A special eBay auction of motorsports items has gone live today in memory of former Formula One and IndyCar racer Justin Wilson, who was tragically killed in a racing accident last month.

All of the proceeds of the six-week auction will go to the Wilson Children's Fund, which was created after the race-winning driver lost his life on August 24 to help provide for his wife and their two daughters.

The opening items available for bids include more than 16 helmets donated by Wilson's fellow IndyCar Series drivers including another Former Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya, and the helmet worn by the 2015 IndyCar champion Scott Dixon. Wilson's younger brother Stefan has donated the helmet that he wore in the 2013 Baltimore Grand Prix, the one time that the Wilson brothers raced together in IndyCar.

Items to come include firesuits from Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen who will sign the suits they wear at this weekend's Singapore GP. Jenson Button will be donating the helmet he wore in Italy bearing Justin Wilson tribute stickers, and his McLaren team mate Alonso is set to send a driving suit, gloves, and shoes.

The eBay auction can be found at http://stores.ebay.com/Celebrity-Charity-Auctions/Justin-Wilson-Memorial. Fans can also donate directly to the Wilson family fund at http://justinwilson.co.uk/donate.

To mark the start of the auction, our picture of the day is a close-up detail of the helmet that Manor Marussia F1 Team's Will Stevens wore at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza complete with its special "Badass" decal commemorating his compatriot.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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