Few drivers could claim to have bettered the likes of Stirling Moss, Roy Salvadori or Tony Brooks, but Archie Scott Brown, a fearsome competitor in sportscars, did just that. Clearly the equal of his peers, Scott Brown only took a single grand prix start, at Silverstone in 1956 (he was due to race at Monza that year and ran one practice session, drawing praise from none other than Juan Manuel Fangio, but the Italian racing authorities would not let him enter the race).
The reason he was denied entry? Scott Brown only had the use of one hand, a condition he’d lived with from birth (just one of the consequences of his mother contracting rubella during pregnancy). During his childhood, he underwent a host of operations on his legs, which were both shortened, leaving him standing around five feet tall. None of this impacted his ability to mix it with the very best of the 1950s racing gentry.
The point of mentioning this story is that motorsport has always been the great leveller. It is one of the very few sports where all are – ability notwithstanding – equal. A racecar doesn’t see gender, race or disability, only inputs to the steering, throttle and brake.
Sadly, Scott Brown was taken before his time, while battling Masten Gregory for the lead in his Lister-Jaguar at Spa in 1958, but had he survived he would hopefully be heartened to know that attitudes towards disabilities have changed significantly for the better in the years since.
Team Brit’s system places all the controls on the steering wheel and removes the mechanical link to the brake and throttle
Tech development
At the forefront of current efforts to ensure racing is accessible to all is UK-based Team
