Notes:
A popular British racing driver and team manager, Reg Parnell was one of the pillars of British motor racing history. He drove everything from saloon cars to Grand Prix cars.
Originally from Derby, Derbyshire, England, where he was born in 1911, Reg Parnell began his career in 1935 driving a MG Magnette and despite his racing licence was withdrawn from 1937 to 1939 following a serious accident at Brooklands in 1937, in which Mrs. Kay Petre was severely injured, he found success immediately before the World War II, driving a Bugatti.
In the years after the end of the war, he raced a Maserati 4CLT/48 for the Scuderia Ambrosiana, particularly in Continental races, and an ex-Peter Whitehead ERA E-Type in which he won the Swedish Winter Grand Prix in the Rommehed Military Airport, at Borlänge and the Stockholm Grand Prix at Vallentuna. On 13 February 1949 Parnell scored a creditable second place in the Copa Acción de San Lorenzo, held at Parque Independencia circuit in Rosario, Argentina, at the wheel of the Maserati, behind Giuseppe Farina's Ferrari 125C. On 25 September of that same year, he and Farina were involved in a huge accident on the opening lap of the Czech Grand Prix, held on the Masarykův Okruh public roads circuit near the Moravian city of Brno, Czechoslovakia, that resulted in the deaths of two spectators.
As the leading British driver of the time, on 13 May 1950 he was invited to compete in the very first Formula 1 World Championship event, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, at the wheel of one of the four works Alfa Romeo 158s entered, alongside "The Three-F" of Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli. Came race day, and the first row of the grid was entirely Alfa Romeo dark red, with Farina on pole. Parnell started fourth and finished a solid third place, having suffered Fangio a broken oil pipe with only eight lap to go.
Reg Parnell was signed up by Aston Martin as a factory driver for a number of years. In 1950 he finished sixth in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, pairedwith Charles Brackenbury in a Aston Martin DB2. He returned au Mans the following year in the same car, finishing seventh, with David Hampshire. In Formula 1 he drove Tony Vandervell’s Ferrari 375 "Thinwall Special" to a fine fourth place in the 1951 French Grand Prix at Reims, winning outright the International Trophy, non-championship event at Silverstone after the race was stopped due to a rainstorm. Then he had a less happy association with the problematic V16 BRM P15 cars, scoring a fifth place in the 1951 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
In 1952 he drove a Cooper T20-Bristol for team Archie H. M. Bryde, winning the West Essex C.C. Formula 2 race at Boreham airfield. At the wheel of a Aston Martin DB2LM he finished fifth in the Grand Prix de Bern at Bremgarten, one lap behind the winner Karl Kling in a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, then he was 13th overall in the 1952 Mille Miglia road race, with the Italian co-driver M. Serboli. In 1953 Parnell contested for team Aston Martin the first edition of the World Sportscar Championship, achieving two second places in the 12 Hours of Sebring, partnered with George Abecassis, behind the Cunningham C4-R Chrysler of John Fitch-Phil Walters, and in the RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod with Eric Thompson, close behind team mates Peter Collins-Pat Griffith in another Aston Martin DB3S. He also took an impressive fifth place in the Mille Miglia, with the great photographer Louis Klementaski as co-driver. In 1954 the pair returned to the Mille Miglia with a works Aston Martin DB3S but did not finish the gruelling race. Near L'Aquila, in the Abruzzi mountains, Parnell lost control of the car on the approach to a fast bend, where another car had just spun, showering gravel on the road. The Aston Martin slid outwards and hit the barrier. Reg Parnell suffered the only injury when he was trying to get his head under the dashboard in case the car went over the precipice, but there was only room for one under there, and "Klem" arrived first...
Reg Parnell returned to Formula 1 in 1954, driving a Ferrari 500 entered by the Scuderia Ambrosiana. He did not finish the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, then he won non-championship races at Goodwood and at Crystal Palace. In 1955 he drove a Rob Walker’s Connaught B-Type to fourth place in the International Trophy at Silverstone and in the World Sportscar Championship he finished seventh in the RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, with Roy Salvadori in the Aston Martin and did not finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans, paired with Dennis Poore. The following year Parnell finished second to Ninian Sanderson's Jaguar D-type in the Grand Prix de Spa-Francorchamps, and at Le Mans the Aston Martin DBR1 he shared with Tony Brooks had gearbox trouble during the last hour of race.
In 1957 Reg Parnell raced a Ferrari Super Squalo for the Scuderia Ambrosiana, winning the New Zealand Grand Prix at the Ardmore airfield, Auckland, and the South Island race at Dunedin, before retiring to take up a full-time job as team manager. He joined Aston Martin, leading the team until David Brown decided to pull out of racing and the team was closed. Later, Reg Parnell managed the Yeoman Credit and the Bowmaker Lola teams, before setting up his own Reg Parnell Racing team. A number of talented drivers raced in Formula 1 for team Parnell, including his friend Salvadori, Chris Amon, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and others.
Reg Parnell's untimely death came on Tuesday, 07 January 1964, having developed peritonitis after a routine appendix operation, when he was only 52. Survivors included his wife, Gladys (née Haslam) and his son, Tim Parnell. He is buried in the All Saints Churchyard in Findern, Derbyshire, England.
During his career, Reg Parnell scored seven Formula 1 World Championship Grands Prix starts from 1950 to 1954, achieving one podium in the 1950 British Grand Prix, and scoring a total of nine championship points.
His son Reginald Harold Haslam "Tim" Parnell, followed in his footsteps both as driver, competing in Formula 1 from 1959 to 1963 and as team manager, running the family RPR Team and then leading the BRM Formula 1 factory team for a long time in the early 1970s. And also his nephew Roy Parnell, son of Reg's elder brother Bill, competed from time to time in the late 1940s, including being nominated as David Murray’s ERA B-Type relief driver in both the British and Lausanne Grands Prix in 1949. Roy then became a test driver at Aston Martin, also working under Uncle Reg. |
