MOTORSPORT GREATS

VIC ELFORD

No one will ever have a season like Vic Elford’s 1968. Already European Rally Champion the previous year, the son of cafe owners from Peckham conquered the Monte Carlo Rally in a Porsche 911 T. Nine days later, he shared a 907 in Porsche’s first Daytona 24 Hours win. That year, too, he won the Nürburgring 1000km – a race he conquered three times – and stormed the Targa Florio in a manner that made him immortal to all Sicilians. Later that summer, he made his Formula 1 debut in the French Grand Prix and finished fourth. ‘Quick Vic’ should have made more than 13 F1 starts and somehow never won the Le Mans 24 Hours, despite his mastery of the iconic Porsche 917, but it didn’t matter. Instead, he put in four stints of seven and a half hours – mostly in the dark – to conquer the monstrous 84-hour Marathon de la Route at the ’Ring. It never was the Green Hell to him. Oh, and he helped invent rallycross. Total legend.