Vic Elford

Victor Henry Elford (10 June 1935 - 13 March 2022), universally known as 'Vic' and nicknamed 'Quick Vic' by his peers, was an English racing driver who achieved extraordinary success across multiple motorsport disciplines including rallying, sports car racing, and Formula One, winning the 1968 Monte Carlo Rally and the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona within one week of each other, winning the Targa Florio, dominating the European Rally Championship, and competing in 13 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix between 1968 and 1971, establishing himself as one of the most versatile and accomplished drivers of his generation and earning legendary status particularly for his achievements with Porsche during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Born in Peckham, London, on 10 June 1935, Elford came from modest circumstances and began his motorsport career not as a driver but as a rally co-driver, navigating for various drivers and learning the intricacies of stage rallying before transitioning to driving himself, an unusual path that gave him deep understanding of rally tactics and pace note systems. In 1967, Elford won the European Rally Championship driving a works Porsche 911S for the factory team, demonstrating mastery of the demanding discipline of stage rallying where drivers compete against the clock on closed public roads, and his championship established him as one of Europe's elite rally drivers. On 4 February 1967 at Lydden Circuit in England, Elford won the very first Rallycross event ever held, making him the inaugural winner in a new motorsport discipline that combined circuit racing with rallying, and this historical footnote adds to his remarkable record of firsts and achievements across multiple forms of competition.

The 1968 season brought Elford perhaps his most remarkable achievements: on 27 January 1968, he won the Monte Carlo Rally driving a Porsche 911S, capturing one of motorsport's most prestigious and demanding events, and just one week later on 4 February 1968, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona driving a Porsche 907, giving Porsche its first-ever overall victory in a 24-hour race, an extraordinary double that demonstrated his versatility by winning both a grueling point-to-point rally and a long-distance endurance race within seven days. Later in 1968, Elford won the legendary Targa Florio in Sicily alongside Umberto Maglioli, driving a Porsche 907 to victory in one of the world's most dangerous and demanding road races around the mountainous Sicilian circuits, cementing his status as one of Porsche's most valuable and versatile drivers.

Elford's Formula One career began at the 1968 French Grand Prix at Rouen-Les-Essarts on 7 July 1968, and remarkably, he finished fourth in this debut race driving a Cooper-BRM, demonstrating that his speed and racecraft translated effectively from sports cars and rallying to Formula One, though this would prove to be his best Formula One result as subsequent opportunities came with less competitive equipment. Across 13 Formula One starts between 1968 and 1971, Elford scored a total of eight World Championship points, a modest return that reflected the limited opportunities and often uncompetitive cars he drove rather than any deficiency in his abilities, as he was simultaneously achieving tremendous success in sports car racing with Porsche and other manufacturers.

Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Elford won numerous sports car endurance races including the 1971 12 Hours of Sebring driving a Porsche 917K, and he set lap records at virtually every major circuit where he competed, including the Targa Florio, Nürburgring, Daytona, Sebring, Monza, Le Mans, and many others, demonstrating exceptional speed and car control across wildly different types of circuits from high-speed ovals to technical road courses to dangerous public road circuits. During the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans, Elford cemented his reputation for heroism when he stopped mid-race after seeing a Ferrari Daytona burning ahead of him on track, and he ran to the burning car to rescue the driver, an act of selfless courage captured by cameras and which led to French President Georges Pompidou personally awarding Elford the Chevalier of the National Order of Merit, France's prestigious honor for exceptional service.

Although primarily associated with Porsche—he raced five years for the German manufacturer and achieved most of his greatest victories driving Porsche 907s, 908s, 910s, and 917s—Elford also competed successfully for numerous other manufacturers including Ford, Triumph, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Chaparral, Shadow, Cooper, Lola, Chevron, and Subaru, demonstrating adaptability that allowed him to extract performance from different types of cars built to different philosophies. Elford retired from professional racing in 1974 at age 39, stepping away while still competitive rather than declining gradually, and in 1975 he embarked on a new career managing the racing car project Inaltera before managing the ATS Formula One team, transitioning from driver to team management with the same professionalism that had characterized his driving career.

In 1984, Elford moved to the United States where he began a new chapter managing the Porsche Owners Driving School and later the Porsche Driving Experience, teaching wealthy Porsche owners how to extract maximum performance from their cars while maintaining safety, and his reputation as one of Porsche's greatest drivers made him the perfect ambassador for these programs. Vic Elford died on 13 March 2022 at age 86, passing away more than four decades after his retirement from professional racing, and Porsche issued statements mourning the loss of one of their legendary drivers, recognizing that Elford had been instrumental in establishing Porsche's reputation for success in multiple forms of motorsport during the critical late-1960s period when the manufacturer was expanding beyond sports car racing into rallying and endurance racing.

Vic Elford's legacy transcends any single achievement or championship: his versatility—winning in rallying, sports car racing, and Formula One, setting lap records at dozens of circuits, winning the Monte Carlo Rally and Daytona 24 Hours within one week—represents a breadth of ability that few drivers in any era have matched, and his nickname 'Quick Vic' captured both his speed and his approachable personality, while his heroism at Le Mans when he stopped to rescue a burning driver demonstrated the character and courage that made him respected beyond mere talent behind the wheel.