{"id":494561,"date":"2015-07-01T00:16:30","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T00:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=11625"},"modified":"2024-12-27T01:26:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T01:26:52","slug":"willy-mairesse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/willy-mairesse\/","title":{"rendered":"Willy Mairesse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Up from 4th on the grid, Mairesse (#40) battles Graham Hill (#10) and Dan Gurney (#4) for the lead into the first turn at Monte Carlo in 1962.
Photo: Ed McDonough Collections<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was the kind of fighter Enzo Ferrari adored. Another of those Tazio Nuvolari types, who wouldn\u2019t rest until he had wrung the absolute maximum out of a car or crashed it in the process\u2014and he often did. Before he was shoe-horned into Maranello in 1960 with the help of Jacques Swaters, Ferrari\u2019s representative in Belgium, he had laid to rest the crumpled ruins of a Porsche 1500, a Peugeot 203, a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and three Ferrari berlinettas.<\/p>\n

But this hyper-determined, energetic hustler with his burning intensity won. An observer of Willy\u2019s demonic determination was Peter Revson. He once craned his neck into Mairesse\u2019s car during a 24 Hours of Spa and saw Willy\u2019s face contorted with unrequited commitment. Afterwards, the young American famously said it was almost like looking at the devil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n