4. Brands Hatch 1968: Siffert’s Lotus flowers
That partnership and Moss’s wonderful career came to an abrupt halt against the St Mary’s bank at Goodwood on Easter Monday 1962, when Stirling was badly injured in a BRP-run Lotus.
Walker persevered thereafter, but without The Boy Wonder it was understandably never quite the same. Then a full seven years after those momentous days of 1961 came an unforgettable British GP.
Swiss hero Jo Siffert had driven for Walker since 1964 with little to show for it. But at Brands, during a bleak season that had already claimed the great Jim Clark, Mike Spence and Jo Schlesser, ‘Seppi’ delivered a feel-good victory to bring much-needed cheer.
Early that season, Walker’s Dorking team premises had been gutted by a devastating fire that claimed, among many irreplaceable items, his new Lotus 49 F1 car. Now, with a new chassis, here was Siffert winning the team’s home grand prix. Even Moss hadn’t managed that.
It was the last hurrah for Rob Walker Racing, that would eventually disband in the 1970s. The patron continued to attend grands prix in his capacity as a talented journalist. He died from pneumonia in 2002, his dry wit and gentlemanly manner a huge, irreplaceable loss.
To those who knew him, Walker will always be F1’s greatest privateer entrant – but also so much more.