The life of GT40 legend John R Etheridge is remembered by his close friend, Maitland Cook.
John, who died recently after a long battle with cancer, was born and educated in Twickenham, joining Aston Martin in 1956 aged 15. Such was his engineering acumen and enthusiasm that he served much of his apprenticeship in the Experimental Division at Feltham, where young “Johnny” learnt how to build racing engines with Jack Sopp, one of the finest craftsmen of that era.
He was a member of the racing team at Aston Martin, first visiting Le Mans in 1962 with the Project cars, and was an integral part of the crew that achieved the famous victory in 1963 in the Inter-Europa Cup at Monza, when Roy Salvadori and Lucien Bianchi sandwiched the works Ferrari, finishing first and third. John’s eyes sparkled when he recalled his contribution to the victory achieved under the team management of a youthful John Horsman (Aston Martin, FAV, JWAE Engineering Director) who would remain an ally and friend to the end.
Later that year he joined Ford Advanced Vehicles at the personal invitation of John Wyer, to build and race the GT40. Wyer always opined that John was one of his finest racing mechanics, a sentiment echoed by John Horsman who recalled: “it soon became obvious that John had above normal intelligence, as well as great skills with his hands – a good combination.”
The vast majority of his clients would echo this sentiment, which contributed to his election to BRDC membership, under the presidency of Innes Ireland, with whom he had worked at Aston and FAV.
