John Wyer

Targa Florio 1970 - John Wyer (left), Jo Siffert and Brian Redman

Ford GT40 of the John Wyer team

John Wyer (born December 11, 1909 in Kidderminster , † April 8, 1989 in Scottsdale ) was a British motorsport engineer and race director. For many years, John Wyer's racing vehicles competed in the blue-orange livery of his sponsor Gulf Oil .

Career

John Wyer was one of the most successful team managers in sports car racing in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He began his career at Aston Martin , where he worked as a race director for almost a decade. His greatest success for this brand was the triumph of the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours , which Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby drove in the Aston Martin DBR1 . Three times in a row, in 1957 , 1958 and 1959 , Wyer also led his team to success in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring .

In 1963, Wyer left Aston Martin and in 1964 directed Ford's racing activities at the Le Mans 24 Hours . In 1965 he founded his own racing team. His partner was John Willment , the brother-in-law of the German racing driver Hans Herrmann . John Wyer Automotive became the defining racing team of this era. In 1967 the team started with the Mirage M1 , actually a lightweight Ford GT40 , which had little success. Two overall Le Mans victories followed with Bianchi / Rodríguez in 1968 and Ickx / Oliver in 1969 .

In 1970 the triumph of the Porsche 917 began . Again under the direction of Wyer and with great financial support from Gulf Oil, the team won the sports car world championship for Porsche in 1970 and 1971 . After the end of the 5-liter formula, Wyer built his own racing cars, which were again launched under the name Mirage. In 1975 Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell won Le Mans on a Gulf GR8 . It was Wyer’s fourth victory as a race director or team manager in this race. At the end of the year, Wyer sold his team and retired.

literature

• John Horsman: Racing in the Rain. Bull Publishing, Phönix 2006, ISBN 1-893618-71-4 .
• The Certain Sound, Thirty Years of Motor Racing, John Wyer. Edita, Lausanne 1981, Automobile Year, ISBN 2-88001-111-6 .

Web links

Commons : John Wyer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Image: John Wyer (second from left)