Oliver, Jackie

Oliver began his long career in motorsport in 1961, driving the Mini in racing at the British Automobile Club. After that, Oliver switched to GT racing at Lotus Elan , where he showed excellent results. Then Jackie managed to break into Formula 3 , where, despite the high speed, he was chased by mechanical problems.

However, in 1967, Oliver was promoted to class in Team Lotus Formula 2 . He made his debut at the German Grand Prix , where he reached the finish line in 5th place overall and the first in Formula 2 class. In 1968, Colin Chapman offered him a place in the F-1 team after the death of Jim Clark . The contract did not provide for racing in Formula 2. During negotiations with the failed racer Tony Radlin, who was then in charge of Roger Frogley at the Herts and Essex Aero Club, it turned out that the debut in F-1 may not take place. Lotus, nevertheless, provided a car and mechanics who acted as sports managers, while Radlin was the team manager. Lotus F2 was successful, although it was not entirely related to Team Lotus. At the end of the season, the team was invited to 4 races of the Argentine racing series "Temporada". The Herts and Essex Team finished third. The season of Formula 1 promised to be difficult, because Oliver did not always succeed in finishing. He led the UK Grand Prix until the engine failed. Jackie managed to finish only twice that season, with the best finish in third place at the Mexican Grand Prix .

Since Lotus signed a contract with Jochen Rindt in 1969, Oliver moved to BRM . For him, these two years that he spent in a team from Burne were very difficult. This destroyed his career. During this time, he managed to get to the finish line only four times, gaining only three points - one for 6th place in the Mexican Grand Prix in 1969 and two for 5th place in the Austrian Grand Prix in 1970 . However, in 1970 he managed to lead in several stages of the ROC series, leaving Stuart behind and taking a high third place in the Dutch and British GP. The low result of the Austrian Grand Prix, BRM boss Lou Stanley did not like it, and he believed that Rodriguez had a faster car, but at the Italian Grand Prix, Oliver managed to stay in a tight group of leaders until the engine refused. Stanley described Oliver as "a good racer, but not as good as he himself believes." The results of the BRM team showed that her time had passed. The pandits and BRM title sponsor, Yardley , were surprised that Oliver was fired from the team. Jackie Stewart rated Oliver as a good Grand Prix and Can-Am racer.

The best results over the years were four victories in the John Weier team on the Ford GT40 - 12 hours of Sebring and 24 hours of Le Mans with Jacques X in 1969 and 24 hours of Daytona and 1000 km of Monza in 1971 with Pedro Rodriguez .

In 1969 he made his Can-Am races on Don 'Nicols Shadow on the TI-22. In 1971, Oliver came out only three times at the start of Formula 1 as the third pilot of McLaren . In 1972, Jackie concentrated entirely on Can-Am races, although he made one start for BRM, which ended for him immediately.

In 1973, Shadow took part in Formula 1, and Oliver became the team leader. Shadow DN1 turned out to be a whimsical car, and again its season was ruined due to mechanical problems. However , at the Canadian Grand Prix, Oliver was in the lead, and many thought he won the race. This was due to heavy rain at the end of the race, and the result was a large number of pit stops. As a result, Oliver was classified 3rd - his only finish in the points zone.

In 1974, he again focused on Can-Am racing, winning the title for Shadow. Jackie was more interested in team management than racing. However, he competed for three seasons in Formula 5000 and participated in the 1977 Champions Race, taking 9th place in the Swedish Grand Prix .

At the end of 1977, Jackie leaves the Shadows team and, together with financier Franco Ambrosio , Designers Tony Southgate And Alan Riis And engineer Dave Voss, creates his own Formula 1 team - Arrows. Her first pilots are the young racer Riccardo Patrese , who previously performed in Shadows and Rolf Stommelen . The team became known for the longest series of races without victories - 382 Grand Prix.

At the end of 1989, Oliver sold most of his stake in the Japanese company Footwork, however, due to financial problems, the team did not develop and was returned in late 1993. In 1996, he again sold a significant portion of the shares to Tom Walkinshaw , owner of the Tom Walkinshaw Racing team , and in 1999 completely abandoned the management of the team ^[1] .

• Steve Small. Grand Prix Who's Who. - 3. - Travel Publishing, 2000. - 624 p. - ISBN 9781902007465 .

• Jackie Oliver (rus.) At wildsoft.motorsport.com