Notes:
The morning of Friday the Thirteenth brought rain and sadness to Silverstone on May of 1960. The sudden unexpected death of the world-class playboy, Shah Ali Khan, was the main subject of chatter in the pits. The 48-year-old Pakistani had been killed in a traffic accident near the French Resistance shrine at Mont Valerian, a suburb of Paris.

Ali Khan was one of the most successful race-horse owners in the world. He was also known to have raced autos. Perhaps best-known as the ex-husband of the American film star, Rita Hayworth, he had served the Allied cause well during World War II, having volunteered to serve in the French Foreign Legion and the British forces in Jerusalem and Cairo. His service was recognized by awards of the Croix de Guerre with palms, and the Bronze Star Medal of the United States. In 1958 he had been appointed as the head of the Pakistan delegation to the United Nations. Within a few months he was elected a vice president of the U.N. General Assembly, and was scheduled to present his credentials as Pakistan Minister in Buenos Aires. With such a record, it is understandable that the international crowd of the Formula One circus were deeply shocked by the news of Ali Khan's death.

The drivers scheduled to race in the non-championship Formula One event at Silverstone on Saturday included the eventual winner, Innes Ireland, and Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, Alan Stacey, Phil Hill, Masten Gregory and Harry Schell, among others. The Friday practice session was run in miserable conditions with pools of water on the track accumulating from the intermittent rain storms.

During the Friday practice session Schell, driving a Yeoman Credit racing team's Cooper-Climax, was leading Jack Brabham's Cooper-Climax into Abbey Curve when Harry's car got sideways. The Cooper's wheels got into the mud on the edge of the track and his car flipped over, slid across the track through a safety barrier and crashed into a wall of breeze blocks which collapsed onto the car. Schell died at the scene of the accident.

For numerologists, one may note than on this Friday the Thirteenth, Harry Schell was the thirteenth regular Formula One driver to be killed at the wheel of a racer since 1955. He joined this pantheon of drivers who included Louis Rosier, Ken Wharton, Eugenio Castellotti, Fon Portago, Piero Carini, Luigi Musso, Peter Collins, Peter Whitehead, Stuart Lewis-Evans, Mike Hawthorn, Ivor Bueb and Jean Behra.

[Before the nit-pickers among our readers get overly excited, I do not include the Indy 500 drivers since they were not regular Formula One drivers even though they received points for the Formula One championship. From this same period these would include Walt Faulkner, Bob Sweikert, Keith Andrews, Pat O'Connor, George Fonder, Art Bisch, Jimmy Reece, Marshall Teague, George Amick, Jerry Unser and Ed Elisian.

Similarly, I also do not include drivers who started in less than three Formula One races, such as Bill Whitehouse, Herbert MacKay-Fraser, Archie Scott-Brown, Erwin Bauer, Leslie Johnson, Harry Blanchard and Ettore Chimeri. They might not be considered to be "regular" Formula One drivers.

As an additional aside, using the same standards as above, a list of the most recent Formula One drivers who died at the wheel of a racing vehicle, going in reverse from September 2007, we find Michele Alboreto, Ayrton Senna, Roland Ratzenberger, Didier Pironi (boat), Jo Gartner, Elio de Angelis, Stefan Bellof, Manfred Winkelhock, Rolf Stommelen, Gilles Villeneuve, Patrick Depailler, Ronnie Peterson and Carlos Pace, the last mentioned on 18 March 1977. What took less than four years in the late sixties and early seventies has taken thirty years until now. This speaks eloquently to the improvements in the new safety features of car and track design and driver safety gear.

This also explains the futility of trying to compare today's drivers to those of the mid-1900s. In the earlier era, if you drove in Formula One for five years, you stood a fifty-fifty chance of death. Nowadays, the sport is much faster, the competition is measured in thousandths of a second, and the technology would have been considered science fiction in the sixties.]

Harry Schell never won a Formula One championship race. He had great charisma as a likeable playboy and a semi-professional race driver. But he was also never known to be a "rolling chicane" on the race track. He was well respected and trusted by his fellow drivers. He was not known to get over his head by taking foolish risks. He may not have known how to get within 95% of his limits, while the likes of Fangio, Moss, and Ascari were comfortable at 98% of their limits. But Harry's competence at the wheel was never questioned.

Harry Schell became the first American to compete in the modern era of Formula One when he drove at Monaco in 1950. He qualified and started in all fifty-six of his Formula One entries. His 25 retirements may have had more to do with less competitive machines than his driving. His best finish was second at the 1958 Dutch Grand Prix. In the improved version of the Vanwall he challenged three Lancia-Ferraris for the lead in the 1957 French Grand Prix at Reims before retiring, thus giving notice that Vanwall was going to be a major factor in Formula One.

His best finish in the Formula One drivers championship, fifth place, came in 1958 when he drove for the BRM team.

Harry also raced sports cars, but with typical concern about the presence of too many drivers of questionalble competence, and the lack of starting money, he was very selective about these events. In 1956 he co-drove with Moss, Behra and Trintignant to win the 1956 Nuburgring 1,000km race. He co-drove with Moss to a second place at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1957, behind the winning team of Fangio and the above mentioned Behra.

Harry Schell's victory at Montlhery on 9th October 1949.
The lady with her hands on the steering wheel is likely Harry's mother Lucy O'Reilly Schell.
Adam Ferrington Collection

• New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
• World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.
• 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 "Albo della Gloria: Al Piloti Caduti in Tutto il Mondo al Loro Posto di Combattimento", by Emanuele Carli, Modena, Italy, 1972, page 47 [surname misspelled as Shell].
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Friday, 20 October 1939, page 28, Associated Press wire service, article "Selim Lawrence Schell".
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Wednesday, 27 March 1940, page 22, article "Estates Appraised: O'Reilly, Francis Patrick".
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Friday, 24 May 1940, page 27, article "French Drivers Here for Indianapolis Race; Dreyfus, LeBegue Anxious to Return to Front".
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Sunday, 24 March 1957, sports section, page 197, Special to The New York Times, article "Fangio Takes Auto Race; Chicago Driver Is Killed"; two photographs, Associated Press Wirephotos, captioned "Start Of Grand Prix" and "Fatal Accident".
• 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 Times (London, England, United Kingdom), issue of Saturday, 14 May 1960, page 6: article "Harry Schell Killed In Race Practice"; photograph, captioned "Harry Schell just before he was killed during practice on the Silverstone track"; page 10, article "Obituary: Mr. H. Schell".
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Saturday, 14 May 1960, page 21: Special to The New York Times, article "Schell Is Kiled as Auto Skids In Drill on Eve of British Race"; photograph, United Press Internaional wire photo, captioned "Harry Schell"; Special to The New York Times, article "A Prudent Driver", by Robert Daley.
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Tuesday, 17 May 1960, Special to The New York Times, article "The Speed That Kills", by Robert Daley.
• Website Champ Car Stats.com: Harry Schell, page http://www.champcarstats.com/drivers/SchellHarry.htm .
• Website Forix: Harry Schell:, page http://forix.autosport-atlas.com/driver.php?1=0&r=1921062900&c=0 .
• Website Atlas F1, bulletin boards, "The Nostalgia Forum", thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 26, posting by "ReWind" .
• Website Harry Schell - Grand Prix Racing - the whole story, page http://www.gpracing.net192.com/drivers/careers/516.cfm .
• Website Racing Circuits, by Daniel King, http://www.racingcircuits.net .
• Website Talbot-Lago : Harry Schell, page http://www.talbot-lago.ch/en/schell-e.php .
• Website F1 News - Grandprix.com > GP Encyclopedia > Drivers > Harry Schell, page http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-schhar.html .
• Website Historic Racing: Harry Schell, page http://www.historicracing.com/drivers.cfm?driverID=1269&AlphaIndex=S .
• Website Formula One World - Drivers - Harry Schell, page http://www.formulaone.free-online.co.uk/drivers/hschell/index.html .
• Website Formula One World - History - BRDC International Trophy 1960, page http://www.formulaone.free-online.co.uk/hidtory/1960/brdc.html .
• E-mail by Adam Ferrington, dated 15 October 2007.
• A special acknowledgement for the outstanding Formula One statistical data offered by Forix through Autosport.com.