Chris Rea was not only a singer and guitarist, but also a racing driver.

      Yesterday the music world learned of the death of Chris Rea, the British singer, guitarist, performer of remarkable songs — suffice it to say that worldwide sales of his 25 studio albums exceeded 30 million copies.

      But this is one of those rare cases in which the world of motorsport will also mourn the departed artist.

      Commercial success allowed Chris Rea to indulge his passionate love of cars and racing — for example, not everyone knows that in 1993 he competed in the British Touring Car Championship behind the wheel of a BMW 318. But even before that he raced quite successfully in club-level events in a Caterham 7, then in Lotus and Ferrari sports cars, and in recent years he entered various historic races in his old 1957 Morris Minor painted like a police car.

      By the way, he even immortalized the Caterham 7 by placing a photo of such a car on the cover of his famous album Auberge, released in 1991. And in 1993, during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, Rea started in a support race, a round of the Porsche Supercup, behind the wheel of a Porsche 911, and that same weekend he played and sang at the 21st birthday party of Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian rookie for the Jordan team…

      This happened because Chris was friends with Eddie Jordan, who was not only the manager and owner of a Formula 1 team but also a rock'n'roll drummer. Of course they quickly hit it off, and it went so far that Eddie offered him a job as a mechanic at the 1995 Monaco Grand Prix.

      This is how the artist himself recalled it: “I absolutely didn't want to do what VIPs usually do, so I decided to work as a mechanic on Eddie Irvine's car. I got a full set of the team's uniform, and Eddie Jordan entrusted me with working on the heat blanket of the rear-right wheel of car No. 15.”

      Is it any wonder that one day Jordan let his friend take a spin around the Silverstone circuit in a Formula 1 car — it was a Jordan 193.

      Among Chris Rea's songs is “Saudade,” dedicated to Ayrton Senna, and later he even decided to make a film, La Passione (“Passion”), devoted to Wolfgang von Trips, the Ferrari driver who was the idol of his youth…

      Chris Rea's hits are known even to people indifferent to music; there's no point in listing them, but among his songs there is one he liked to perform at concerts, and it was that version that was included in the 1995 compilation of his greatest hits. It's called “Some Day My Peace Will Come.”

      The title can be translated as “One Day I Will Find Peace,” and it contains the following words:

      Someday I will find peace,

      Oh, I know that someday I will find peace.

      I will sleep like a child,

      Feeling neither pain nor fear…

      Lord, can you hear me?

      I know that you know my name,

      It is written in tears,

      And their source is my pain…

      Chris Rea was given frightening diagnoses at quite a young age; ailments haunted him for the rest of his life, but judging by what the musician's and driver's family announced yesterday, his passing was just as he had predicted.

      Chris Rea's earthly journey has ended; he was 74 years old, but we will be listening to his songs for a very long time to come.