Carroll Shelby

Carroll Hall Shelby was born on January 11, 1923, to Warren Hall Shelby, a rural mail carrier, and his wife, Eloise Shelby (born Lawrence), in Leesburg, Texas. The younger Shelby suffered from heart valve leakage problems by the age of seven and related complications throughout his life. From a young age, Shelby was fascinated with speed, which led to an interest in cars and airplanes. He moved to Dallas, Texas at the age of seven with his family, and around age ten, he rode his bicycle to nearby dirt tracks to watch races. At the age of 15, he was driving and taking care of his father's Ford. Shelby honed his driving skills with his Willys automobile while attending Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas. He graduated in 1940.

Shelby enrolled at The Georgia Institute of Technology in the Aeronautical Engineering program.

Shelby enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps on April 11, 1941, eight months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He began pilot training that November at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. He graduated with the rank of staff sergeant pilot in September 1942 at Ellington Field. After more training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in December 1942.

Shelby served as a flight instructor and test pilot in the Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan and Curtiss-Wright AT-9 Jeep. He was posted to several other air bases in Texas, including Kelly Field, Cuero Field, Perrin Army Air Field, Ellington Field, and Childress Army Airfield. He trained bombardiers and navigators. He went on to fly the Douglas B-18 Bolo, the North American B-25 Mitchell, the Douglas A-26 Invader, and finally the Boeing B-29 Superfortress at Denver, Colorado.

Shelby was then discharged after V-J Day. Afterwards, Shelby started a dump truck business, worked as an oil-well roughneck from 1948 to 1949, then started a poultry farm but went bankrupt in 1952.

Shelby began his racing career as an amateur. In May 1952, Shelby raced his friend Ed Wilkin's MG TC at the Norman Grand Prix in Norman, Oklahoma. At this race is where he first used the 98 racing number he carried for the remainder of his career in motorsports. Later in the year, he raced Charles Brown's Cadillac-Allards at Caddo Mills, Texas. At the end of 1952, Shelby won four races, taking home only trophies and accepting no prize money.

In 1953, Shelby raced Brown's Cad-Allard, then Roy Cherryhomes' Cad-Allard, winning eight or nine races.

The following year, Shelby drove in the Mil Kilometros de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, sponsored by the Automobile Club of Argentina and the Sports Car Club of America. There he met John Wyer, Aston Martin's team manager, who asked Shelby to drive their DBR3 at Sebring. During the race, the DBR3 broke an axle and did not finish.

In April 1954, Shelby traveled to Europe, where he raced a DBR3 for Aston Martin at Aintree, then at Le Mans. He and Graham Whitehead took fifth place in an Aston Martin at the 1,000 km at Monza on 27 June. He then drove in the three-car factory team effort at Silverstone on 17 July with Peter Collins and Roy Salvadori; they took the three top places.

In August, Shelby drove with Donald Healey and his team. In an Austin-Healey 100S and supercharged 100S, they set Class D National speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Shelby, Healey, Captain G.E.T. Eyston, Mortimer Morris Goodall, and Roy Jackson-Moore set about 70 records, with Shelby setting 17 on his own. Shelby was severely injured in a crash while racing an Austin-Healey in the Carrera Panamericana.

Amid eight months of operations, Shelby continued to drive in 1955, winning about ten races and mounting a second-place showing at Sebring driving Allen Guiberson's Ferrari Monza. He started driving Tony Paravano's Ferraris in August.

In 1956, Shelby won 30 more races with the Ferrari, started driving for John Edgar, and opened Carroll Shelby Sports Cars in Dallas. He drove in the Mount Washington Hillclimb Auto Race in a specially prepared Ferrari 375 GP roadster, to a record run of 10 minutes, 21.8 seconds. He also set records at Giants Despair Hillclimb, and raced at Brynfan Tyddyn. He was Sports Illustrated magazine's driver of the year in 1956.

In September 1957, Shelby raced John Edgar's 4.5-liter Maserati at the Riverside International Raceway, where he was involved in a crash that caused injuries requiring 72 stitches and plastic surgery for broken bones in his nose and cheekbones. He returned in November, winning with the same car at the same course, against Masten Gregory and Dan Gurney. He repeated as Sports Illustrated driver of the year.

On 18 May 1958, Shelby joined John Wyer and the Aston Martin team in Europe and drove a DBR3 at the Belgian Sports Car Grand Prix. He then drove a DBR1 at the Nürburgring 1000 km with co-driver Salvadori. Shelby was teamed up with Salvadori at Le Mans, but Shelby came down with dysentery and was replaced by Stuart Lewis-Evans a few hours into the race. Shelby then drove a Maserati 250F for Mimo Dei's Scuderia Centro Sud in 3 Grand Prix races to gain Formula 1 and open-wheel car experience, including the Portuguese Grand Prix. Shelby finished the year driving John Edgar's 4.5L Maserati in the Tourist Trophy at Nassau.

Shelby and Salvadori started the 1959 sports car season by driving the DBR1/300 at Sebring in March. In June, Shelby drove Wolfgang Seidel's Porsche in the Nürburgring 1000 km. The highlight of his racing career came in June 1959 when he co-drove an Aston Martin DBR1 (with Englishman Roy Salvadori) to victory in the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans. In September, Shelby drove with Jack Fairman in the Goodwood Tourist Trophy.

The 1959 Grand Prix season saw Shelby driving the Aston Martin DBR4 in the Dutch Grand Prix in May, followed by the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July. Shelby then drove in the Portuguese Grand Prix in August, followed by the Italian Grand Prix in September.

Shelby finished the 1959 racing season driving Casner Motor Racing Division's Birdcage Maserati at the Nassau races in December. In January 1960, he drove Temple Buell's Maserati 250F in the New Zealand Grand Prix, then Camoradi's Porsche in the Cuban Gran Premio Libertad, then their 2.9-liter Birdcage Maserati at Sebring. He won the Grand Prix at Riverside driving one of "Lucky" Cassner's Birdcage Maseratis, and then won the Castle Rock race in June, driving a Scarab. He finished the year driving Max Balchowsky's "Old Yeller II" in the Road America, then a Birdcage Maserati in the Pacific Grand Prix and the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix, which was his last race.

Shelby later wrote that "winning the Twenty-four Hours was probably the greatest thrill I ever got out of racing. I can think of plenty of other races that carry their quota of thrills for the winner, but when you win this one, it kind of gives you license to go out and tell people you're good, and that often helps get some other deals together."

Shelby was married seven times; the first and last marriages lasted 15 years before divorce proceedings.

Shelby's first wife was Jeanne Fields; they married on December 18, 1943. They had three children: Sharon Anne (born September 27, 1944), Michael Hall (born November 2, 1946), and Patrick Bert (born October 23, 1947). They divorced in February 1960.

Shelby later admitted to an extramarital affair with Jan Harrison, an actress. In 1962, Shelby married Harrison, but the marriage was annulled the same year. His third marriage, to a New Zealand woman, which he entered in order to get her into the United States, lasted only a few weeks before ending in divorce. His fourth marriage, to Sandra Brandstetter, lasted a couple of years before ending in divorce.

In 1989, after 28 years of being single, Carroll married Cynthia Psaros, a former actress, beauty queen, and daughter of a retired US Marine colonel fighter pilot. During this marriage, Carroll received his long-awaited heart transplant. Their marriage lasted a few years before ending in divorce. In the 1990s he married Helena "Lena" Dahl, a Swedish woman he had met in 1968. She died in a car accident in 1997. It was his only marriage that did not end in divorce, annulment, or separation.

Just four months after Dahl's death, Shelby married his last wife, Cleo (nee Rendell-Roberts), a British former model who drove rally cars. She was 25 years his junior. They were in the process of divorce when he died in 2012.

Shelby received a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996.

Shelby died on May 10, 2012, at the age of 89. He had been suffering from a serious heart ailment for decades.