Brazilian racing driver
Christian Heins
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Nationality
| Brazilian
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Born
| (
1935-01-16
)
January 16, 1935
Sao Paulo
, Brazil
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Died
| June 15, 1963
(1963-06-15)
(aged 28)
Le Mans
, France
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Years active
| 1954?1963
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|
24 Hours of Le Mans
Sports Cars
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Christian Heins
(January 16, 1935 ? June 15, 1963) known as "Bino", was a Brazilian
sports car
racing driver
.
[1]
Life
[
edit
]
Heins was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to a Brazilian
entrepreneur
and an Italian mother. His maternal grandfather taught him to drive. He completed a course for foreigners at
Mercedes-Benz
at
Stuttgart
and began his racing career at age 19.
Career
[
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]
Early in his career, he was nicknamed "Comet" because he was faster than several of his more successful opponents. His first major event was the
Mille Miglia
in 1956 with Eugenio Martins. The race ended the next year after the death of
Alfonso de Portago
. In 1958, Heins survived a crash during the
sports car
version of the Belgian
Grand Prix
. His car hit a stack of hay bales, became airborne, flipped and slid with his upper body exposed. He suffered only minor injuries.
On returning to Brazil in 1960, he found that his trophies did not have a formal bill of sale and had been confiscated. Infuriated, his sister wrote to Brazilian president
Juscelino Kubitschek
, asking for the trophies to be returned.
Christian, along with his friend
Chico Landi
, won the
Mil Milhas Brasil
race later that year with a
FNM
JK. He won many races in this car between 1960 and 1962. Long distance races became more popular than sprints and soon Heins' influence formed the Willys team and created the
Alpine
based
Willys Interlagos
. Heins and his team soon started winning every race they entered. Christian was recognized as one of Brazil's greatest drivers of the early 1960s. Eventually, the Interlagos and Willys were taken by Simca, then Ford, Chrysler and VW before closing in 1968.
Death
[
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]
Heins was invited to race an
Alpine M63 Renault
in the
1963 24 Hours of Le Mans
and accepted, even though he was planning to retire. The car was painted with longitudinal bands of green and yellow and was equipped with a 996 cc (60.8 cu in) engine. Jose Rosinski was his co-driver. However, five hours into the race, the engine of the
Bruce McLaren
/
Innes Ireland
Aston Martin DP214
blew up, causing 20 liters of oil to be spilled on the track. Drivers
Ninian Sanderson
and
Mike Salmon
avoided the oil, but not
Roy Salvadori
; his
Jaguar E-Type lightweight
spun on the oil, became airborne, landed on its roof and burst into flames. Jean-Pierre Manzon in his
Rene Bonnet
Aerodjet LM6 hit the Jaguar and stopped in the middle of the track. Heins, who was leading his class at the time, was unable to avoid the wreck, swerved out of control and hit another vehicle. His car then spun into a lamp post and exploded into flames. Manzon and Salvadori were injured, but survived. Heins died at the scene from severe burns and massive head injuries.
[1]
He was interred at the Cemetery of Redentor in
Sao Paulo
on 27 June 1963.
References
[
edit
]