Jim Jeffords (racing driver)

Chevrolet Corvette C1 Roadstar, built in 1957

James "Jim" Jeffords (born December 6, 1926 in Brookfield , † March 6, 2014 in Palm Desert ) was an American racing car driver .

Career in motorsport

When Jim Jeffords started racing in 1954, he was already the father of four sons. He contested his first races in a Jaguar XK 140 , with which he took a few second places in national sports car races in the USA in 1955.

In 1956, Jeffords came into contact with Ed Cole , who was appointed general manager of General Motors that same year . Jeffords learned about the plans to build a Chevrolet factory team with racing models of the Corvette C1 . Jeffords tried very hard to get a works contract, but was not considered for the time being because of his lack of racing experience. The turning point came at a racing event on Memorial Day weekend in 1956 at Wisconsin State Fair Park . Jeffords drove his Jaguar XK 140 and won the race by one lap over Chevrolet factory drivers Dick Thompson and Fred Windridge . The next day, a Sunday, he drove a works car for the first time. With the Chevrolet Corvette Spezial - John Fitch and Walt Hansgen finished ninth overall in the Sebring 12-hour race - he finished fourth.

Jeffords was a member of the Chevrolet works team from 1957 until the early 1960s, although - common at the time - he repeatedly competed for other racing teams and team owners. 1958 drove from victory to victory in North American sports car racing and drove the Chevrolet Corvette SR-2 together with Augie Pabst in the 958 .

In 1960 he came to Europe as a driver for Lucky Casner and its Camoradi Racing and also drove a Maserati Tipo 61 at the 24-hour race at Le Mans . By the end of his career, he had won 24 races out of 81 starts. In the winter of 1960/1961 Jeffords became seriously ill and had to end his driving career after nine months of treatment. In 1968 he returned to sports car racing as a team manager and headed the AMC Javelin Trans Am team , with drivers Peter Revson and George Follmer .

Jeffords served on the Road America Circuit Board of Directors and a member of the National Corvette Hall of Fame until the end of his life .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1960	Camoradi USA	Maserati Tipo 61	Lloyd Casner	failure	malfunction

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1957	Lindsay Hopkins	Chevrolet Corvette	John Kilborn	Dale Duncan	Rank 15
1958	Jim Jeffords	Chevrolet Corvette SR-2	Augie Pabst		failure	Front axle
1959	George F. Schrafft	Fiat-Abarth 750 Monza	Bob Kuhn		Rank 30
1960	Camoradi USA	Chevrolet Corvette	Fred Gamble	Bill Wuesthoff	Rank 26

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1957	Lindsay Hopkins Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
				15th					DNF
1958	Jim Jeffords	Chevrolet Corvette SR-2	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				DNF
1959	George Schrafft	Fiat-Abarth 750	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			30th
1960	Camoradi Racing	Chevrolet Corvette Maserati Tipo 61	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
				26th			DNF

Web links

• About Jim Jeffords
• Jim Jeffords at the Driver Database