Jack Sears

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jack Sears
Jack Sears' 1958 Championship-winning Austin Westminster.
Nationality	United Kingdom
Born	(1930-02-16) February 16, 1930 Northampton, England
Retired	1965
Related to	David Sears
British Saloon Car Championship
Years active	6
Wins	12
Best finish	1st in 1958 and 1963
Championship titles
1958, 1963	BSCC

Jack Sears (born 16 February 1930) is a British former race and rally driver, and was one of the principal organisers of the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon. as popularly known as "Gentleman Jack". His son David is also involved in motorsport.

He won the inaugural British Saloon Car Championship in 1958, driving an Austin Westminster. After finishing on joint maximum points with Tommy Sopwith, it was initially suggested the champion would be decided by the toss of a coin. The idea was very unpopular with both drivers and at the final meeting at Brands Hatch, with a draw being a likely possibility, two identical looking Marcus Chambers-owned Riley One-Point-Five works rally cars were brought along for a five lap shoot-out. To make the race fair, they raced five laps, switched cars, then raced five laps again with the driver who had the quickest combined time being crowned champion. In pouring rain, Sears became the first ever champion by 1.6 seconds.^{[citation needed]}

He regained the title in 1963, driving a variety of cars including a Ford Cortina GT, a seven litre Ford Galaxie and a Lotus Cortina, which was used for the final two races.^[1] Sears also co-drove a Ferrari 330 LMB with Mike Salmon to a fifth place in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours, the best result in the abbreviated racing history of the LMB.^[2]

Racing record

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(key)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts	Class
1958	Jack Sears	Austin A105	C	BRH 1†	BRH 4†	MAL 3†	BRH 3†	BRH 3†	CRY	BRH 2	BRH 3	BRH 3			1st	48	1st
1959	Equipe Endeavour	Jaguar 3.4 Litre	D	GOO	AIN	SIL	GOO	SNE 2	BRH	BRH 1†					NC		NC
1960	Equipe Endeavour	Jaguar Mk II	Over 1000cc	BRH	SNE	MAL	OUL	SNE 1	BRH 2	BRH 1	BRH				NC		NC
1961	Equipe Endeavour	Jaguar Mk II	D	SNE Ret	GOO	AIN 2	SIL	CRY Ret	SIL	BRH 3	OUL	SNE 12			NC		NC
1962	Equipe Endeavour	Jaguar Mk II	D	SNE 2	GOO 3	AIN 4	SIL 3	CRY 2	AIN 1	BRH 2	OUL 2				3rd	38	1st
1963	John Willment Automobiles	Ford Cortina GT	B	SNE	OUL 4	GOO 7	AIN 4								1st	71
		Ford Galaxie	D					SIL 1	CRY 1†	SIL 1	BRH Ret
		Ford Lotus Cortina	B									BRH 3	OUL 3	SIL 4

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

References

↑ 1963 British Saloon Car Championship. Retrieved on 18 December 2006.
↑ Eaton, Godfrey; the Editors of Consumer Guide (1980), Ferrari: The Sports/Racing and Road Cars, Skokie, IL: Publications International, p. 93, ISBN 0-517-381982 Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)

External links

Profile of Jack Sears, HistoricRacing.com
Account of the route of the London-Sydney Marathon, written by Jack Sears who reconnoitred the event
BSCC Results

Sporting positions
Preceded by none	British Saloon Car Champion 1958	Succeeded by Jeff Uren
Preceded by John Love	British Saloon Car Champion 1963	Succeeded by Jim Clark

v t e British Touring Car Champions

Four-time	Andy Rouse

Three-time	Bernard Unett Bill McGovern Frank Gardner Matt Neal Win Percy

Two-time	Alain Menu Chris Hodgetts Fabrizio Giovanardi Jack Sears James Thompson Jason Plato John Cleland Richard Longman

One-time	Alec Poole Andrew Jordan Colin Turkington Doc Shepherd Frank Biela Frank Sytner Gabriele Tarquini Gordon Shedden Jeff Uren Jim Clark Joachim Winkelhock John Fitzpatrick John Love John Whitmore Laurent Aïello Rickard Rydell Robb Gravett Roy Pierpoint Tim Harvey Will Hoy Yvan Muller

Persondata
Name	Sears, Jack
Alternative names
Short description	British racing driver
Date of birth	16 February 1930
Place of birth	Northampton, England
Date of death
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.