown prince of Bahrain as his people were on it right away.

“The car caught fire in a spectacular fashion and yet we got the driver out and the fire was put out too – and keep in mind it was the very first lap so the fuel tanks were absolutely full.

“People are thanking me now for the role I played but at the time, when I was pushing for improved safety, the reaction was hostile. I even got death threats.

“There are no corners on any race tracks named after me and no Jackie Stewart stands, as far as I know. Those in charge initially refused to make the changes needed. They said they couldn’t afford it.

“For me, to see these accidents today and see people surviving them gives me a great deal of satisfaction. But what happened to Grosjean is a reminder that no one is safe and just because we’ve done as much as we have doesn’t mean we can’t keep getting better.”

Fellow Scot and Indycar champion Dario Franchitti said it was Jackie’s work to improve safety in F1 that helped save Grosjean’s life. Jackie, who is recovering at

home following a knee

Jenny Morrison

replacement operation, retired as a racing driver at the height of his career in 1973. He quit after witnessing the death of Francois Cevert, 29, his teammate and one of his closest friends on the track.

Jackie can count more than 50 racing deaths – many of them good friends – across the 60s and 70s when he said cars were too fast and powerful for the circuits they were being asked to race on. At the peak of his career, he believes drivers who raced continuously had a two-in-three chance of being killed.

Jackie led driver boycotts of some of the world’s most dangerous racing tracks.

He said: “When I was racing, there were trees at the edges of some of the race tracks and I said, ‘ You’ve got to chop the trees down,’ but I was told they were only small trees and not to worry about it.

“If you crash into a small tree at 150mph, you are a dead man.

“Jimmy Clark – a really good friend of mine, a former f latmate and, of course, another Scot – was killed after hitting trees.

“When Jim died in 1968, that was the start of a horrendously bad period. So many drivers died and in those days if the car burst into f lames and they couldn’t put the fire out, it would be running across the race track and the rest of the drivers would be driving through the f lames. The race was never stopped.

“When Jo Schlesser died at the French Grand Prix in Rouen, I remember driving through the flames.

“In 1970 too, when Piers Courage lost his life in Holland, there wasn’t enough fire equipment to put out the fire and we had to continue to drive through the flames from his car.

“Piers was one of my best friends and every time we drove round I knew it was him as his helmet had fallen off and I could see it.

“I continued to lose so many friends and then my own teammate was killed.”

Jackie was the reigning world champion and had been set to race in his 100th Grand Prix when Cevert was killed during qualifying on the race track at Watkins Glen in America.

Jackie then retired, keeping his tally of Grands Prix raced at 99 as a mark of respect to his friend.

He said: “Things had to change. There were no track facilities for resuscitation or good

TRAGEDY F1 stars Piers Courage and Jo Schlesser racing MISSED Jackie quit after death of his teammate left and pal Francois Cevert, f i re-re- f ight i ng equipment or even track medical centrescentres. In thosedaysthosedays, the viewwasviewwas if you are a racing driver and you got killed, you got killed. I don’t know why that was the attitude but it was the swinging 60s and 70s and people looked at life in a different way. Life was colourful, exciting and racing was dangerous.

“Now, more people die from rugby and falling off horses than they do in Formula One.

“One of the biggest challenges of my life was to help change motor racing safety to get it to where it is today.”

Jackie’s wife Helen, 77, lived every race tragedy with her husband and supported him throughout his battle to improve safety.

She was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2014 and now her husband of 58 years has a new challenge – working to find a cure for the disease that has robbed her of her short-term memory and left her unable to walk.

Jackie said: “Helen was always at the track with the stopwatch for me. She might not have seen the accidents in the same way I did but she saw the death that went with them.

“The drivers who died were our friends. She was with Nina Rindt when Jochen died and went to the hospital with her.

“When Piers died, Helen had to go and pack their belongings at the hotel as his wife couldn’t face it. Helen said she would never forget seeing the mark of Piers’s head on the pillow.”

Jackie has set up a charity, Race Against Dementia, which raises money to fund innovative research using the same advanced technologies of Formula One.

He said: “Dementia is such a cruel disease and affects so many people. The latest statistics show one in three people born today are likely to die from dementia if we don’t act to find treatments and a cure.”

Visit www.raceagainstdementia.com