Cliff
Allison

Cliff Allison was born on 8 February 1932 in Brough, Westmorland. He began racing in 1953 in a Formula Three Cooper 500 and was then noticed by Colin Chapman. In 1957 he won the Index of Performance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a 744cc Lotus. In 1958 he finished sixth at the 12 Hours of Sebring alongside Chapman, and in 1959 he took second there in a Ferrari shared with Jean Behra.

Allison competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1958 to 1961 and made 16 starts. He drove for Lotus and Maserati in 1958, finishing sixth at Monaco and fourth in the race at Spa-Francorchamps. In 1959 and 1960 he raced for Ferrari. At the 1959 German Grand Prix at the AVUS he was entered in a reserve Ferrari and set the fastest time in Friday practice, but he had to start from the back of the field and retired after two laps with clutch failure. In 1960 he finished second in the Argentine Grand Prix, his only podium, and ended the season twelfth in the championship.

He crashed heavily in practice for the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix and needed almost the rest of the year to recover. In 1961 he started one race for Lotus. A further crash in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix brought his motor racing career to an end. Cliff Allison died in Brough on 7 April 2005.

Source: Wikipedia, “Cliff Allison”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.