by von Trips with 18. In 1961 von Trips established a go-kart race track in Kerpen, Germany. The track was later leased by Rolf Schumacher, whose sons, Michael and Ralf, made their first laps there. Death The 1961 Italian Grand Prix on 10 September saw von Trips tightly locked in the battle for the Formula One World Drivers' Championship that year with his teammate Phil Hill. During the race at Monza, his Ferrari collided with Jim Clark's Lotus. His car became airborne and crashed into a side barrier, fatally throwing von Trips from the car, and killing fifteen spectators. Clark described the accident, saying: "Von Trips and I were racing along the straightaway and were nearing one of the banked curves, the one on the southern end. We were about 100 metres from the beginning of the curve. Von Trips was running close to the inside of the track. I was closely following him, keeping near the outside. At one point Von Trips shifted sideways so that my front wheels collided with his back wheels. It was the fatal moment. Von Trips's car spun twice and went into the guardrail along the inside of the track. Then it bounced back, struck my own car and bounced down into the crowd." Movie footage of the crash that surfaced after the race showed that Clark's memory of the incident was inaccurate: after colliding with Clark, von Trips's car rode directly up an embankment on the outside of the track and struck a fence behind which spectators were closely packed. At the time of his death von Trips was leading the Formula One World Championship. He had previous incidents at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where he crashed cars in the 1956 Italian Grand Prix and the 1958 Italian Grand Prix, and was injured in both events. Racing record Complete Formula One World Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) * Indicates shared drive with Cesare Perdisa and Peter Collins† Indicates shared drive with Mike Hawthorn Formula One Non-Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) See also La Passione (1996 film) References Terminology note Regarding personal names, Graf is a German title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The feminine form is Gräfin. Further reading External links Film – Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips zwischen Rittergut und Rennstrecke 1928 births 1961