The curios kept by motorsport professionals

Motorsport is dangerous. It says so on the entry ticket - if you've been lucky enough to get to a track in 2020.

But the hazard involved doesn't only apply to the participants - it's also a dangerous pastime for those looking to keep their homes in a good state of feng shui, for there are all manner of items for those of a predisposition for hoarding to indulge.

From the litany of trophies drivers can collect in the course of a career, to sentimental items with a tale attached, there are almost indefinite opportunities for motorsport professionals to acquire personal collections.

For Autosport's Christmas double issue, we tracked down some of the more interesting items racing folk have chosen to keep.

Mika Salo, sacrificed F1 victory trophy

Mika Salo has a few trophies from his career at home, but the pot he cherishes most is one he didn't actually win. It's one he should have won: Eddie Irvine's trophy from the 1999 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Salo, a stand-in at Ferrari after Michael Schumacher broke a leg at Silverstone, famously moved out of the way to cede the victory to his team-mate.

Irvine gave it to Salo on the podium in Germany in recognition of his contribution to his championship challenge. The Northern Irishman moved eight points ahead of McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen with his inherited victory in front of his team-mate.

"It's a good memory and a good story," says Salo, who'd driven for Lotus, Tyrrell, Arrows and BAR before his six-race stint at Ferrari. "It's nice to know that I could have won a Formula 1 race in only my second start with a top team. That's why I like that trophy so much."

For a while, Salo also had his own trophy for finishing second at Hockenheim, before Irvine asked if he could have it. "I didn't care, because I had the one I wanted," he says, "and the wings had already been broken off mine."

Vincent Vosse, bronze Audi sculpture

Vincent Vosse is a hoarder of motorsport memorabilia. The winner of the Spa 24 Hours as both a driver and team owner, and now boss at the WRT Audi squad, has what he calls his "bar" above the garage where he keeps a collection that includes Jacky Ickx's first scramble bike and a damaged monocoque from a late-1990s Formula 3000 Reynard crashed by Kurt Mollekens. But his favourite is an unassuming piece of artwork.

The piece, which incorporates the four rings of Audi, was commissioned and given to him by fellow Belgian Enzo Ide to commemorate his title success in the 2016 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup driving a WRT-run Audi R8 LMS GT3. An amateur driver, Ide came out on top with four wins and a further three podiums across the 10 races, sharing first with Christopher Mies and then Robin Frijns in the finale.

"It's special to me because of the success we achieved that season with Enzo, who was a true gentleman driver," says Vosse. "I also like it because it's unique."

Quentin Spurring, autographed podium champagne cork

Prowess on the cricket pitch isn't something motorsport journalists often get to employ in their line of work. Yet in October 1978, Autosport editor Quentin Spurring put all his years standing in the slips to good use at the Silverstone USAC event. He plucked the cork fired from the bottle of champagne with which AJ Foyt was celebrating race victory aboard his Foyt-Ford 75 straight out of the air.

A few years later, he managed to get it signed by the great man and cherishes it to this day.

"The podium was on some kind of low-loader," recalls Spurring, who edited Autosport between 1976 and 1981 and again from 1983-88. "I remember the cork coming towards me flat and low. It was a decent catch, I have to say."

Spurring kept the cork and took it with him to the Daytona 24 Hours some time in the 1980s. "I seem to remember it was 1988," he says. "AJ was really happy to sign it and even remembered the way the cork popped."

But of Spurring's gallant catch, Foyt had no memory.

Stefan Johansson, Ferrari brake caliper

Stefan Johansson has a brake caliper nicely mounted on a plinth. He keeps it in his office, not for the memories it inspires - because they aren't necessarily good - but, he says, "for the story behind it".

The caliper comes from a Ferrari F1/86. Or rather an ex-Ferrari F1/86, because the failure of the component in question put him in the wall during practice for the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. Years later, on a visit to Maranello, he received it as a gift from one of his old mechanics.

"It was a big one: the pedal went to the floor going into the hairpin at the end of the back straight," he recalls. "The bleed nipple came off, wasn't tight or whatever, and I had no brakes and went straight into the wall. The belts stretched so far that my helmet hit the steering wheel and bent it like a banana. It was a miracle I didn't break anything, but my back was a mess for the rest of the year.

"Fast-forward 20 years or so, and I'm visiting Piero Ferrari [Enzo's son] down at the factory. Word spread that I was there, and three or four of my old mechanics ran out into the courtyard to greet me."

One of them told Johansson that he had something he wanted to give him. After being led into a dusty storage room, he was handed the caliper.

"I can't say that it brings back particularly good memories," says Johansson. "It's the human aspect of the thing that I love - that this guy had kept it for me for 20 years."

Richard Westbrook, Le Mans 1966 framed photograph

Sportscar ace Richard Westbrook has a framed photograph on the wall of his kitchen. If you didn't know the story behind it, you might see the four Fords lined up echelon-style at the head of the grid for the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours and think it owes its place to his four-year stint with the Blue Oval. You'd be wrong.

The Brit acquired the photograph long before the Ford GT programme was even a twinkling in the eye of the top brass at corporate HQ in Dearborn, Michigan. He bought it back in 2012, before his spell with the Ganassi Ford team in the GT Le Mans class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship and in GTE Pro at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2016-19.

"I was just looking for a nice picture and found that one on LAT Photographic [now Motorsport Images]," explains Westbrook. "I ordered a nice print and hung it on the wall. It's total coincidence that the photo is an important moment in the history of a manufacturer I'd end up driving for.

"That picture is kind of what we were trying to replicate when we went to Le Mans — four Fords at the front of the field. I love it. Every time I look at that shot, I spot something new."

Pierre Dieudonne, signed photo of Fangio

Sometime late in 1959, a young lad in Belgium with a growing interest in motorsport decided he wanted Juan Manuel Fangio's autograph. So 12-year-old Pierre Dieudonne, a future winner of the Spa 24 Hours, put a photograph of the five-time world champ in an envelope with his request and addressed it to 'Juan Manuel Fangio, World Champion, Buenos Aires, Argentina'. His youthful enthusiasm - naivety even - was rewarded six months later when he received back the picture you're looking at.

"I thought I'd like to have Fangio's autograph, so I just put the picture in the post," recalls Dieudonne, who is still working in motorsport as a sporting director for the WRT Audi GT team. "I can't remember if I really expected to get it back. There were obviously some very conscientious people in the Argentinian post office."

Dieudonne has cherished the picture to this day, and followed his hero's lead during his own racing career.

"When we went to the old Brno road course for the European Touring Car Championship, the crowds were massive and we were big stars," says Dieudonne, whose tin-top career included stints as a factory driver with Jaguar, Volvo and Ford. "More than once I got letters from the old Czechoslovakia addressed to 'Pierre Dieudonne, Brussels, Belgium' asking for my autograph. I always replied."

Emanuele Pirro, his first karting trophy

Emanuele Pirro has a wall lined with trophies in his gym and another five in his living room - and you can probably guess what they are. But ask him to pick a favourite and he doesn't go for one from his quintet of Le Mans 24 Hours triumphs with Audi. Rather, he picks a modest and now-tarnished piece of tin that pre-dates them by more than a quarter of a century.

It's his very first trophy, won on his karting debut in July 1973 at the Pista D'Oro circuit close to his home city of Rome. The importance for him is that "it was the beginning of the dream".

"That's where it all began," he continues. "I had this dream, an impossible dream. I had no idea how to achieve it, but that's where I started to think that it could come true."

Within three years, Pirro was a domestic karting champion in the 100cc ranks in his homeland. Another four years down the line, he moved into Formula 3 and was on his way.

"I've hardly thrown anything from my career away," he says. "I keep all the stuff to rekindle memories. When I look at that trophy, I think that's where it all began."

Luigi Urbinelli, Jean Alesi's crash helmet

Stalwart engineer Luigi Urbinelli has a small but treasured collection of helmets given to him by some of the drivers he's worked with over a career dating back to the 1980s. Among them are lids presented by Michele Alboreto, Mika Salo, Christian Danner and Nicolas Minassian. A dozen or so years back, he got one he'd always been after — Jean Alesi's.

Urbinelli knew the Frenchman before he was his engineer at Ferrari in Formula 1 in 1991. They'd worked together in the 1980s when he was a design engineer at Dallara, and Alesi was enjoying success in the Italian constructor's machinery in French Formula 3, first with the family team run by his brother Jose and then ORECA. Alesi famously persuaded team boss Hugues de Chaunac to ditch Martini chassis in favour of the Dallara in his championship year in 1987.

"I know 1991 wasn't a great year for Ferrari, but to work with Jean was something special, especially because I knew him well from F3," says Urbinelli. "I always wanted one of his helmets and I seem to remember I was given one while he was at Ferrari and it somehow got lost at the factory."

Nearly 20 years later, the duo were reunited in the Middle Eastern Speedcar stock car series in the 2008-09 season. And Urbinelli got the helmet he wanted.

Ricky Taylor, Daytona stars and stripes flag

It has become tradition at the Daytona 24 Hours for the winners to drape themselves in their national flag on the podium. Ricky Taylor kept the Stars and Stripes he was given after triumphing in 2017 with the family Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac team, brother Jordan, Max Angelelli and Jeff Gordon as a memento of arguably the most important win of his career. It's now nicely ironed and folded in his office.

"I have a small collection of stuff from that race because it's so important to me," says Taylor, who for next season is returning to his dad's WTR squad as an Acura factory driver after three years with Penske. "The American flag is the thing that I really like."

Taylor describes the victory at the wheel of the WTR Cadillac DPi-V.R Daytona Prototype international as "special for so many reasons". Winning for his father's team and with his brother are among them. It was also Cadillac's first race back at the sharp end of US sportscar racing, and the last race before retirement for Angelelli. He'd driven with or for Taylor Sr for nearly 20 years.

"The Cadillac project was really Max's baby, so it was amazing to win on the car's debut," says Taylor. "Max was also important to mine and Jordan's careers. He was like a brother and an uncle, as well as our mentor."

That's why Taylor made sure he hung on to his flag.

"The flag thing is a neat tradition, something I always thought was pretty cool," he says. "Things have a habit of getting away up on the podium, so I was guarding it with my life. I think you're meant to keep it."

Gary Watkins, Porsche 956 brake caliper

It's propped books up and doors open, and it's been in my constant possession for the better part of 40 years. But your author only fell in love quite recently with the Porsche 956 brake caliper bought for a tenner at a Racing for Britain auction at the 1983 British Grand Prix.

It was when I talked to the man who literally ripped the thing from the John Fitzpatrick Racing entry on which it had completed 23 hours and 50 minutes at Le Mans in 1983 that I realised it was such a cool thing.

JFR chief mechanic Max Crawford knew he didn't have time for a proper repair when Rupert Keegan limped into the pits with just 10 minutes left on the clock. The left-front brake disc had exploded on the Porsche he shared with Guy Edwards and team boss John Fitzpatrick on the Mulsanne Straight, taking a wheel with it. The only thing on Crawford's mind was getting the Porsche back out on track, because, then as now, the car had to complete the final lap to be classified.

Crawford recalls sending the 956 on his way as what he describes as a "tank-tape special". Keegan had brakes on three wheels only, a ball-bearing from a ratchet jammed into a brake line to give him some semblance of pedal pressure. The Le Mans rookie finished the last lap to secure fifth in a race in which the 956 took nine of the top 10 positions.

I love the story and think about it every time I catch a glimpse of my little chunk of Le Mans history. No more doors are held open by my Porsche 956 brake caliper, I can assure you.

Peter Kox, Le Mans series runner-up trophy

You won't find much in Peter Kox's home to suggest that he's a racing driver. At least not unless you hunt. He reckons there's a box of trophies somewhere in his office and another in the cellar, and he insists they're not long for this world. But he does have one on display, of sorts.

Kox's trophy for finishing as GT1 runner-up in the 2006 Le Mans Series with Cirtek's MenX Ferrari team has found a home in the kitchen as a handy storage pot for cooking utensils.

"I'm not one for keeping stuff," says the Dutchman, whose career accolades include a Le Mans 24 Hours class victory in a Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS in 2003. "A few years ago, I was moving house and I put out a couple of bin bags full of trophies. I left them by a lamp post and five minutes later they were gone.

"I'm either going to throw the rest out or maybe have then crushed and set in epoxy. The one from the LMS somehow ended up in the kitchen. It's a bit battered and the handles are long gone, but it's good for putting stuff in."

Martin Brundle, flying Jordan helmet from 1996

It's probably the most famous image from Martin Brundle's long F1 career: his Jordan upside down in the air on the opening lap of the 1996 Australian Grand Prix. He's kept the helmet he was wearing, not because he thinks it saved him that day, but because it "shared an adventure with me".

"I didn't have a bruise on me and there's only a little bit of gravel rash on the helmet, so I can't say it saved my life," he says. "I just like it because it tells a story."

That story began with Brundle ending up down in 19th on the grid after the Peugeot engine in the back of his Jordan 196 blew in qualifying. He reckons he was "sixth or seventh" by the time he arrived at Turn 3. The only problem was that he was upside down at the time.

"I'd seen this lovely big space in front of me which was suddenly filled by DC's [David Coulthard's] McLaren," he recalls. "The accident is burnt into my memory. As I went up in the air I thought, 'This is going to be a big one' and 'please don't let me go into the trees'.

"When I got out of the car, I saw the red flag and thought, 'That's lucky', not realising I had caused it. I coaxed someone to take me back to the pits, where I was told I could only start the race if I got signed off by [F1 medic] Sid Watkins.

"He asked what the date was. I knew exactly because it was my dad's birthday and he was ill at the time. A marshal asked what Sid had said and I put my thumb up, and there was a big roar from the crowd in the grandstand. I've kept the helmet because of what we went through together."