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David Kennedy (racing driver)

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David Kennedy
Born (1953-01-15) 15 January 1953 (age 71)
Sligo, Ireland
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityRepublic of Ireland Irish
Active years1980
TeamsShadow
Entries7 (0 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points0
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1980 Argentine Grand Prix
Last entry1980 French Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years19831991
TeamsPeer Racing
Mazdaspeed
Best finish6th (1991)
Class wins3 (1987, 1988, 1989)

David Paul Kennedy (born 15 January 1953) is a former racing driver from the Republic of Ireland. He was one of his country's first Grand Prix drivers, and is widely seen as having helped pioneer the Irish move into international racing.[1]

Kennedy has been a prominent driver manager, a popular Formula One TV analyst, a shareholder with championship-winning single seater race teams and a board member at Ireland's Mondello Park Race Circuit.

Biography

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Kennedy was in the vanguard of a wave of 1970s Irish international racing talent and became Ireland's first winner of a British single seater championship when he won the RAC British Formula Ford Championship and Townsend Thoresen Formula Ford 1600 Championships in 1976 driving a Crossle-Minister 30F. He also finished a close second in the European FF1600 series that year. In 1977 he graduated to the factory supported AFMP March European Formula 3 team but the squad folded early in the year and Kennedy soon switched to the small Argo team, scoring a number of giant killing results with the Jo Marquart designed JM1 chassis.

He finished sixth in the series in 1978 but switched to the British Formula One series before the end of the year scoring a win on his debut with a Theodore Racing run Wolf WR3 at Snetterton. He finished runner-up in the British F1 Championship in 1979 which helped him to move into Grand Prix racing with the Shadow team in 1980. However, the team was chronically underfunded and had a poorly engineered DN11 chassis. Teddy Yip of Theodore Racing fame took over ownership of the team after a few races but a new DN12 design turned out to be a similar disappointment. Kennedy did qualify and race in the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix, an event subsequently stripped of its World Championship status.

After a part season of North American Can Am racing in 1981 with a Frissbee chassis, Kennedy returned to Europe and went on to forge a successful career in sportscar racing, latterly with the factory Mazdaspeed team with whom he raced extensively at Le Mans, Japan and the world sportscar championship in a series of iconic class winning rotary-powered machines. Kennedy enjoyed prominence as a member of the exclusive club of professional drivers earning a living in Japan's lucrative early ‘90s racing scene. He began to move into driver management before his career behind the wheel ended and was responsible for booking the driver team of Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler and Bertrand Gachot that took Mazda's, and Japan's, breakthrough victory at Le Mans in 1991. He himself finished sixth overall with former F1 and F3 team-mate Stefan Johansson, and Maurizio Sandro Sala in that famous edition of Le Mans which preceded a full-time move into driver management when his career behind the wheel came to an end in 1994. Among the drivers Kennedy aided in their single seater careers are ex-Jordan Grand Prix F1 driver and Formula Nippon champion Ralph Firman, Formula Nippon Champion Richard Lyons, Formula Palmer Audi Champion and Indy Lights second runner-up Damien Faulkner, all of whom went on to have successful careers in GT and sportscar racing.

During this period Kennedy developed a career as TV analyst in Formula One racing beginning as permanent co-commentator alongside Peter Collins on RTÉ in Ireland from 1995 to 2003 after which he sat alongside Declan Quigley at F1 races for Setanta Sports from 2004 until 2009.

He has had a regular opinion column with the Sunday Independent newspaper for many years, earning a reputation as an incisive analyst with a quirky, lateral view of proceedings in F1 racing.

He has always retained a deep interest in club racing and since 1986 has been a director of the Mondello Park race circuit where he began his career in the early 1970s, sitting on the board of the circuit freehold company controlled by former Lola boss Martin Birrane.

Kennedy was part of the consortium that took control of the Ireland team in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in 2006. The team became the final series champions in 2008/09 with Adam Carroll behind the wheel after which the Ireland team moved into the new GP3 series in 2009 as Status Grand Prix. Team principal of Status Motorsport is Teddy Yip Junior whose father Teddy Yip owned the Theodore and Shadow F1 teams that Kennedy raced for from 1978 to 1980.[2]

Kennedy has other business interests outside motorsport. His wife Fiona, with whom he has three children, is herself a former Formula Ford racer.

Racing record

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Complete Formula One World Championship results

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(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 WDC Points
1980 Shadow Cars Shadow DN11 Cosworth V8 ARG
DNQ
BRA
DNQ
RSA
DNQ
USW
DNQ
BEL
DNQ
NC 0
Theodore Shadow MON
DNQ
Shadow DN12 FRA
DNQ
GBR GER AUT NED ITA CAN USA

Complete Formula One Non-Championship results

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(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3
1979 Theodore Racing Hong Kong Wolf WR4 Cosworth V8 ROC
DNS
GNM DIN
1980 Theodore Shadow Shadow DN12 Cosworth V8 ESP
Ret

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pos. Pts Class
1984 Grundig International / BS Automotive BMW 635CSi A DON SIL
NC
OUL
DNS
THR
5
THR
6
SIL
10
SNE
3
BRH
7
BRH
17
DON
Ret
SIL
5
18th 10 6th
Source:[3]

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

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Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1983 United Kingdom Peer Racing France François Migault
Republic of Ireland Martin Birrane
Ford C100 C 16 DNF DNF
1984 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Belgium Philippe Martin
Belgium Jean-Michel Martin
Mazda 727C C2 291 19th 4th
1985 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Belgium Philippe Martin
Belgium Jean-Michel Martin
Mazda 737C C2 283 19th 3rd
1986 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Belgium Pierre Dieudonné
Republic of Ireland Mark Galvin
Mazda 757 GTP 137 DNF DNF
1987 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Belgium Pierre Dieudonné
Republic of Ireland Mark Galvin
Mazda 757 GTP 319 7th 1st
1988 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Japan Yojiro Terada
Belgium Pierre Dieudonné
Mazda 757 GTP 337 15th 1st
1989 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Belgium Pierre Dieudonné
United Kingdom Chris Hodgetts
Mazda 767B GTP 368 7th 1st
1990 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Sweden Stefan Johansson
Belgium Pierre Dieudonné
Mazda 787 GTP 147 DNF DNF
1991 Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.
France Oreca
Sweden Stefan Johansson
Brazil Maurizio Sandro Sala
Mazda 787B C2 355 6th 6th

References

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  1. ^ Nulty, Leo (11 February 2019). "Legend Series- Barry meets David Kennedy". Motorsport.ie. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Moving Status to GP2". mark-gallagher.com. 5 April 2018.
  3. ^ de Jong, Frank. "British Saloon Car Championship". History of Touring Car Racing 1952-1993. Retrieved 16 November 2022.