IT IS more than 60 years since Dukinfield-raised Tony Brooks, reportedly the best driver never to win the Formula One title, last took the chequered flag.
On February 25, Tony, the last surviving Grand Prix winner from the 1950s, celebrates a landmark 90th birthday.
Tony, who lives in Surrey with Pina, his wife of 63 years, took time out with The Correspondent to look back on a successful racing career which would undoubtedly have seen him crowned world champion in 1959 but for a series of unfortunate mishaps.
That year Tony, who was driving for Ferrari, finished runner-up to three times world champion Jack Brabham and ahead of Sterling Moss, who was third.
Yet it might have been a different had Ferrari not been on strike and he had to drive a Vanwall car in the British Grand Prix at Aintree where he failed to finish.
The Grand Prix at Spa, Belgium, a lucky circuit where he has previously won, was cancelled that year while he had mechanical issues with his clutch which forced him out of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
But there were successes as he won the French and German Grand Prix and was runner-up at Monaco and third in the first-ever United States Grand Prix for Formula One at Sebring.
“I was extremely unlucky, and those events cost me the championship,” he reflected.
“I look at the rest and what I achieved, and that is what matters.”
Tony had the previous year finished third in the world drivers’ championship with the Vanwall team and in that golden era he was also racing against legends like Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorne and Peter Collins.
In 1957, Tony shared the first victory for a British-constructed car in a world championship race in the British Grand Prix at Aintree. Badly injured after a previous crash at the meeting, he found himself unable to go on and Stirling Moss took the Vanwall past the chequered flag.
Tony took part in 39 Formula One World Championship Grand Prix between 1956-61, achieving six victories and 10 podium finishes.
He also scored the first win by a British driver in a British car in a Grand Prix since 1923, driving a Connaught at Syracuse in 1955 in a non-championship race.
And those exploits later saw Tony invited back to his hometown in 2007 by Dukinfield District Assembly for a dinner at the Astley Arms in his honour and the unveiling of a plaque at the house where he lived.
It was an eventful journey for Tony, the son of a dentist, who lived on Park Street, Dukinfield, next to the Old Chapel.
Tony, who full name is Charles Anthony Standish Brooks, was known in the sport as the ‘racing dentist’ having qualified and practiced himself as house surgeon at Manchester’s Turner Dental School.
His father Charles was a keen motorist explaining the car was ‘sacrosanct’ in the family and he bought Tony books about motor racing and he became gripped by the exploits of pre-war drivers, notably Germany’s Bernd Rosemeyer and Rudolph Caracciola.
Tony, whose cousin was former British Olympic swimmer Norman Brooks, began club racing in 1952 in his mother’s Healey Silverstone and later through friends acquired a drive in a two-litre Frazer Nash.
It was in 1955 that Tony’s racing career reached another level when he drove a Formula Two Connaught at Crystal Palace finishing fourth and the same year made his Formula One debut at the non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix which he won.
This was the first international Grand Prix win for a British car since 1924 and was the launchpad for his Formula One career.
His last team was BRM before he retired at the end of 1961, just before the team’s most successful season.
Tony ended his career with a podium finish, third place in the first ever United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
He was also an accomplished sports car driver, winning both the 1957 1,000km Nurburgring and the 1958 RAC Tourist Trophy with co-driver Moss, racing an Aston Martin DBR1. He was less successful at Le Mans in 1957, due again to an accident which occurred while racing an Aston Martin DBR1 at that year’s 24-hour race.
Tony and Moss were also teammates for seven years for Vanwall and Aston Martin.
“We had a close relationship. We were friends and never had a crossed word but competitors when it came to racing,” he said.
After the end of his racing career, Tony bought a petrol station in Weybridge, Surrey, and transformed the business from having “four ancient pumps” to a retail business employing 100.
He left Dukinfield in 1958 when he was married to Pina, a top-level basketball player for Italian side Certosa Di Pavia.
Tony, who still avidly follows Formula One, explained there is no comparison from his era.
He said: “We raced on ordinary roads and, if you lost control, you finished hitting a lamppost, telegraph pole, wall or maybe end up in a ditch or hedge.
“In our day, you first had to deal with the hazards of the roads and then the 20-30 competitors. It was totally different and far more dangerous than today when it is so safe.
“Today you run off the circuit and you are back on immediately. In my day, if you hit a high kerb at speed, you would flip the car over.
“Today it is just the competitors and there is little chance of hurting yourself. There is no comparison.”
So how does Tony rate Lewis Hamilton, the seven times world champion who has been described by some as the best driver of all-time.
He said: “Lewis is a good driver, but it is absolute rubbish to say he is the best ever as there are no comparisons between the different eras.
“Lewis is racing the best car and the Mercedes is the fastest car, but that is not to say he is a good driver, but I can think of several drivers from my era who would have given him a good race.”