Jackie Oliver

Keith Jack Oliver (born 14 August 1942) is a British former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One between and . In endurance racing, Oliver won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in , the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1969, and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1971, all with J.W. Automotive. From to , he served as co-founder and team principal of Arrows in Formula One.

During his early career, Oliver achieved several class victories in the British Saloon Car Championship between 1966 and 1968. Oliver contested 52 Formula One Grands Prix for Lotus, BRM, McLaren, and Shadow, achieving two podiums at the in and the in . He won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup in 1974. Oliver was also the second person to complete the informal Triple Crown of endurance racing.

Driving career

Oliver instructing officials to sort the Lotus 49 at the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix.

Oliver began a long career in motorsport in 1961, driving a Mini in British club saloon racing. In 1962 and 1963 he raced for Ecurie Freeze in a Marcos GT. In 1964 He raced in a Lotus Elan driving for D.R. Fabrications team and entered GT racing, scoring some excellent results, and then having a difficult time in Formula Three, where his natural speed was blighted by mechanical failures.

Nevertheless, for 1967, Oliver was drafted into the Team Lotus Formula Two team, which also saw him making his Grand Prix debut in the F2 class at the German Grand Prix, where he came fifth overall and won the F2 class. In 1968, he was called up to F1 by Colin Chapman to take over the works Formula One seat for Team Lotus after the death of Jim Clark. The season would turn out to be difficult, with Oliver struggling for finishes. He led the British Grand Prix until an engine failure, and would only finish twice, his best result being third place at the season-closing Mexican Grand Prix. In F2 he was reasonably successful driving a Lotus running for the Herts and Essex Aero Club team. At the end of the year the team was invited to compete in the four races making up the Argentine Temporada. The Herts and Essex Team finished third overall in the series.

With Jochen Rindt signing for Lotus for 1969, Oliver switched to BRM. He was to suffer disappointing two years at the Bourne team, which would effectively kill off his Grand Prix career. In two years, he would muster just four finishes, with his only points scores being sixth place in the 1969 Mexican Grand Prix, and fifth in the 1970 Austrian Grand Prix. However, in 1970, he led much of the Race of Champions holding off Stewart and was a strong third for most of the Dutch and British GP. The poor result in the Austrian GP which Team boss, Louis Stanley thought he should have won, saw the best car go to Pedro Rodríguez from then on, but Oliver still led some laps at the slipstream Italian race. Stanley described Oliver, as 'good, but not nearly as good as he thought'. The majority of his other races saw the BRM break down. Most pundits and sponsor, Yardley, were surprised and disappointed after Oliver was sacked by BRM. Jackie Stewart, judged Oliver a very good GP and Can-Am driver.

Oliver's best results in these seasons would come from endurance racing, in John Wyer's Gulf Ford GT40, winning the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans events with Jacky Ickx in 1969, and the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 1000 km Monza in 1971 with Rodríguez.

In 1969, Oliver debuted in CanAm, initially for Autocoast in the TI-22, and then for Don Nichols' Shadow team. 1971 saw him out of a full-time Formula One drive, though he had three drives in a third McLaren. 1972 saw him concentrate mainly on CanAm with Shadow, though he would take a one-off drive for BRM at the 1972 British Grand Prix, where he retired.

Jackie Oliver's Shadow-Ford DN1 enters Monza pit lane during 1973 Italian GP qualifyingFor 1973, Shadow entered F1, and Oliver was nominated as team leader. The Shadow DN1 proved a difficult chassis, and once again his season was blighted by mechanical errors. However, in the Canadian Grand Prix he ran well, and many believe he actually won the race, but the lap charts were thrown into confusion by a rain shower meaning multiple pit-stops, and a staggeringly inept deployment of a pace car by the organisers. As it was, Oliver was classified third, his only points finish of the year.

1974 saw Oliver concentrate on CanAm, taking the series title for Shadow. He was becoming more involved in the management side of Shadow, but would compete in Formula 5000 for the team for three seasons, and even briefly returned to F1, finishing fifth in the 1977 Race of Champions, and taking 9th in the Swedish Grand Prix.

Oliver also competed in eight NASCAR Cup Series races between 1971 and 1972, the majority of them for Donlavey Racing. He attempted the 1972 Daytona 500 but failed to qualify.

Arrows

At the end of 1977, Oliver left Shadow along with financer Franco Ambrosio, designers Tony Southgate and Alan Rees, engineer Dave Wass and driver Riccardo Patrese to form the Arrows Grand Prix team.

Arrows would become famous for competing in a record 382 Grands Prix without achieving a single victory.

Oliver sold much of his stake to the Japanese Footwork Corporation in 1990, remaining as director, but the team failed to move forward and the company pulled out at the end of 1993 due to financial trouble. Oliver had his team back, but money was tight, and in 1996, he again sold most of his shares to Tom Walkinshaw's TWR group. Oliver remained on the board until 1999, when he sold his remaining shares.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts Class 1966 DR Racing Ford Mustang SNE GOO SIL CRY BRH2 BRH2 OULRet† BRH1^ 10th 22 2nd 1967 DR Racing Ford Mustang BRHRet^ SNE1 SIL1 SILNC MAL2† SIL2 SIL2 BRH1 OUL2† BRH2 4th 54 2nd 1968 Alan Mann Racing Ford Escort TC BRH THR SIL CRY MAL BRH SIL CRO3^ OUL BRH2 BRH 22nd 10 5th † Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

^ Race with 2 heats - Aggregate result.

Complete Formula One World Championship results (key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) First in the Formula Two (F2) class, Oliver was ineligible to score points in the 1967 German Grand Prix because he was driving a F2 car.

Complete Formula One Non-Championship results (key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps JW Automotive Engineering Brian Muir Ford GT40 Mk.I S5.0 15 DNF DNF JW Automotive Engineering Jacky Ickx Ford GT40 Mk.I S5.0 372 1st 1st JW Automotive Engineering Pedro Rodríguez Porsche 917LH S5.0 187 DNF DNF

Complete Canadian-American Challenge Cup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pos Points 1969 Autocoast Titanium Racing Autocoast Ti 22 Chevrolet V8 MOS MTR WGL EDM MOH ROA BRI MCH LAG RIV TWS NC 0 1970 Autocoast Titanium Racing Autocoast Ti 22 Chevrolet V8 MOS MTR WGL EDM MOH ROA ATL BRA LAG RIV 5th 45 1971 Advanced Vehicle Systems Shadow Mk.2 Chevrolet V8 MOS MTR ATL WGL MOH ROA BRA EDM LAG RIV 14th 12 1972 Advanced Vehicle Systems Shadow Mk.3 Chevrolet V8 MOS ATL WGL MOH ROA BRA EDM LAG RIV 8th 37 1973 Advanced Vehicle Systems Shadow DN2 Chevrolet V8 MOS ATL WGL MOH ROA EDM LAG RIV 9th 30 1974 Phoenix Racing Organisations Shadow DN4 Chevrolet V8 MOS ATL WGL MOH ROA 1st 82

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Grand National Series NASCAR Grand National Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Pts Ref 1971 James Mason 87 Mercury RSD DAY DAY DAY ONT RCH CAR HCY BRI ATL CLB GPS SMR NWS MAR DAR SBO TAL ASH KPT CLT DOV MCH RSD HOU GPS DAY BRI AST ISP TRN NSV ATL BGS ONA MCH TAL CLB HCY DAR MAR CLT DOV CAR MGR RCH NWS TWS32 N/A -

Winston Cup Series NASCAR Winston Cup Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Pts Ref 1972 Frasson Racing 78 Dodge RSD DAYDNQ RCH ONT N/A - Donlavey Racing 90 Ford CAR40 ATL BRI DAR22 NWS MAR TAL44 CLT32 DOV4 MCH RSD TWS36 DAY25 BRI TRN ATL TAL MCH NSV DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR TWS