Christopher John Airey was a young British mechanic who ran his car-tuning business, Ogontune Ltd., at Brighton, East Sussex, England. He also worked for the British Formula Junior young star Jonathan Williams.
In the early 1960s Airey bought from a youngster named Frank Williams, future Formula 1 team boss, a very quick Austin A40 and turned out to became a hugely talented racing driver. He competed in club events with considerable success. One of his best known victories came on the first of the three Molyslip Saloon Car Championship held at Brands Hatch on 15 April 1963. That event was part of the programme of the Easter Monday Closed Meeting organized by the British Racing & Sports Car Club. Airey drove his noisy Austin A40 excellently, beating the whole field in a race which the magazine Motor Sport called "undoubtedly one of the most entertaining races" of the day. He was joint holder of the lap record for his class.
A month and a half later, on Sunday, 19 May 1963, Airey and his Austin A40 would return to Brands Hatch for another round of the Molyslip Saloon Car Championship. During the third lap of the tenth event of that series, Chris's Austin ran wide at the exit of the Bottom Bend and came onto the grass at the right side of the track, while running in fourth place. In his haste to get back onto the circuit, Airey steered too sharply to the left; the tyres dried out whilst the car was still at an angle of about 45 degrees to the race direction, and this resulted in a high-speed roll. The 1098 cm3 Austin A40 somersaulted three or four times along the Bottom Straight before crashing into an embankment on the side of the track. During the rolls the seat mountings collapsed and Chris was partially thrown out through the door, still attached with the four-point seat belt. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Dartford hospital.
According to the magazine Autosport, Ailey's Austin A40 may have slid off the circuit after skidding over an oil patch. The section of the track in which the accident occurred has been reprofiled a few times since 1975; Bottom Bend is now known as Graham Hill Bend, and the Bottom Straight is called Cooper Straight. It was the second fatal accident at Brands Hatch in exactly a week, racing motorcyclist Dave Downer was killed at the track the previous Sunday.
Contrary to what was reported by contemporary newspaper articles, Chris Airey, 22-year-old, was not married and had no children. He lived in Cheriton, near Winchester, Hampshire, England, where he was born in 1940.
R.I.P
