Driver with prosthetic arm

[Hans.ca]

As a favour for my son who has a girlfriend with a prostetic arm I would like to get an answer to the following question.
Who was the English sports car driver that was driving with a prosthetic arm?
Please give as much back ground and information on this individual as possible.
Thank you
Hans.ca

[Muzza]

Dear Hans,

That driver was Archie Scott-Brown, who had a fantastic single-seaters and sportscars career in the early 1950s. Sadly he perished in a very unfortunate accident in Spa-Francorchamps.

Unfortunately I am not home, thus unable to check my library for additional information, but I am sure that our Ten Tenths members in the United Kingdon - where Scott-Brown is still revered - will soon add more data.

Cheers,

Muzza

[Morris 1100]

Sorry but Archie Scott-Brown did not have a prostetic arm.

I do recall a Sprintcar driver in the US that raced with a prostetic arm.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Morris 1100
I do recall a Sprintcar driver in the US that raced with a prostetic arm.

Allen Heath lost a hand in a crash in circa 1951, returned with a hook in its place and had a successful career for years in the sprints and midgets. Had a silver dollar glued to the peak of his helmet.

[D-Type]

Archie Scott Brown was born with an underdeveloped right arm and with underdeveloped legs as a result of his mother having contracted Rubella whilst pregnant.
For reasons explained in the excellent biography "Archie and the Listers" by Robert Edwards, Archie chose not to fit a prosthetic arm (these centred on the fact that he had been born that way rather than losing an arm as a result of the accident.)

There was also the Italian GP driver who lost an arm after an encounter with a helicopter rotor and returned to race touring cars. Unfortunately I can't recall his name.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by D-Type
There was also the Italian GP driver who lost an arm after an encounter with a helicopter rotor and returned to race touring cars. Unfortunately I can't recall his name.

Alessandro Nannini, tho' his was sewn back on.

[Muzza]

Thanks for the correction, Morris 1100.

[Vitesse]

There've been other one-armed drivers, but of course even in the 50s GP organizers were very loath to let Archie race, despite his great success in sports cars. That's really why he has only one GP to his name.

There are, however, drivers who've raced successfully with a prosthetic leg: Lotus F1 driver Alan Stacey and still-current (but now very much a veteran) sports car driver David Piper spring to mind. "Pipes" lost his leg during filming for the Steve McQueen film Le Mans, but still races energetically today, all over the world. Ironically, Stacey was - like Archie - killed at Spa: in his case in the tragic 1960 Belgian GP, when Chris Bristow was also killed and Stirling Moss had a serious shunt in practice.

[Hans.ca]

Morris1100 the driver you are thinking of in the USA I think was one of the Bettenhausen familie.
please keep the information coming.
Hans.ca
PS Used to own a Morris Minor with the standard flat head engine. I then brought in the first Alta Overhead conversion into Canada and converted the engine to overhead valves. Good little car, wish I still had it today.

[ensign14]

Ah yes, Merle Bettenhausen, son of Tony Sr, don't think he had much success after his big crash in about his 2nd Champcar race.

Bronco Bill Schindler and Cal Niday both had 1 leg.

[Mike.ca]

Originally posted by ensign14
Allen Heath lost a hand in a crash in circa 1951, returned with a hook in its place and had a successful career for years in the sprints and midgets.

The Midget Racing Hall of Fame has an article about Heath on its website: www.worthyofhonor.org/pages/heath.htm. Obviously, it deals mainly with his midget racing career. Heath was also a frequent winner on the extremely competitive California Racing Association sprint car circuit in the late '50s and early '60s. I've seen videotape of him racing. He had tremendous car control. As the Hall of Fame website points out, Heath once won a 500 mile long midget race on the Riverside road course - a remarkable feat for an able bodied driver.

[Chris Townsend]

The 70s rally driver Mike Jackson had a prosthetic left arm I think.
I think that he basically steered on the right arm whilst his co-driver [Mike Jackson] changed gear and used the handbrake.

This constraint didn't stop him driving a fully equipped RS1800 and getting it into the top 10 on national rallies.

I may be wrong, but I think that another rally driver of the same era, John Midgeley may have had similar problems that eventually led to his licence being withheld.

[Morris 1100]

Tony Simon was the driver that I was thinking of, he lost his right hand (lost between the elbow and wrist) in a Sprint-car flip in 1974 he then had a prosthetic hand fitted and resumed his racing career. He retired from racing in 1987.
Merle Bettenhousen and Alan Heath also lost arms and kept racing and that is what led Tony Simon to continue racing.

[flatlander_48]

Also:
Mel Kenyon lost a hand in a fiery crash at Langhorne, PA

Gary Bettenhausen lost the ability to raise one arm after a Silver Crown crash at Syracuse. However, he could still grip the steering wheel. He eventually invented the arm restraints that are now required in many series.

[Maisie]

Slightly off-topic, but someone told me a story over the weekend about a driver who used a prosthetic arm attached to the steering wheel. He crashed, and to release himself from the car, had to detach the prosthetic arm from the rest of his arm. On getting out of the car, he said to the marshals "My arm...!" The marshals looked into the car saw the prosthetic arm dangling from the steering wheel and went white..

[simon drabble]

sounds like a variation on the old Punch cartoon of the butchers boy being knocked down on his bike by a car and looking up in pain saying he had lost his kidneys! I always found that very amusing as a child, probably explains a lot of my character defects!!

[Morris 1100]

I met a race official that had one leg missing and he told me a story about when he was a "victim" in a mock disaster to test the response of emergency services.
He was laying on the ground with his trouser leg under a big machine with blood (fake) all over the place!
The emergency services guys that arrived took a look at him and threw up!

[EvilPumpkin]

Maisie, I'm guessing it might have been one of our guys that told you that - I know the marshal it happened to! Having said that, these types of stories do tend to wind up in the Marshal version of "urban legends"

I was actually going to mention that we have had a couple of drivers with prosthetic hands/arms in Ireland - and we also have a very competitive karter with a prosthetic leg.

If your son's girlfriend is actively interested in competing Hans, get her to have a look at this site - http://www.justmobility.co.uk/bmsad/ - it's aimed at UK residents but I'm sure they would be able to put her in contact with people in Canada that can help.

[Maisie]

EP, it was actually one of the 2CV team members (not a marshal but someone who's been in racing for years) that told me. Nice to hear it's actually a true story

[blackx]

There is also a guy who races in Vintage meetings who only has one arm........Think he races an ERA.........
And a guy who hillclimbs a 3 wheeler motercycle who only has one arm........

[Stinky]

Originally posted by Maisie
EP, it was actually one of the 2CV team members (not a marshal but someone who's been in racing for years) that told me. Nice to hear it's actually a true story

It was my Mum that told you taht wasn't it?

Anyway, the driver was Dave Butler. Can't remember what car he drove but it was in autocross in the 1970s. He lost part of his left arm and both legs when he found a unexploded wartime butterfly bomb on the Dunstable Downs as a teenager. He drove a left hand drive car so he could change gear with his right hand. The clutch was a hand lever attached to the gear stick. He had false legs and could operae the throttle and brake pedals with those. He had a cup for his left hand and a ball on the steering wheel that he clipped the cup to.

Brilliant driver if I remember right. My mum used to race against him regularly in her VW Beetle. I think he races an MG sprtscar now - not sure though.

:-)

Christine

[Maisie]

It was your mum, yes.

[EvilPumpkin]

Ok that's interesting then - that means it's either happened twice or the person who told me the story was urban legending turning themselves into the protagonist! I shall enquire!

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by blackx
There is also a guy who races in Vintage meetings who only has one arm........Think he races an ERA.........

Donald Day lost an arm when he crashed his ERA at Silverstone a few years ago. He competes in hillclimbs, I think, but is not allowed to race

[bcobbus]

Off road racer Even Evans has no use of his legs, and thus uses controls similar to those use by Zanardi. He is rather good and has won many races and I think championships!