Jackie Oliver
Name: Jackie Oliver
Nationality: Great Britain
Date of birth: August 14, 1942 - Romford
Oliver was a confident Essex lad who fought his way up through Formula 3 into Formula 2 with an ex-works Lotus 48 in 1967, and was in the right place at the right time when Jim Clark was killed in the spring of 1968. Drafted into the Lotus Formula 1 team alongside Graham Hill, he blotted his copybook with Colin Chapman by shunting in both the Monaco and French Grands Prix, but his 49B was leading the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch when its transmission failed. Oliver rounded off the season with a third place in the Mexican Grand Prix, but by then Lotus had decided to drop him in favor of Jochen Rindt for 1969. He then joined BRM on a two-year contract which only yielded a couple of top six finishes - sixth in the 1970 Mexican Grand Prix and fifth in the 1971 Austrian race the following year. Dropped by the team in 1972, he had a guest drive in the British Grand Prix and only returned to full-time Formula 1 in 1973 with the debutante Shadow team. He finished third in that year's chaotic wet-dry Canadian Grand Prix after which he moved into the team's management before he and a group of colleagues broke away to establish the rival Arrows Equipe in 1978. Sued by Shadow boss Don Nichols in the London High Court, it was established that Oliver and his pals had infringed Shadow design copyright with their new car and were forced to make amends. Thereafter the Arrows team continued under Oliver's stewardship until he sold out to Tom Walkinshaw 20 years later.
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