A tribute to Pedro Rodriguez

Pedro Rodriguez, wearing a deerstalker

celebrity deerstalker

Now for something completely different. Pedro Rodriguez was Mexican, but he still liked to sport a deerstalker. So dedicated fan Luc Ghys paid tribute by snapping F1 drivers wearing one…
“ Crazy? Maybe I am… ” admits Luc Ghys. Even back in the comparatively relaxed 1970s, a request from a Belgian Pedro Rodriguez fan to have his photo taken with you wearing a deerstalker must have seemed a little random. But as this collection shows, most grand prix drivers did not object.
Ghys called on an aunt living in London to buy a deerstalker to match the tifter worn by his hero Rodriguez. She arrived in Belgium the day after the Mexican was killed in July 1971. Luc was devastated.
As a tribute (and a novel way to break the ice with F1 stars), Ghys began chasing personalities around the paddocks to collect a unique album of photographs. They were taken at Belgian Grands Prix at Nivelles and Zolder between 1973 and ’76, and also at the British GP at Brands Hatch in ’74.
Luc didn't own a camera and had to borrow one for his quest. But with the help of his brother Carlos, friends and Carlos’s girlfriend (the woman who appears in some of these shots), he captured most of the GP stars of the decade. Only two turned him down: a hassled Jackie Ickx and an unimpressed Graham Hill.
So here are F1 drivers in deerstalkers-and Luc’s favourite memories of them.

Alan Jones, posing with deerstalker Brett Lunger, posing with deerstalker Carlos Pace, posing with deerstalker Carlos Reutemann, posing with deerstalker David Purley, posing with deerstalker Denny Hulme, posing with deerstalker Derek Bell, posing with deerstalker Emerson Fittipaldi, posing with deerstalker Gunnar Nilsson, posing with deerstalker Hans Joachim Stuck, posing with deerstalker Helen Stewart, posing with deerstalker Howden Ganley, posing with deerstalker James Hunt, posing with deerstalker Jean-Pierre Jarier, posing with deerstalker Jochen Mass, posing with deerstalker Jody Scheckter, posing with deerstalker John Surtees, posing with deerstalker Ken Tyrrell, posing with deerstalker Lella Lombardi, posing with deerstalker Lord Hesketh, posing with deerstalker Loris Kessel, posing with deerstalker Maria Helena Fittipaldi, posing with deerstalker Mario Andretti, posing with deerstalker Mark Donohue, posing with deerstalker Niki Lauda, posing with my brother Luc Peter Gethin, posing with deerstalker Ronnie Peterson, posing with deerstalker Tim Schenken, posing with deerstalker Tom Pryce, posing with deerstalker Vern Schuppan, posing with deerstalker Vittorio Brambilla, posing with deerstalker Wilson Fittipaldi, posing with deerstalker Graham Hill, posing with deerstalker

“We arrived at Silverstone on the Tuesday before the 1973 British GP.
Ronnie Peterson and Emerson Fittipaldi were giving rides to journalists and guests in a lotus Europa and an Elan. I had Ronnie’s deerstalker picture with me and one of Fittipaldi’s wife, Maria-Helena. She was sitting on the pit guard rail, so I showed her the photo and we got talking.
Then Peterson stopped and asked if anyone wanted a ride. There was no-one around, so I put my hand up. The door was closed and I had fastened my belts when there was a knock on the window. It was Lotus team manager Peter Warr asking if I was Press. When I admitted I wasn’t, he said, “Out!”. But Fittipaldi’s wife convinced him to let me have a ride.
Those two laps with Ronnie was an experience I will never forget”…

Source: Motorsport Magazine

Emerson Fittipaldi at the wheel of a Lotus Elan

Emerson Fittipaldi at the wheel of a Lotus Elan

Ronnie Peterson at the wheel of a JPS Lotus Europe Ronnie Peterson at the wheel of a JPS Lotus Europe

Ronnie Peterson at the wheel of a JPS Lotus Europe

Ronnie Peterson:“anyone wants a ride”

Ronnie Peterson at speed in the Lotus Europe through Woodcote corner

Ronnie Peterson hurrying the Lotus Europe through Woodcote corner

Ronnie Peterson, Emerson and Maria-Helena Fittipaldi.

Ronnie Peterson with Emerson and Maria-Helena Fittipaldi.

Ronnie Peterson with his father Bengt Maria-Helena Fittipaldi sitting on the pitwall

(left):  “SuperSwede”­ accompanied by his father Bengt Peterson.
(right):  Maria-Helena Fittipaldi insisted to let my brother Luc have a ride with Ronnie Peterson…

view from the passenger seat, coming out of Woodcote corner

View from the passenger’s seat, coming out of Woodcote corner.
This is the result of a small camera, high speed and thrilling emotions…