15 Facts About Bob Gerard

Frederick Roberts Gerard was a racing driver and businessman from England.

Bob Gerard participated in numerous top-level motor racing events on either side of World War II, including eight World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, scoring no championship points.

Bob Gerard was born into a family well acquainted with mechanical transport.

However, as daily transport his father favoured the sporting Riley brand, and it was with a Riley Nine that Bob Gerard made his first foray into motorsport in the 1933 MCC Land's End trial.

Early club races at his East Midlands home circuit Donington Park continued his success, with Bob Gerard taking two victories over cars with much larger engines, as well as ninth in the prestigious Donington TT race.

In between running the family business, Bob Gerard continued to compete at Donington as often as he could, driving in the Nuffield Trophy in 1938 and 1939, although without success.

Bob Gerard later changed the car's outward appearance, switching the old-fashioned upright radiator to one with a far more raked cowl, lowering the bonnet line to accommodate this.

Bob Gerard scored three consecutive victories in the Empire Trophy and two victories in the Jersey Road Race between 1947 and 1949, as well as regularly finishing in the top ten in many international standard events.

Bob Gerard continued to campaign R14B for the first year of the new FIA World Championship in 1950.

At the very first World Championship event, the 1950 British Grand Prix, the Bob Gerard-R14B pairing only narrowly missed out on the points, finishing in sixth place, despite having started as low as 13th on the grid.

Bob Gerard finished in sixth in R4A at the Monaco event later in the season, this time from 16th at the start.

However, the rapid evolution of racing machinery, inspired by the rewards offered from the Championship, meant that for 1952 Bob Gerard would have to abandon his old ERA in favour of something more modern.

Bob Gerard's achievements were honoured by the owners of the Mallory Park track, in his native Leicestershire, when they named the circuit's most prominent bend Gerard's.

Bob Gerard himself continued to race into the 1960s, in a Turner sports car, and used his preparation expertise for the benefit of other drivers by acting as entrant for many promising newcomers right into the 1980s.

Bob Gerard died, one week after his 76th birthday, in 1990.