John Coombs

John Coombs
John Coombs
	John Coombs in 2012
Nationality	British
Born	1 February 1922; Chertsey, Surrey
Died	3 August 2013 (aged 91); Monaco
Years active	1949–c. 1955

Last updated April 12, 2019

John Coombs (1 February 1922 – 3 August 2013) was a British racing driver and racing team owner. After a driving career in various formulae, including a win in a minor Formula One race, he became a team owner in sports car racing and Formula Two. During the 1960s and 1970s, working closely with Tyrrell Racing, he ran cars for several top drivers of the time, including Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jack Brabham.

Formula One is the highest class of single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and owned by the Formula One Group. The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the premier forms of racing around the world since its inaugural season in 1950. The word "formula" in the name refers to the set of rules to which all participants' cars must conform. A Formula One season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, which take place worldwide on purpose-built circuits and on public roads.

Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilizes sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built (Prototype) or related to road-going models.

Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of open wheel formula racing first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name returned in 2017 when the former GP2 Series became known as the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

Driving career

The owner of a Jaguar dealership in Guildford, Coombs began racing in 1949 with a Cooper, fitted with an engine from a Rover 10. He graduated to Formula Three and campaigned a JBS in 1951, and later a Cooper-Norton and a British-built Erskine Staride.^[1] He finished on the podium on several occasions, and won two races in 1952 with the Cooper – at Thruxton and in the Commander Yorke Trophy at Silverstone, beating Bob Gerard. He also achieved the lap record at Fairwood Circuit, which still stands as the circuit was redeveloped into Swansea Airport in the late 1950s.^[1] He won at Thruxton again in 1953 in the Staride.^[2]

Jaguar is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars until its operations were fully merged with those of Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover on 1 January 2013.

Guildford is a large town in Surrey, England, 27 miles (43 km) southwest of London on the A3 trunk road midway between the capital and Portsmouth.

The Cooper Car Company is a car manufacturer founded in December 1947 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles's small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England, in 1946. Through the 1950s and early 1960s they reached motor racing's highest levels as their rear-engined, single-seat cars altered the face of Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and their Mini Cooper dominated rally racing. Due in part to Cooper's legacy, Great Britain remains the home of a thriving racing industry, and the Cooper name lives on in the Cooper versions of the Mini production cars that are still built in England, but are now owned and marketed by BMW.

Also in 1953, Coombs earned a test at Snetterton with the Connaught Engineering factory team, alongside Roy Salvadori, Jack Fairman and Ian Stewart. Salvadori was fastest with Coombs second, and Coombs was subsequently entered into a number of Formula Two races both in the UK and abroad.^[1] In 1954, he bought a 1.5 litre Connaught and soon replaced it with a Lotus Mark VIII, retaining the Connaught engine. With this car he achieved a number of second place finishes,^[2] and won the Cornwall MRC Formula 1 Race at Davidstow Circuit on 2 August 1954, marking the first victory for a Lotus in a Formula One race, although the Mark VIII was not a Formula One car.^[3]

Connaught Engineering Formula One and sports car constructor from the United Kingdom

Connaught Engineering, often referred to simply as Connaught, was a Formula One and sports car constructor from the United Kingdom. Their cars participated in 18 Grands Prix, entering a total of 52 races with their A, B, and C Type Formula 2 and Formula 1 Grand Prix Cars. They achieved 1 podium and scored 17 championship points. The name Connaught is a pun on Continental Autos, the garage in Send, Surrey, which specialised in sales and repair of European sports cars such as Bugatti, and where the cars were built.

Roy Francesco Salvadori was a British racing driver and team manager. He was born in Dovercourt, Essex, to parents of Italian descent. He graduated to Formula One by 1952 and competed regularly until 1962 for a succession of teams including Cooper, Vanwall, BRM, Aston Martin and Connaught. Also a competitor in other formulae, he won the 1959 24 Heures du Mans in an Aston Martin with co-driver Carroll Shelby.

Jack Fairman was a British racing driver from England. He participated in 13 Formula One Grands Prix, making his debut on 18 July 1953. He scored a total of five championship points, all of which came in the 1956 season.

He progressed to a Cooper-Bristol and a Lotus Eleven, but found that his business commitments were compromising his driving career.^[4] He therefore decided to give up driving and concentrate on preparing cars for other drivers.

Bristol Cars is a dormant manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars headquartered at Mychett Place, Surrey, England.

The Lotus Eleven is a sports racing car built in various versions by Lotus from 1956 until 1958. The later versions built in 1958 are sometimes referred to as Lotus 13, although this was not an official designation. In total, about 270 Elevens of all versions were built.

Team ownership

Sports cars

Coombs began by running a Lotus 15 in sports car racing for Ron Flockhart and Roy Salvadori with some success, before switching to a pair of Cooper Monacos, his drivers including Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren.^[1] With the backing of his car dealership contacts, Coombs also ran Jaguar Mark 1s for Flockhart, Duncan Hamilton and occasionally other drivers such as Walt Hansgen. When they became available, he also prepared Mark 2s to a high specification, one of which was raced by Colin Chapman, who subsequently bought one.^[1]

The Lotus 15 is a front-engine sports racing car designed by Colin Chapman of Lotus, built from 1958 until 1960.

Ron Flockhart was a British racing driver. He participated in 14 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, achieving one podium finish and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans sportscar race twice.

Sir John Arthur Brabham, was an Australian racing driver who was Formula One World Champion in 1959, 1960, and 1966. He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.

In 1961 Coombs used the new Jaguar E-Type, and by the following year, Graham Hill had joined his list of drivers. He also bought a Ferrari 250 GTO and lent it to Jaguar at the end of 1962 to help them prepare a new lightweight E-Type, which found success with Hill at the wheel. Coombs' team was by now racing Jaguar saloons, the E-Types, two Ferrari GTOs and an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. Mike Parkes, Jack Sears and Jackie Stewart had joined as drivers, although Salvadori had left.^[1]

The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1975. Its combination of beauty, high performance, and competitive pricing established the model as an icon of the motoring world. The E-Type's 150 mph (241 km/h) top speed, sub-7-second 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) acceleration, monocoque construction, disc brakes, rack-and-pinion steering, and independent front and rear suspension distinguished the car and spurred industry-wide changes. The E-Type was based on Jaguar's D-Type racing car, which had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three consecutive years beginning 1955, and employed what was, for the early 1960s, a novel racing design principle, with a front subframe carrying the engine, front suspension and front bodywork bolted directly to the body tub. No ladder frame chassis, as was common at the time, was needed and as such the first cars weighed only 1315kg.

Norman Graham Hill was a British racing driver and team owner from England, who was twice Formula One World Champion. He is the only driver ever to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport—the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. He also appeared on TV in the 1970s on a variety of non-sporting programmes including panel games. He liked painting in his spare time.

The Ferrari 250 GTO is a GT car produced by Ferrari from 1962 to 1964 for homologation into the FIA's Group 3 Grand Touring Car category. It was powered by Ferrari's Tipo 168/62 Colombo V12 engine.

Formula Two

In 1964, Coombs expanded his operation to include Formula Two, running a Cooper-Cosworth for Graham Hill. Switching to a Brabham-BRM, Hill beat Jim Clark at Snetterton and achieved a number of podium finishes. After Hill left the team to join Lotus in 1967, Coombs hired Piers Courage who drove a McLaren M4A. For 1968, and with support from Ken Tyrrell, Coombs prepared Matras for Stewart and Johnny Servoz-Gavin, the latter winning the 1969 European Formula Two Championship. Coombs switched back to a Brabham in 1970, for Stewart and Jack Brabham himself. During the 1970s, several up and coming drivers raced for Coombs, including Patrick Depailler and François Cevert.^[1]

Later life

During the 1980s, Coombs scaled down his racing operations, and switched his car dealership from Jaguar to BMW. Eventually becoming dissatisfied with BMW, he sold his dealership and retired to Monaco, although he retained a workshop in Guildford.^[1] He continued his interest in racing cars, preparing historic cars for use at the Goodwood Revival until shortly before his death in a Monaco hospital, aged 91.^[4]

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Lunch with John Coombs". Motor Sport Magazine. May 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
1 2 "John Coombs". The 500 Owners Association. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
↑ "Davidstow: A History of Cornwall's Formula One Race Circuit", Peter Tutthill, West Country Motor Books, 1996.
1 2 "Notice of Death – John Coombs". The British Racing Drivers' Club. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.

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[lunch-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Lunch with John Coombs". Motor Sport Magazine. May 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2013.

[500_owners-2] 1 2 "John Coombs". The 500 Owners Association. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2013.

[3] "Davidstow: A History of Cornwall's Formula One Race Circuit", Peter Tutthill, West Country Motor Books, 1996.

[notice-4] 1 2 "Notice of Death – John Coombs". The British Racing Drivers' Club. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.