Kenny
Acheson

Kenny Acheson was born in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, in 1957. His father raced motorcycles and Formula Ford cars in the 1970s. Acheson started out in Formula Ford 1600 in 1976 and won the Northern Ireland championship in 1977. In 1978 he moved to England, where he won 29 races and all three Formula Ford series he contested. At the end of the year he received a Grovewood Award. He stepped up to Formula 3 in 1979 and won three non-championship races. In 1980 he led the British Formula 3 Championship at mid-season, but lost the title to Stefan Johansson in the final race. In 1981 he drove a Toleman in Formula 2, although a heavy crash at Pau brought his season to an early end. In 1982 he finished seventh in the European Formula 2 Championship with Ralt Honda.

In 1983 Acheson had a works Formula 2 drive with Maurer and, later that year, made his Formula 1 debut with the RAM team in a March. He failed to qualify in his early attempts, but at the South African Grand Prix he made the grid and finished 12th. He had no drive in 1984. In 1985 he returned to RAM as a replacement for Manfred Winkelhock, who had been killed in a sportscar race. In the Hart-powered RAM 03 he qualified for the Austrian and Italian Grands Prix. That left him with three Formula 1 starts in total.

Acheson went on to race in Japan for several years, in Formula 3000 and sportscars, and won the Japanese Sportscar Championship in 1987. In 1989 he did a full season with Sauber-Mercedes, finishing second at Le Mans with Mauro Baldi, and the pair also won races at Brands Hatch and Spa. He drove for Nissan in 1990, took third at Le Mans with Jaguar in 1991 and another second with Toyota in 1992. His last Le Mans came in 1995 with SARD. After a heavy crash in the 1996 Daytona 24 Hours, he retired from racing.

Source: Wikipedia, “Kenny Acheson”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.