Dave Kennedy

David "Dave" Kennedy (born January 15, 1953 in Sligo , Ireland ) is a former Irish racing driver. After Joe Kelly and Derek Daly, he was the third racing driver in his country to take part in Formula 1 races and is considered the man who brought Eddie Jordan into contact with motorsport.

Motorsport career

Formula Ford and Formula 3

Kennedy contested his first automobile race in 1972. He initially drove in the Irish Formula Ford Championship , which he finished as champion in 1975. The following year he won the British Formula Ford Championship and finished second in the European series. In 1977 Kennedy moved to the European Formula 3 Championship , which he finished eighth in the first year and sixth in 1978.

Aurora AFX Formula 1 Series

At the end of 1978, the Theodore Racing Kennedy team made it possible for him to enter Formula 1. Contrary to what was usual at that time, the change took place without a stopover in Formula 2 . In the late 1970s, Theodore had a racing team in the Aurora Series , a racing series also known as the British Formula 1 Championship , which was primarily held on national tracks and in which mostly older Formula 1 cars were used .

Kennedy made his debut with Theodores Wolf WR3 - Cosworth in the final race of the 1978 season at Snetterton . He drove the fastest race lap here and won by a clear margin over Tony Trimmer . In 1979 Kennedy drove again for Theodore in the Aurora series. He scored two wins, a second and five third places. With 63 points he was runner-up behind Rupert Keegan , who had two points more.

Formula 1 world championship

In 1980 Kennedy got a contract with the England-based Shadow team , which was financially supported by Teddy Yip, the owner of Theodore Racing, and which was finally taken over in the spring of 1980. Emergency vehicle was initially the Shadow DN11 , which had been developed by John Gentry and was regarded as a technically immature vehicle. In June the newly developed DN12 was available, which was only used twice in this form.

In the first six world championship runs of the year, Kennedy regularly missed the qualification. He was more than two seconds behind a qualifying place at the Brazilian Grand Prix , 0.77 seconds in South Africa and 0.17 seconds in the USA . At the Monaco Grand Prix , Kennedy was the last to finish qualifying. He was more than 15 seconds slower than pole sitter Didier Pironi in the Ligier ; He was therefore more than 12 seconds short of last place on the grid. The large time difference was due to an unstably mounted motor that vibrated in the chassis and adversely affected the driving behavior.

At the Spanish Grand Prix , which was held on June 1, 1980 and was announced as the seventh World Championship run of the year, Dave Kennedy succeeded in qualifying for the first time. In qualifying, he was 3.8 seconds behind Jacques Laffite's pole time with the new DN12 ; so he took 22nd and last place on the grid. However, the competition in Spain was less compared to other races: Due to differences in motorsport policy between FISA and FOCA , Alfa Romeo , Ensign , Scuderia Ferrari , Renault and RAM had withdrawn their reports or did not show up for the race, so that a total of eight cars fewer tried to get a place on the grid than usual. In the race, Kennedy only managed two and a half laps: Before completing the third lap, he was eliminated (as the first driver) due to an accident. Political clashes continued after the race. They led to the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix being revoked of its world championship status the day after it was held.

The French Grand Prix , held four weeks later, was the final race for Kennedy's team, which had since been given the name Theodore Shadow . After both drivers failed to qualify again, the team management withdrew the report for the rest of the year.

In the period that followed, Kennedy was given no further opportunity to compete in a Formula 1 race.

Sports car

In the early 1980s, Kennedy was repeatedly involved in the sports car world championship . For several years he was closely associated with the Japanese automobile manufacturer Mazda , for which he also took part in several Le Mans 24-hour races . At the 1991 Le Mans 24-hour race , in which Bertrand Gachot , Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler achieved the only Le Mans victory for a car with a rotary engine in the Mazda 787B , Kennedy drove the second 787B for the Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd factory team . Together with Stefan Johansson and Maurizio Sandro Sala , he finished sixth overall.

retirement

After finishing his active driving career, Kennedy worked as a Formula 1 commentator for Irish television stations and as a columnist for Irish newspapers. Established through his friendship with Martin Birrane , the owner of Lola Cars , Kennedy eventually took on a leading role in the British racing car maker's driver development program.

statistics

Race results in Formula 1

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th
1980
	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1983	Peer Racing	Ford C100	François Migault	Martin Birrane	failure	no fuel pressure
1984	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 727C	Jean-Michel Martin	Philippe Martin	Rank 15
1985	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 737C	Jean-Michel Martin	Philippe Martin	Rank 19
1986	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 757	Pierre Dieudonné	Mark Galvin	failure	Gearbox damage
1987	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 757	Pierre Dieudonné	Mark Galvin	Rank 7 and class win
1988	Mazdaspeed	Mazda 757	Pierre Dieudonné	Yōjirō Terada	15th place and class win
1989	Mazdaspeed	Mazda 767B	Pierre Dieudonné	Chris Hodgetts	Rank 7
1990	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 787	Pierre Dieudonné	Stefan Johansson	failure	Leak in the oil tank
1991	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 787	Maurizio Sandro Sala	Stefan Johansson	Rank 6

Web links

• David Kennedy's biography on www.f1rejects.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Kennedy's biography on the website www.f1rejects.com .
2. ^ David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 233.
3. ↑ On the website www.f1rejects.com there is talk of a “detaching engine”.