IT IS a mark of Jack Fairman’s abilities that (Sir) Stirling Moss personally chose him as his partner for the Nürburgring 1000km in June 1959, driving an Aston Martin DBR1. While the younger driver would provide the speed, as Moss said in his 1987 biography, My Cars, My Career, what he wanted was a, “steady, reliable and trustworthy co-driver.” Victory proved Moss’s choice was the right one.
Although Fairman only spent a single season with Aston Martin, it was arguably the most successful of his long career.
Born at Smallfield near Horley, Surrey, on 15 March 1913, Fairman was always more interested in cars than he was joining his family’s laundry business like his father had originally wanted. After attending Reigate Grammar School, he studied at Chelsea’s Automobile Engineering Training…
