Jimmy Davies

For other people named Jimmy Davies, see Jimmy Davies (disambiguation).
Jimmy Davies
Born (1929-08-08)August 8, 1929
Glendale, California
Died June 11, 1966(1966-06-11) (aged 36)
Chicago, Illinois
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality United States American
Active years 1950–1951, 1953–1957, 1959
Teams Kurtis Kraft, Pawl, Ewing
Entries 8 (5 starts)
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 1
Career points 4
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First entry 1950 Indianapolis 500
Last entry 1959 Indianapolis 500
The Kurtis 500B driven by Davies to 3rd place in the 1955 Indianapolis 500

James Richard Davies (August 8, 1929 – June 11, 1966)[1] was an American racecar driver in Champ cars and midgets. He was the second man to win three USAC National Midget Championships.[2] When Davies won the 100-mile (160 km) AAA Championship race at Del Mar, California on November 6, 1949 – aged 20 years, 2 months, 29 days, he became the youngest driver to win a race in a major U.S. open wheel series, a record not broken until Marco Andretti won the IRL race at Sonoma, California in 2006. Davies raced AAA on a false birth certificate showing him older, (as did Troy Ruttman and Jim Rathmann), and was racing illegally.

Midget car career

In 1960 he won the USAC Pacific Coast Midget title as well as the National Midget Championship. He repeated as National Midget champion in 1961 and 1962. He won 46 feature events in the midgets in his career.[2] Davies won the Night before the 500 midget race three times, in 1960 and 1961 at Kokomo Speedway, and next year at the Indianapolis Speedrome. Davies' midget car was stolen but was recovered a year later when a driver was killed in it at Sacramento. Davies recognized the car in the newspaper photos of the wreck.[2]

Davies also had success racing midgets (called Speedcars down under) in Australia and New Zealand during his career. He won the 1963 Australian Speedcar Grand Prix at the Sydney Showground Speedway, as well as the 1963 and 1964 South Australian Speedcar Championships at the Rowley Park Speedway in Adelaide.

He died on June 11, 1966 aged 36 from injuries suffered in a midget crash at Santa Fe Speedway in Chicago.

Career award

Indianapolis 500 results

Year Car Start Qual Rank Finish Laps Led Retired
1950 22 27 130.402 23 17 128 0 Flagged
1951 76 27 133.516 17 16 110 25 Rear end
1953 53 32 135.262 32 10 193 0 Flagged
1954 1 - - - 11* ? ? Running
1955 15 10 140.274 5 3 200 0 Running
Totals 631 25

Starts 5
Poles 0
Front Row 0
Wins 0
Top 5 1
Top 10 2
Retired 1

* Shared drive with Art Cross, Johnny Parsons, Sam Hanks and Andy Linden

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 WDC Points
1950 Pat Clancy Ewing Offenhauser L4 GBR MON 500
17		 SUI BEL FRA ITA NC 0
1951 Parks Offenhauser / L.E. Parks Pawl Offenhauser L4 SUI 500
16		 BEL FRA GBR GER ITA ESP NC 0
1953 Pat Clancy Kurtis Kraft 500B Offenhauser L4 ARG 500
10		 NED BEL FRA GBR GER SUI ITA NC 0
1954 Bardahl / Ed Walsh Kurtis Kraft 4000 Offenhauser L4 ARG 500
11		 BEL FRA GBR GER SUI ITA ESP NC 0
1955 Bardahl / Pat Clancy Kurtis Kraft 500B Offenhauser L4 ARG MON 500
3		 BEL NED GBR ITA 12th 4
1956 Novi Racing Kurtis Kraft 500F Novi V8 ARG MON 500
DNQ		 BEL FRA GBR GER ITA NC 0
1957 Trio Brdeact Wind Allass Kurtis Kraft 500D Offenhauser L4 ARG MON 500
DNQ		 FRA GBR GER PES ITA NC 0
1959 Sumar / Chapman Root Kurtis Kraft 500G Offenhauser L4 MON 500
DNQ		 NED FRA GBR GER POR ITA USA NC 0

* In 1954 Davies shared his drive with Art Cross, Johnny Parsons, Sam Hanks and Andy Linden. Davies also shared the 20th-placed car with Hanks and Jim Rathmann.* Between 1950 and 1959 the Indianapolis 500 was included as part of the Formula One World Championship.

References

  1. ↑ Jenkins, Richard. "The World Championship drivers – Where are they now?". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Biography at the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame Archived November 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
Records
Preceded by
Johnnie Parsons
31 years, 330 days
(1950 Indianapolis 500)		 Youngest Race Leader,For at least one lap in Formula One
21 years, 285 days
(1951 Indianapolis 500) 		Succeeded by
Fernando Alonso
21 years, 237 days
(2003 Malaysian GP)
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