It is cryptic- a prime example
Greetings Stu/ Stewart,
There are those who care and for good and obvious reasons. :-)
Cheers, Trevor.
I think this is one of the most meaningless threads ever on TRS!
I'm sure it was...
At least this forum seems to have avoided what some others allow - ie, noms de plume of real people (Jim Clark, Keke Rosberg etc)
Many Italians used non de plums to go racing
some to avoid family riot of them racing against parents wishes ( as jackie stewart did with A N Other at his first few races)
some presume to deter kidnapping (rife in the 60s/70s) no one knew who they were
we had an Austrian racer Fritz Glatz race for years as Pierre Chavuet and Fredrico Carecca
both surnames meant "bald" as he was but he was another banned by mummy from going motor racing
I however am not worth much so no one will kidnap me possibly pay someone to take me away for a few more hours
and my mummy has banned me from coming round to visit
Yes I know Im behind you guys, i like warm beer and it rains a lot here too.
The non de plumed racing driver - there should be some great tales.
Baroness Hélène van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar entered the 1898 Paris–Amsterdam–Paris Trail using the pseudonym Snail and became the first woman to compete in an international motor race.
Another reason was surely ease of use - for team management, announcers, programme typesetters etc. For example:
B Bira = Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanuband
JJ Lehto = Jyrki Järvilehto (Imagine Murray Walker getting his tongue around that name)
Johnny Dumfries = John Colum Crichton-Stewart (7th Marquess of Bute)
Alfonzo de Portago = Don Alfonso Cabeza de Vacade y Leighton
Did Umberto Ledfotti really race at Bathurst 12-hour? Surely taking the piss
Of course had Norman Barry racing as Frank Bryan in the Mustang around '67. Were there any others on the local scene? Some may have preferred to be anonymous in hindsight
Scandinavian rally driver in the 70s - Bengt Axel.
Crichton-Stuart, please! In his racing days he was Earl of Dumfries. He didn't inherit the Marquis of Bute title until the 1990s
Or more correctly Don Alfonso Antonio Vicente Blas Ángel Francisco Borgia Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton Carvajal y Are, Conde de Mejorada, seventh Marquis de PortagoAlfonzo de Portago = Don Alfonso Cabeza de Vacade y Leighton
French driver, Jean-Marie Brousselet, raced a Jaguar D-Type at Le Mans several times under the racing nom de plume "Mary" ... I wonder if he was also a lumberjack and, "...cut down trees, skipped and jumped, and hung around in bars."
Last edited by John B; 12-18-2013 at 01:46 AM.
[QUOTE=David McKinney;36461]Crichton-Stuart, please!
Bloody spellchecker - thanks for correction David. Now taking a lie down after trying to memorise de Portago's full name.
There was a guy I used to compete against in the annual Silverstone Sprints Winter Series, called "Wally Pratt". Lovely guy (I think he might have passed away fairly recently) - but that was his real name.