Jan
Lammers

Jan Lammers was born in Zandvoort on 2 June 1956. He grew up around the driving skills school run by Rob Slotemaker, who spotted his talent and backed him. In 1973, aged 16, he won the Dutch Touring Car Championship in a Simca Rallye 2, becoming the youngest Dutch national champion in motor racing. A second title followed in 1976 in an Opel Kadett GT/E. That same year he began racing in Formula Ford, and in 1978 he won the European Formula 3 Championship with Alan Docking's team. He skipped Formula 2 and moved straight into Formula One in 1979.

In the World Championship Lammers drove for Shadow in 1979, for ATS and Ensign in 1980, for ATS again in 1981 and for Theodore in 1982. From 41 entries he made 23 starts and did not score a championship point. He finished ninth in the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix. In 1980 he put the ATS fourth on the grid at Long Beach, but a failure ended his race on the opening lap. In 1982, after the fatal accident of Gilles Villeneuve, Ferrari approached him to take over the seat from the race at Zandvoort. After a crash in the Theodore, however, Patrick Tambay signed for Ferrari instead.

Ten years after his last Grand Prix, Lammers returned to Formula One in 1992, contesting the final two races of the season for March as the replacement for Karl Wendlinger. He retired with a gearbox failure at Suzuka and finished 12th at Adelaide. Plans to continue in 1993 came to nothing, and the team folded.

In 1983 Lammers turned to sportscar racing. In 1988 he won the Le Mans 24 Hours for Jaguar alongside Johnny Dumfries and Andy Wallace, the marque's first victory there since 1957. He also won the Daytona 24 Hours that year, and again in 1990 with Wallace and Davy Jones. In 1992 he took the Japanese sports-prototype title with Toyota, and in the Renault 5 Turbo Cup he was European champion in 1983 and 1984. With his own team, Racing for Holland, he won the FIA Sportscar Championship in 2002 and 2003 with Val Hillebrand. He later contested the Dakar Rally and ended his racing career after the 2019 season. From 2020 he worked as sporting director of the organisation bringing back the Dutch Grand Prix, which returned in 2021 for the first time since 1985.

Source: Wikipedia, “Jan Lammers”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.