Piers Courage was a brewing family scion from Great Britain. He began his racing career in 1961 after befriending fellow driver Jonathan Williams and racing team manager Frank Williams. Piers was only 28 when he was killed at Zandvoort, the Netherlands in June 1970. His fatal wreck was a result of a number of circumstances, not the least of which was the poor handling of his De Tomaso, Italian made race car. In the 1960s and 1970s numerous European drivers were killed, in Formula 1 events and other motorsports classifications. Another English driver, Roger Williamson, lost his life in an inferno type crash similar to Piers', just two years later. Eerily the wreck also occurred in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Williamsons' fatality happened only 50 yards from where Courage had perished.