Jackie Stewart

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Jackie Stewart
Nationality	British
World Championship Career
Active years	1965 – 1973
Team(s)	BRM, Matra, March, Tyrrell
Races	100
Championships	3 (1969, 1971, 1973)
Wins	27
Podium finishes	43
Pole positions	17
Fastest laps	15
First race	1965 South African Grand Prix
First win	1965 Italian Grand Prix
Last win	1973 German Grand Prix
Last race	1973 United States Grand Prix

Sir John Young Stewart, OBE^[1] (born 11 June 1939 in Milton, West Dunbartonshire), better known as Jackie Stewart, and nicknamed The Flying Scot, is a British former racing driver from Scotland. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three world titles. He also competed in the Can-Am championship. He is well-known in the United States as a commentator of racing television broadcasts where his Scottish accent made him a distinctive presence. Between 1997 and 1999 he was team principal in partnership with his son, Paul Stewart of the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One racing team.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Racing career 3 Complete Formula One results 4 Consultant, commentator, and team owner 5 Honours 6 Victories 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early life

Jackie's early involvement with cars was in the family business, Dumbuck Garage, in Milton, where he worked as an apprentice mechanic. His family were Jaguar dealers and had built up a successful practice. Jackie's father had been a motorcycle racer, and Jackie's brother Jimmy was a racing driver with a growing local reputation. He drove for Ecurie Ecosse and competed in the 1953 British Grand Prix, until he went off at Copse Corner in the wet. It was only natural that Jackie would soon become involved in motor racing like his older brother.

After his brother was injured in a crash at Le Mans the sport was discouraged by their parents and Jackie took up shooting. In target shooting Stewart made a name for himself and almost made it to the 1960 Summer Olympics, only just missing the team.

But he took up an offer from Barry Filer, a customer of his family business, to test in a number of his cars at Oulton Park. Stewart impressed all who were in attendance that day. Ken Tyrrell who was running the Formula Junior team for Cooper heard of this young Scotsman from a track manager and called up Jimmy Stewart to see if his younger brother was interested in a tryout. Jackie came down for the test and took over a car that Bruce McLaren was testing. McLaren at that time was already an experienced Formula One driver and the new Cooper F3 was a very competitive car in its class. Soon Stewart was besting McLaren's times, causing McLaren to return to the track for some quicker laps. Again, Stewart was faster and Tyrrell offered Stewart a spot on the team. This would be the beginning of a great partnership that would see them reach the pinnacle of the sport. But this was 1963 and Stewart still had a lot to learn.

[edit] Racing career

In 1964 he drove in Formula Three for Ken Tyrrell and won his first race at Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit. Since Tyrrell did not compete in Formula One at that time, he joined BRM alongside Graham Hill in 1965. His first contract netted him £4,000. On his debut in South Africa he scored his first Championship point. His first major competition victory came in the BRDC International Trophy in the late spring, and before the end of the year he won his first World Championship race at Monza. 1966 saw him almost win the Indianapolis 500 on his first attempt only to be denied by a broken scavenge pump while leading by over a lap with eight laps to go; however, Stewart's performance, having had the race fully in hand and sidelined only by mechanical failure, won him Rookie of the Year honours, the only occasion to date in race history that a rookie winner (Hill, team mate at Indianapolis as well, and final leader after Stewart) was deemed surpassed in performance by another first-timer.

Also, in 1966, a crash triggered his fight for improved safety in racing. In lap one of the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, when sudden rain caused many crashes, he found himself trapped in his BRM, getting soaked by leaking fuel. Any spark could cause a disaster. The marshals had no tools to help him, and it took his team mate Hill to get him out. Since then, a main switch for electrics and a removable steering wheel became standard. Also, noticing the long and slow transport to a hospital, he brought his own doctor to future races, while the BRM team supplied a medical truck for the benefit of all.

In Formula One, he switched to Ken Tyrrell's team where he drove Matra chassis during the 1968 and 1969 seasons. His winning drive during the rain and fog of the 1968 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, where he won by a margin of four minutes, is considered as one of the finest ever, even though his rain tires were probably better than those of the competition.

Stewart became world champion in 1969 driving a Cosworth-powered Matra MS80. Up until September 2005 when Fernando Alonso in a Renault became champion, he was the only driver to have won the championship driving for a French marque and, as Alonso's Renault was actually built in the UK, Stewart remains the only driver to win the world championship in a French-built car. For the 1970 season, Matra insisted on using their own V12 engines, while Tyrrell and Stewart wanted to keep the Cosworth engines as well as the good connection to Ford Motor Company. As a consequence, the Tyrrell team bought a chassis from March Engineering, which Stewart drove with mixed success until Tyrrell built its own car later in the season. They were still sponsored by French Elf fuel company, and Stewart raced in a car painted in French Racing Blue for many years.

Stewart went on to win the Formula One world championship in 1971 using the excellent Tyrrell 003 and again in 1973. In the 1972 season he missed races due to Gastritis which was developed following frequent travelling, as Stewart also competed in the Can Am series with a Lola, and a Ford Capri in the touring car Group 2 European championship, with his F1 teammate François Cevert and other F1 pilots, at a time where the competition between Ford and BMW was at a climax.

His last and then record-setting 27th GP victory, came at the 1973 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring with a convincing 1-2 for Tyrrell. After the fatal crash of his teammate François Cevert in practice for the 1973 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Stewart retired one race earlier than intended and missed what would have been his 100th GP.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Team	WDC	Points
1965	BRM	RSA 6	MON 3	BEL 2	FRA 2	GBR 5	NED 2	GER Ret	ITA 1	USA Ret	MEX Ret						BRM	3rd	33
1966	BRM	MON 1	BEL Ret	FRA	GBR Ret	NED 4	GER 5	ITA Ret	USA Ret	MEX Ret							BRM	7th	14
1967	BRM	RSA Ret	MON Ret	NED Ret	BEL 2	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER Ret	CAN Ret	ITA Ret	USA Ret	MEX Ret					BRM	9th	10
1968	Matra	RSA Ret	ESP	MON	BEL 4	NED 1	FRA 3	GBR 6	GER 1	ITA Ret	CAN 6	USA 1	MEX 7				Matra	2nd	36
1969	Matra	RSA 1	ESP 1	MON Ret	NED 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 2	ITA 1	CAN Ret	USA Ret	MEX 4					Matra	1st	63
1970	March	RSA 3	ESP 1	MON Ret	BEL Ret	NED 2	FRA 9	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	ITA 2	CAN Ret	USA Ret	MEX Ret			Tyrrell	6th	25
1971	Tyrrell	RSA 2	ESP 1	MON 1	NED 11	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 1	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 1	USA 5					Tyrrell	1st	62
1972	Tyrrell	ARG 1	RSA Ret	ESP Ret	MON 4	BEL	FRA 1	GBR 2	GER 11	AUT 7	ITA Ret	CAN 1	USA 1				Tyrrell	2nd	45
1973	Tyrrell	ARG 3	BRA 2	RSA 1	ESP Ret	BEL 1	MON 1	SWE 5	FRA 4	GBR 10	NED 1	GER 1	AUT 2	ITA 4	CAN 5	USA WD	Tyrrell	1st	71

• Winner of the BRDC International Trophy in 1965 and 1973.

[edit] Consultant, commentator, and team owner

Subsequently he became a consultant for the Ford Motor Company while continuing to be a spokesman for safer cars and circuits in Formula One.

Stewart covered NASCAR races and the Indianapolis 500 on American television during the 1970s and early 1980s, and has also worked on Australian TV coverage.

In 1997 Stewart returned to Formula One, with Stewart Grand Prix, as a team owner in partnership with his son, Paul. As the works Ford team, their first race was the 1997 Australian Grand Prix. The only success of their first year came at the rain-affected Monaco Grand Prix where Rubens Barrichello finished an impressive second. Reliability was low however, with a likely 2nd place at the Nürburgring among several potential results lost. 1998 was even less competitive, with no podiums and few points.

However, after Ford acquired Cosworth in July 1998, they risked designing and building a brand-new engine for 1999. It paid off. The SF3 was consistently competitive throughout the season. The team won one race at the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring with Johnny Herbert, albeit somewhat luckily, while Barrichello took three 3rd places, pole in France, and briefly led his home race at Interlagos. The team was later bought by Ford and became Jaguar Racing in 2000.

[edit] Honours

Stewart received Sports Illustrated magazine's 1973 "Sportsman of the Year" award, the only auto racer to win the title so far, and in the same year he also won BBC Television's "Sports Personality Of The Year" award, and was named as ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year in which he was shared with American pro football legend O.J. Simpson. In 1990, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

In 2001 Stewart received a knighthood^[1] and became a founding patron of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2003 The World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities presented Sir Jackie Stewart the Sport Shooting Ambassador Award[1]. The Award goes to an outstanding individual whose efforts have promoted the shooting sports internationally.

[edit] Victories

• Formula One World Champion 1969 Matra
• Formula One World Champion 1971 Tyrrell
• Formula One World Champion 1973 Tyrrell

[edit] Trivia

• Stewart appeared in several UPS commercials in 2002 and 2003 as a consultant for Dale Jarrett to convince Jarrett to "race the Big Brown truck".
• Stewart rather anachronistically appears in a cameo in a 1977 episode of "Lupin III" as a competitor in the 1977 Monaco Grand Prix.
• George Harrison, a good friend of Jackie's, released a single, "Faster", in 1979 as a tribute to Jackie, Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson and fellow Formula 1 race car drivers.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Honours in Scotland. Birthday Honours 2001. BBC (2001-06-15). Retrieved on 2006-08-14.

[edit] External links

• International Motorsports Hall of Fame, Jackie Stewart
• Grand Prix History - Hall of Fame, Jackie Stewart
• The Scotsman newspaper, Heritage and Culture, 'I risked my mother's wrath in order to be a driver'
• The Herald newspaper (Glasgow), 'Sir Jackie, was not diagnosed with dyslexia until he was 42'
• Jackie Stewart statistics

Preceded by Graham Hill	Formula One World Champion 1969	Succeeded by Jochen Rindt
Preceded by Jochen Rindt	Formula One World Champion 1971	Succeeded by Emerson Fittipaldi
Preceded by Emerson Fittipaldi	Formula One World Champion 1973	Succeeded by Emerson Fittipaldi
Preceded by Mary Peters	BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1973	Succeeded by Brendan Foster
Preceded by Ken Tyrrell	BRDC President 2000-2006	Succeeded by Damon Hill
Preceded by Bruce McLaren	Brands Hatch Race of Champions winner 1969-1970	Succeeded by Clay Regazzoni
Preceded by Jack Brabham	BRDC International Trophy winner 1965	Succeeded by Jack Brabham
Preceded by Emerson Fittipaldi	BRDC International Trophy winner 1973	Succeeded by James Hunt