Notes:
The first edition of the Coupe Internationale de Vitesse, held on the Circuit de Reims on Sunday, 14 July 1957, was marred by the deaths of two drivers in two separate accidents.

The race attracted a healthy field of twenty-five cars, including the three factory Lotuses of the American driver Herbert MacKay-Fraser, known by his friends by the nickname "Mac", on his first season of road racing in Europe, Cliff Allison and another one driven by the company owner and mentor Colin Chapman. Whilst the two latter were assigned to the most recent Lotus 12 model, MacKay-Fraser participated with an older 11 type, chassis #F2-4-57.

The works Coopers of Jack Brabham and Roy Salvadori were followed by an array of similar private entries that counted with Tony Brooks at the Rob Walker Racing Team, as well as the Kiwi Equipe machines of New Zealanders Raymon Thackwell and Ronnie Moore, and Frenchman Jean Lucas in an Alan Brown entry. Bill Whitehouse was in the original entry list with two other Cooper T43-Climax cars of his own team, for himself and his son Brian Whitehouse. A single works Ferrari Dino 156, to be conducted by French veteran Maurice Trintignant, was clearly the crowd favorite.

The characteristics of the Reims circuit, with extremely long straights, favoured slipstreaming battles in which the cars followed each other at high speed, swapping positions all the time. Salvadori took the lead at the start, with Brabham and Trintignant right behind him.

Unfortunately most of the excitement brought by the race was lost on the second lap when Bill Whitehouse's car had a tire blow out on the approach to Thillois Hairpin. The car somersaulted and burst into flames. The marshals managed to extinguish the Cooper’s fire in a few minutes, using more than ten portable fire extinguishers. With multiple fractures and extensive and serious burns, Whitehouse was transported by helicopter to the Centre Hospitalier de Reims, where he died shortly afterwards.

After the accident the race continued, with Trintignant and Salvadori in the lead, overtaking each other several times every lap; the Cooper had a higher top speed, but the Ferrari regained terrain at the turns. On the 10th lap the two cars crossed the finish line side-by-side; Brabham, prudently, watched from a few hundred meters back. Only fourteen seconds later the next competitor appeared, it was Lucas' Cooper with Tony Marsh's sister car right on its tail. MacKay-Fraser was next, five and a half seconds behind Lucas and Marsh; he made a rather lonely race. The speed differential between the various competitors was large, as Reims was more than 8.3-kilometer long, already then only nine cars were on the same lap - all others had been passed.

A few laps later Brabham decided it was time to slightly increase his pace. It was the Ferrari driver who chose to take a step back and watch the fight, so "Black Jack" overtook Trintignant with relative ease and went for a direct dice with Salvadori. As a response, Roy set the new track record on 20th lap, with a time of 2min39.2s, at an average speed of 187.6 km/h (116.6 mi/h). By then the three leaders had opened an advantage of almost two full minutes over Lucas, who in turn managed to escape from Marsh's attack. MacKay-Fraser struggled to keep pace with the two, running more than fourteen seconds behind Marsh.

Brabham's quest for the lead would be short-lived; he noticed that the engine of his Cooper was sick, and coasted the car to the pits on the 26th lap. The Cooper team was hit with further concern when the twin T43 of Salvadori left a trail of smoke when it passed in front of the boxes the very next time around. He reduced his speed, eventually finishing fourth, Trintignand took the lead and went on to win the race, from Lucas' and Marsh's Coopers.

At about 15h30, on 28th lap Herbert MacKay-Fraser was lapped by Trintignant. It is believed that the American tried to follow the leader of the race considerably increasing his speed, in an attempt to close the gap with Marsh. But on 30th lap he lost control of his Lotus on the straight after the first long bend, the Courbe du Calvaire, formerly known as Coube de Gueux, leaving the road on the inside of the track. The car rolled several times, coming to rest upside-down in a field about 25 meters off the track, after crossing a small embankment.

The driver was ejected from the vehicle. Grievously injured, Herbert MacKay-Fraser was immediately taken by helicopter but died en route to the Hôpital de Reims. He was 35 years old.

This was the first fatal accident of a Lotus works driver.

Born as Herbert MacKay Fraser in Recife in Pernambuco state, Brazil, he raced under the racing name of Herbert MacKay-Fraser.

We have no explanation for the name used as a competition driver. The hyphenated name does not conform to the Spanish, Portuguese or Brazilian usage because his mother's maiden name is not MacKay. It may be an affectation, or he may have wanted a special nom de guerre for publicity reasons. He is also known with the name of Mackay Fraser, the shortened name he used to sign the articles he wrote for magazine Autosport, that was what his fellow race drivers called him.

His parents were citizens of the United States, and they registered the birth of their two sons with the U. S. Consul so that they would be recognized as citizens of the United States rather than Brazil. The date of birth is consistently reported as 21 June 1922 in no less than six declarations by Herbert as he entered the United States from other nations, and his World War II enlistment registration with the U. S. Army. Herbert's brother, Alexander Stuart Fraser, was born in Bahia, Brazil, on 18 March 1923, and died at an unknown location on 08 March 2005.

Herbert's father, Herbert Cecil Fitzroy Fraser, was born in Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, the British West Indies, on 21 May 1887. With World War I in the offing, he applied for U. S. citizenship in 1917 and was granted citizenship by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on 03 August 1917. He was an employee of The National City Bank at 55 Wall Street at the time he registered for the World War I Draft. At some time between June 1931 and October 1933 Herbert C. F. Fraser died of unknown cause or location.

Herbert's mother was born in the Borough of Manhattan, New York City, New York, on 21 April 1894 to Frederick and Emma Belcher. Her given name was Grace. She had a sister, Martha, born in August 1896, and a brother, William, born in November 1894. Frederick was employed as a letter carrier. Grace B. Fraser died in New York City on 21 May 1980 at age 88.

Herbert is known to have attended Holderness School in September 1939 for an undetermined amount of time. Holderness is located in Plymouth, New Hampshire. It is a small private school founded in 1879 by members of the Episcopal General Convention.

Herbert enlisted in the United States Army on 17 January 1944. He was shown to have four years of high school and was employed as a clerk. He was single when he enlisted with the rank of Private.

At the time of his death on 13 July 1957, some newspapers reported his residence to be at Idaho Falls, Idaho. The Report of Deaths of America Citizens Abroad, dated 14 August 1957, with numbers 11173 and 336432, provide the following information: Herbert was married to Marga (Dieterle) MacKay Fraser; his mother is shown as Mrs. H.C.F Fraser, a resident of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; his surviving children include two daughters, Victoria Grace Fraser, a resident of Bonassola, Liguria region, Italy, and Andrea Fraser, a resident of Sun Valley, Idaho, United States, and a son, Alex Fraser, also residing in Sun Valley, Idaho. Herbert's father-in-law is shown to be a physician, Dr. Paul Dieterle, a resident of Los Angeles, California. Herbert's occupation is shown to be a realtor.

Even though Herbert MacKay Fraser was a US citizen, he was among the Brazilian personalities of motorsport that the city of São Paulo commemorated in 1968, dedicating streets in their honor near the Interlagos circuit. His name however is badly misspelled on the street sign, which shows "Herbert Frazer".

• 1900 United States Federal Census.
• World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.
• New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
• Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974 {name shown as FRASER, Herbert MacKay].
• Social Security Death Index.
• U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947.
• U. S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
• Book "Albo della Gloria: Al Piloti Caduti in Tutto il Mondo al Loro Posto di Combattimento", by Emanuele Carli, Modena, Italy, 1972, page 40 [name shown as McKay Fraser; date off by one day].
• Book "Reims, Vitesse, Champagne et Passion", by Dominique Dameron-Derauw, Cyrille Mélin and Jean-Pierre Mélin, L’Atelier Graphique, Reims, France, 1998, ISBN 2-911353-25-0, pages 152 and 153 [incorrect age of death].
• Book "The International Motor Racing Guide", by Peter Higham, David Bull Publishing, Phoenix, United States, ISBN 1-893618-20-X.
• Book "Grand Prix Data Book 1997", by David Hayhoe and David Holland, 3rd. edition, Duke Marketing, Douglas, Isle of Man, United Kingdom, 1996, ISBN 0-9529325-0-4.
• Book "Illustrated Lotus Buyer's Guide" by Graham Arnold, Motorbooks Intl., 1993, ISBN 978-0879387785 [L1].
• Book "The Story of Lotus 1947-1960 Birth of a Legend", by Ian H. Smith, R. Bentley Publish., 1970, ISBN 978-0837600482 [L1].
• Book "Driven, the racing photography of Jesse Alexander, 1954-62" by J. A. P. Alexander, Chronicle Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0811828512 [incorrect surname spelling, incorrect vehicle subtype] [G1].
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Sunday, 29 July 1956, pages S-1 and S-5, Associated Press wire service, article "Race Driver Dies In Le Mans Crash".
• Newspaper The Times (London, England, United Kingdom), issue of Thursday, 11 July 1957, page 3, article "British Drivers In Ferrari Team".
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Monday, 15 July 1957, page 26, United Press wire service, article "Two Drivers Killed at Rheims As Musso Takes Grand Prix".
• Newspaper The Post-Register (Idaho Falls, ID, United States), issue of Monday, 15 July 1957, page 1, Associated Press wire service, article "Idaho Man Dies In Race Crash".
• Newspaper Idaho State Journal (Pocatello, ID, United States), issue of Monday, 15 July 1957, page 7, United Press wire service, article "Idaho Driver Dies in France Race Crackup".
• Newspaper Oxnard Press-Courier (Oxnard, CA, United States), issue of Monday, 15 July 1957, page 7, United Press wire service, article "Tragedy Strikes Again as Two Die In Auto Classic".
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Tuesday, 17 May 1960, page 45. Special to The New York Times, article "The Speed That Kills", by Robert Daley.
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Friday, 23 May 1980, page B-6, article "Deaths: Fraser-Grace B."
• Website Formula 2 Register, by Stefan Örnerdal, page http://www.formula2.net/F257_9.htm .
• Website Racing Circuits by Daniel King, page http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/racingcircuits/France/Reims.html .
• Website Holderness School, page http://www.holderness.org .
• Website Amis du Circuit de Gueux, article "Formule 2 à REIMS en 1957 : une course meurtrière", page http://www.amis-du-circuit-de-gueux.fr/Formule-2-a-REIMS-en-1957-une .
• Website Grandprix.com, page http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-macher.html .
• Website Autocourse - Grand Prix Archive, page http://www.autocoursegpa.com/driver.asp?driver_id=11887 .
• Website Revs Institute, article "The Unknown American", page https://revsinstitute.org/news/the-unknown-american/ [K1].
• Website Find-A-Grave: Herbert MacKay-Fraser.
• E-mail by Barry Lake, dated 16 November 2004, citing [L1].
• E-mail by Kevin Guthrie, dated 26 June 2005, citing [G1].
• E-mail by Tomas Karlsson, dated 22 April 2021.
• E-mail by Tomas Karlsson, dated 05 June 2021, citing [K1].