There is nothing more enticing than a secret. People love them because it allows them to indulge in flights of fancy. Maybe this happened, maybe that happened. Who can say? And if no-one can say, then there is no-one to contradict a theory…
There is much mystery surrounding first American-born Formula 1 driver – if one excludes the participants in the Indy 500, which was a World Championship event but was never run to F1 rules – and Harry Schell, who was American but had been born and had lived most of his life in France and Switzerland.
His name was Robert O’Brien and no-one knows much about him. Some say he ran a European car parts business in New Jersey, where he was born in 1908. The problem is that there do not appear to be any Robert O’Briens born in New Jersey in 1908…
There are records to show that a man of that name raced in the 1950 Carrera Panamericana in Mexico, by which time he would have been 42. In 1952 the name popped up again at Watkins Glen, Allentown and at Palm Beach. He was, by all accounts, an East Coast person. In 1952 he raced at Vero Beach and Sebring in Florida and then at Bridgehampton, in New York. Most of the races were in a Jaguar XK120, which fitted in with his supposed role as an importer of foreign car parts. There was also a Ferrari and a Connaught sports car. In entry lists he was listed as being from New Jersey and was linked to a company called European Parts Exchange Inc. of Newark, New Jersey, although this was owned by a California-based Norwegian. The company did well, however, as it expanded from Kearny to Newark and later moved into even bigger premises in Meadowlands.
Some people think he was born in 1922. Similarly no-one can agree on when or where he died, some saying 1987, others 1997. And none of the combinations fit anyone in the US government records.
We are not helped by the fact that O’Brien is a pretty common name in the US, most of them being on the East Coast, the offspring of Irish and Scottish immigrants. Some have extrapolated all this to suggest that O’Brien must have been some kind of secret CIA agent, who used the name as a cover, but that does not seem a very likely explanation either.
What we can tell from results is that in the late 1950s, after a gap of five years, a Robert C O’Brien, resident in Tiburon, on San Francisco Bay, began taking part in races on the West Coast, using British machinery, notably an Austin-Healey, which appeared at race tracks in places like Stockton, Cotati, Sacramento and Laguna Seca. The following year he appeared at Tracy and Vaca Valley, again in California and it was the same from 1958 through to 1961. Occasionally he would appear in races in Nevada. His last race being in 1963. The name changes as well with Rob sometimes used and other times Robert or Bob.
Were there two Robert O’Briens, or did the man from New Jersey move to California?
What we do know about him is that he turned up in Europe in the summer of 1952, going from race to race towing a Fraser-Nash sports car behind a hefty Cadillac. In June he appeared at Spa and talked Johnny Claes into letting him race a Simca-Gordini T15 (presumably money was involved) in Ecurie Belge colours. He was not very quick, qualifying last and finishing a distant 14th in the Grand Prix, six laps behind the winning Alberto Ascari. In August he then appeared at the curious egg-shaped race track called the Grenzlandring, not far from the Dutch-German border, where he raced the same car again.
Perhaps there are people out there who know?
joeblogsf1 
Love it.
Looking forward to the comments on this one. With such an informed group the sleuthing should be good.
I have sleuthed considerably electronically and on paper, but I need humint, for those who know what that means.
Intelligence work
Human intelligence
What an intriguing story!
Stand by your beds, all you FFF fanboys, because here’s the story of another elusive man of mystery whose biographical details didn’t make sense until his true identity was ‘busted’ by a dogged investigator (keep at it, Joe!). To make the whole thing even more hair-raisingly extraordinary, the man involved was another O’Brien, although he spelled it slightly differently.
Patrick O’Brian was the author of, among other delectable treats, the 20 historical novels which chart the adventures of Jack Aubrey and Esteban (Stephen) Maturín during the naval conflicts in which Britain was involved around 200 years ago. The two principal characters — Aubrey an enterprising English sea captain, Maturín a Catalan/Irish misfit and spy with medical skills — are the fruit of O’Brian’s glorious imagination. With their very human talents and faults, they make a compellingly believable partnership. In 1991 the books were hailed by the New York Times as ‘the greatest historical novels ever written.’
C.S.Forester had already done something similar with his novels about Horatio Hornblower, but they get a bit confusing because they were not written in chronological order. O’Brian started at the beginning, with Aubrey and Maturín’s first encounter at a musical evening in the Governor’s House overlooking the Port of Mahón in Menorca. (Personal note: when I read that first book in the series, ‘Master and Commander,’ we happened to be living in Mahón, about 200 yards up the street from the old Governor’s House.)
Even as O’Brian’s novels began to capture the imagination of readers, little was known about the man. He had apparently served as an intelligence officer during the war before getting married and becoming a father. He had then abandoned his family and run off with the wife of one of his friends to French Catalonia, where for some years they lived in abject poverty. He had started to make a living with translation work, in the course of which he became friendly with Pablo Picasso, writing what would be the first English-language biography of the artist.
It was not until after he’d written a biography of Joseph Banks, the botanist who had accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery to the Antipodes, that O’Brian was inspired to write his sea novels, garnished (as they are) with a depth of knowledge about sailing ships, warfare, surgery and other matters which make them irresistible. Even so, the first book was rejected by several big publishing houses which would rue their poor judgment when the ongoing sagas of Aubrey and Maturín at last hit the best-seller lists and made O’Brian a wealthy man as he approached pensionable age.
This very success had the inevitable side-effect of making O’Brian himself a target of interest, especially from the American writer Dean King, who wanted to write a biography of the literary star. O’Brian, who valued his privacy, resisted. He was in fact now enjoying the sunshine of his fame, having been invited by the US Navy to take a trip on a nuclear submarine (just for him!) and would spend some time being lionised in Dublin, where Trinity College obligingly provided him with accommodation.
Dean King’s probings eventually turned up the truth about the author, who had been born in Buckinghamshire in 1914, to a family of part-German stock, under the name of Richard Patrick Russ. The biography (‘A Life Revealed,’ Henry Holt, 2000) has almost as many twists and turns as the life of its subject, who seems to have felt uncomfortable about the shameful episode involving his first marriage and his elopement with Mary, the love of his life. The guilt even seems to have inflected his choice of pen name, because ‘O’Brian’ with an ‘a’ is an uncommon spelling for persons of genuinely Irish descent. But then he was no more Irish than I am.
The Aubrey/Maturín novels have been hailed as masterpieces by people from all walks of life, most importantly by fellow-writers and naval historians. I have read all 20 of them twice over and am looking forward to a third reading. But it was only when I was halfway through my second perusals that I suddenly understood one of the best reasons for enjoying them so much. I reflected that the naval conflicts of the period, with their combination of the competitive human spirit, international political skulduggery, calculated violence and high technology (albeit wind-powered), provided exactly the same emotions that Formula 1 motor racing would inspire 200 years later in fans like us.
Am I getting beyond myself here, or are there any readers out there who agree with me?
interesting story indeed Mr. The Hack! Thank You very much
hello Hack !
Not sure if I can relate F1 to O’Brian’s characters because the power and strength in the novels comes from the relationship between the two main characters therein, combined with the extraordinary historical accuracy in everything from tactics to naval medicine, to ship design – unless Newey is Maturin – but who would be Aubrey ? However I totally agree regarding the magic of O’Brian – and I too am waiting to embark on my third reading of them (but will wait another 12 months so as to keep the tension alive by virtue of an intermittent memory). However first I’ll read O’Brians “The Road to Samarcand” (published in 1954, and in which some elements of the Maturin/Aubrey duo can be first glimpsed). I discovered this book quite by chance last week.
peteerm, thanks much for that information about ‘The Road to Samarcand’, just ordered it. I’m on my third reading of the Aubrey books, after having gotten my daughter hooked by sending her copies of the first nine. There’s a partial #21 out there that wasn’t finished, unfortunately, before O’Brian’s death. Not sure if it’s worth the read though.
I too very much enjoyed reading all of the Aubrey Maturin books, though thus far just the once, and thought that the movie Master and Commander made a pretty good fist of it but you are also probably aware that much of the stories is based on the real life actions of one of Nelson’s contemporaries.
I entirely agree with your assessment, Mr Piers, of the ‘Master and Commander’ movie, which was directed by a chap (the Australian Peter Weir) who loved the books as much as you and me, and his work would surely have met with O’Brian’s approval.
But while Russell Crowe made an admirable Aubrey, the choice of a tall, gingerish Englishman (Paul Bettany) to play Maturín was grossly inappropriate. It seems that notwithstanding Weir’s respect for the books, Hollywood was unwilling to accept, as the supporting hero, a slightly hunched near-dwarf with sallow skin and disturbingly revolutionary politics.
O’Brian had been at pains to depict Stephen Maturín as someone who was difficult to love, despite his talents in the fields of medicine, music and espionage. One suspects also that greasy-haired Stephen, a man who set off for a voyage around the world with just three fresh shirts, may have been a less than fragrant companion. Not in this film, though!
Nearly as astonishing as the story of the early 20th century ‘Canadian native conservationist’ named Grey Owl. He became a national celebrity through his conservation work. After his death it was found that he was was Archibald Belaney born in Hastings Uk. All on Wikipedia. Too far off topic to elaborate here!
You’re right Hack. I have also read all the books twice and I never realised that in a different time period Jack Aubrey would have been a Formula 1 world champion.
Great analogy.
Does anyone out there know anything about Robert O’Brien???
Sorry, boss, but if you’ve drawn a blank on O’Brien, that means that the rest of us are highly unlikely to do any better.
Of course, it would have been different if someone had written 20 books about him …
He would have needed an FIA license to enter the races so wouldn’t there be some record at Place de la Concorde?
Briggs Cunningham’s daughter still lives here and might know more since her father’s partner and Cunningham team driver Bill Spear knew O’Brien well enough to “lend” him his Ferrari.
I would think that Denise McCluggage would have known, but she’s dead.
Makes it hard for her to tell us…
Oiuja board….
For one, I have nothing to add…
I’m sure you’ll be aware of this, but I’ve read that Robert O’Brien also raced at Charterhall in October ’52 in a Formula Libre race – using the Gordini.
I wish I could contribute something to uncovering where O’Brien came from (and where he went) – but intrigued by his story (and the Grenzlandring), I did make a trip to Wegberg and Beeck. As you say, a curious place for a motor race.
Very intriguing FF1F! one nearly wants to jump in and join to keep digging. P.S. Thanks Joe for all these stories
Robert O’Brien (racing driver) has a wikipedia page. It says he was born April 11, 1908, in Lyndhurst, N.J. and died on February 10, 1987, aged 78, in Hackensack, N.J. It references his race at spa but not much else.There is a second reference on the page that gives the following information – “One of the most obscure racers, for whom many theories about him were suggested which included spy and CIA links – all since rubbished – O’Brien was a sportscar racer who made a few racing appearances in Europe via Belgian contacts. O’Brien was later involved in the garage/motor industry in both his home state and New York. O’Brien was definitely a regular racer in SCCA racing who achieved some results of note before making a surprise and brief move to Europe to race at the Belgian Grand Prix and then at the Grenzlandring before moving back to the US where after a while his career faded away.”
I am aware of this, but none of it adds up… Does anyone have any real information?
Don’t want to be picky but the 1952 Belgian GP was a World Championship race but for F2 cars. Thus Robert O’Brien never drove in F1. Great story though.
It was a World Championship race, which is always deemed to have been F1.
My Dad, James L Cooke was a Canadian Army Officer who returned from WW2 with the Canadian distribution rights to Jaguar, MG, Austin, Wolseley, Riley, Jeep,etc. He demonstrated the brands by racing in Watkins Glen, Sebring, etc. He was friends with Northern Calif Distributor,of similar brands, Kjell Qvale. That Family was active in racing out there for many,many years. If they kept some history records they may have more insight into this gentleman..?
Yes, the Qvale Family were the people who owned the parts supply business.
Robert O’Brien is my wife’s grandfather.