John
Love

John Love was born in Bulawayo in 1924 and raced as a Rhodesian driver. He began his car racing career in a Cooper Formula 3 car, having previously raced motorcycles. In 1961 and 1962 he drove a Cooper-Austin from Ken Tyrrell's team in European Formula Junior. A crash at Albi largely ruined his chances of moving into Formula One full-time. He also won the 1962 British Saloon Car Championship.

He made his Formula One debut on 29 December 1962. Up to 1972 he made ten entries and nine starts. He drove for Cooper, then Brabham in 1968, Lotus in 1969 and 1970, March in 1971 and Surtees in 1972. He was named as Phil Hill's replacement in the works Cooper team for the 1964 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but did not start the race.

His best result came at Kyalami in 1967. Driving a Cooper with a 2.7-litre Climax engine, he was leading the race when a misfire led him to make a precautionary stop for fuel. He finished second behind Pedro Rodríguez's Cooper-Maserati. It was his only podium and left him 11th in the World Championship.

From 1964 to 1969 Love won the South African Formula One Championship six years in a row. He also won the Rhodesian Grand Prix six times. In the 1980s he ran his own stock car team. He died in Bulawayo in 2005.

Source: Wikipedia, “John Love (racing driver)”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.