Californian Tony Settember, who started six Grands Prix in 1962-63, passed away on Sunday at the age of 87.
Born in Manila, Settember made his name racing an MG, Mercedes and, later, a Corvette in west coast sportscar events.
In 1962 he entered F1 with a specially built Emeryson, and competed in the British and Italian Grands Prix, although he was too tall for the chassis. He also raced a Corvette at Le Mans, and as it had the biggest engine in the field, he was awarded the top starting position.
The Emeryson design formed the basis of the Scirocco-BRM he raced in 1963. He started at Spa, Reims, Silverstone and the Nurburgring, failing to finish on every occasion. He then failed to qualify at Monza. He was equally ill-starred in non-championship F1 races, but managed to finish second behind Jack Brabham at Zeltweg in a race of high attrition that saw just three cars see the flag.
After giving up on F1 he returned to the US scene, appearing in CanAm events and racing in the F5000 series as late as 1974.
