Jack Ensley

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The Jaguar D-Type with which Bob Sweikert and Jack Ensley finished third in the 1956 Sebring 12-hour race

James Robert "Jack" Ensley (born October 17, 1910 , † January 13, 1972 ) was an American entrepreneur and racing driver .

Career

Jack Ensley was a professional entrepreneur. In the US state of Arizona he owned other golf courses , restaurants, and arcades . He also sold exclusive sports cars . In his youth he worked as a professional dancer and was for some time the dance partner of actress Joan Crawford .

In the 1950s and 1960s he was active as a men's driver in motorsport. He mainly drove sports car races and tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 mile race in 1958 at the age of 48 . The second qualification attempt in 1959 also failed.

In sports car racing, he was involved in the SCCA National Sports Car Championship , where he competed regularly until 1969. He won seven championship runs, the last one in 1969 when he won a race in Savannah on a Lola T70 . He had international races in particular at the 12-hour race in Sebring , where he was third overall in 1956 . Jack Ensley died in January 1972 of cancer .

statistics

Sebring results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1955 United States 48United States Jack Ensley Kurtis Force 500 United States 48United States Jim Rathmann failure Engine failure
1956 United States 48United States Jack Ensley Jaguar D-Type United StatesUnited States Bob Sweikert Rank 3
1957 United States 48United States Jack Ensley Jaguar D-Type United States 48United States Pat O'Connor failure Breakage of the front axle

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season team race car 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th
1953 Jack Ensley Kurtis Force 500 United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly MIM FranceFrance LEM BelgiumBelgium SPA GermanyGermany ONLY United KingdomUnited Kingdom RTT MexicoMexico CAP
DNF
1955 Jack Ensley Kurtis Force 500 ArgentinaArgentina BUA United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly MIM FranceFrance LEM United KingdomUnited Kingdom RTT ItalyItaly TAR
DNF
1956 Jack Ensley Jaguar D-Type ArgentinaArgentina BUA United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly MIM GermanyGermany ONLY SwedenSweden KRI
3
1957 Jack Ensley Jaguar D-Type ArgentinaArgentina BUA United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly MIM GermanyGermany ONLY FranceFrance LEM SwedenSweden KRI VenezuelaVenezuela CAR
DNF

literature

  • Ken Breslauer: Sebring. The official History of America's Great Sports Car Race. David Bull, Cambridge MA 1995, ISBN 0-9649722-0-4 .

Web links

Commons : Jack Ensley  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Indianapolis 500 1958
  2. ^ Indianapolis 500 1959
personal data
SURNAME Ensley, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ensley, James Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur and racing car driver
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1910
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1972