Drivers with odd Day jobs (celebrities who raced)

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Team Top Gear in the 2007 Britcar 24 Hours.

[kubakozal]

Giannino Marzotto, italian textile tycoon and racer (Mille Miglia winner). He always raced in suit and necktie.

[kubakozal]

What about Jimmy Dean?

I think the car he died in was his new race car?

i thougt it was a porsche, but no race-car

Back then it was hard to distinquish between sportscar and race car.

But no one realy sane would buy mid-engined car for commuting
Dean bought his 550 Spyder with intention of racing it. In fact he was going to another race when he was killed.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Olympic athlete Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner (aka Kris Kardashian's ex Husband) drove at Sebring, winning the GTO class in 1986.
Also drove in a BMW M1 at the Daytona 24hr, plus other races.

Eric Bana used to race in Porsche/Carrera Cup and also did the Targa Tasmania Rally (crashed out)

Shane Lynch (Boyzone) raced in the British GT Championship from 2002 to 2006. He almost one the title in 2003. He then became a competitor in the British Drifting Championship.

Gene Hackman used to race Formula Ford in the SCCA. In 1983 he raced in the Daytona 24hrs.,

Jason Priestly did a number of categories and ended up in Indy Lights (or Indy Pro Series as I think it was then. I believe he was seriously injured in a major Speedway crash and got into team ownership (Part ownership) after. Amongst other ventures he was a part owner of FAZZT Racing which ran Tagliani in Indycar in 2010.

Dick Smothers from the Smothers BrothersTV show won his class twice at Sebring, finishing 8th overall in 1969 in a Porsche 906E . He then drove a Corvette to a GT class win in 1971

[Nononsensecapeesh]

We all know what Carl Fogarty's famous for, winning 4 World Superbike titles, also the 2014 series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

[kubakozal]

Christian Horner, CEO of Red Bull, used to race F3000 in the early 90ies

Red Bull chief designer Adrian Newey still races sometimes.

Did anybody mentioned John Paul Sr.?
Beside being a race car driver, he was also drug trafficker, and suspected murderer. That is pretty odd job for me...

And lets not forget about Porfirio Rubirosa, who was a racer, diplomat, spy, polo player and serial husband (to wealthiest women of the time).

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Pink Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke in the 1982 British F1 Championship.

[sadsac]

Haven't seen this BTCC Driver and tv entertainer mentioned
Mike Smith (April 23, 1955-August 1, 2014) was a British television presenter and racing driver, known mostly for presenting the Breakfast Show, and BBC Radio 1. During his BTCC career, he was known to be very aggressive, and is often compared to Jason Plato for his aggressive antics
He was a professional car & truck racing driver in the 1980s and in 1989, he established a BTCC team known as Trakstar with Robb Gravett. They ran 2 Sierra Cosworth's,
Smith died on 1 August 2014 from complications following major heart surgery.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Haven't seen this BTCC Driver and tv entertainer mentioned
Mike Smith (April 23, 1955-August 1, 2014) was a British television presenter and racing driver, known mostly for presenting the Breakfast Show, and BBC Radio 1. During his BTCC career, he was known to be very aggressive, and is often compared to Jason Plato for his aggressive antics
He was a professional car & truck racing driver in the 1980s and in 1989, he established a BTCC team known as Trakstar with Robb Gravett. They ran 2 Sierra Cosworth's,
Smith died on 1 August 2014 from complications following major heart surgery.

My goodness, yes of course, how could anyone forget the late Mike Smith?

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Gene Hackman at the 1983 Riverside 6 Hours, he also contested that year's Daytona 24 Hours for All American Racers.

[PTRACER]

Haven't seen this BTCC Driver and tv entertainer mentioned
Mike Smith (April 23, 1955-August 1, 2014) was a British television presenter and racing driver, known mostly for presenting the Breakfast Show, and BBC Radio 1. During his BTCC career, he was known to be very aggressive, and is often compared to Jason Plato for his aggressive antics
He was a professional car & truck racing driver in the 1980s and in 1989, he established a BTCC team known as Trakstar with Robb Gravett. They ran 2 Sierra Cosworth's,
Smith died on 1 August 2014 from complications following major heart surgery.

Mike Smith was more famous to me as a TV presenter. I didn't know until later that he was a former BTCC driver.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Alright he was more of a stuntman than a celebrity but this is Valentino Musetti in a Fittipaldi F1 in the early 1980s.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Tiff Needell, Top Gear presenter, fleetingly an F1 driver for Ensign and on-off BTCC driver from the late 1980s until 2001.

[kubakozal]

Tiff Needell, Top Gear presenter, fleetingly an F1 driver for Ensign and on-off BTCC driver from the late 1980s until 2001.

the same category as Jason Plato - driver and TV star
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0Q-Tb93v0

[sadsac]

Haven't seen this BTCC Driver and tv entertainer mentioned
Mike Smith (April 23, 1955-August 1, 2014) was a British television presenter and racing driver, known mostly for presenting the Breakfast Show, and BBC Radio 1. During his BTCC career, he was known to be very aggressive, and is often compared to Jason Plato for his aggressive antics
He was a professional car & truck racing driver in the 1980s and in 1989, he established a BTCC team known as Trakstar with Robb Gravett. They ran 2 Sierra Cosworth's,
Smith died on 1 August 2014 from complications following major heart surgery.

Mike Smith was more famous to me as a TV presenter. I didn't know until later that he was a former BTCC driver.

He was quite good too PTRACER but crashed regularly
A few examples here

[Everso Biggyballies]

I knew him (Mike Smith) in 1975 when he ran in the Radio 1 Championship running a Capri. I remember there was also a Marc Smith who I was good friends with and also ran a Capri. Mike Smith was a bit of a hothead then too.That is when I was working with Mazda withJohn Markey's Arian Automotive in BTCC and also ETCC and the British Production series.... we ran a number of RX3's in the Championship. We ran Cozy Powell, drummer of note (another for this list) Tony Lanfranchi we also ran amongst many others. Im sure I already mentioned him in the early days of the thread though.

Others running were Gerry Marshall, Noel Edmonds, (another name for the list if he hasnt been mentioned with Cozy)as he was at the time a Radio DJ before he became a TV Presenter. ). Edmonds ran a Capri as well. Jeff Allam was another, as was John Brindley.

There were two Production car Series that year.... one the BBC Radio 1 Series, the other the Britax Production series. Many competitors ran both.

Cozy after a class win in the RX3. Actually Cozy also won outright Ford Escort celebrity races and the pic might have been from one of them.


Cozy at Snetterton with the Hitachi sponsored RX3 alongside.

For those interested I wrote an article (with pics) about the Mallory Park Radio 1 fun day which was quite an event. 50,000 tartan clad teenage Bay City Roller fans were there and we had a track invasion by most of them in the middle of a Formula Ford race. (The Bay City Rollers had just arrived by helicopter on the infield.) Oh and it involved the Wombles in a boat with Tony Blackburn, another top DJ at the time, and several police wading in the lake trying to apprehend fans

Quite an amusing read even if I say so myself. Happy Days

Anyway it is here viewtopic.php?p=314590&hilit=Mallory+Pa ... ay#p314590