Denmark’s first F1 racer Tom Belso has lost a long battle with stomach cancer as he died at the age of 77-years.
Belso made his F1 debut in 1973 with Frank Williams Racing cars during the Swedish GP, where he only took part in practice as he couldn’t race due to sponsorship money not coming through. He stayed with the team and eventually started in 1974 South African GP.
Belso competed in four F1 rounds that year but couldn’t qualify in two of the races. He also raced in few non-championship races as well, which was relatively common in those days. He is well known for winning his debut race in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship.
He eventually took the title in 1969, from where he moved to single-seaters in F2. Apart from the above mentioned championships, Belso has competed in Formula 5000 and found his own manufacturing company ‘Belso Cereals’ for alternative career.
Belso sold out in 2005 but stayed back in the United Kingdom. He was married to Barbara with whom he had a daughter, while he had two sons with his first wife. He last raced in 2001 at the Goodwood Revival event in a Volvo 122S.
Following Belso, Denmark had three other F1 racers with Jan Maganussen racing between 1995 and 1998, Nicolas Kiesa between 2002 and 2003 and finally Kevin Magnussen, who started in 2014 and has been in the sport since – which includes reserve role in 2015.
From everyone at FormulaRapida.net, we pay our condolences