Killed in the Tourist Trophy race at Oulton Park. A tough, rugged, blunt chap who raced anything and everything for the sheer love of the sport, Hawkeye is best remembered for his sportscar prowess and for surviving a crash into Monaco's harbour during a Grand Prix. He won the 1967 Targa Florio and was also a winner in sportscars and the South African F1 series. Hawkins had a reputation as a safe driver who got interested in the sport as his father raced motorcycles for a short while, although by Paul's birth was an Apostolic minister, who built the first Apostolic church in Brisbane. Paul moved to England in 1960 with hardly any money to his name, but he secured a job as a mechanic with Healey which sustained his emigration and also advanced his racing career at the same time. Paul was initially an electrical apprentice at a paper mill before becoming interested in racing. He also worked as an apprentice garage mechanic before initially taking up racing in hillclimbs and sportscars in Australia. When he joined Healey, he worked closely with John Sprinzel of Sprite fame, and it was Sprinzel who gave Paul a car to race with; from thereon, Hawkins was set up career-wise. Hawkins then worked with Sprinzel as a workshop foreman and mechanic and this knowledge was evident through Paul's mechanical sympathy with racing cars.

Biography last updated 25 Feb 2018