Sports Car Driver
Mairesse secured third place in the Grand Prix of Monza in June 1959. Driving a Ferrari, he placed behind Alfonso Thiele and Carlo Mario Abate, both also in Ferraris. Mairesse and Mike Parkes of England finished second to Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien at the 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans. Driving a Ferrari, Mairesse and Parkes also eclipsed the previous Le Mans record, covering 2,758.66 miles. In the 1963 12 Hours of Sebring Mairesse and Nino Vacarella placed second after Ludovico Scarfiotti and John Surtees. Both teams drove Ferraris. Surtees and Mairesse won the 1000 km of the Nurburgring driving a Ferrari 250P. Thereafter, Surtees and Mairesse led for the 15 hours of the first 18 hours of the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans before the car caught fire while Mairesse was driving. Mairesse escaped injury. Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini captured won on the French circuit where one driver had a fatal accident. Mairesse and Surtees retired after a motor fire. A young German Red Cross worker was killed in August 1963 when the wheel of a Ferrari driven by Mairesse came off as his car overturned. Guenther Schneider, 19, was hit by a flying wheel during the running of the Grand Prix of Germany at Adenau. Mairesse was triumphant in the 1964 Grand Prix of Angola, run at Luanda. His average speed was 80.78 miles per hour. Mairesse piloted a Ferrari 250 LM to first place in the Grand Prix of Spa in May 1965. He completed the race in 2 hours, 29 minutes, and 45.7 seconds. He averaged 126.29 seconds. Mairesse and Jean Beurlys of France finished third at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans. Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt captured the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans. Mairesse and Beurlys finished third in a Ferrari 275 GTB winning the GT category in its debut at Le Mans. In April 1966 Surtees and Parkes won the 1,000 kilometer Monza Auto Race. Mairesse and Herbert Mueller of Switzerland came in third in a Ford sports car, two laps behind. In May Mairesse and Mueller drove to victory in the Targa Florio, driving a Porsche Carrera 6. Rain caused considerable attrition as only thirteen of seventy starters finished the race. Mairesse and Beurlys again drove a Ferrari to third place in the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. This event was won by the American team of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt.
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Famous quotes containing the words sports, car and/or driver:
“Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behaviour, attire, grace, learning and all their words aimeth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“One way to do it might be by making the scenery penetrate the automobile. A polished black sedan was a good subject, especially if parked at the intersection of a tree-bordered street and one of those heavyish spring skies whose bloated gray clouds and amoeba-shaped blotches of blue seem more physical than the reticent elms and effusive pavement. Now break the body of the car into separate curves and panels; then put it together in terms of reflections.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“God help the horse, and the driver too!
And the people and beasts who have never a friend!
For the driver easily might have been you,
And the horse be me by a different end!
And nobody knows how their days will cease!
And the poor, when they’re old, have little of peace!”
—James Kenneth Stephens (1882–1950)