Gerry Birrell Racing driver

Racing driver Gerry Birrell was born Gerald Hussey Buchanan Birrell on 30 July 1944 in Milngavie, Glasgow, Scotland. He was the youngest of three brothers. His oldest brother Graham was the first of the Birrell boys to enter the world of motor racing Gerry used to assist his brother at the track. In 1961 Gerry entered his first race as a driver at Charterhall driving the families own car, an Austin A40.

Gerry soon proved that he was not only a good competitive driver but also a competent mechanic. In the year he started racing he took a burnt wreck of a Lotus-11 and rebuilt it to racing car standard. The two Birrell brothers race throughout the early sixties in self maintained and self built cars often giving the works cars a run for their money.

In 1969 he entered the European Formula Ford Championship as the factory driver for Crossle. He won the championship with 34.5 points.

Moving up to Formula 3 racing in1970 Gerry drove a Brabham BT-28 Ford. This car took him to victory in races at the Thruxton, Brands Hatch, Hammeenlinna and Paul Ricard circuits. At the prestigious Monaco Formula 3 Grand Prix he achieved a fifth place. He finished the year at fifth place in the driver’s championship. 1970 also saw Gerry driving in Sportscars when he took a drive at the Worlds Sportscar Brands Hatch 1000 km in which he came fifteenth.

Gerry’s next move was to European Touring Cars. In 1971 he signed with Ford to drive an Escort RS1600 with co-driver Claude Bourgoignie. They won the series. In the same year he also competed in European Formula 2 driving a Lotus-69 Ford and finished eleventh in the driver’s championship. In addition he drove in a number of endurance races such as The Six Hours at Paul Ricard; The Six Hours at the Nurburgring where he came fourth and the World’s Sportscar 1000 km at Brands Hatch where he came seventh.

1972 saw Gerry still in the European touring cars driving an Escort RS for Ford Koln in which he won his class at both Monza and Brno. With co-driver Claude Bourgoignie he took a Ford Capri RS2600 to Le Mans for the 24 hour race. They won the touring car class and finished eleventh overall. They also entered the 24 hours Spa-Francorchamps where they came second. At the end of the European racing season Gerry headed to South Africa where he won the Springbok Sportscar championship driving a Chevron B23 Ford.

Back in Europe for the start of the 1973 season he signed with Chevron driving a Chevron-B25 (Ford BDA-Hart). He also continued his endurance racing coming sixth at the 1000 km race at the Nurburgring with his co-driver John Fitzpatrick.

The Ninth meeting of the Formula 2 championship was taking place at the Rouen-les-Essarts track in France. Gerry had missed the Friday Practice session as the transporter carrying his car was delayed for over ten hours by French Customs. He was in an angry frame of mind when he took his car out for the final Practice session on Saturday 23 June 1973. He did manage some fast laps and was coming down to Virage des Six Freres at 240km/hr (150 mph) when one of his front tyres developed a puncture and deflated. Unable to make the turn Gerry’s car crashed nose first into a crash barrier. Instead of absorbing the impact the barrier rose up allowing the car underneath it. The car was destroyed and the twenty eight year old Scot was killed instantly.

During the practice sessions on the Friday some of the drivers had expressed concern about the safety of the track and after the crash the said they would not continue with the meeting. Track officials built a temporary chicane out of polystyrene at the crash site to slow the vehicles down and the race went ahead. During the race this flimsy chicane was destroyed by some of the drivers and Ronnie Peterson crashed at the same place as Gerry although his crash was not fatal.

Gerry Birrell was killed before he could make the jump to Formula 1 racing. He was expected to replace fellow Scot Jackie Stewart in the F1 Tyrell in the 1974 season. A few months after his death Margaret Birrell, his widow, received the Jim Clarke memorial Trophy from Jackie Stewart