Mike
Thackwell

Mike Thackwell was born in Papakura, New Zealand, in 1961. His father, Ray, was a speedway rider and racing driver. When Mike was six, the family moved to Perth in Western Australia, where he grew up and began racing. He started in motocross before switching to karting, and won the Western Australian title at 14. He took the Hong Kong Kart Grand Prix in 1975 and 1976, then moved to England. He raced as a New Zealander.

In 1978 he finished third in the British Star of Tomorrow Formula Ford series. In 1979 he was third again in British Formula 3 in a works March, with five wins. For 1980 he stepped up to Formula 2 and also became a test driver for Tyrrell.

At the 1980 Dutch Grand Prix he was given a late drive in an Arrows but failed to qualify. A few weeks later he made his debut for Tyrrell in Canada, aged 19. A multi-car collision on the first lap led to the race being stopped. Thackwell handed his car to Jean-Pierre Jarier and did not take the restart, but is still recorded as a starter. That made him the youngest driver to start a world championship race until Jaime Alguersuari took the record in 2009. He failed to qualify at the next race in the United States. In 1984 he replaced Jonathan Palmer at RAM in Canada, qualified 25th and retired on lap 30 with a turbo failure. In all he made three world championship starts without scoring a point.

In Formula 2 he drove for Ralt in 1981, won the International Trophy at Silverstone and finished sixth overall, despite a serious testing accident during the season. In 1982 he raced for small privately run teams and still reached the top three twice. He was runner-up to Palmer in 1983, and in 1984 he won the European title with seven victories in eleven races.

In 1984 he also contested two CART races for Penske without scoring. In 1985 he was runner-up to Christian Danner in the new Formula 3000. In 1986 he won at Pau and, sharing a Sauber C8 with Henri Pescarolo, the 1000km of the Nürburgring. In 1987 he won the Formula Pacific title in New Zealand. He retired from racing at the end of 1988.

Source: Wikipedia, “Mike Thackwell”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.