by Meg A Wright

Created on: August 05, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

David Purley, born January 26, 1945, only raced in 11 Formula One Grand Prix, but it was the rest of the life, the life of a hero that he led that make a name in history for him.

Purley's mother was Welsh from a small village, and his father's family name was originally Puxley, but he changed it and founded LEC Refrigeration.

Purley was schooled at Seaford College, and went on to Dartington Hall School in Devon. He then enlisted with the Parachute Regiment in Aden, serving a stint with the British Army.

He started in Formula 3, winning 3 times at the Chimay track in between 1970-1972. In 1973, Purley used money from the refrigeration company his family owned, to back his try in Formula One. However, it was unsuccessful, and he only raced one other grand prix race, his home track Token was the only Formula One race he ran between 1973 and 1977.

This time he switched to Formula 2, during the off years from Formula One, in which he was fairly successful, driving for Millionaire Bob Harper. He also dabbled in Formula 5000, winning the British Championship in 1976 while driving a Cosworth GA 3.4 Litre V6 engine.

Persistently he returned to F1 in 1977, he used his own chassis, designed by a Mike Pilbeam called the LEC chassis. Regrettably, with this car, during a British Grand Prix pre-qualifying event, he suffered factures to his legs, pelvis and ribs in a serious wreck. His throttle was stuck wide open, and he crashed into a wall at the speed of 108 mph. The wall caused the car to immediately decelerate to 0 mph in about 26 inches. It is estimated that he sustained 179.8 G forces, one of the greatest G forces ever survived. The car is presently displayed in the Donington Park Museum.

Purley did recover fully, but he never raced in Formula One again. Instead he remained in the minor Aurora AFZ series, solely based in Britain.

However, the greatest action Purley ever did was during the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix. His friend Roger Williamson was involved in a horrendous wreck. Williamson's car flipped over and caught on fire. Immediately Purley stopped his car and jumped out to attempt to save his friend's life. Sadly, his attempt failed, and Williamson perished in the fire. Others acknowledged what Purley had tried to do, and later that year Purley was awarded the George Medal. The medal is given in acknowledgement of heroic rescue attempts.

Soon afterward, Purley decided to retire from competitive motorsports, and instead participated in competitive aerobatics. This too carried a degree of risk, and he perished when his Pitts Special biplane crashed into the sea on July 2, 1985.

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