Denis Jenkinson

11/12/1920 - 29/11/1996

Record updated

A legendary motoring journalist who famously navigated for Stirling Moss when he won the 1955 Mille Miglia.

Denis S. Jenkinson or Jenks was a legendary journalist heavily involved in motorsports. As a reporter for Motor Sport magazine in the UK, he covered Formula One and other races all over Europe. Once, discussing his disdain for the World Championship and its bias towards reliability over wins, he declared that only one race should count, that race being Spa and whoever won it should be declared the World Champion.

Jenks raced Porsche cars in his own right and also served as passenger for World Champion motorcycle sidecar racer Eric Oliver.

Partnered by Denis Jenkinson and driving the fabulous 300SLR Mercedes, Stirling Moss scored one of his greatest victories in the gruelling Mille Miglia of 1955. Guided by Denis' pace notes Moss covered the treacherous 1000 mile course in the fastest time ever recorded.

It was Jenks who developed the classification of a driver's effort into "tenths", 10/10ths being the highest.

He also wrote a number of books about Porsche, Frazer Nash, the Jaguar E-type, Juan Manuel Fangio, the Schlumpf Collection, Maserati and "The Racing Driver"  based on his experience as navigator.



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