Florian Camathias lost his life at the age of 41, on Sunday, 10 October 1965 as a result of a crash during a British Championship race at Brands Hatch. The accident happened on the seventh lap, Camathias-Ducret who were lying third, had just lost the lead in the race to the veteran Pip Harris. Chris Vincent who was closely following the Swiss duo, saw some sparks below Camathias' 493 cm3 BMW machine instants before the crash. An inquest determined the front fork was not properly welded - Camathias had done the welding himself - and broke when he braked at Clearways at an estimate speed of 160 km/h (100 mi/h). Florian Camathias died at Dartford hospital, his passenger Franz Ducret who was thrown through the air into an embankment, received severe head and chest injuries.
During his career Camathias set thirty-one world records, won several national championship and countless races, without achieving his foremost ambition – the Sidecar World Championship. He was buried at the Cimetière de Clarens-Montreux in Montreux, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland.
After Florian's death the Camathias family continued to be involved in motor racing. His widow Maguy Camathias took some practice laps in the 1967 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, as passenger to Helmut Fath, in his URS sidecar. His nephew Romeo Camathias was a talented amateur sportscar driver in the seventies and eighties; he obtained impressive results such as two second places in the 1977 World Sportscar Championship, in the 24 Hours of Daytona and in the 6 Hours of Mugello, with Martino Finotto and Carlo Facetti in a Porsche 935 Turbo, which granted him a super-license to drive Formula 1, although he never had a chance for a test with a Grand Prix car. Florian's great-nephew Jöel Camathias became a successful racing driver either, and is still in activity. He competed in Formula 3000 from 2001 to 2002 and made seven starts in the CART series in 2003. In sportscar racing he won the GT2 Class in the 2006 Le Mans Series season, sharing a Porsche 911 Gt2 with Marc Lieb.
R.I.P
