Kenneth Henry Downing (5 December 1917 – 3 May 2004) was a British

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. From a wealthy family connected to G.H. Downing & Co., he began racing as a privateer in the late 1940s, and with

Connaught Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine ...

in 1951, winning 17 races throughout the year. He then competed in the

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

Formula One championship. Downing switched to single seaters in 1952, racing a

Connaught A-Type The Connaught Type A was a Formula Two race car, designed, developed, and built by British manufacturer Connaught Engineering in 1950 and used until the late 1950s. Nine Type A units were built between 1950 and 1953. A tenth car was built up fro ...

, and won the Madgwick Cup at Goodwood and second place at the

Grand Prix des Frontières The Grand Prix des Frontières was a motor race held at a street circuit in Chimay, Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it ...

at Chimay, where he lost the lead at the end of the race several metres before the finish line. He finished ninth in the at Silverstone, but had run fourth in the race before spinning while avoiding a backmarker. He competed in the later that year, but retired from an oil-pressure problem. He switched to an

Aston Martin DB3 :''See Aston Martin DB Mark III for the road car often called "DB3"'' The Aston Martin DB3 and later DB3S were sports racing cars built in the 1950s. Although they used some DB2 parts, they were quite different, being designed specially for ...

for 1953, but decided to retire from racing soon after. Downing emigrated to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in the 1950s and was involved in mining sea diamonds with

De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...

. He later lived in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

where he died in 2004. His nephews, Ian and David Strickland-Skailes, were also noted racing drivers with the former having entered in the

1970 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged on 13 and 14 June 1970 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. It was the eighth race of the 1970 International Championship for Makes and was the 38th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The r ...

Complete Formula One World Championship results

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References

External links

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From Connaughts to Sea Diamonds – Ken Downing
', F1 Grand Prix Drivers Club {{DEFAULTSORT:Downing, Ken 1917 births 2004 deaths British racing drivers Connaught Formula One drivers English expatriates in Monaco English emigrants to South Africa English racing drivers English Formula One drivers People from Chesterton, Staffordshire 20th-century English sportsmen