Ronnie Bucknum

Ronnie Bucknum

Nation:	United States
Automobile world championship
First start:	1964 German Grand Prix
Last start:	1966 Mexican Grand Prix
Constructors
1964-1966  Honda
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-14. ( 1965 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 11 - - -
World Cup points :	2
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Ronald "Ronnie" Bucknum (born April 5, 1936 in Alhambra , California , † April 14, 1992 in San Luis Obispo , California) was an American racing car driver .

Career

Although Bucknum had been driving sports car races in the USA since 1957, his engagement as a works driver for the Honda team in the 1964 World Cup came as a big surprise to the professional world. Honda consciously looked for a largely unknown but highly talented driver in order to be able to calmly prepare for the challenge of the highest monoposto class.

Honda RA271 by Ronnie Bucknum from 1964

Bucknum won with the small Honda sports car S600 (No. 15) on May 3, 1964 in an opening race for the 2nd Grand Prix in Suzuka in the class up to 600 cm³. He made his debut in 1964 with the Honda RA271 at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring . He could not finish his debut race, just like the following two at the Italian Grand Prix and the US Grand Prix . For the 1965 season, Honda signed Richie Ginther, a fellow countryman from Bucknum. Ginther, who drove the last three seasons with BRM after his years at Ferrari , became the new number 1 driver. Bucknum had a serious test accident in Suzuka in the winter of 1964/65, broke his leg and suffered from after-pains throughout the season. The only countable success, and the only points in his automobile world championship career, remained fifth place at the Grand Prix of Mexico . The good placement was completely lost because of Richie Ginther's first Honda victory.

Bucknum had now established himself so well in motorsport that he was accepted into the Ford team in 1966 , which began its assault on Le Mans with the GT 40 in the mid-1960s . Bucknum on the Sarthe had already competed for the first time in 1965. With his partner Herbert Müller , he was already driving a Ford GT40 for the Swiss Scuderia Filipinetti , but dropped out early due to engine failure. In 1966 he finished third in the overall standings with Dick Hutcherson at Le Mans . Towards the end of the year, Honda put him in the cockpit of a Formula 1 racing car again. Bucknum drove the new 3-liter Honda, the Honda RA273 , at the US Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix . After a failure in the USA, his career in the Bucknum Automobile World Championship ended with an eighth place in Mexico.

Bucknum continued to drive sports car races. At Le Mans, the Californian, known for his endurance and fighting spirit, finished fourth in a Ferrari 512S of the North American Racing Team in 1970 . He drove CanAm and TransAm races in his home country. He also found his way into the USAC series and celebrated a sensational victory there in 1968 for Eagle at the Michigan International Speedway .

He suffered from severe diabetes in the early 1980s; he had long since given up his racing career. He died as a result of his illness in April 1992 at the age of 56.

His son Jeff competed in the Indy Racing League in the mid-2000s .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

These statistics include all of the driver's participations in the World Automobile Championship, which is now known as the Formula 1 World Championship .

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1964	Honda R&D Company	Honda RA271	Honda 1.5 V12	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1965	Honda R&D Company	Honda RA272	Honda 1.5 V12	6th	-	-	-	-	-	2	14th
1966	Honda R&D Company	Honda RA273	Honda 3.0 V12	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
total				11	-	-	-	-	-	2

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10
1964
						13		DNF	DNF
1965
		DNF	DNF	DNF				DNF	13	5
1966
								DNF	8th

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1965	Scuderia Filipinetti	Ford GT40	Herbert Mueller	failure	overheated cylinder
1966	Holman & Moody	Ford GT40 Mk.II	Dick Hutcherson	Rank 3
1967	Shelby American Inc.	Ford GT40 Mk.IIB	Paul Hawkins	failure	Valve damage
1970	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 512S	Sam Posey	Rank 4

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1963	Donald Healey Motor Co.	Austin-Healey 3000	Bob Olthoff		Rank 12
1964	Precision Motor Cars	Porsche 904 GTS	Richie Ginther		Rank 31st
1966	Holman & Moody	Ford GT40 MK.II	AJ Foyt		Rank 12
1968	Shelby Racing	Ford Mustang	Jerry Titus		Rank 5
1969	Roger Penske Racing Enterprises	Lola T70 Mk.IIIB GT	Mark Donohue		failure	Guide arm
1970	NART	Ferrari 512S Spyder	Sam Posey	Bert Everett	failure	fuel pump
1971	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 512S	Sam Posey		failure	no oil pressure
1983	Marketing Corporation of America	Ford Mustang	John Bright		failure	Engine failure

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
1963	Healey engine	Austin-Healey 3000	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
					12
1964	Precision Motor Carroll Shelby International	Porsche 904 Shelby Cobra	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
				31																	6th
1965	Scuderia Filipinetti	Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
														DNF
1966	Holman & Moody	Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
			DNF	12					3
1967	Carroll Shelby International	Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
			DNF						DNF
1968	Carroll Shelby International NART	Ford Mustang Ferrari 275 GTB	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
			4th	5						9
1969	Team Penske	Lola T70	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
				DNF
1970	NART	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 Ferrari 512S	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
			DNF	DNF						4th
1971	NART	Ferrari 512S	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
				2	DNF								DNF
1972	NART	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
				DNF

Web links

Commons : Ronnie Bucknum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ronnie Bucknum at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Pursuit of Dreams. The first 50 Years of Honda. English version. Nigensha Publishing Co., Tokyo 1998, ISBN 4-544-04060-4 , p. 36.