As we say in Australia.
In this case the meaning is an unfortunate set of circumstances that are set in train that end up badly for the initiator and well for the recipient.
Young British up-and-comer Stephen South was looking good for 1980, he had a strong season in the 1979 European F2 Championship – sixth with one win at Hockenheim – and had been signed up as one of two Team Toleman drivers together with Derek Warwick to pilot a pair of Rory Byrne designed Toleman TG280 2-litre Hart 420Rs in the 1980 championship.
He’d done the early testing at Goodwood in early February above – see the Autosport article at the end of this piece – and it was all looking good until South was offered Alain Prost’s McLaren seat for the March 30 Long Beach Grand Prix. The little Frenchie had crashed and broken his wrist during practice for the preceding South African Grand Prix at Kyalami. It wasn’t a great call by South as McLaren were on a roll of building dog after dog Ground Effect cars: the M28/M29/M30, but the F1 siren-call was ever strong.
The communication between South and Toleman is unclear but it seems that Stephen tested the McLaren without first clearing it with Toleman, such consent was unlikely given the first European F2 Championship round was to be held at Thruxton on April 7, only a week later.
The upshot was that Stephen lost his ride which went to Brian Henton. Somewhat predictably, South failed to make the qualifying cut at Long Beach together with Geoff Lees and David Kennedy aboard Shadow DN11A Fords.
Brian Henton – who had finished second in the 1979 Euro F2 Championship aboard a Toleman Ralt RT2 Hart – seized the Gift from The Gods with both hands and won at Thruxton from Warwick on the way to championship victory easily from his teammate and Teo Fabi’s factory March 802 BMW.
It wasn’t a compete disaster for South at this point as he then picked up a plum-seat with Newman Racing driving one of two new Lola T530 Chevs together with Elliot Forbes Robinson in the 1980 Can-Am Challenge.
Without a lot of testing, and despite being in a field of drivers with plenty of Big Car Experience: Patrick Tambay, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Geoff Brabham and Keke Rosberg to name a few, Stephen shone with raw pace and aggression.
He qualified third in the first two rounds at Sears Point and Mid Ohio but retired early with fuel pump and fuel pressure problems respectively. He then qualified fourth at Mosport and finished second to Tambay, on his way to the title. This was good, if Stephen could make a decent fist of it amongst this company he may get another crack at F1, he had tested well for Lotus at the end of 1979 but Chapman ultimately plumped for Elio De Angelis.
At Watkins Glen he was Q5 but collided with spinning teammate, Forbes-Robinson on lap 3 of the race. South bounced back to put his 550bhp T530 on pole at Road America, placing fifth. At Brainerd he was Q11 but didn’t start after a crash caused by a broken wheel, then the Shit Fairy arrived during the blue-riband Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières at Montreal on August 24.
With his Lola still not repaired, poor Stephen crashed very badly in practice head on aboard one of the team’s 1979 Lola T333 based Spyder NF11 Chevs, as a consequence of shocking injuries his lower left leg was amputated. End of career…
Lets not forget Stephen South, he had all the makings of a decent Grand Prix driver and would surely have ended 1980 better than it started…
I love this shot of a new Lola T530 Chev at Lola’s Huntingdon HQ early in 1980 before shipment to the US. The people and Austin (?) provide a sense of the size of these very biiiiig cars, the drivers were dropped into the cockpit via forklift. More about these beasts on the wonderful Lola Heritage site: https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t530/t530.html
Etcetera…
South on the way to winning the June 10 Rhein-Pokalrennen Hockenheim round of the 1979 Euro F2 Championship in a Project Four-ICI Racing March 792 BMW, his was his only F2 victory. The shot below is of Ron Dennis and Stephen with the March 792 that season.
The February 27, 1980 issue of Autosport ran this fantastic article by Marcus Pye about the new Toleman TG280 Hart together with Stephen South’s impressions after his first drive of the car at Thruxton.
Credits…
Autosport, Kurt Oblinger, Lola Heritage, Auto Tradition
Tailpiece…
The Autosport cover from which the first shot was filched.
Finito…
primotipo... 
I believe your piece misses the kicker (in the nuts). My recollection is that his insurance only covered USA, not all of North America, and they refused to pay out. Unsurprisingly, he was done with the sport, despite a lot of goodwill who had known him on the way up.
Cheers Richard,
Yep, that would have been hard to take while in the recovery ward. Thanks for that.
Mark