Vern Schuppan—The Le Mans Winner and his Talbot-Lago

The motor racing career of Australian Vern Schuppan has been written up extensively over the years. Born in South Australia, Vern was smitten with motor racing early in his life, initially with karts before setting off to the UK, in 1969, with his wife Jennifer to become a Formula 1 driver.

In 1971, in only his second year of racing, Vern won the single-seater Formula Atlantic championship, which led to a drive in two non-championship F1 races with BRM; the Gold Cup at Oulton Park and the John Player Victory Race at Brands Hatch. In these races, he was placed fifth and fourth respectively and astonishingly while Vern hadn’t driven an F1 car beforehand, BRM immediately signed him for the full 1973 GP season.