Innes Ireland
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Born | Robert McGregor Innes Ireland 12 June 1930 Mytholmroyd, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | ||||||||||
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Died | 22 October 1993 Reading, Berkshire, England | (aged 63)||||||||||
Formula One World Championship career | |||||||||||
Nationality | ![]() | ||||||||||
Active years | 1959–1966 | ||||||||||
Teams | Lotus, BRP, BRM | ||||||||||
Entries | 53 (50 starts) | ||||||||||
Championships | 0 | ||||||||||
Wins | 1 | ||||||||||
Podiums | 4 | ||||||||||
Career points | 47 | ||||||||||
Pole positions | 0 | ||||||||||
Fastest laps | 1 | ||||||||||
First entry | 1959 Dutch Grand Prix | ||||||||||
First win | 1961 United States Grand Prix | ||||||||||
Last win | 1961 United States Grand Prix | ||||||||||
Last entry | 1966 Mexican Grand Prix | ||||||||||
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Robert McGregor Innes Ireland (12 June 1930 – 22 October 1993), was a British military officer, engineer, and motor racing driver. He was a larger-than-life character who, according to a rival team boss, "lived without sense, without an analyst and provoked astonishment and affection from everyone."[1]
Early life[]
Ireland was born on 12 June 1930 in Mytholmroyd, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of a Scottish veterinary surgeon. His family returned to Kirkcudbright, Scotland during his youth, and he trained as an engineer with Rolls-Royce, first in Glasgow and later in London. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the King's Own Scottish Borderers, he served with the Parachute Regiment in the Suez Canal Zone during 1953 and 1954.
Racing career[]
Ireland began racing a Riley 9 in 1954. His first year of nationally competitive events was 1957,[2] by which time he was running a small engineering firm in Surrey. Success in sports car racing saw him make his Formula One debut for Team Lotus in 1959. In 1960 he won three non-championship Formula One races and finished fourth in the World Drivers Championship. Badly injured in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, Ireland recovered to win the Solitude Grand Prix and Flugplatzrennen races, then finished the season with a victory in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. He was sacked at the end of the season as team boss Colin Chapman considered Jim Clark a better bet.[3]
He was encouraged by Bill France, founder of NASCAR, to participate in the 1967 Daytona 500, one of the last races of his career, where the V8 engine of his Dodge exploded outside the stands.
He worked as a journalist for ESPN for several F1 races in the late 1980s as well as the American Road & Track magazine, Autocar magazine, and skippering fishing trawlers in the North Atlantic. Towards the end of his life, he was elected president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, which post he still held at the time of his death from cancer on 22 October 1993, at Reading, Berkshire, England.
Writing[]
A talented writer, Ireland produced a classic autobiography, (ISBN 0-85184-050-7). Marathon in the Dust, published in 1970 is Ireland's account of the gruelling 1968 Daily Expres London-Sydney Marathon which Innes completed with 2 friends in a Mercedes Benz 280 SE.
Personal life[]
On 30 October 1954 Ireland married Scarborough schoolteacher Norma Thomas. They had two daughters before divorcing in 1967. He then married Edna Humphries also in 1967. Ireland married his third wife Jean Mander (née Howarth), a former fashion model, on 11 June 1993 at Newbury register office. Jean had been engaged to Mike Hawthorn at the time of Hawthorn's death in 1959. Ireland also had a son who died in 1992.
Formula One results[]
Complete Formula One World Championship results[]
(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | WDC | Pts. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1959 | Team Lotus | Lotus 16 | Climax FPF 2.5 L4 | MON | 500 | NED 4 |
FRA Ret |
GBR | GER Ret |
POR Ret |
ITA Ret |
USA 5 |
14th | 5 | |
1960 | Team Lotus | Lotus 18 | Climax FPF 2.5 L4 | ARG 6 |
MON 9 |
500 | NED 2 |
BEL Ret |
FRA 7 |
GBR 3 |
POR 6 |
ITA | USA 2 |
4th | 18 |
1961 | Team Lotus | Lotus 21 | Climax FPF 1.5 L4 | MON DNS |
NED | BEL Ret |
FRA 4 |
GBR 10 |
GER Ret |
USA 1 |
6th | 12 | |||
Lotus 18/21 | ITA Ret |
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1962 | UDT-Laystall Racing Team | Lotus 24 | Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 | NED Ret |
MON Ret |
BEL Ret |
FRA Ret |
GBR 16 |
GER | ITA Ret |
USA 8 |
RSA 5 |
16th | 2 | |
1963 | British Racing Partnership | Lotus 24 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | MON Ret |
GER Ret |
9th | 6 | ||||||||
BRP Mk1 | BEL Ret |
NED 4 |
FRA 9 |
GBR Ret |
ITA 4 |
USA | MEX | RSA | |||||||
1964 | British Racing Partnership | Lotus 24 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | MON DNS |
NED | 14th | 4 | ||||||||
BRP Mk1 | BEL 10 |
FRA Ret |
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BRP Mk2 | GBR 10 |
GER | AUT 5 |
ITA 5 |
USA Ret |
MEX 12 | |||||||||
1965 | Reg Parnell Racing | Lotus 25 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | RSA | MON | BEL 13 |
FRA Ret |
GBR Ret |
NED 10 |
GER | NC | 0 | |||
Lotus 33 | ITA 9 |
USA Ret |
MEX DNS | ||||||||||||
1966 | Bernard White Racing | BRM P261 | BRM P60 1.9 V8 | MON | BEL | FRA | GBR | NED | GER | ITA | USA Ret |
MEX Ret |
NC | 0 |
Non-championship results[]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
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1957 | Equipe Endeavour | Cooper T43 F2 | Climax FPF 1.5 L4 | BUE | SYR | GLV | NAP | RMS | CAE | INT Ret |
MOD | MOR | ||||||||||||
1959 | Team Lotus | Lotus 16 F2 | Climax FPF 1.5 L4 | GLV | AIN | INT 11 |
OUL | |||||||||||||||||
Lotus 16 | Climax FPF 2.5 L4 | SIL Ret |
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1960 | Team Lotus | Lotus 18 | Climax FPF 2.5 L4 | BUE Ret |
GLV 1 |
INT 1 |
SIL Ret |
LOM 1 |
OUL Ret |
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1961 | Team Lotus | Lotus 18 | Climax FPF 1.5 L4 | LOM Ret |
GLV 5 |
PAU | BRX 9 |
VIE | AIN 10 |
SYR Ret |
NAP | LON | SIL | KAN Ret |
MOD DNQ |
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Lotus 21 | SOL 1 |
DAN 2 |
FLG 1 |
OUL Ret |
LEW | VAL | RAN | NAT | RSA | |||||||||||||||
1962 | UDT-Laystall Racing Team | Lotus 18/21 | Climax FPF 1.5 L4 | CAP | BRX 3 |
LOM Ret |
LAV | GLV 3 |
PAU | AIN Ret |
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Ferrari 156 | Ferrari 178 1.5 V6 | INT 4 |
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Lotus 24 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | NAP | MAL | CLP 1 |
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Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 | RMS 3 |
SOL DNA |
KAN 4 |
MED | DAN 3 |
OUL Ret |
MEX 3 |
RAN Ret |
NAT | |||||||||||||||
1963 | British Racing Partnership | Lotus 24 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | LOM 3 |
GLV 1 |
PAU | IMO | SYR | AIN 2 |
INT 4 |
ROM | KAN | MED | AUT | OUL Ret |
RAN | ||||||||
BRP Mk1 | SOL 3 |
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1964 | British Racing Partnership | BRP Mk1 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | DMT 1 |
NWT Ret |
SYR | ||||||||||||||||||
BRP Mk2 | AIN Ret |
INT Ret |
SOL Ret |
MED 3 |
RAN | |||||||||||||||||||
1965 | Reg Parnell Racing | Lotus 25 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | ROC | SYR Ret |
SMT | INT | MED 5 |
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Lotus 25/331 | BRM P60 2.0 V8 | RAN 6 |
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1966 | Reg Parnell Racing | Lotus 25/331 | BRM P60 2.0 V8 | RSA Ret |
SYR | INT | ||||||||||||||||||
Bernard White Racing | BRM P261 | BRM P60 1.9 V8 | OUL 4 |
- ^1 The Parnell Lotus driven by Ireland in 1965 and 1966 was a written-off 25 rebuilt around a 33 monocoque.
References[]
- ^ Robert Newman (2014). Motor Racing Heroes: The Stories of 100 Greats. Veloce Publishing Ltd. pp. 202–. ISBN 978-1-84584-748-7.
- ^ "All Results of Innes Ireland". www.racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ^ Doug Nye (1978). Theme Lotus. Motor Racing Publications. p. 49.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Innes Ireland. |
- An Innes Ireland fan site at the Wayback Machine (archived 26 October 2009)
- Information about Innes Ireland
- King's Own Scottish Borderers officers
- British Parachute Regiment officers
- English mechanical engineers
- English Formula One drivers
- Racing drivers from Yorkshire
- British racing drivers
- Team Lotus Formula One drivers
- British Racing Partnership Formula One drivers
- Reg Parnell Racing Formula One drivers
- Bernard White Racing Formula One drivers
- 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
- 12 Hours of Reims drivers
- World Sportscar Championship drivers
- 20th-century British businesspeople
- British non-fiction writers
- British male journalists
- People from Mytholmroyd
- 1930 births
- 1993 deaths
- British male writers
- Engineers from Yorkshire
- 20th-century non-fiction writers