Jay Chamberlain drove sports car racing in the United States in the 1950s. His preferred vehicles were Lotus brand racing cars , for which he was one of the first importers into the United States. In 1957 he came to Europe and finished ninth in Le Mans together with Herbert MacKay-Fraser in a works Lotus XI . The two crowned their strong performance with a victory in the class up to 750 cm³. In the same year he finished second in a sports car race in Rouen and was seriously injured two weeks later in another sports car race in Reims when he went off the track in practice.
In 1958 he had a serious accident at Le Mans when he drove into the track barrier in the Mulsanne. Chamberlain, this time driving a Lotus 15 with partner Pete Lovely , was uninjured.
These statistics include all of the driver's participations in the World Automobile Championship, which is now known as the Formula 1 World Championship .