Jackie Lewis

1/11/1936

Record updated 21-Jan-08

Jackie Lewis participated in 10 grands prix, debuting on June 18, 1961. He scored a total of 3 championship points.

Jackie Lewis was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, the son of a motorcycle dealer.

After a couple of lessons with the Cooper Racing Drivers' School, 21 year-old Jackie bought the ex-Ivor Bueb Formula 3, Cooper-Norton for the 1958 season. During the year he competed in 13 meetings winning 3 races in his first season, one at Full Sutton and two at Oulton Park. He also took three seconds and a third. In other races that year he came 2nd behind Stuart Lewis-Evans at the World Sports Trophy race at Brands and another 2nd in the 100 mile Commander Yorke Trophy at Silverstone, a race won by Trevor Taylor. Jackie had some bad luck in this race as he had fitted an extra fuel tank, hoping that the extra weight would be more than compensated for by not having to refuel. Unfortunately the tank split and the car was forced into the pits.

Suitably encouraged however he moved up to Formula 2 in 1959 with an H & L Motors run Cooper T45-Climax FPF. Despite setting the fastest practice time for the Pau GP, ahead of Brabham and Trintignant, and taking third in the Aintree 200, Lewis was frustrated by organisers' general reluctance to accept his entry. He did win the Prix de Paris at Montlhéry and came second in the Coupe de Salon also at Montlhéry behind Harry Schell in the Ecurie Bleue Cooper T51 Climax FPF.

He entered the 1960 season well prepared and proved how good he was by winning the Autocar F2 British championship, as well as races at Chimay and Montlhery.

During 1960 and into 1961 Ted Jeffs, the Lewis team mechanic built a straight-tube chassis designed for Formula One, reaching the stage where it stood on its wheels in the Lewis team's Stroud workshop. But the project was abandoned and the chassis sold on for completion as a hill climb special.

Lewis did move up to Formula One in 1961 with a Cooper-Climax T53 (FI-6-61), setting 12th-fastest practice time on his debut at Spa, finishing 9th. He retired in the next race at Reims in France and again at the British Grand Prix held at Aintree. A 9th in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring was followed by a fine fourth in Italy holding off Tony Brooks' late challenge.

Now with grade A driver status, he started the year racing under the Ecurie Gallois banner. It seems that a Welsh surname and the promise of sponsorship from a Welsh firm, which unfortunately never arrived prompted Jack to re-name H&L Motors. Driving the Cooper he finished 8th in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvort.

He then bought a BRM 48/57 V8 and, though he took it to third in the Pau GP after a race long struggle with Rodriguez in the works Ferrari, the car proved a dissapointment. At the Monaco Grand Prix young Jack equalled the practice time of the works BRM driver Ginther, only to be excluded from the race to make way for slower but better known competitors. He was so dissatisfied that he returned the car to BRM who reimbursed the £7000 selling price and Lewis had to compete for the rest of the season in his tired old Cooper.

Back in the Cooper, Lewis appeared disenchanted. He retired from the French Grand Prix after a collision with Graham Hill, a 10th in the British Grand Prix, 3 laps down on Clark and another retirement in Germany saw a despondent Lewis slip into retirement at the age of just 27 to spent the next 40 years sheep farming near Llandovery. He felt that his reputation had suffered because of the BRM episode and could not seem to find the necessary resilience to overcome the setbacks that are a part of any sport.

1958

 

• Brands Hatch, Junior F3 race, 2nd
• Full Sutton, F3 race, 1st
• Oulton Park, F3 race, 1st
• Crystal Palace, F3 race, 8th
• Oulton Park, F3 race, 1st
• Snetterton, F3 race, ?5th
• Brands Hatch, World Sports Trophy, 2nd (won heat)
• Silverstone, Commander Yorke Trophy, 2nd
• Brands Hatch, Lewis-Evans Trophy, 4th
• Snetterton, F3 race, 3rd
• Oulton Park, F3 race, ?retired
• Brands Hatch, World Sports Trophy, ?

• Lavant Cup, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 11th
• British Empire Trophy, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 14th
• Aintree 200, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 7th
• Prix de Paris, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 1st
• GP de Pau, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 7th
• Coupe de Vitesse, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 10th
• GP de Rouen, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), accident
• Trophee d'Auvergne, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 8th
• Kentish 100, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), did not qualify
• Coupe de Salon, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 2nd

• Oulton Park Trophy, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), accident
• GP de Bruxelles, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 8th
• GP de Pau, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), not classified
• Aintree 200, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 12th
• Prix de Paris, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 2nd
• GP des Frontieres, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 1st
• Solituderennen, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), retired
• German GP, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), disqualified
• Vanwall Trophy, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 2nd
• Kentish 100, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 7th
• Lombank Trophy, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 1st in class (6th overall)
• Coupe de Salon, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 1st
• Lewis Evans Trophy, Cooper T45-Climax (F2), 2nd

• GP de Pau, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 5th
• GP de Bruxelles,Cooper T53-Climax (F1), excluded
• Aintree 200, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 8th
• London Trophy, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 7th
• Silver City Trophy, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), retired
• Belgian GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 9th
• French GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), retired
• British GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), retired
• German GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 9th
• Modena GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), did not qualify
• Italian GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 4th
• Oulton Park Gold Cup, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), retired

• GP de Pau, BRM (F1), 3rd
• International Trophy, BRM (F1), 9th
• Dutch GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 8th
• Monaco GP, BRM (F1), excluded
• GP de Reims, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 10th
• French GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), accident
• British GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 10th
• German GP, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), 10th
• Oulton Park Gold Cup, Cooper T53-Climax (F1), retired