Guinness never fully recovered. Throughout his life he
suffered from mental problems and committed suicide in 1937. He was buried at
Putney Vale Cemetery on April 14th.
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Read about
Tom Barrett |
Henry Segrave described the race in his book "The Lure of
Speed" published in 1928. This is his description:
On the night after the zoo-mile race Guinness and I went
off to San Sebastian, where we were to drive a couple of supercharged
2-litre Sunbeams. The course consisted of 35 laps, totalling 387½ miles, of
a circuit which looked at first all right to the eye, but turned out to be
in an abominably dangerous condition. The corners were supposed to be sanded
so as to give the tyres a reasonably good grip. But the Spanish workmen,
true to their tradition of avoiding any unnecessary work, discovered that it
was very much easier to dig clay out of a neighbouring field and sprinkle it
on the road rather than go some little distance off and get the sand which
they should have used.
This nearly cost Guinness his life, and
led to a crash in which his mechanic, Barrett, was instantly killed.
Just before the race I said to Bill
that I proposed to hang back for a few laps and see what was going to
happen. There were fourteen starters, representing Germany, Italy, and
England, and it appeared to me that on this occasion it would be good policy
not to go out too hard at first, especially as I had no great experience of
this very twisty circuit. Bill, however, said he proposed to go all out from
the drop of the flag. As a matter of fact, as I have noticed in many
previous events, Guinness's first lap is usually the fastest. Provided his
car runs consistently the later laps will not be much slower than the
initial one, but there are just a few seconds difference.
Henry Segrave at the wheel of one of the 2 litre cars
at Shelsley Walsh in May 1925.
He was taking one of those treacherous
turns on a road surface covered with wet clay, when his car refused to
answer its steering, left the road, ran up a steep incline on the left-hand
side of the road, then turned over three times down into the road again, and
finished up against a stone wall on the right-hand side.
Along the right side of the road were
telegraph poles and a railway cutting running parallel with it. Guinness and
his mechanic were both flung clear of the car the last time it turned over,
and actually went over the telegraph wires, and fell in the railway cutting.
Barrett, the unfortunate mechanic, was
instantly killed, while Guinness suffered severe injuries to his head and
legs. I shall never forget my amazement and dismay when I arrived at the
scene of the crash a few minutes later; and then for four consecutive laps I
had to pass the two stretchers carrying them to the field dressing-station,
not knowing whether my friend was alive or dead.
One's reaction in a case like this is
peculiar, because, knowing Bill as I did, I knew perfectly well that he had
not turned over through an error of judgment in driving, and therefore
something must have broken in his car to cause the accident. As both our
cars were identical, it followed that what happened to his car must happen
to mine, and so, not knowing what had caused Bill to turn over, I drove the
rest of the race waiting for anything to happen. It made me handle that car
as though it was made of glass!
