Drivers

Jack Lewis

From a Welsh farming family, Lewis was actually born in England where his father ran a motorcycle dealership called H&L Motors in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He started racing in 1958 at the age of 22 in a Formula 3 Cooper and did well enough to move on to Formula 2 the following year in the family-run H&L team. That year he finished third in a race at Aintree. That was followed by a series of good performances in the course of 1960 which earned him the Autocar Formula 2 title and race wins at both Chimay and Montlhery against some decent opposition.

In 1961 it was decided that the H&L would try its hand at Formula 1 with a Cooper-Climax and the team made its first appearance at the Belgian Grand Prix in June. Lewis finished a promising ninth and qualified well at both Reims and Aintree in the weeks that followed. He was ninth again at the Nurburgring but his moment of glory came at Monza where he finished fourth ahead of Tony Brooks (BRM) and Roy Salvadori (Parnell Cooper).

This drew him to the attention of the major teams and he was offered the chance to do some races with a works-supported BRM in 1962. That year he continued in F1 with the newly-organised team, known as Ecurie Galloise because of its Welsh roots, starting out with his old Cooper. He switched to the BRM at the non-title Pau race, where he finished third, but it failed to qualify him for the Monaco GP and he reverted back to the Cooper. At Rouen he suffered a brake failure and hit the headlines when he took off Graham Hill. In the mid-season he decided he had had enough and retired, newly-married, to the family farm at Rhandirmwyn in central Wales.

He turned his attention to racing of a different kind, becoming involved in harness racing with much success. He has recently retired and moved back to Stroud.