Bristow, Chris

[TimD]

A near-forgotten name now, but before his untimely death, Chris Bristow was on a fast career path which could have seen him become one of the greats.

What I'm trying to figure out is this - when he first burst on the scene in 1956, he did so in an MG Special. Does anyone know what that MG was? I'm finding notes suggesting it was a Leonard, but also might have been a Lester.

And can anyone tell me more about the man?

[Roger Clark]

a profile of Chris Bristow in autosport 11 December 1959 says:

"In 1956, when Chris was 18, Lionel Leonard began building a Leonard in Mr Bristow's Garage in Streatham. Chris had a look at this and decided that it was definitely for him, so he bought the chassis from Leonard and began to build the car himself. When it was ready to go he entered numerous club events, and for the first time the name Chris Bristow appeared in the programmes."

[TimD]

Brilliant!

That's exactly the confirmation I was looking for. Thank you for that.

Wasn't that Streatham garage a car-hire business or something?

[John Turner]

Chris Bristow was born, 2 December, 1937. He competed in 4 GPs, the last being the Belgian GP at Spa in which he sadly died, 19 June, 1960.

[Quickoldtimer]

Looking through my old Motorsport mags, I found it ironic that in the same issue that a readers letter was castigating DSJ for having previously said that he thought Bristow was trying too hard and looked like an accident waiting to happen (I'm not quoting), there was a report of that Belgian GP and Bristows obituary. I'm not quite old enough to have seen him race, but pictures always seem to show him on opposite lock, on the limit. Makes you wonder what might have been.