Paul Hawkins (racing driver)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters | check | ignoreblank = y | unknown = Template:Main other | preview = Page using Template:Infobox F1 driver with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | embed | child | subbox | name | Name | image | Image | image_size | upright | image_upright | alt | caption | birth_name | birth_date | birth_place | death_date | death_place | relations | relatives | nationality | Nationality | years | Years | teams | Teams | Team(s) | team | Team | engines | Engines | current_team | current team | Current team | 2025 Team | 2026 Team | car_number | car number | Car number | races | Races | championships | Championships | wins | Wins | podiums | Podiums | points | Points | poles | Poles | fastest_laps | fastest laps | Fastest laps | first_race | first race | First race | first_win | first win | First win | last_win | last win | Last win | last_race | last race | Last race | last_position | last position | Last position | last_season | last season | Last season | bf1_years | bf1 years | BF1 Years | bf1_races | bf1 races | BF1 Races | bf1_championships | bf1 championships | BF1 Championships | bf1_wins | bf1 wins | BF1 Wins | bf1_podiums | bf1 podiums | BF1 Podiums | bf1_points | bf1 points | BF1 Points | bf1_poles | bf1 poles | BF1 Poles | bf1_fastest_laps | bf1 fastest laps | BF1 Fastest laps | signature | signature_size | signature alt | signature_alt | website | module | module1 | module2 | module3 | module4 | module5 | record template1 | record template2 | record template3 | record template4 | record template5 | career template1 | career template2 | career template3 | career template4 | career template5 | updated | Updated }} Robert Paul Hawkins (12 October 1937 – 26 May 1969) was an Australian motor racing driver. The son of a racing motorcyclist-turned-church minister, Hawkins was a capable single-seater driver but really made his mark as an outstanding sports car competitor driving Ford GT40s and Lola T70s. In 1969 Hawkins was included in the FIA list of graded drivers, an elite group of 27 drivers who by their achievements were rated the best in the world.<ref>F.I.A. Year Book of Automobile Sport, P.S.L. Publications Limited., London, 1969.</ref>

Hawkins was hugely popular and known as Hawkeye; the son of a gentleman of the cloth, he was a colourful character with a wide colourful vocabulary.<ref name=Swinger>Peter Swinger, "Motor Racing Circuits in England : Then & Now" (Ian Allan Publishing, Template:ISBN, 2008)</ref> He was also famous for being one of two racers to crash into the harbour at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Early racing career

Hawkins began racing in Australia with an Austin-Healey in 1958. He left Australia and arrived in England in 1960.<ref>Castrol advertisement, Motor Sport, October 1967, Page 893.</ref> He found employment with the Donald Healey Motor Company Ltd.,<ref>Motor Sport, July 1960, Page 554.</ref> under John Sprinzel:

"I put an ad in the Evening Standard newspaper looking for a mechanic and employed a really good guy to be our works foreman; his name was Paul Hawkins. Paul literally came in straight off the boat from Australia. He’d done a little bit of racing and was a very good mechanic, very good as he knew his stuff, and certainly knew the best parts of the English language, too."<ref>Interview with John Sprinzel, Vintage Racecar, Vol 12, Issue 5, May 2009.</ref>

Hawkins was soon behind the wheel of an Austin-Healey Sprite, racing at the Aintree 200 meeting on 30 April 1960, and winning his class in the GT race.<ref>The Times, 2 May 1960.</ref> He then finished 38th at the 1960 Nürburgring 1000 km race, with co-driver Cyril Simson, known as Team 221, on a "miserable foggy day in May".<ref>D.S.J., Motor Sport, July 1960, Pages 534-535.</ref> In 1961 at Le Mans Hawkins teamed with John Colgate in an Austin-Healey Sprite, but they retired in the eighth hour with engine problems.<ref>Automobile Year, No. 9, 1961-1962, Edita S.A., Lausanne, Page 185.</ref> On Whit Monday, 1962, at Crystal Palace Hawkins drove Ian Walker's Lotus-Ford to victory in the up to 1,150 c.c. sports car race, setting lap and race records.<ref>Motor Sport, July 1962, Page 498.</ref> At Le Mans in 1965 Hawkins, with John Rhodes, finished twelfth overall, and first in class, in a 1.3-litre Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite entered by the Donald Healey Motor Company, completing 278 laps.<ref>Motor Sport, July 1965, Page 565.</ref>

Hawkins also drove single-seaters, participating in the first race run to the new Formula Two regulations at Pau on 5 April 1964, finishing seventh in a pushrod Alexis.<ref>Motor Sport, May 1964, Pages 353-354. See also cover picture.</ref> He was entered in a Team Alexis Alexis-Cosworth at Silverstone on 20 March 1965 but the race was abandoned due to heavy rain.<ref>Motor Sport, April 1965, Page 260.</ref> He went on to win the Formula Two Eifelrennen race on the Nürburgring south circuit, in bad weather, in an Alexis-Cosworth Mk. 7 on 25 April 1965.<ref>Motor Sport, June 1965, Page 463.</ref>

Formula One racing

Hawkins driving a privately entered Lotus at the 1965 German Grand Prix.

Hawkins participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 1 January 1965 at the South African Grand Prix in a pushrod Ford 1500cc-engined Brabham Formula Two car. Like fellow-Australian Frank Gardner he started with the John Willment Automobiles team. He scored no championship points, as his best finish was ninth on his debut. He did have two podium finishes in the non-championship Rand Grand Prix, held in South Africa. He finished second in 1964 and third in 1965. In 1964 he won the Rhodesian Grand Prix in the Brabham<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and in 1965 he also won the Cape South Easter Formula One Trophy. He was a non-starter in the 1965 British Grand Prix<ref>Motor Sport, August 1965, Page 662.</ref> and retired from the German Grand Prix that year with an oil leak.<ref>Motor Sport, September 1965, Page 770.</ref>

He is one of only two Formula One drivers, along with Italian Alberto Ascari, to have crashed into the harbour in Monaco during a Grand Prix. He did so during the 1965 race, when he spun at the chicane after 79 of the 100 laps. He escaped from the crash unhurt:

"At this point there was a bit of a furore at the chicane for Hawkins struck the wooden barrier at the entry and spun through the straw bales and over the edge of the quay and into the harbour. The Lotus sank to the bottom and the rugged Australian bobbed to the surface and struck out for shore, while boats went to his rescue."<ref>D.S.J., Motor Sport, July 1965, Page 589.</ref>

Sports car racing

Hawkins had some considerable success in the World Sports Car Championship. On 14 May 1967, he won the Targa Florio, in Sicily, teamed with Rolf Stommelen, in the factory-entered 8-cylinder Porsche 910.<ref>Autocar, 25 May 1967, Pages 52-54; Motor Sport, June 1967, Pages 477, 485.</ref> On 23 May 1967, he finished second in the Nürburgring 1000 km in a Porsche 910.<ref>Motor Sport, January 1968, Page 27.</ref> He also won the Zeltweg 500 km race on 20 August 1967, in a Ford GT40.<ref>Motor Sport, January 1968, Page 30.</ref> On 15 October 1967, at the end of the season Hawkins, paired with Jacky Ickx, won the Paris 1000 km race at Montlhéry in a J.W. Automotive Mirage.<ref>Motor Sport, January 1968, Page 8.</ref>

Then on 25 April 1968, he won the Monza 1000 km race with David Hobbs in a Ford GT40, finished second in the Watkins Glen 6-hour, again with Hobbs,<ref>Motor Sport, January 1969, Page 30.</ref> and scored thirds at the Nürburgring 1000 km with Jacky Ickx<ref>Motor Sport, June 1968, pages 472–473.</ref> and Zeltweg 500 km races. On 23 November 1968, he won the Cape Town Three Hours solo in a Ferrari P4.<ref>Motor Sport, January 1969, Page 33.</ref>

Hawkins was building a business as an owner/operator of racing cars, and in the spring of 1969 he moved his racing shop from North London to Slough.<ref>The Motor, 3 May 1969, Pages 95-96.</ref> He was killed when his Lola T70 MkIIIB GT crashed and burned at Island Bend during the 1969 RAC Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park.<ref>The Guardian, 28 May 1969, Page 6; Motor Sport, July 1969, Page 742.</ref>

Contemporary Mike Hailwood gave the following quote in the Daily Mirror article concerning Hawkins' death: "The news of his death horrified me. I can hardly believe that a man as skilful and as experienced as he was should be killed in this way."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	WDC	Points
1965	John Willment Automobiles	Brabham BT10 (F2)	Ford Straight-4	RSA Template:Small										NC	0
	DW Racing Enterprises	Lotus 33	Climax V8		MON Template:Small	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER Template:Small	ITA	USA	MEX

Formula One Non-Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1964	John Willment Automobiles	Lola T55	Cosworth Straight-4	DMT	NWT	SYR	AIN	INT	SOL	MED Template:Small
		Brabham BT10 (F2)	Ford Straight-4								RAN Template:Small
1965	John Willment Automobiles	Brabham BT10	Climax Straight-4	CAP Template:Small
	DW Racing Enterprises	Lotus 33	Climax V8		ROC Template:Small		SMT Template:Small	INT Template:Small	MED Template:Small
		Lotus 24				SYR Template:Small
	Reg Parnell (Racing)	Lotus 25	Climax Straight-4							RAN Template:Small
1966	Reg Parnell Racing	Lotus 25	Climax Straight-4	RSA Template:Small	SYR Template:Small	INT Template:Small	OUL

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Template:Tooltip	Pts	Class
1966	John Willment Automobiles	Ford Cortina Lotus	Template:Tooltip	SNE	GOO	SIL	CRY ovr:6† cls:2†	BRH	BRH	OUL	BRH				24th	6	7th
1967	Team Lotus	Ford Cortina Lotus	Template:Tooltip	BRH	SNE	SIL	SIL	MAL	SIL ovr:4 cls:1	SIL ovr:4 cls:1	BRH	OUL	BRH		15th	16	4th
1968	Malcolm Gartlan Racing	Ford Falcon Sprint	Template:Tooltip	BRH	THR	SIL	CRY	MAL Ret†	BRH	SIL	CRO	OUL	BRH	BRH	NC	0	NC
Template:Small {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
1961	Template:Flagicon Donald Healey Motor Company	Template:Flagicon John K. Colgate Jr.	Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite	S 1.0	64	DNF	DNF
1965	Template:Flagicon Donald Healey Motor Company	Template:Flagicon John Rhodes	Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite	P 1.3	278	12th	1st
1966	Template:Flagicon Ford Motor Company Template:Flagicon Holman & Moody	Template:Flagicon Mark Donohue	Ford GT40 Mk.II	P +5.0	12	DNF	DNF
1967	Template:Flagicon Ford Motor Company Template:Flagicon Shelby-American Inc.	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Bucknum	Ford GT40 Mk.IIB	P +5.0	271	DNF	DNF
1968	Template:Flagicon JW Automotive Engineering	Template:Flagicon David Hobbs	Ford GT40	S 5.0	107	DNF	DNF

Bathurst 500 results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
1967	M.W. Motors Pty. Ltd.	Template:Flagicon Syd Fisher	Alfa Romeo 1600 GTV	E	117	25th	5th
1968	Holden Dealer Racing Team	Template:Flagicon Bill Brown	Holden HK Monaro GTS327	D	N/A	DSQ	DSQ

See also

• Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite

References

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Picture of Paul Hawkins at Aintree in 1960, with Austin-Healey Sprite, X221: