It is with great sadness we report the death of Grand Prix Drivers Club member Guy Edwards yesterday. It is doubly sad because, despite his disability, he made the supreme effort to attend the Club General Assembly in Piedemont in May this year a gesture that was appreciated by all the members there.
Guy was one of the sport’s great ambassadors who had the remarkable ability to persuade a host of major companies to sponsor not only his cars but for other racing teams that he assisted.
He was a very successful racing driver but had misfortune in Formula 1. His first world championship grand prix was as a member of Graham Hill’s Embassy Racing team of Lolas in 1974 but prior to that and afterwards he had been particularly successful in sports car racing.
Guy Richard Goronwy Edwards (QGM) was born in Macclesfield just five days after Christmas in 1942 when WWII was at its height. He attended Durham University.
Only a few months ago we wrote a story about his life in racing which can be read on this site under the heading “ Member’s Articles”.
Rather than repeat this I would like to add that I bumped into Guy quite often, particularly when, with Hugh McCaig, Ecurie Ecosse was reborn and we were complete tyros running in Group C2 in 1984. Though we were always concentrating on the C2 class Guy was usually involved with Lola’s.
Also he had raced in Scotland with a factory Lola T281 Sports car and naturally he had organised the sponsorship on that occasion..
Though his career in Formula 1 was disappointing he was a star in the Aurora F1 series in Britain where he ran firstly A Fittipaldi F5A for RAM Racing and then an Arrows A1-Ford for Charles Clowes.
His first Le Mans race was in 1971 when he secured sponsorship from Camel Filters to race a Lola T212 with Roger Enever but they blew the motor after 8 hours. He was not to return to Le Mans until 1978 with the IBEC 308LM alongside Ian Grobb but again he had to retire so his first finish at Le Mans was in 1981 with 15th place in the Lola T600
His best time came with the introduction of Group C1 and C2 cars for the World Sports Racing Championship and he ran in 1981 with the Lola T600 the first ground effects sports car
He is probably best known when he secured sponsorship for two Porsches to race at Le Mans in 1984 with sponsorship from Skol Bandits chewing tobacco. Guy was always on the look out for new sponsors and had probably seen that in NASCAR stock car racing in the USA there were three or four chewing tobacco companies sponsoring cars and there was a growing interest in chewing tobacco in Europe so Guy was right in there and though Guy’s car retired in the race the other green Porsche finished third with David Hobbs. He then brought Silk Cut to Jaguar for Le Mans and had a very successful career as a sponsorship broker. In recent years, however, he became seriously ill and was confined to a wheelchair and assisted by two carers as he was paralysed from the neck downwards. His effort to get to Italy for our General Assembly this year was appreciated by everyone and his sudden passing has come as a shock to our members.
GG