David Weir (racing driver)

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The Ferrari 512 of Chris Craft and David Weir before the start of the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans

David Manson Weir ( 1944 - August 19, 2012 in East Hampton ) was an American racing car driver .

Racing career

David Weir was the son of Ernest T. Weir , founder of ISG Weirton Steel and the National Steel Corporation , and his second wife, Mary Hayward Weir.

David Weir was active in GT and sports car racing as a partner of Chris Craft and Alain de Cadenet in the early 1970s . For the de Cadenet team, he drove several races in the World Sports Car Championship in 1970 and 1971 . With de Cadenet as a partner, he finished eleventh overall in a 1970 Ford GT 40 in the 1000 km race in Zeltweg and sixth in the 1000 km race in Paris, which is not part of the world championship . In 1971 he managed a surprising fourth place overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , with partner Chris Craft in the Ferrari 512M, registered by David Piper .

The short racing career ended after the success at Le Mans. Weir worked in alcohol and drug counseling for many years and lived in the Hamptons on Long Island with his wife Gretchen (the couple had two children) until his death . His trademark automobile was a yellow Morris Minor .

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1971 United KingdomUnited Kingdom David Piper Autorace Ferrari 512M United KingdomUnited Kingdom Chris Craft Rank 4

Sebring results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1971 United StatesUnited States North American Racing Team Ferrari 512S United StatesUnited States Chuck Parsons failure cooler

literature

  • Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissedre: 24 hours of mans . 1923-1992. 2 volumes. Édition d'Art JB Barthelemy, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : David Weir  - Collection of Images