| John Coombs | |
|---|---|
 Coombs in 2012 | |
| Nationality |  British |
| Born | 1 February 1922 |
| Died | 3 August 2013 (aged 91) |
| Years active | 1949–c. 1955 |
John Coombs (1 February 1922 – 3 August 2013) was a British racing driver and racing team owner. After a driving career in various formulae, including a win in a minorFormula One race, he became a team owner insports car racing andFormula Two. During the 1960s and 1970s, working closely withTyrrell Racing, he ran cars for several top drivers of the time, includingJackie Stewart,Graham Hill andJack Brabham.
The owner of aJaguar dealership inGuildford, Coombs began racing in 1949 with aCooper, fitted with an engine from aRover 10. He graduated toFormula Three and campaigned a JBS in 1951, and later a Cooper-Norton and a British-built Erskine Staride.[1] He finished on the podium on several occasions, and won two races in 1952 with the Cooper – atThruxton and in the Commander Yorke Trophy atSilverstone, beatingBob Gerard. He also achieved the lap record at Fairwood Circuit, which still stands as the circuit was redeveloped intoSwansea Airport in the late 1950s.[1] He won at Thruxton again in 1953 in the Staride.[2]
Also in 1953, Coombs earned a test atSnetterton with theConnaught Engineering factory team, alongsideRoy Salvadori,Jack Fairman andIan Stewart. Salvadori was fastest with Coombs second, and Coombs was subsequently entered into a number of Formula Two races both in the UK and abroad.[1] In 1954, he bought a 1.5 litre Connaught and soon replaced it with aLotus Mark VIII, retaining the Connaught engine. With this car he achieved a number of second place finishes,[2] and won theCornwall MRC Formula 1 Race atDavidstow Circuit on 2 August 1954, marking the first victory for aLotus in a Formula One race, although the Mark VIII was not a Formula One car.[3]
He progressed to a Cooper-Bristol and aLotus Eleven, but found that his business commitments were compromising his driving career.[4] He therefore decided to give up driving and concentrate on preparing cars for other drivers.
Coombs began by running aLotus 15 in sports car racing forRon Flockhart and Roy Salvadori with some success, before switching to a pair of Cooper Monacos, his drivers includingJack Brabham andBruce McLaren.[1] With the backing of his car dealership contacts, Coombs also ranJaguar Mark 1s for Flockhart,Duncan Hamilton and occasionally other drivers such asWalt Hansgen. When they became available, he also preparedMark 2s to a high specification, one of which was raced byColin Chapman, who subsequently bought one.[1]
In 1961 Coombs used the newJaguar E-Type, and by the following year,Graham Hill had joined his list of drivers. He also bought aFerrari 250 GTO and lent it to Jaguar at the end of 1962 to help them prepare a new lightweight E-Type, which found success with Hill at the wheel. Coombs' team was by now racing Jaguar saloons, the E-Types, two Ferrari GTOs and anAston Martin DB4 GT Zagato.Mike Parkes,Jack Sears andJackie Stewart had joined as drivers, although Salvadori had left.[1]
In 1964, Coombs expanded his operation to includeFormula Two, running a Cooper-Cosworth for Graham Hill. Switching to aBrabham-BRM, Hill beatJim Clark at Snetterton and achieved a number of podium finishes. After Hill left the team to join Lotus in 1967, Coombs hiredPiers Courage who drove aMcLaren M4A. For 1968, and with support fromKen Tyrrell, Coombs preparedMatras for Stewart andJohnny Servoz-Gavin, the latter winning the1969 European Formula Two Championship. Coombs switched back to a Brabham in 1970, for Stewart and Jack Brabham himself. During the 1970s, several up and coming drivers raced for Coombs, includingPatrick Depailler andFrançois Cevert.[1]
During the 1980s, Coombs scaled down his racing operations, and switched his car dealership from Jaguar toBMW. Eventually becoming dissatisfied with BMW, he sold his dealership and retired toMonaco, although he retained a workshop in Guildford.[1] He continued his interest in racing cars, preparing historic cars for use at theGoodwood Revival until shortly before his death in a Monaco hospital, aged 91.[4]