Formula 1 has a glorious history but 75 years of the World Championship has also featured plenty of dark parts and shady characters. One of them was John Riseley-Prichard, whose involvement in F1 was certainly very fleeting. He raced just once in the World Championship which was still very much in its infancy when he competed in his second-hand Connaught Type A at the 1954 British Grand Prix.
It was just the fifth World Championship running of the event, held at Silverstone and won by the Argentine Jose Froilan Gonzalez. But it was an unsuccessful debut for Riseley-Prichard who suffered an accident after 40 laps and was forced to retire. He might have made more F1 appearances afterwards, had he not called time on his brief racing career just the following year. He took that decision in the aftermath of the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, which remains one of the darkest days in motorsport history.
Dozens were killed and more than 100 injured when Pierre Levegh crashed around two-and-a-half hours into the race. He died instantly when he was thrown from his car which flew up off the track and into the crowd. The exact death toll has been disputed but most sources, including a BBC Four documentary on the disaster, suggest 83 spectators were killed along with Levegh, while around 120 more suffered injuries. It remains the most lethal accident in motorsport history and led to a temporary ban on racing in many countries, including in Switzerland where many forms of motorsport remain prohibited to this day.
