Keith Wiggins
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Keith Wiggins is a motor racing team owner born in Great Britain.
Following unsuccessful careers as both a driver and mechanic he established Pacific Racing in 1984. With a string of solid results in lower formulae, notably in Formula 3000 with luminaries such as David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine behind the wheel of his cars, he moved the operation to Formula One in 1994 in quite disappointing fashion.
The team ran on a shoestring budget for two seasons. The inaugural year they ran Ilmor engines and battled with Simtek for turtle of the weekend honors but making the grid was a challenge; while Bertrand Gachot qualified for five of the first seven events Paul Belmondo made it just twice, both times when a car from a team higher in the Constructor's Championship was withdrawn. Following the Canadian Grand Prix a Pacific never made another start. The following year didn't provide much either except a litany of pay-drivers, notably shareholder Gachot stepping aside for Giovanni Lavaggi and Jean-Denis Deletraz. Simtek folded before they did but come the end of '95, Wiggins retreated back to F3000 and closed up shop in 1997.
He helped to get Lola back on its feet following MasterCard Lola's ill-fated decision to enter F1, in the Champ Car ranks. Wiggins took over as president and team owner of Tony Bettenhausen Jr's team following a tragic plane crash, renaming it Herdez Competition in 2001. Herdez remained as title sponsor until 2005, when they withdrew their support and promising youngsters Björn Wirdheim and Ronnie Bremer were surplus before the end of the season due to a lack of sponsorship.
By that point the team had been renamed HVM (Herdez Viva Mexico) and in October Cedric the Entertainer announced he had bought a share of the team before transferring full ownership in 2006. The series of alphabet soup, as far as the name was concerned, continued as from 2006 onwards it will be known as CTE Racing. Wiggins stays on as a consultant.