Remembering Dave Walker 1941-2024
A story you might have missed was the recent passing of Australia’s works Lotus Formula 1 driver, Dave Walker (1941-2024).
While much-maligned for his disappointing stint at Lotus—he failed to score a point while teammate Emerson Fittipaldi became World Champion in 1972—Walker was a supremely gifted driver who beat the likes of James Hunt and Roger Williamson in Formula 3.
A trained accountant, Walker started out in club racing in Australia (eventually racing at the Australian Grand Prix and Bathurst 500) before deciding to try his luck in the UK. After winning the 1969 Les Leston FF1600 Championship, Walker attacted the attention of a certain Colin Chapman and was recruited by Golf Leaf Team Lotus for 1970.
In 1971, Walker won 25 of the 32 F3 races he contested with Lotus, winning both the Shell and Forward Trust UK F3 titles and winning the Monaco Grand Prix support race from pole.
Graduation to Formula 1 with Lotus followed, but unfamiliarity with circuits, difficulty taming the unique Lotus 72, an occasionally hostile environment and mechanical gremlins—by some accounts due to Walker’s lack of ‘mechanical sympathy’—conspired to make it a largely unhappy time.
Highlights were few and far between, with his best result fifth at the non-championship 1972 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Elsewhere, there were glimpses of speed, like at the 1971 Dutch Grand Prix, where he went from 22nd to 10th in five laps in the Lotus 56B turbine car before spinning off.
After parting ways with Lotus, Walker turned his attention towards F2 and sportscars before two serious road accidents in 1973 put the brakes on his career, resulting in his decision to retire at the end of 1975 after forays in F5000 and Formula Atlantic and a brief flirtation with the Japanese Maki Engineering Formula 1 team.
After retiring, Walker largely stepped away from the sport, only occasionally popping up as a spectator.
He passed away last month in Airlie Beach, where he lived and for many years ran a charter boat company.
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