He retired to the island of Elba where he passed away at the age of 69 after a long illness: Rupert Keegan died yesterday, choosing Italy as his last destination. A wealthy British man, son of the owner of the airline British Air Ferries, he was immediately attracted to the world of racing, where he entered with a Ford Escort Mexico. He didn’t like touring cars, he preferred single-seaters and, therefore, he moved on to Formula Ford 1600 before earning the jump to English F3, winning the BP series title in 1976 with a Chevron-Toyota, while Bruno Giacomelli graduated in the more prestigious Shellsport series.
Rupert Keegan with the Chevron-Toyota with which he won the British BP F3 in 1976
Keegan was an exuberant guy who liked to enjoy the pleasures of life: he never had the makings of a champion, but he can be considered a skilled craftsman who was able to intelligently combine his passions: motorsport and beautiful women.
Long hair, good-looking, lanky: Rupert might have seemed like a sort of stand-in for James Hunt, but in reality the Englishman approached racing with less excess. It should not be surprising, however, that he arrived in F1 in 1977 with the Hesketh, the car that had launched Hunt before he became world champion with McLaren in 1976.
Rupert Keegan with the Hesketh 308D in 1977
He competed in 12 GPs with Penthouse Rizla Racing, a team created thanks to the support of the men-only magazine: his 308E was easily recognizable in the group for the little woman that stood out on the bodywork. He had obtained his best result with a seventh place in the Austrian GP, but he had never scored a point because at the time only the first six were awarded. In 1978 he moved to Surtees alternating first on the TS19 and then on the TS20, getting little satisfaction between non-qualifications, accidents and breakdowns. But even here he had not gone unnoticed since the sponsor was Durex, a condom company.
Rupert Keegan at the 1978 Monaco GP with the Surtees TS19
In 1979 he left the Circus and tried his luck in Formula Aurora, the championship that uses old F1 cars: with the Arrows A1B he won the series that had also seen Giacomo Agostini and Lella Lombardi on the track.
Driven by success, he tried again to jump into F1 with a Williams FW07, now dated, from the private RAM team, but he had collected very little satisfaction. In 1982 he finished with the Circus: a few appearances with the March 821 that had brought Rothmans to the GPs, a sponsor that would then have great prominence in the following years.
Keegan had expanded his interests to include endurance racing, opening up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans (best result in 1983 was fifth place with the Porsche of the FitzpatrickRacing team) and Champ Car in America, always with sporadic appearances that had also led him to compete in the Indianapolis 500 with Gohr Racing.
His last outing was in 1995 with the Lister GT1 with which he returned to Le Mans. Rupert did not leave a particular mark on motorsport, but the character had made himself loved for his innate sympathy that allowed him to frequent the world of the most celebrated champions for a long time.
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