Courageous Jim Crawford

Jim Crawford (1948-2002) was a British racing driver from Scotland. After spending a couple of years racing in Formula Atlantic, he was spotted by Colin Chapman who offered him a test drive at Lotus. When Jacky Ickx left the team mid-season 1975, Crawford was entered by the Lotus team in the British Grand Prix (dnf) and in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where he finished 13th.

Picture above: Jim Crawford in trouble in his Lotus-Ford 72E at the first chicane at Monza, during practice for the 1975 Italian Grand Prix.

Crawford moved to the United States in the early 1980s, finished runner-up twice in the Can-Am series. Remarkably, he also finished fourth on his CART debut at Long Beach in 1984 and went on to become a regular participant in the Indianapolis 500. 

It was there in 1987 that Crawford suffered a crash in practice which resulted in serious leg injuries. However, he recovered sufficiently to return to the Indy 500 in 1988 (picture below), and still in pain, he was heroically leading the race for a few laps. A late puncture dropped him from 2nd to 6th.

Jim Crawford retired from racing a few years later and lived in St.Petersburg, Florida, where he chartered a fishing boat.