he subsequently progressed to formula libre and bought himself a dark blue lotus 24. with this car he won the gold flake trophy at leinster and a race at phoenix park, and encouraged by this success, decided to move up to formula one. he drove to sicily with one mechanic in a vw pickup, having entered the 1964 mediterranean grand prix at the autodromo di pergusa. in practice, having posted the eighth fastest time and outqualifying his closest rival peter revson by a second, gubby's lotus suffered a wheel failure and he crashed heavily through chainlink fencing. "lotuses were always falling apart... i ended up upside down in the woods, cocooned in wire with a mouthful of leaves and grass," he recalled. he was able to disconnect the battery to help prevent a fire, and some italian mechanics arrived on the scene to cut him free, but he was unable to take part in the race. the wheel that failed was one that he had obtained from the brp team after one of his own wheels had developed a crack.