Alan Stacey - The driver with wooden leg

To drive Spa Francorchamps today is marvel at the skill and courage of those who raced here. With its sweeping bends that plunge and climb through the Ardennes forest it is not for the faint-hearted.
June 19, 1960, had been a terrible day. The Britons Alan Stacey and Chris Bristow were killed within 20 minutes of each other during the Belgian Grand Prix. At the half-distance Jack Brabham led from Phil Hill with Bristow in seventh place and Stacey up the ninth, but only just on the same lap as the leaders.

On lap 20, the Cooper of Chris Bristow got onto the wrong line while chasing Mairesse through Burnenville and crashed disastrously. He died instantly. Just five laps later tragedy struck again, as Alan Stacey was apparently hit in the face by a bird in the very fast Malmedy curve. His Lotus careered off the road a he, too, died in in a moment.
Jack Brabham won the race and his Cooper team mate, Bruce McLaren, was second, but there was no rejoicing in the Cooper camp, nor in any other.

In 1957 drove Alan Stacey an Lotus at Le Mans. After the run-and-jump start he found that the starter motor had jammed and he had to sit there, seething, for more than a minute until he could join the race. But than he drove brilliantly through the field to finish ninth, in a 1.1-litre Lotus. In the process, Alan set a new class record.
The excellence of that drive apart, it is the Le Mans start that tells you a lot about Alan Stacey, for what nobody could possibly have guessed as he ran across the track was that he had an artificial leg. A motorcycle accident when was 16 meant that he had to have his right leg amputated at the knee, but he carried his disability so well that it never showed, and only his closest friends knew about it.

In 1959 at Le Mans Alan and Jim Clark were reading a French newspaper in which there were some notes about the race, with a two-liner at the bottom of a column which said that one of the drivers in this year's race had a wooden leg. Jim Clark was incredulous. Who is that?" he said.
"It's me," said Alan.
"No, come on! Who is it," said Clark.
"I tell you, its me! I can't help you if you don't believe it, but it's me," said Alan.
"Don't be so daft," said Clark and that was the end of the conversation.

Early next morning Jim Clark came bouncing in to find Alan still in the bed and his leg standing up on the floor, in the sock and shoe. Clark took one look and fled. He was so embarrassed he didn't know what to do with himself and he didn't appear again until lunchtime.