59 Facts About Tom Pryce

Thomas Maldwyn Pryce was a British racing driver from Wales known for winning the Brands Hatch Race of Champions, a non-championship Formula One race, in 1975 and for the circumstances surrounding his death.

Tom Pryce is the only Welsh driver to have won a Formula One race and is the only Welshman to lead a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix: two laps of the 1975 British Grand Prix.

Tom Pryce started his career in Formula One with the small Token team, making his only start for them at the 1974 Belgian Grand Prix.

Shortly after winning the Formula Three support race for the 1974 Monaco Grand Prix, Tom Pryce joined the Shadow team and scored his first points in Germany in only his fourth race.

Tom Pryce later claimed two podium finishes, his first in Austria in 1975 and the second in Brazil a year later.

Tom Pryce was considered by his team and most of its contemporaries as a great wet-weather driver.

Tom Pryce was born on 11 June 1949 in Ruthin, Denbighshire, Wales, to Jack and Gwyneth Pryce.

Tom Pryce, known to his friends as Mald, attended Nantglyn Primary School, Denbighshire.

Tom Pryce took an interest in cars while driving a baker's van at the age of 10, before informing his parents that he wanted to be a racing driver.

Tom Pryce's mother recalled that he was very upset when Clark died at the Hockenheimring in April 1968.

Tom Pryce's father noted that "he was very upset when Jochen Rindt was killed, too".

In 1975 Tom Pryce married Fenella, more commonly known as Nella, whom he met at a disco in Otford, Kent in 1973.

Tom Pryce's helmet was plain white all over until 1970.

At that year's race at Castle Combe, his father asked Tom Pryce to make his helmet stand out more so that he could easily identify him in a pack of cars.

Tom Pryce added five black vertical lines to his helmet, placed just above his visor.

Tom Pryce was put through his paces by Trevor Taylor, an ex-Team Lotus driver and old teammate of Tom Pryce's childhood hero Clark.

Tom Pryce later became a star in the Formula 5000 series.

Races alternated between the Brands Hatch and Silverstone circuits; Tom Pryce made his debut at the former.

Jack Tom Pryce remembered that his son was rubbing his hands in delight: "he always loved racing in the rain".

The early part of the race was led by a driver called Chris Smith but then heavy rain started and Tom Pryce was able to catch up with Smith and overtake him before winning by a comfortable margin.

Tom Pryce soon abandoned his farming career and moved to a guest house in West Kingsdown, near the Brands Hatch circuit.

Tom Pryce continued to make a name for himself during 1971, entering a new twin-seater Sportscar category called Formula F100, which he won with what was described by motorsports author David Tremayne as "embarrassing ease".

Tom Pryce then moved up to Formula Super Vee, driving the then-choice Royale RP9, for Team Rumsey Investments, and soon made his Formula Three debut for the same manufacturer at Brands Hatch.

In that race at Brands Hatch, Tom Pryce took an unfancied Royale RP11 to first place in the Formula Three support race for the 1972 Formula One Race of Champions against many established Formula Three drivers such as Roger Williamson, Jochen Mass and James Hunt.

Tom Pryce retired from the leading group in the following two rounds at Oulton Park and Zandvoort, and then during practice for the support race of the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix his car came to a stop at Casino Square after a wire had come loose.

Tom Pryce had exited his car to correct the problem when Peter Lamplough lost control of his car and struck the Royale RP11.

Tom Pryce was knocked into a shop window and broke a leg.

Tom Pryce ran in the Formula SuperVee series, winning the series by a comfortable margin, "I won just about every race I went in for" Tom Pryce recalled.

Tom Pryce continued racing in Formula Atlantic in 1973, winning three races.

Jack Tom Pryce recalled that his son did not want to win the award, as he thought it was "a jinx on a driver's career".

At the age of 25, Pryce graduated to Formula One, the highest category of circuit racing defined by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, motorsport's world governing body, joining the newly formed Token Racing team.

Tom Pryce was refused entry to the 1974 Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, as he was deemed "inexperienced".

Tom Pryce retired on the first lap of the race after a collision with James Hunt at the first corner broke his Shadow DN3's rear suspension.

Once again, Tom Pryce's race ended at the first corner, when minor contact with Carlos Reutemann's Brabham deflected Tom Pryce's Shadow into the path of James Hunt.

Later in the season, Tom Pryce received 100 bottles of champagne for finishing fastest in the practice session for the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.

Tom Pryce went on to qualify on the fourth row of the starting grid.

Tom Pryce scored the first point of his career in Germany, at the most challenging circuit on the F1 calendar at the time, the 14.2 mile Nurburgring circuit.

Tom Pryce's season ended with an engine failure in Canada, and the Shadow severely off the pace at Watkins Glen in the United States.

At the start of the 1975 season, Tom Pryce's future was subject to much speculation.

The trade was viewed as a good acquisition for both teams, as Tom Pryce was considered a driver of the same ability as Peterson, but would cost Lotus less, while Peterson could attract sponsorship to the relatively new Shadow team.

Tom Pryce showed other signs of promise during the season, most notably in Monaco and Silverstone where he qualified on the front row of the grid, the latter being in pole position.

Tom Pryce achieved his first World Championship podium finish, in extremely wet conditions at the Austrian Grand Prix and finished in the points four more times.

Tom Pryce needed little persuasion to team up for the one-off event on home soil with Richards, both of whom were from Ruthin.

Tom Pryce crashed into a bridge 10 miles into the first stage, but still competed in the afternoon stages after his car was rebuilt.

Once the 1976 Formula One World Championship season got under way Tom Pryce instantly added a second podium finish to his tally, at the first round in Brazil.

Changes in car regulations, meaning that teams had to lower their airboxes and mount the cars' rear wings further forward, along with revised Goodyear tyres, meant the Shadow DN5B lost much of its competitiveness; Tom Pryce still achieved a second points scoring finish of the season in Britain.

Rumors that Tom Pryce would run as Mario Andretti's teammate for the Lotus team in 1978 were strong, as it coincided with the end of his contract with Shadow.

Tom Pryce started the first race of the year in Argentina in ninth place and stayed with the leading group until a gear linkage failure on the 45th lap of the 52 lap race.

In 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modeling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Tom Pryce was ranked the 28th best Formula One driver of all time.

Tom Pryce began his final race weekend, the 1977 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, by setting the fastest time in the Wednesday practice session, held in wet weather.

Tom Pryce posted a time of 1 minute 31.57 seconds with the next best, the eventual 1977 World Champion Niki Lauda, one second slower.

Tom Pryce made a poor start to the Grand Prix in his DN8 and by the end of the first lap was in last place.

Tom Pryce started to climb back up the field during the next couple of laps, overtaking Brett Lunger and teammate Renzo Zorzi on lap two, and Alex Ribeiro and Boy Hayje the following lap.

Tom Pryce was having problems with his fuel metering unit, and fuel was pumping directly onto the engine, which then caught fire.

Tom Pryce was directly behind Stuck's car along the main straight.

Tom Pryce died on impact, and his body was badly mutilated by Pryce's car.

Tom Pryce's death was met with great grief from all those who knew him, especially his wife Nella, his parents Jack and Gwyneth and the Shadow team.

Tom Pryce's body was buried at St Bartholomew's Church in Otford, near Sevenoaks, Kent, the same church where he and Nella were married two years earlier.

The Tom Pryce Award, known as the Tom Pryce Trophy, was instigated, and is given annually to Welsh personalities who have made an outstanding contribution to motoring or transport.