Innes Ireland

Robert McGregor Innes Ireland (12 June 1930 – 22 October 1993), was a British military officer, engineer, and motor racing driver. He was a larger-than-life character who, according to a rival team boss, "lived without sense, without an analyst and provoked astonishment and affection from everyone."

Ireland was born on 12 June 1930 in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England, the son of a Scottish veterinary surgeon. His family returned to Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, in Scotland during his youth, and he trained as an engineer with Rolls-Royce, first in Glasgow and later in London. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the King's Own Scottish Borderers, he served with the Parachute Regiment in the Suez Canal Zone during 1953 and 1954.

Ireland's first serious year of auto racing was 1957, by which time he was running a small engineering firm in Surrey. Success in sports car racing saw him make his Formula One debut for Team Lotus in 1959. In 1960 he won three non-championship Formula One races and finished fourth in the World Drivers Championship. Badly injured in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, Ireland recovered to win the Solitude Grand Prix and Flugplatzrennen races, then finished the season with a victory in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

Despite these successes, he was sacked at the end of the season, team boss Colin Chapman considering Jim Clark a better bet. Despite occasional successes, Ireland never again had a car to match his talent, and he was encouraged by Bill France, founder of NASCAR, to participated in the 1967 Daytona 500, one of the last races of his career, where the V8 engine of his Dodge exploded outside the stands.

A talented writer, Ireland produced a classic autobiography, All Arms and Elbows (ISBN 0-85184-050-7), and worked as a journalist for the American Road & Track magazine, as well as skippering fishing trawlers in the North Atlantic. Towards the end of his life, he was elected president of the prestigious British Racing Drivers' Club, which post he still held at the time of his death from cancer on 22 October 1993, at Reading, Berkshire, England.

On 30 October 1954 Ireland married Scarborough schoolteacher Norma Thomas. They had two daughters before divorcing in 1967. He then married Edna Humphries also in 1967. Ireland married his third wife Jean Mander (née Howarth), a former fashion model, in Summer 1992. Jean had been engaged to Mike Hawthorn at the time of Hawthorn's death in 1959. Ireland also had a son who died in 1992.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Non-Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)