Johnny
Claes

Johnny Claes was born in London in 1916 to a Scottish mother and a Belgian father, and he raced for Belgium. Before motor racing he worked as a jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He played in England, the Netherlands and Belgium, and in 1942 made a recording with his own group, the Claepigeons. In the late 1940s he gave up music and settled in Belgium as a professional racing driver.

His first contact with the sport came at the 1947 French Grand Prix, where he acted as an interpreter for British drivers. He made his racing debut in 1948 in his own Talbot-Lago, entered by Écurie Belge. In 1950 he won the Grand Prix des Frontières at Chimay. Like many of his contemporaries, he took part regularly in non-championship Grands Prix and sports car races alongside the World Championship.

In the Formula One World Championship, Claes started 23 races from 25 entries between 1950 and 1955, without scoring a point. He drove a Talbot-Lago in 1950 and 1951, then Gordini, HWM and Simca-Gordini cars in 1952, Connaught and Maserati in 1953, and Ferrari and Maserati in 1955. He also won the 1953 Liège-Rome-Liège Rally. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans he took a class win in 1954 and finished 12th there with Pierre Stasse in a Porsche. In 1955 he came third at Le Mans with fellow Belgian Jacques Swaters. Claes died in Brussels on 3 February 1956, aged 39.

Source: Wikipedia, “Johnny Claes”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.