Alas, as the Boyz ‘O Summer, nee Thee ‘Kuhnadiun Power Trio, aka RUSh were most likely taking the stage at the Gorge in George, (Washington) your Humble Scribe was learning of another ex-Formula 1 driver who he’d never heard of before, who sadly was celebrating the 25th birthday of his demise at the controls of a Pitt special Stunt plane. A BLOODY BRIT by the name David Purley who perished at the relatively young age of 40, as it was his fascination with Aeroplanes that brought about his death after having survived a previous Paratrooper’s career – including a brush with death when experiencing a partial parachute failure!
Next up, the Brit took up motor racing, ultimately winding up in the rarefied atmosphere of F1 – having begun his racing career behind the wheel of an AC Cobra, which is somewhat symbiotic since I’d just watched the SPEED replay of Dave Despain’s On Assignment episode with ‘Ol shel, a.k.a. Carroll Shelby...
And while Purley actually built his own Formula One chassis, the Lec Refrigeration Racing CRP-1, unfortunately it appears his greatest claim(?) to fame was surviving the highest G-Force impact recorded in the sport. A staggering 179.8 G’s; SHEISA! Which amazingly Messer Purley survived, albeit enduring multiple fractures from this horrific shunt during the 1977 British Grand Prix when his CRP-1’s Ford cosworth V-8’s throttle stuck!
Meanwhile on a happier note – two most diverse characters were celebrating their respective birthdays over the past two days – as first up was none other then somebody commonly known as The King. As Richard Lee Petty celebrated his 74th B-Day – perhaps most ideally at someplace called ‘DayToner on July 2nd, where ironically them Good ‘Ol Boyz were tearin up a bunch ‘O Bombers on the High Banks of Daytona Int’l Speedway; as King Richard’s RPM (Richard Petty Motorsports) tandem of “Tazzy ‘N Walldinger,” not to be Cornfuzed with “Tango & Cash; Hya! As in none other then Marcos Ambrose (No. 9) & A.J. Allmendinger (No. 43) finished 17th & 10th respectively...
Meanwhile, as the saying goes: Age before Beauty, thus with King Richard being the elder - at the opposite end of the spectrum - both in age and disciplines a relatively fresh faced German ‘Voonderkind known here at No Fenders as Master ‘Zebb, nee Sebastian Vettel celebrated his 24th “Born On Date” yesterday - July 3rd, as I’m assuming ‘Seb will wish to celebrate by blowing away the competition at the upcoming British GP, eh?