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Jackie Stewart

 

In a short career, Scottish race-car driver Jackie Stewart (born 1939) won 27 Grand Prix races and was world champion status three times on the Formula One circuit. Stewart was also an advocate of driver safety and after his retirement worked as a lively commentator for ABC-TV's "Wide World of Sports."

Often wearing his trademark tartan-patterned racing helmet, Stewart earned his nickname the "Flying Scot" for his speed on the race course and for his meteoric climb to the top of the world Grand Prix racing circuits. Racing for the first time in 1965, Stewart was one of the top drivers on the Formula One circuit into the 1970s. During his career, the sport was revolutionalized by design advances that made cars more aerodynamic and much faster. With 27 Grand Prix wins, Stewart combined a natural talent for the sport with a charisma that made him the darling of the media and an effective and outspoken advocate for race course safety.

Racing in His Blood

John Young Stewart was born in Milton in Dumbartonshire, Scotland in 1939. As a child he exhibited exceptional eye-hand coordination, and his father, a former motorcycle racer who owned a garage and sold Jaguars, had hopes that his youngest son would become involved in racing. Stewart grew up around cars and soon became an adept apprentice mechanic. Meanwhile, his older brother, Jimmy Stewart, went from a successful run of local races to qualifying for the British Grand Prix in 1953. Eliminated from the race at Copse after his Ecurie Ecosse car hydroplaned on a wet track, Jimmy Stewart was involved in an even more serious accident while racing at Le Mans, France, forcing him to leave the sport. Stewart's parents, thankful that their oldest son was still alive, discouraged their youngest son, 15-year-old Jackie, from taking up car racing.

Never a promising student, Stewart, who was dyslexic, left school prior to graduation. He soon took up clay target shooting. Competing in shooting tournaments in Scotland, he hoped to qualify to join Great Britain's 1960 Olympic team. His poor performance during the final round of the Olympic trials on his 21st birthday ended that plan, however, and Stewart returned home, believing he was destined to work at his father's garage.

A Formula Three Natural

In 1963, Barry Filer, a customer of the family garage, approached Stewart, then 24, and asked him to track-test a Formula Three car at England's Oulton Park speedway. His driving impressing several onlookers, and word went out to Cooper's Formula Junior team manager Ken Tyrell. Constantly on the lookout for new talent, Tyrell asked Stewart to come and try out for a position as driver. Taking over the wheel from experienced Formula One driver Bruce McLaren, Stewart held his own in the car, a Cooper F3, and soon matched and even passed McLaren's times around the track. Impressed by the young Scot's lightning-quick reflexes and cool demeanor behind the wheel, Tyrell offered him a place in his Formula Three team, and Stewart accepted.

Formula Three cars such as Tyrell's Cooper are scaled-down versions of Formula One race cars. Aerodynamically designed single-seaters with two-liter racing engines, these cars are designed to run close to the ground, corner on a dime, and attain speeds upwards of 165 miles per hour. Considered a junior version of Formula One racing, Formula Three has been the traditional stepping-up point for many future world champion race drivers, and as someone with fast reflexes and intense focus, Stewart was no exception.

During his three years on the Formula Three circuit, Stewart won the championship title easily, winning 11 of the 13 races he competed in and finishing a close second once. In 1964 he also won England's Express & Star Formula Three championship. He particularly enjoyed working with Tyrell - he would later comment, as quoted on the Formula Three website that his "British Formula Three Championship days were the best of my life.… It was fantastic winning all those races against some top names, and I think it really sent me on my way." Nonetheless, the Formula One circuit - which included the course in LeMans that had broken his older brother - beckoned. In 1965 the single-minded Scot left Tyrell and joined Graham Hill's BRM Formula One team.

Formula One Experience

Confident after his successes in Formula Three, Stewart traveled to South Africa, where he placed in his first race as a Formula One driver and won his first point toward the coveted world drivers' championship. That race set the pace for the rest of the racing season: during his eighth race for BRM at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, he got his first win, and by the end of the 1965 season Stewart was ranked third in the world drivers' championships behind Jim Clark and Graham Hill.

Stewart remained with Hill and BRM for two more years, and though his ranking went down he gained experience, including one event that would change his outlook on auto racing forever. The year 1966 held several disappointments, one of which was taking the lead at the Indianapolis 500 only to lose it in the last eight laps due to a scavenge pump malfunction. However, that paled in comparison to Stewart's experiences while competing in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. A sudden downpour caused cars to careen off the track, and Stewart was soon among them. Sliding into a ditch, he found himself pinned in his car by the steering wheel, the side of his car crushed inward. Unable to escape, he lay helpless and in pain while fuel began leaking out, soaking his racing suit through to his skin. For twenty-five minutes he lay there, counting every second, while Hill and others in his crew dismantled the steering wheel in order to free him. With no doctors or medical facilities nearby, Stewart was deposited in the bed of a nearby pickup truck and remained there until an ambulance finally arrived. Taken to the track's First Aid center on a stretcher, he was placed on the floor, amid cigarette butts and other garbage, and lay there until yet another ambulance crew picked him up. En route to a hospital in Lié, the ambulance drivers got lost.

During the hours he lay on his stretcher, enduring severe pain, Stewart had a lot of time to reflect on his situation. He had fractured his collarbone, but his injuries could have been more severe. If they had involved internal bleeding, the lack of medical care and the lax emergency transportation would likely have meant his death; if it had been a spinal injury, as many at first feared, he could have suffered permanent disability and the end of his career. He also recalled the deaths of other drivers during the 1960s, casualties of the experiments and advances in Formula One technology.

"Something Sadly Wrong …"

After his experience at Spa, Stewart worked with BRM team leader Louis Stanley to campaign vigorously for improved emergency services, better safety barriers around race tracks and the introduction of safety-related devices in race cars. As he was quoted as noting in a biography for the Grand Prix Hall of Fame website, "I realized that if this was the best we had there was something sadly wrong: things wrong with the race track, the cars, the medical side, the fire-fighting and the emergency crews.… Young people today just wouldn't understand it. It was ridiculous."

Stewart soon recovered from his injury and returned to complete the 1966 season, finishing in seventh place. The following year would be his last with Hill: the redesigned car Stewart was assigned to drive proved useless on the track. Ending 1967 in ninth place, a frustrated Stewart reconnected with Tyrell, who by now had established a Formula One team and quickly signed the Scot to drive his Matra Ford.

Proving that his lackluster performance in the world drivers' championships the previous year had been the result of Hill's BRM car rather than a lack of driver ability, Stewart ended 1968 in second place, despite battling the winding course in Nürbugring, Germany, in the pelting rain and the discomfort caused by a recently fractured wrist.

First Championship Season

Driving a Matra MS80, Stewart won his first world championship for Ken Tyrell's team in 1969; he was also named British Formula One champion. During the season he charted up winning points by taking the trophy in seven out of the fourteen races he entered.

The following year proved to be a disappointment. Problems with the Ford chassis in Tyrell's Matra cars forced Stewart from several races, and the Scot raced for Tyrell in only the Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. Grand Prix that year. Desiring to finish the season out, he raced for March and finished 1970 in fifth place.

By 1971 Tyrell had begun to build his own cars. Stewart gladly returned to the Tyrell fold and won his second world drivers' championship. The following year he was again sidelined because the tension of the track had begun to take its toll on Stewart's health. Plagued by stomach ulcers, he nonetheless persevered, ending in second place despite missing several races.

In 1973, 34-year-old Stewart chalked up his third and final world drivers' championship. His decision to end his career after his 100th race had been made at the start of the racing season. But at the Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, New York, Stewart and Tyrell walked away from the planned final race because his friend and teammate François Cevert was killed in a crash during the race's qualifying round. As Stewart would later comment to March Bechtel of Sports Illustrated, "The key in life is deciding when to go into something and when to get out of it."

With 27 wins in 99 starts, Stewart scored a total of 360 points during his nine-year career, and led at some point in 51 of those 99 races. His record of 27 Grand Prix wins would stand for two decades, until bested by Alain Prost during the 1987 race at Estoril.

A Head for Business

Popular with the press due to his intelligence, easy wit, and charm, Stewart was just as beloved among racing fans, and his advocacy of racetrack safety earned him the respect of many, both in and out of the sport. After his career in Grand Prix racing came to a close, he remained an active presence in the world of Formula One. For the next 14 years his heavy Scottish brogue could be heard in coverage of Formula One Racing on ABC's popular "Wide World of Sports" TV show. He also worked as an engineering consultant for the Ford Motor Company, continuing a relationship that had started on the track, and assisting the automaker in researching and developing new generations of Formula One engines. In later years he added such firms as Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company to his client list.

A beloved figure in his native Great Britain, Stewart was honored by Queen Elizabeth with the Order of the British Empire in 2001. He was also inducted into both the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Sports Hall of Fame. Outside the world of racing, Stewart and his wife Helen, whom he married in 1962, raised two sons, Paul and Mark.

Combining his canny business sense with an equally strong sense of civic responsibility, Stewart founded a successful shooting school at Scotland's Gleneagles Hotel in 1985, and held seats on several corporations while also serving as president of the Scottish Dyslexia Trust beginning in 1995.

In 1997, Stewart became chairman of Paul Stewart Grand Prix Racing, a team he founded in partnership with his son Paul and Ford Motor Company. Signing drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jan Magnussen, Stewart managed his team from their first appearance at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix with the same intensity he once showed behind the wheel. Selling Paul Stewart Racing team to Ford in 1999 for 60 million pounds, a year later Stewart retired from active involvement in what was renamed Jaguar Racing, citing the desire to spend time with his family. As of 2003 he retained his role as president of the British Racing Drivers' Club as well as president of the Scottish Dyslexia Trust. He also remained an active role as a Ford Motor Company consultant, acted as trustee for the Scottish International Education Trust, was the Springfield Club's president, and acted as chairman for the Grand Prix Mechanics Charitable Trust. Stewart also was on the board of Moet & Chandon and was a patron of the British Dyslexia Association. He left Formula One auto racing a far safer sport than when he entered it almost four decades before.

Books

Legends in Their Own Time, Prentice Hall General Reference, 1994.

Periodicals

Financial Times, November 29, 2003.

Forbes, May 10, 1993.

Sports Illustrated, February 25, 2002.

Online

Gran Prix Hall of Fame,http://www.ddavid.com/furmula1/stewbio.htm.

Official Formula One Web site,http://www.formula1.com/.

Official Formula Three Web site,http://www.fota.co.uk/.

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Columbia Encyclopedia:

Jackie Stewart

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Stewart, Jackie (John Young Stewart), 1939-, Scottish automobile race driver. He began racing in 1961 and by 1973 had won 27 world championship Grand Prix victories. A dominant force in the sport, he won three world formula one championships before retiring in late 1973.

Bibliography

See his autobiography, Faster (1972).

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Jackie Stewart

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Jackie Stewart
Jackie Stewart speaking.jpg
Stewart speaking at the 2005 United States Grand Prix
Born 11 June 1939 (1939-06-11) (age 72)
Milton, West Dunbartonshire
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality  British
Active years 19651973
Teams BRM, Tyrrell
Races 100 (99 starts)
Championships 3 (1969, 1971, 1973)
Wins 27
Podiums 43
Career points 359 (360)[1]
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 (did not start)

Sir John Young Stewart, OBE[2] (born 11 June 1939), better known as Jackie Stewart, and nicknamed The Flying Scotsman, is a British former racing driver and team owner from Scotland. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am. He is well known in the United States as a color commentator of racing television broadcasts, and as a spokesman for Ford, where his Scottish accent made him a distinctive presence. Between 1997 and 1999, in partnership with his son, Paul, he was team principal of the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One racing team. In 2009 he was ranked fifth of the fifty greatest Formula One drivers of all time by journalist Kevin Eason who wrote: "He has not only emerged as a great driver, but one of the greatest figures of motor racing." [3]

Contents

Early life

Stewart's family were Austin, later Jaguar, car dealers and had built up a successful business, Dumbuck Garage, in Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland where Stewart was born and was educated at Dumbarton Academy. His father had been an amateur[4] motorcycle racer, and his brother Jimmy was a racing driver with a growing local reputation who drove for Ecurie Ecosse and competed in the 1953 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, until he went off at Copse Corner in the wet.

Jackie attended Hartfield primary school in Dumbarton and graduated to Dumbarton Academy at the age of 12. He experienced learning difficulties owing to undiagnosed dyslexia and was unable to complete his secondary education past the age of 16. He has said: “When you’ve got dyslexia and you find something you’re good at, you put more into it than anyone else; you can’t think the way of the clever folk, so you’re always thinking out of the box."[5] As a result he was not allowed to continue his secondary school programmes and began working in his father's garage. At the age of 13 he had won a clay pigeon shooting competition[citation needed] and then went on to become a prize winning member of the Scottish shooting team, competing in the United Kingdom and abroad. He won the British, Welsh and Scottish skeet shooting championships[citation needed] and the 'Coupe des Nations' European championship[citation needed]. He also competed for a place in the British trap shooting team for the 1960 Summer Olympics, which was awarded to another competitor named Joe Wheater.[6] His early involvement with cars was in the family business, where he worked as an apprentice mechanic and it was only natural that he would soon become involved in motor racing.

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. For 1961, Filer provided a Marcos, in which Stewart scored four wins, and competed once in Filer's Aston DB4GT. In 1962, to decide if he was ready to turn pro, tested a Jaguar E-type at Oulton Park, matching Roy Salvadori's times in a similar car the year before.[7] He won two races, his first in England, in the E-type, and David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse offered him a ride in the Tojeiro EE Mk2, then their Cooper T49, in which he won at Goodwood. For 1963, he earned fourteen wins, a second, and two thirds, with just six retirements.[7]

In 1964, he again signed with Ecurie Ecosse. More important, Ken Tyrrell, then running the Formula Junior team for the Cooper Car Company, heard of the young Scotsman from Goodwood's[7] track manager and called up Jimmy Stewart to see if his younger brother was interested in a tryout. Jackie came down for the test at Goodwood, taking over a new, and very competitive, Formula Three T72-BMC[7] Bruce McLaren was testing. Soon Stewart was besting McLaren's times, causing McLaren to return to the track for some quicker laps. Again, Stewart was quicker, 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.

Racing career

Stewart in 1969 with the Matra-Cosworth at the Nürburgring.
Tyrrell 003, the car that took Stewart to the 1971 World Championship.
Stewart (right) in conversation with Mike Kranefuss in 1973.

In 1964 he drove in Formula Three for Tyrrell. His debut, in the wet at Snetterton on 15 March, was dominant, taking an astounding 25 second lead in just two laps before coasting home to a win on a 44 second cushion.[7] Within days, he was offered a Formula One ride with Cooper, but declined, preferring to gain experience under Tyrrell; he failed to win just two races (one to clutch failure, one to a spin) in becoming F3 champion.[7]

After running John Coombs' E-type and practising in a Ferrari at Le Mans, he took a trial in an F1 Lotus 33-Climax, in which he impressed Colin Chapman and Jim Clark.[7] Stewart again refused a ride in F1, but went instead to the Lotus Formula Two team. In his F2 debut, he was second at the difficult Clermont-Ferrand circuit in a Lotus 32-Cosworth.[7]

While he signed with BRM alongside Graham Hill in 1965, a contract which netted him £4,000, his first race in an F1 car was for Lotus, as stand-in for an injured Clark, at the Rand Grand Prix in December 1964; the Lotus broke in the first heat, but he won the second.[7] On his F1 debut in South Africa, he scored his first Championship point, finishing sixth. 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, fighting wheel-to-wheel with teammate Hill's P261.[7] Stewart finished his rookie season with three seconds, a third, a fifth, and a sixth, and third place in the World Drivers' Championship. He also piloted Tyrrell's unsuccessful F2 Cooper T75-BRM, and ran the Rover Company's revolutionary turbine car at Le Mans.

1966 saw him almost win the Indianapolis 500 on his first attempt, in John Mecom's Lola T90-Ford,[8] 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.

Also, in 1966, a crash triggered his fight for improved safety in racing. On lap one of the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, when sudden rain caused many crashes, he found himself trapped in his overturned[8] BRM, getting soaked by leaking fuel, which can result in a fire. The marshals had no tools to help him, and it took his teammate Hill and Bob Bondurant, who had both also crashed nearby, to get him out. Since then, a main switch for electrics and a removable steering wheel have become standard. Also, noticing the long and slow transport to a hospital, he brought his own doctor to future races, while the BRM supplied a medical truck for the benefit of all. It was a poor year all around; the BRMs were notoriously unreliable, although Stewart did win the Monaco Grand Prix. Stewart had some success in other forms of racing during the year, winning the 1966 Tasman Series and the 1966 Rothmans 12 Hour International Sports Car Race.

BRM's fortunes did not improve in 1967, during which Stewart came no higher than second at Spa, though he won F2 events for Tyrrell at Karlskoga, Enna, Oulton Park, and Albi in a Matra M5S or M7S.[8] He also placed 2nd driving a works-entered Ferrari driving with Chris Amon at the BOAC 6 Hours at Brands Hatch, the 10th round of World Sportscar Championship at the time.

In Formula One, he switched to Tyrrell's Matra International team, where he drove a Matra MS10-Cosworth[8] for the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Skill (and improving tyres from Dunlop)[8] brought a win in heavy rain at Zandvoort. Another win in rain and fog at the Nürburgring, where he won by a margin of four minutes. He also won at Watkins Glen, but missed Jarama and Monaco due to an F2 injury at Jarama.[8] His car failed at Mexico City, and so lost the driving title to Hill.

In 1969, Stewart had a number of races where he completely dominated the opposition, such as winning by over 2 laps at Montjuïc, a whole minute at Clemont-Ferrand and more than a lap at Silverstone. With additional wins at Kyalami, Zandvoort, and Monza, Stewart became world champion in 1969 in a Matra MS80-Cosworth. 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 built in the UK, Stewart remains the only driver to win the world championship in a French-built car.

For 1970, Matra (since taken over by Chrysler)[8] insisted on using their own V12 engines, while Tyrrell and Stewart wanted to keep the Cosworths as well as the good connection to Ford. As a consequence, the Tyrrell team bought a chassis from March Engineering; Stewart took the March 701-Cosworth[8] to wins at the Daily Mail Race of Champions and Jarama, but was soon overcome by Lotus' new 72. The new Tyrrell 001-Cosworth, appearing in August,[8] suffered problems, but Stewart saw better days for it in 1971, and stayed on. Tyrrell continued to be sponsored by French fuel company Elf, and Stewart raced in a car painted French Racing Blue for many years. Stewart also continued to race sporadically in Formula Two, winning at the Crystal Palace and placing at Thruxton. A projected Le Mans appearance, to co-drive the 4.5 litre Porsche 917K with Steve McQueen, did not come off, for McQueen's inability to get insurance.[8] He also raced Can-Am, in the revolutionary Chaparral 2J. Stewart achieved pole position in 2 events, ahead of the dominant McLarens, but the chronic unreliability of the 2J prevented Stewart from finishing any races.[8]

Stewart went on to win the Formula One world championship in 1971 using the excellent Tyrrell 003-Cosworth, winning Spain, Monaco, France, Britain, Germany, and Canada. He also did a full season in Can-Am, driving a Carl Haas sponsored Lola T260-Chevrolet.[8] and again in 1973. During the 1971 Can-Am series, Stewart was the only driver able to challenge the McLarens driven by Dennis Hulme and Peter Revson. Stewart won 2 races; at Mont Treblant and Mid Ohio. Stewart finished 3rd in the 1971 Can-Am Drivers Championship. The stress of racing year round, and on several continents eventually caused medical problems for Stewart. During the 1972 Grand Prix season he missed Spa, due to gastritis, and had to cancel plans to drive a Can-Am McLaren, but won the Argentine, French, U.S., and Canadian Grands Prix, to come second to Emerson Fittipaldi in the drivers' standings. Stewart also competed in a Ford Capri RS2600 in the European Touring Car Championship, with F1 teammate François Cevert and other F1 pilots, at a time where the competition between Ford and BMW was at a height. Stewart shared a Capri with F1 Tyrrell teammate François Cevert in the 1972 6 hours of Paul Ricard, finishing second. He also received an OBE.

Entering the 1973 season, Stewart had decided to retire. He nevertheless won at South Africa, Belgium, Monaco, Holland, and Austria. His last (and then record-setting) 27th victory came at the Nürburgring with a convincing 1-2 for Tyrrell. "Nothing gave me more satisfaction than to win at the Nürburgring and yet, I was always afraid." Stewart later said. "When I left home for the German Grand Prix I always used to pause at the end of the driveway and take a long look back. I was never sure I'd come home again." 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.

Stewart held the record for most wins by a Formula One driver (27) for 14 years (broken by Alain Prost in 1987) and the record for most wins by a British Formula One driver for 19 years (broken by Nigel Mansell in 1992).

Racing safety advocate

During Stewart's F1 career, the chances of an F1 driver who raced for five years being killed in a crash were two out of three.[9]

At Spa-Francorchamps in 1966, he ran off the track while driving at 165 mph (266 km/h) in heavy rain, and crashed into a telephone pole and a shed before coming to rest in a farmer's outbuilding. His steering column pinned his leg, while ruptured fuel tanks emptied their contents into the cockpit. There were no track crews to extricate him, nor were proper tools available. There were no doctors or medical facilities at the track, and Stewart was put in the bed of a pickup truck, remaining there until an ambulance arrived. He was first taken to the track's First Aid centre, where he waited on a stretcher, which was placed on a floor strewn with cigarette ends and other rubbish. Finally, another ambulance crew picked him up, but the ambulance driver got lost driving to a hospital in Liége. Ultimately, a private jet flew Stewart back to the UK for treatment.

After his crash at Spa, Stewart became an outspoken advocate for auto racing safety. Later, he explained, "If I have any legacy to leave the sport I hope it will be seen to be an area of safety because when I arrived in Grand Prix racing so-called precautions and safety measures were diabolical."[10]

Stewart continued, commenting on his crash at Spa:

I lay trapped in the car for twenty-five minutes, unable to be moved. Graham and Bob Bondurant got me out using the spanners from a spectator's toolkit. There were no doctors and there was nowhere to put me. They in fact put me in the back of a van. Eventually an ambulance took me to a first aid spot near the control tower and I was left on a stretcher, on the floor, surrounded by cigarette ends. I was put into an ambulance with a police escort and the police escort lost the ambulance, and the ambulance didn't know how to get to Liège. At the time they thought I had a spinal injury. As it turned out, I wasn't seriously injured, but they didn't know that. I realised that if this was the best we had there was something sadly wrong: things wrong with the race track, the cars, the medical side, the fire-fighting, and the emergency crews. There were also grass banks that were launch pads, things you went straight into, trees that were unprotected and so on. Young people today just wouldn't understand it. It was ridiculous.

In response, Stewart campaigned with Louis Stanley (BRM team boss) for improved emergency services and better safety barriers around race tracks. "We were racing at circuits where there were no crash barriers in front of the pits, and fuel was lying about in churns in the pit lane. A car could easily crash into the pits at any time. It was ridiculous."[11] As a stop-gap measure, Stewart hired a private doctor to be at all his races, and taped a spanner to the steering shaft of his BRM in case it would be needed again. Stewart pressed for mandatory seat belt usage and full-face helmets for drivers, and today a race without those items is unthinkable. Likewise, he pressed track owners to modernize their track, including organizing driver boycotts of races at Spa-Francorchamps in 1969, the Nürburgring in 1970, and Zandvoort in 1972 until barriers, run-off areas, fire crews, and medical facilities were improved.

Stewart's work was not appreciated by track owners, race organizers, some drivers, and members of the press. "I would have been a much more popular World Champion if I had always said what people wanted to hear. I might have been dead, but definitely more popular."[11] However, his race wins, combined with his popularity with the public and his business savvy, prevented his message from being silenced. Certainly, after his victory in the 1968 German GP at the 187-corner Nordschleife -- in torrential rain, driving with a broken wrist, winning by more than four minutes—no one dared question his bravery as Stewart pushed for better safety standards.

Even though he is known as knowing the Nürburgring better than almost any other driver, he was recently quoted as saying "I never did a lap of the Nürburgring that I didn't have to do."

Today, Stewart's legacy as a safety advocate in motor racing is as great as his legacy as a race winner.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 WDC Points[1]
1965 Owen Racing Organisation BRM P261 BRM V8 RSA
6
MON
3
BEL
2
FRA
2
GBR
5
NED
2
GER
Ret
ITA
1
USA
Ret
MEX
Ret
3rd 33 (34)
1966 Owen Racing Organisation BRM P261 BRM V8 MON
1
BEL
Ret
FRA
GBR
Ret
NED
4
GER
5
7th 14
BRM P83 BRM H16 ITA
Ret
USA
Ret
MEX
Ret
1967 Owen Racing Organisation BRM P83 BRM H16 RSA
Ret
NED
Ret
BEL
2
GBR
Ret
ITA
Ret
USA
Ret
MEX
Ret
9th 10
BRM P261 BRM V8 MON
Ret
FRA
3
BRM P115 BRM H16 GER
Ret
CAN
Ret
1968 Matra International Matra MS9 Ford Cosworth DFV RSA
Ret
ESP
MON
2nd 36
Matra MS10 BEL
4
NED
1
FRA
3
GBR
6
GER
1
ITA
Ret
CAN
6
USA
1
MEX
7
1969 Matra International Matra MS10 Ford Cosworth DFV RSA
1
ESP
1
1st 63
Matra MS80 MON
Ret
NED
1
FRA
1
GBR
1
GER
2
ITA
1
CAN
Ret
USA
Ret
MEX
4
1970 Tyrrell Racing Organisation March 701 Ford Cosworth DFV RSA
3
ESP
1
MON
Ret
BEL
Ret
NED
2
FRA
9
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
AUT
Ret
ITA
2
5th 25
Tyrrell 001 CAN
Ret
USA
Ret
MEX
Ret
1971 Elf Team Tyrrell Tyrrell 001 Ford Cosworth DFV RSA
2
1st 62
Tyrrell 003 ESP
1
MON
1
NED
11
FRA
1
GBR
1
GER
1
AUT
Ret
ITA
Ret
CAN
1
USA
5
1972 Elf Team Tyrrell Tyrrell 003 Ford Cosworth DFV ARG
1
RSA
Ret
ESP
Ret
FRA
1
GBR
2
GER
11
2nd 45
Tyrrell 004 MON
4
BEL
Tyrrell 005 AUT
7
ITA
Ret
CAN
1
USA
1
1973 Elf Team Tyrrell Tyrrell 005 Ford Cosworth DFV ARG
3
BRA
2
1st 71
Tyrrell 006 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
DNS

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. As a commentator, he was known for his insightful analysis, Scottish accent, and rapid delivery, once causing Jim McKay to remark that Stewart spoke almost as fast as he drove.

Rubens Barrichello driving for Stewart's F1 team in 1997.

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 (which became Red Bull Racing in 2005).

Stewart is also the head sports consultant/ patron for the Royal Bank of Scotland. In March 2009, he waived his fee for the year in response to the bank losing £24bn in 2008.[12] This was a change of heart after earlier refusals to do so attracted negative media attention.[12][13]

Honours

Stewart received Sports Illustrated magazine's 1973 "Sportsman of the Year" award, the only auto racer to win the title. 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 player 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 1998 Stewart received an honorary doctorate from Cranfield University where he later served as chairman of the steering committee for the MSc Motorsport Engineering and Management.

In 2001 Stewart received a knighthood.[2]

In 2002 he became a founding patron of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, and an inaugural inductee.

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

On 27 November 2008, Stewart was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degree from the University of St Andrews.[14]

On 26 June 2009, Stewart was awarded the Freedom of West Dunbartonshire at a special ceremony in his hometown of Dumbarton.

On 28 January 2012, Stewart gave the starting command for the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. He assumed the role after previously announced Grand Marshal A.J. Foyt was forced to cancel his visit due to complications from his recent knee surgery. Speaking at the drivers meeting prior to the start of the race, Stewart said, “I’m delighted to be the honorary official to start the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 but I’m so sorry the great A.J. couldn’t be with us today. It’s also wonderful to see so many international drivers here to compete in this historic Rolex 24.”

Other appearances

Stewart anachronistically appears in a cameo in a 1977 episode of "Lupin III" as a competitor in the 1977 Monaco Grand Prix and also once appeared on the UK motoring program Top Gear as a driving instructor for host James May. Stewart was the subject in the Roman Polanski-produced film "Weekend of a Champion", in which Polanski shadows him throughout a race weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix.

George Harrison, a good friend of Stewart's, released a single, "Faster", in 1979 as a tribute to Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson and fellow Formula One race car drivers.

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 was featured in the video to the song "Supreme" by British singer, Robbie Williams.

Personal life

Stewart lives in the Buckinghamshire village of Ellesborough and from 1969-1997 in Begnins, near Lake Geneva in Switzerland (he sold his house to Phil Collins). He has been married to Helen since the early 1960s and has two sons. Paul was a racing driver, and later ran Paul Stewart Racing with his father, selling it in 1999. Mark is a film and television producer.

Due to his dyslexia, Stewart dictated his autobiography.[15] In a 2009 interview, and in the book, he discusses his close relationship with his older brother Jim, who was also a successful racing driver in his youth but had a long struggle with alcoholism. Jim died in 2008.[16] Stewart still travels over 300,000 miles a year.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Up until 1990, not all points scored by a driver contributed to their final World Championship tally (see list of points scoring systems for more information). Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
  2. ^ a b "Honours in Scotland". Birthday Honours 2001 (BBC). 2001-06-15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2001/birthday_honours_2001/1391003.stm. Retrieved 2006-08-14. 
  3. ^ Eason, Kevin (27 March 2009). "The 50 greatest Formula One drivers Nos 101". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article5986660.ece. 
  4. ^ Kettlewell, Mike, "Stewart: The Flying Scot", in Ward, Ian, executive editor. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis Publishing, 1974), Volume 19, p. 2190.
  5. ^ http://www.stevedow.com.au/Default.aspx?id=330
  6. ^ Stewart, Jackie (2007). The Autobiography Jackie Stewart Winning Is Not Enough. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 9780755315376. 
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kettlewell, p. 2191.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kettlewell, p. 2192.
  9. ^ The Official Formula 1 Website
  10. ^ Grand Prix Hall of Fame - Jackie Stewart - Biography
  11. ^ a b Jackie Stewart Quotes
  12. ^ a b BBC News Sir Jackie waives fee to help RBS
  13. ^ http://heritage.scotsman.com/jackiestewart/39Sir-Jackie39s-giving-nothing-back.5026855.jp
  14. ^ http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/Photooftheweek/Name,27498,en.html
  15. ^ Stewart, Jackie (2007). Jackie Stewart Winning Is Not Enough. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 9780755315376.
  16. ^ http://heritage.scotsman.com/jackiestewart/Jackie-Stewart-interview-My-brother.5213978.jp

External links


 
 
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imagery relaxation
One by One (1974 Sports & Recreation Film)
Weekend of a Champion (1972 Sports & Recreation Film)

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