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David Purley

Nationality British
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1973-1974, 1977
Teams	LEC, Token
Races	11 (7 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1973 Monaco Grand Prix
Last race	1977 British Grand Prix

David Charles Purley GM (26 January 1945 - 2 July 1985) was a British racing driver born in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. He participated in 11 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 3 June 1973. He scored no championship points.

Career

Purley's father was Charles Purley, the founder of LEC Refrigeration. Birth and death records show that his father's name was originally Puxley but he preferred the name Purley.^[1] His mother was Welsh, having been born in the small village of Cwmfelinfach. David went to school at Seaford College and then Dartington Hall School in Devon.

After spending time as an officer in the British Army (he served with the Parachute Regiment in Aden), and then racing in various series with an AC Cobra and a Chevron, Purley raced in Formula 3 with some success including three wins at Chimay during 1970-1972.

In 1973 Purley hired a March and with backing from his family's refrigeration company, LEC Refrigeration, made a largely unsuccessful attempt at Formula One. At the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix, Purley abandoned his own race in an attempt to save the life of fellow driver Roger Williamson, whose car was upside down on fire following a horrific accident. His efforts were to no avail as he received no help from the nearby track marshals, and Williamson perished in the fire. A sequence of pictures taken by photographer Cor Mooij of the accident won the Photo Sequences category of that year's World Press Photo^[2]. That same year David Purley was awarded the George Medal for his rescue attempt.

Apart from a one-off participation with Token at his home grand prix in 1974, Purley stayed out of F1 for a few years, preferring to try his hand at Formula 2, driving Chevrons and Marches for eccentric Hong Kong-based millionaire Bob Harper, and Formula 5000, where he won the British Championship in 1976 in a Chevron powered by the Cosworth GA 3.4 litre V6 engine.

David Purley in a March 731 Formula One car rented from the works.

He returned to Formula One in 1977 with his own LEC chassis designed by Mike Pilbeam and run by Mike Earle. It was this car in which he suffered serious injuries in a huge accident during pre-qualifying for the British Grand Prix. He survived an estimated 179.8 G's in 1977 when he decelerated from 173 km/h (108 mph) to 0 in a distance of 66 cm (26 inches) after his throttle got stuck wide open and he hit a wall.^[3] For many years, this was thought to be the highest G-forces ever survived by a human being.^[3] He suffered multiple fractures to his legs, pelvis and ribs. Purley recovered to race again although confined his activities to the minor Aurora AFX series of Formula One races in Britain. The remains of Purley's crashed LEC and its replacement can currently be seen at the museum at Donington Park.

Following his decision to quit motorsport, David Purley moved into competition aerobatics. He died on 2 July 1985 when his Pitts Special aerobatic biplane crashed into the sea off Bognor Regis.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

References

Books

• Tremayne, David (1991). Racers Apart: Memories of motorsport heroes. UK: Motor Racing Publications Ltd. p. 293. ISBN 0947981586.  

External links

• A David Purley memorial page
• Pictorial record of David Purley's attempted rescue of Roger Williamson
• David Purley Videos