#gary hocking

Gary Hocking is one driver I have wanted to learn more about. I have a couple of clips of him from when I made classic f1 edits which I will make into gifs below.

So, in terms of info, there is not a lot I know, but I did come across a small bit of information in the latest book I read about him and Rob Walker.

So Gary Hocking was born in Caerleon, Wales, but grew up in Africa in Southern Rhodesia. Gary's sports interest was motorcycles, and very early on he was racing them.

He started attending proper races in the 50s, racing 300 and 500 cc. When John Surtees retired from motorbike racing to enter Formula One, Gary Hocking became MV Agusta's top driver and claimed a dual championship in the 300 and 500 cc.

However, after the death of his friend Tom Phillis, he retired from motorbike racing, deciding it was too dangerous, and instead went to auto racing. He competed in one race from the Gold Cup and the Rand Grand Prix.

On the 22nd of December, Gary was killed in a practice for the 1962 Natal Grand Prix. He was in a Rob Walker Lotus, which is a Lotus car Rob Walker brought from Colin Chapman to use in his team. It is unclear what exactly caused the crash, but the car went off the track and flipped, causing Gary Hocking to sustain injury to his head, which he later passed from. He had been registered to compete in a Formula One Grand Prix, but never did so.

In the book I mentioned, it briefly mentions Gary Hocking working for Rob Walker, where there was hope he could be like John Surtees, but when he quickly passed away, they sadly viewed it as someone getting into something they had no real idea about and that it was a pointless death.

There isn't much about Gary in the Formula One World as he never really raced in Formula One, but there is a lot of recognition in the motorcycle world. There is even a book published about him. I mean to buy it one day to learn more about him aside from the basic information above, but if you want to check it out yourself, then here is a link below

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