John
Miles

John Miles was born in London on 14 June 1943. His serious racing career began in 1963/64, when he became overall champion of the Redex Sports Car Championship in a Diva GT. In 1966 he took the Autosport Championship in a Lotus Elan 26R. He then drove for the Lotus works team in Formula 3 in 1967 and 1968, winning four international F3 races in 1968.

In 1969 Miles was the official Lotus test driver and developed the four-wheel-drive Lotus 63. He made his Formula One debut in that car on 6 July 1969. He started five races that season and reached the finish just once, in tenth place. For 1970 he was promoted to second Lotus driver behind Jochen Rindt. In the South African Grand Prix he finished fifth in a Lotus 49 and scored two championship points. He failed to qualify in Spain and Monaco, and finished seventh in the Netherlands. After Rindt was killed at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, Miles left the team. In total he was entered for 15 Grands Prix and started 12 of them. He finished 19th in the 1970 World Championship.

In 1971 Miles drove for BRM, mainly as a test driver, and took part in two non-championship races at Brands Hatch and Hockenheim. That year he also won the British sports car championship for 2-litre cars in a Chevron B19. A qualified mechanical engineer, he later worked for Lotus's road car division and wrote a column for Autocar magazine on sporty cars. Miles died on 8 April 2018.

Source: Wikipedia, “John Miles (racing driver)”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.