Jan Lammers

The Formula 1 adventures of Jan Lammers were largely spent struggling to qualify uncompetitive machinery but he enjoyed one day at the sharp end of the grid. That was the 1980 Long Beach Grand Prix when the Dutchman shocked the establishment by qualifying his new ATS D4-Ford in fourth position. However, his moment in the limelight was but brief for the driveshaft failed on the opening lap of the race.

Early racing career

F1 is just part of his story that includes four decades in the sport. An instructor at Zandvoort as a teenager, he started racing in saloons – winning the national title in 1973 and 1976 – before switching to Formula Ford 1600. It was in Formula 3 that Lammers emerged as a driver to watch. His Roger Heavens-entered Ralt RT1-Toyota won four times as Lammers edged Anders Olofsson to win the 1978 European F3 Championship.

Struggling in Formula 1

With sponsorship from Samson Shag and a resulting garish colour scheme, Lammers jumped into GP racing in 1979. That was with a less-than-competitive Shadow DN9B-Ford and Lammers’ year was without highlight.

He moved to ATS for 1980 but failed to qualify for the first three GPs. The team introduced the new Gustav Brunner-designed D4 chassis at Long Beach and scepticism met that remarkable qualifying performance. Lammers switched to Ensign from the French GP as fulltime replacement for the injured Clay Regazzoni although he continued to struggle to qualify.

He did no better with subsequent short-term opportunities with ATS (in 1981) and Theodore (1982) and Lammers seemed finished with GP racing having finished no higher than ninth in the 1979 Canadian GP.

Successful sports car career

Already racing in the Renault Five Turbo Cup by the end of his initial F1 career, he won the one-make series in 1983 and 1984. He was also establishing himself in sports cars from 1983 when sharing Richard Lloyd’s Porsche 956GTi with Jonathan Palmer. They won at Brands Hatch in 1984 but Lammers made a surprise decision to leave the team immediately before the 1985 Le Mans 24 Hours to race in Champ Cars instead.

He started five races in the 1985 Champ Car World Series and his Forsythe Racing Lola T800-Cosworth finished fifth at Laguna Seca and led at Miami before spinning. He continued his sporadic open-wheel racing career by finishing third in the 1986 Macau F3 race and winning a round of the following year’s Japanese Formula 3000 Championship.

Le Mans winner for Jaguar

But it was with Jaguar’s sports car team that Lammers would star. He made his debut for Tom Walkinshaw’s team in 1985 and was John Watson’s fulltime co-driver for 1987. They won three times that year as they finished as world championship runners-up behind team-mate Raul Boesel. Victory in both the Daytona and Le Mans 24-hour races followed in 1988 – the latter Jaguar’s first victory in the French classic since 1957.

He left Jaguar to race in the Japanese F3000 Championship in 1991 before making a surprise F1 return for the final two GPs of 1992. He hoped to continue with the March team in 1993 but it closed down before the new season. His final brush with GP racing came in 1995 when he tested the stillborn DAMS F1 car.

Racing for Holland

Unimpressive F3000 outings and a season in British touring cars developing the TWR Volvo during 1994 gave way to another return to endurance racing. He formed Racing for Holland in 2001 and Lammers won the FIA Sportscar Championship in 2002 and 2003 when sharing his Dome S101-Judd with Val Hillebrand and John Bosch respectively.