John Cleland (racing driver)

John Cleland (born 15 July 1952 in Wishaw, Scotland) is a retired British auto racing driver. He raced autocross and hillclimb in the 1970s, before achieving success in British Production Car and Thundersaloon championships in the 1980s, before joining Vauxhall for the 1989 British Touring Car Championship. He is currently a co-commentator alongside Martin Haven on the English world feed of the World Touring Car Championship which is used by Eurosport.

Cleland driving for Vauxhall in the 1996 British Touring Car Championship season.

Cleland driving for Vauxhall in the 1998 British Touring Car Championship season.

In the mid-1980s, Cleland's father Jim purchased the 1984 Bathurst 1000 winning Holden VK Commodore (an Australian car) from Peter Brock's Holden Dealer Team for his son to race in Thundersaloons.^[1] During this time the Commodore ran as a Vauxhall Senator.

Cleland adapted quickly to touring car racing and won the BTCC at his first attempt, in the days when the championship consisted of four separate classes, each in their own races but scoring points for the same title. John won 11 of his 13 races in class C for 1.5l cars. The 2-litre Cavalier was introduced the next year, in readiness for the single 2-litre format in 1991. Cleland finished 2nd in class in 1990 and 5th overall. The following year he won three races and finished second in the championship to Will Hoy, taking Vauxhall's first ever overall BTCC win.^[2] In 1992 John battled with Hoy and Tim Harvey for the title, but was denied at the last round by a controversial collision with Steve Soper, the teammate of eventual champion Harvey. In 1993 and 1994 the championship was dominated by BMW and Alfa Romeo respectively, and John had to make do with fourth overall in both years.

1995 proved to be the breakthrough year for the Cavalier, ironically in its last year of competition. Despite the Volvo 850 and Renault Laguna often having the edge in speed, in the hands of Rickard Rydell and Alain Menu respectively, Cleland's consistent run of points finishes allied to a four-race winning streak in the mid-season allowed him to beat both drivers to the title. For 1996, the Cavalier was replaced by the new Vectra, which turned out to be a problematic package. Cleland finished 8th in the title chase. 1997 proved to be even worse, with John slipping to 12th in the standings and Vauxhall finishing bottom of the Constructors' title. 1998 was better, and John took two victories, both at Donington Park - a traditional happy hunting ground for the Scotsman - before a heavy crash at Snetterton interrupted his season. In 1999 Cleland was outpaced by team newcomer Yvan Muller and decided by mid-season to retire. He finished his last race at a wet Silverstone in tenth place, after being given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pits, which provoked a typically belligerent reaction from Cleland over a live radio link to his car that had been set up by the BBC.

Post BTCC

Aside running his long running car dealership, he has done several guest drives since, including appearances in a Dodge Viper in the British GT series, an ASCAR race at Rockingham, twelve Bathurst 1000s between 1993 and 2005 for Advantage Racing, Pinnacle Motorsport, Gibson Motorsport, Triple Eight, Greenfield Mowers Racing and Brad Jones Racing with a best finish of 2nd in the 2001 event, co driving with Brad Jones, and the BTCC Masters race in 2004.^[3] He now runs a Volvo and Jaguar dealership.^[4] His son Jamie has started a racing career. John is also a co-commentator for Eurosport on their WTCC coverage. He replaced fellow Scot David Leslie after his death in 2008.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded all races 1996 onwards, 1989-1990 in class) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded all races - 1989-1990 in class) * signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap (1 point awarded - 1998 onwards)

1. ^ – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Cleland (racing driver).

• Profile at BTCCPages
• Official site
• BRDC Archive profile