Tony
Brise

Tony Brise was born in Erith, Kent, on 28 March 1952. His father, John, was a racing driver and a three-time World Stock Car champion, and he backed his sons Tony and Tim in karting. Brise won his first British championship in 1969, moved into Formula Ford in 1970 and finished second in the 1971 British FF1600 Championship. He stepped up to Formula 3 in 1972 and in 1973 took two of the three British titles, sharing one of them with Richard Robarts. He raced in Formula Atlantic in 1974, and in 1975 he won six races in a row there and the international championship.

In April 1975 Frank Williams called him up to Formula One to stand in for Jacques Laffite. Brise made his debut at the Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuïc on 27 April. Laffite returned for Monaco, which sent Brise back to Formula Atlantic. At that race, however, former world champion Graham Hill failed to qualify, and Brise returned straight to Formula One. He now drove for Hill's Embassy Hill team alongside Alan Jones. He attracted attention with fast qualifying times and frequently outperformed Jones, but technical problems and bad luck kept him from high finishes. He scored one championship point, started ten races in 1975 and finished the year 19th in the drivers' standings.

On 29 November 1975 Brise was returning with Hill, designer Andy Smallman and three mechanics from testing the new GH2 in the south of France. The plane, flown by Hill, crashed in fog while approaching Elstree airfield. All six on board were killed. Brise was 23.

Source: Wikipedia, “Tony Brise”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.