Win Percy
Winston "Win" Percy (born September 28, 1943 in Tolpuddle ) is a retired British automobile racing driver and motorsport team manager.
Career in motorsport
Training and first steps in motorsport
Percy did an apprenticeship as an automobile mechanic after leaving school and began to drive a standard Ford Anglia club race in Great Britain at the age of 21 in 1964 . In the early years of his career, motorsport was a hobby and a weekend pastime. As he won more and more races, he decided to pursue a professional racing career in the early 1970s.
Touring car racing
In 1975 he entered the British Touring Car Championship and from the first year he became one of the defining and formative drivers of this racing series. In 1975 he finished his first racing season in second place overall. A Toyota Celica GT, which the British racing team Samurai Racing with Toyota had reported, was used. Percy celebrated ten class wins in 14 race starts in class A.
After another second place, he moved to Tom Walkinshaw's team at the beginning of 1980 . The partnership between the racing driver and team principal Walkinshaw and Percy became one of the most successful in British touring car racing. Percy won the championship three times in a row. 1980 and 1981 with a Mazda RX-7 for Walkinshaw and in 1982 at the wheel of a Toyota Carolla GT , which was used by Toyota Great Britain .
In 1984 he returned to Tom Walkinshaw's racing team and drove from then on in the European Touring Car Championship . Walkinshaw and Percy competed in the heavy Jaguar XJS with a 6-liter V12 engine . While Percy was only seventh in the championship after some technical problems at the beginning of the season, Walkinshaw finished the racing series as the overall winner in front of the third TWR driver Hans Heyer . In 1985 the Jaguar team switched to Rover emergency vehicles . With the Rover Vitesse Percy was third in 1985 and second in 1986 in the final ranking of the European Championship.
The Briton was also active in Australia. 1990 he won together with Allan Grice at the 1000 km race at Bathurst .
Sports car racing
Since Tom Walkinshaw in the 1980s and 1990s, the group-C -Inserts of Jaguar in the World Sportscar Championship in charge with his team and transacted came Percy to some stakes in sports car racing. In 1986 and 1987 he competed for Jaguar in the Le Mans 24-hour race ; after a failure due to a technical defect in 1986, he was very lucky a year later. During the night he had a serious accident in the Jaguar XJR-8, the cockpit of which he shared with Jan Lammers and John Watson . After a tire damage on the Ligne Droite des Hunaudières at over 300 km / h, tire parts flying away smashed the rear body parts of the Jaguar, which then flew away. As a result, the car lost traction and took off, spun on its axis in the air and overturned several times after hitting the road. 600 meters after the start of the accident, the wreck came to a standstill. Except for the driver's cell, without doors and windows, the car was completely destroyed. Except for a few scratches on his helmet, Percy stepped out of this troop without injury or damage.
Percy was at the start six times in Le Mans; the best placement was 14th in 1988 .
Team manager
After serving as team manager and driver for Holden in the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1990 and 1991 , he managed the works outings for the Jaguar XJ220 between 1995 and 1997.
Win Percy, married to Rosemary, competed in the historic Group C series after retiring from active sports.
statistics
Le Mans results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 |
 Mazdaspeed
|
Mazda RX-7 |
Yōjirō Terada
|
Hiroshi Fushida
|
failure | drive shaft |
| 1986 |
 Silk Cut Jaguar
|
Jaguar XJR-6 |
 Hurley Haywood
|
 Gianfranco Brancatelli
|
failure | Clutch damage |
| 1987 |
Silk Cut Jaguar
|
Jaguar XJR8-LM |
 Jan Lammers
|
John Watson
|
failure | accident |
| 1988 |
Nissan Motorsports
|
Nissan R88C |
 Allan Grice
|
Mike Wilds
|
Rank 14 | |
| 1993 |
TWR Jaguar Racing
|
Jaguar XJ220 |
 Armin Hahne
|
David Leslie
|
failure | Engine failure |
| 1995 |
PC Automotive Jaguar
|
Jaguar XJ220 |
 Bernard Thuner
|
Olindo Iacobelli
|
failure | accident |
literature
- Thomas Nehlert: Group C. The sports car races 1982–1992. Petrolpics, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940306-14-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ European Touring Car Championship 1984
- ↑ Information about Win Percy and the accident in Le Mans 1987 ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Percy, Win |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Percy, Winston |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British racing car driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 28, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tolpuddle |