Sean Edwards Dies In Private Testing Incident - October 15, 2013

December 6, 1986 - October 15, 2013
Sean Edwards

(Photo; "Sean Edwards portrait 2013" by Patrick Ch. Apfeld)
Born in London, England.
Sean was the son of former Formula One driver Guy Edwards. A race driver and instructor whose career highlight was winning as co-driver the 2013 Nurburgring 24 Hours. He died as a passenger in a private testing incident in October 2013, at a raceway in Queensland, Australia.

Edwards started racing at the age of eleven taking part in karting competitions. After gaining fourth place in the 2003 British Formula Ford Championship, he finished 5th in the 2004 Formula Renault UK, and fifth in the 2005 British GT Championship.

Moving to Monaco, he then undertook drives in various years of the FIA GT3 European Championship, the Porsche Supercup and the American Le Mans Series. In May 2013 he won the Nurburgring 24 Hours, his first major victory in endurance racing, driving a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 alongside Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Nicki Thiim.

One of the first professional racing drivers to embrace Sim racing as a means of development and training, in 2012 he assisted with the racing scenes in Ron Howard's film Rush, about the battle between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 1976 Formula One season. The younger Edwards also portrayed his father in several scenes of the film, the latter being among the drivers who pulled Lauda from the burning wreckage of his formula one racing car during the 1976 German Grand Prix.

On October 15, 2013 Edwards was killed in a crash during a private session at Queensland Raceway in Willowbank, Queensland, Australia as a passenger while instructing Will Holzheimer of Dellow Racing in a Porsche 996 Supercup car. Holzheimer was treated at Royal Brisbane Hospital for injuries and burns.