John Sheldon

Nimrod NRA / C2

John Sheldon (born December 2, 1946 ) is a retired British racing car driver .

Career

John Sheldon's career began in 1973 in the British Formula 3 Championship , in which he remained active for three years. His best placement in the overall championship ranking was 19th place in the same year. He drove against later famous racing drivers such as Tony Brise , Richard Robarts , Mike Wilds , Alan Jones , Brian Henton and Tony Trimmer . In 1974 he started in Formula Atlantic , then his career stalled.

After Sheldon had already driven sports car races in the 1970s, he was able to gain a foothold in sports car racing in the early 1980s. He competed in the British Thundersports sports car series - where he finished third with Tim Lee-Davey at Brands Hatch in 1985 . In the World Sportscar Championship, he was mainly in the C2 class of Group C at the start.

In 1982, Aston Martin had returned to sports car racing after nearly two decades of absence. In 1984 Sheldon received a cockpit in the Nimrod NRA C2B for the Le Mans 24-hour race . His teammate was Mike Salmon and Le Mans winner of 1970 , Richard Attwood . Ray Mallock and the American Drake Olson drove the second car . As night fell, Sheldon had a serious, life-threatening accident on the Les Hunaudières Straight. To this day it is not entirely clear whether Sheldon collided with his teammate Olson before the accident, or whether he only hit the wreck of Olson, which slid back onto the track after the impact. But both Aston Martin definitely failed. Sheldon's car was completely destroyed and burned out after a fire. Sheldon survived the accident, but suffered burn injuries that left him handicapped for a long time.

After almost a year of convalescence, he was able to race again. He finished the 1985 Le Mans race in 16th place overall and first in the C2 class. He remained active as a driver until 2001, although he only contested a few races in the last few years of his career.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1982	Chevron Racing Cars	Chevron B36	Martin Birrane	Neil Crang	failure	Gearbox damage
1983	François Duret	De Cadenet-Lola	François Duret	Ian Harrower	not classified
1984	Viscount Downe Aston Martin	Nimrod NRA C2B	Richard Attwood	Mike Salmon	failure	accident
1985	ADA engineering	Gebhardt JC843	Steve Earle	Ian Harrower	16th place and class win
1986	Roy Baker Racing	Tiga GC286	Thorkild Thyrring	Nick Nicholson	failure	Engine failure
1987	Tiga Race Cars	Tiga GC287	Thorkild Thyrring	Ian Harrower	Rank 10
1988	Charles Ivey Racing	Tiga GC287	Tim Harvey	Chris Hodgetts	Rank 20
1989	Tiga Race Team	Tiga GC289	Max Cohen-Olivar	Robin Donovan	failure	Power transmission
1990	ADA engineering	ADA 02B	Jerry Mahony	Ian Harrower	failure	suspension
1991	Euro Racing Chamberlain	Spice SE89C	Ferdinand de Lesseps	Charles Rickett	failure	Electrics
1992	Action Formula	Spice SE90C	Luigi Taverna	Alessandro Gini	failure	Ignition damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1982	Angelo Pallavicini	Porsche 935	Neil Crang	Angelo Pallavicini	failure	malfunction
1991	RJ Racing	Tiga GC287	Tommy Johnson	Rob Robertson	failure	Engine failure
1995	Dan Lewis	Mazda MX-6	Tommy Johnson	Dan Lewis	Rank 19

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• John Sheldon at the Driver Database
• John Sheldon at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ British Formula 3 Championship 1973
2. ↑ Brands Hatch Thundersports Races 1984