William Kimberly

The number 7 Aston Martin DP214 . Jo Schlesser and William Kimberly drove this car in the 1963 Le Mans 24-hour race . The vehicle broke down after 139 laps due to an engine failure

William "Bill" Kimberly (born March 13, 1933 ) is a former American racing driver .

Racing career

Bill Kimberly comes from the Kimberly family, who are co-owners of the toiletries manufacturer Kimberly-Clark . Like his uncle Jim (1907-1994), Bill Kimberly was a racing driver. He was close friends with Augie Pabst , who was born the same year as him and whom he had met in college . Pabst brought him to racing, where he began a career as a driver in 1955 with first attempts at club races.

In 1956 he drove the Triumph TR2 in the SCCA National Sports Car Championship and in 1957 in the same championship on an AC Ace and an Austin-Healey 100 . In 1958 he made his debut in a Triumph TR3 at the 12-hour race at Sebring and in 1959 at the 24-hour race at Le Mans . Bill Kimberly was able to fall back on his family's fortunes and owned several Ferrari racing cars in the late 1950s. These included a 500 TR , a 315 Sport and a 250 Testa Rossa , which he bought from Lloyd Casner in the spring of 1959 for US $ 4,250. In Le Mans, Kimberly drove a 3-liter test Rossa owned and reported by Edwin Martin . The mission ended prematurely after a gearbox damage on the Ferrari.

As far as possible, Bill Kimberly competed in races where he registered the racing car with the starting number 5. It was the number his uncle Jim preferred. He raced until 1965, then retired from active racing after marrying his wife Elena. He celebrated two overall and six class wins in his career. In the early 1960s he was a team member with Briggs Cunningham and the North American Racing Team . Together with Cunningham, he finished eighth overall at Le Mans in 1961 on a Maserati Tipo 60 . His best position in the final classification of this 24-hour race . At Sebring, the best result was seventh place in 1960 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1959	Edwin Martin	Ferrari 250TR58	Edwin Martin	failure	Gearbox damage
1960	Briggs S. Cunningham	Chevrolet Corvette	Briggs Cunningham	failure	accident
1961	Briggs Cunningham	Maserati Tipo 60	Briggs Cunningham	Rank 8
1962	Briggs Cunningham	Maserati Tipo 151	Dick Thompson	failure	Engine failure
1963	Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd.	Aston Martin DP214	Jo Schlesser	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1958	Standard Motor Company	Triumph TR3	Mike Rothschild	Bill Lott	Rank 20
1960	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 250 GT LWB	George Arents		Rank 7
1961	Momo Corporation	Maserati Tipo 60	Briggs Cunningham		Rank 19
1963	Briggs Cunningham	Jaguar E-Type	Paul Richards		Rank 19

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
1958	Standard Motor Company	Triumph TR3	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				20th
1959	Edwin Martin	Ferrari 250TR	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
						DNF
1960	NART Briggs Cunningham	Ferrari 250 GT Chevrolet Corvette	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
				7th			DNF
1961	Momo Corporation Briggs Cunningham	Maserati Tipo 60	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
			19th			8th
1962	Briggs Cunningham	Maserati Tipo 151	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
										DNF
1963	Briggs Cunningham Aston Martin	Jaguar E-Type Aston Martin DP214	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
					19th							DNF

Web links

Commons : William Kimberly  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• William Kimberly at Historic Racing
• William Kimberly at Racing Sports Cars