19 Facts About Richard Attwood

Richard Attwood competed in 17 World Championship Grands Prix, achieved one podium and scored a total of 11 championship points.

Richard Attwood was a successful sports car racing driver and won the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans race, driving a Porsche 917, the first of Porsche's record 19 victories at the famous race.

Richard Attwood got into the motor industry as an apprentice at sports car manufacturer Jaguar.

Richard Attwood started racing in 1960 at the wheel of a Triumph TR3.

In 1963 the team expanded into the international arena, and Attwood immediately grabbed motorsport headlines when he won the Monaco Grand Prix Formula Junior support race, in a Lola Mk5a.

Richard Attwood won in Vienna and took second places in the Pau Grand Prix, Eifelrennen, and Albi Grand Prix.

In 1966 Richard Attwood competed in Australia and New Zealand as a part of BRM's Tasman Series squad.

However, results declined through the remainder of the season, and four races from the end Richard Attwood was himself replaced by Bobby Unser.

Always something of a Monaco specialist, it was in the principality that Richard Attwood made his final Formula One start.

In 1964, as Richard Attwood was taking his first steps in Formula One, he was approached by the Ford GT prototype project team, later to evolve into the Ford GT40, and became one of the first drivers to take the iconic car onto a race track.

Richard Attwood shared a GT40 with Jo Schlesser in the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, but was forced to retire due to the car catching fire.

Richard Attwood did not restrict himself to Ferrari and Ford though, putting in drives in machinery as diverse as the Porsche 906 and Alfa Romeo T33.

Richard Attwood was one of the few drivers to race the infamous Ford P68, GT successor to the GT40, failing to finish due to mechanical maladies during the 1968 1000km Nurburgring.

Later in the season Richard Attwood was again involved in the development of an iconic sports racing car: the Porsche 917.

Richard Attwood subsequently went on to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1970 with a Porsche 917K, along with Hans Herrmann.

Hermann and Richard Attwood took second place in the 1970 Nurburgring race, this time back in a 908.

Richard Attwood came out of retirement briefly in 1984, as a part of the moribund Aston Martin Nimrod Le Mans project.

The car was painted to represent his 1970 Le Mans-winner, and Richard Attwood referred to it as "my pension", as the value of the car had risen rapidly over the decades since he bought it in the 1970s.

Richard Attwood once owned a 1989 Peugeot 405 estate which he bought new and successfully drove 415,000 miles, with the original engine and clutch.