David Hobbs (racing driver)

This article is about the former race car driver. For other people named David Hobbs, see David Hobbs (disambiguation).

David Hobbs

Born	9 June 1939 (1939-06-09) (age 72)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1967–1968, 1971, 1974
Teams	BRM, Honda, McLaren
Races	6
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1967 British Grand Prix
Last race	1974 Italian Grand Prix

24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years	1962–72, 1979, 1981–85, 1987–89
Teams	Team Lotus Engineering Lola Cars Ltd. Standard Triumph Maranello Concessionaires John Wyer Automotive Roger Penske/Kirk F. White Equipe Matra-Simca Grand Touring Cars/Ford France EMKA Racing John Fitzpatrick Racing Joest Racing Richard Lloyd Racing
Best finish	3rd (1969, 1984)
Class wins	1 (1982)

David Wishart Hobbs ^[1] (born 9 June 1939 in Royal Leamington Spa, England) ^[2] is a British former racing driver currently employed as a commentator for Speed Channel. In 1969 Hobbs was included in the F.I.A. list of graded drivers, an elite group of 27 drivers who by their achievements were rated the best in the world.^[3]

Hobbs currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife Margaret, with whom he has two sons, Gregory and Guy. In 1986, Hobbs opened a auto dealership, David Hobbs Honda, in Glendale, Wisconsin, which continues to exist today, and who he personally voices radio advertisements on local radio for. His youngest son, Guy, worked for Speed as a pit reporter on their sports car coverage. Hobbs was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009.^[4]

Driving career

Hobbs was born just months before the outbreak of World War II, and has a vast, 30-year history of international driving experience at all levels of motor sports, including sports cars, touring cars, Indy cars, IMSA, Can-Am and Formula One. He has participated in the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona. He made twenty starts in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, finishing in 8th place at the first attempt in 1962, following with a pole position and a best finish of third (in 1969 and 1984) to his credit.

Hobbs was due to make his F1 Grand Prix debut for Tim Parnell Racing at the 1965 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand, but a serious road accident put him in hospital for three weeks.^[5]

In 1971 Hobbs won the U.S. Formula 5000 L&M Continental Series championship driving for Carl Hogan out of St. Louis, Missouri, in a McLaren M10B-Chevrolet. He won five of the eight rounds that year at Laguna Seca, Seattle, Road America (Elkhart Lake), Edmonton and Lime Rock.^[6] Twelve years later, he would claim the 1983 Trans-Am Series championship as well. He also made two NASCAR Winston Cup starts in 1976, including leading two laps at the 1976 Daytona 500 ^[7] and drove a race in the 1979 International Race of Champions.

Television commentator

Hobbs provides commentary for Formula One and GP2 races (alongside Bob Varsha and former Benetton engineer Steve Matchett), the SCCA Valvoline runoffs, and parts of the 24 Hours of Daytona. He has also worked for CBS on its Daytona 500 coverage, working as both a color commentator and a feature/pit reporter from 1979 until 1996.

Other appearances

David Hobbs appeared in the 1983 comedy film Stroker Ace, playing a TV race announcer. Hobbs appeared in the Cars 2 movie, which premiered in June 2011, as announcer "David Hobbscap", a 1963 Jaguar from Hobbs' real life hometown in England.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	WDC	Pts.
1967	Bernard White Racing	BRM P261	BRM V8	RSA	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR 8	GER 10*	CAN 9	ITA	USA	MEX					NC	0
1968	Honda Racing F1	Honda RA301	Honda V12	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA Ret	CAN	USA	MEX				NC	0
1971	Penske-White Racing	McLaren M19A	Ford Cosworth DFV	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA 10					NC	0
1974	Yardley Team McLaren	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT 7	ITA 9	CAN	USA	NC	0

• F2-entry

Complete Le Mans results

Year	Position	Category	Race #	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Motor	Laps
1962	8	GT 1.3	44	Team Lotus Engineering	David Hobbs/ Frank Gardner	Lotus Elite Mk14	Coventry Climax 1.2L I4	286 [8]
1963	20 Ret'd	P+3.0	6	Lola Cars Ltd.	Richard Attwood/ David Hobbs	Lola Mk6 GT	Ford 4.6L V8	151 [9]
1964	21	P 3.0	50	Standard Triumph	David Hobbs/ Rob Slotemaker	Triumph Spitfire	Triumph 1.1L I4	272 [10]
1965	38 Ret'd.	GT 1.3	52	Standard Triumph Ltd.	David Hobbs/ Rob Slotemaker	Triumph Spitfire	Triumph 1.1L I4	71 [11]
1966	50 Ret'd.	P 2.0	36	Maranello Concessionaires	Mike Salmon/ David Hobbs	Ferrari Dino 206S	Ferrari 2.0L V6	14 [12]
1967	53 Ret'd.	P+5.0	11	Lola Cars Ltd./Team Surtees	John Surtees/ David Hobbs	Lola T70 Mk.III	Aston Martin 5.0L V8	3 [13]
1968	34 Ret'd.	S 5.0	10	John Wyer Automotive Engineering Ltd.	Paul Hawkins/ David Hobbs	Ford GT40 Mk.I	Ford 4.9L V8	107 [14]
1969	3	S 5.0	7	John Wyer Automotive Engineering	David Hobbs/ Mike Hailwood	Ford GT40 Mk.I	Ford 4.9L V8	368 [15]
1970	41 Ret'd.	S 2.0	22	John Wyer Automotive Engineering	David Hobbs/ Mike Hailwood	Porsche 917K	Porsche 4.5L Flat-12	49
1971	41 Ret'd.	S 5.0	11	Roger Penske/Kirk F. White	Mark Donohue/ David Hobbs	Ferrari 512 M/P	Ferrari 5.0L V12
1972	20 Ret'd.	S 3.0	16	Equipe Matra Simca Shell	Jean-Pierre Jabouille/ David Hobbs	Matra Simca MS660C	Matra 3.0L V12	278
1973–1978 No show.
1979	23 N/C	Gr.6 +2.0	11	Grand Touring Cars Inc./ Ford Concessionaires France	Derek Bell/ David Hobbs/ Vern Schuppan	Mirage M10	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0L V8
1980 No show.
1981	24 Ret'd.	Gr.5	53	EMKA Productions Limited	David Hobbs/ Eddie Jordan/ Steve O'Rourke	BMW M1 Gr.5	BMW M88 3.5L I6	236
1982	4	IMSA GTX	79	John Fitzpatrick Racing	John Fitzpatrick/ David Hobbs	Porsche 935/78 "Moby Dick"	Porsche Type-935 2.7L Turbo Flat-6	329
1983	38 Ret'd.	C	11	John Fitzpatrick Racing	John Fitzpatrick/ David Hobbs/ Dieter Quester	Porsche 956	Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6	135
1984	3	C1	33	Skoal Bandit Porsche Team	David Hobbs/ Philippe Streiff/ Sarel van der Merwe	Porsche 956	Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6	350
1985	4	C1	33	John Fitzpatrick Racing	Jo Gartner/ David Hobbs/ Guy Edwards	Porsche 956	Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6	365
1986 No show.
1987	47 Ret'd	C1	7	Joest Racing	Sarel van der Merwe/ David Hobbs/ Chip Robinson	Porsche 962C	Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	4
1988	5	C1	7	Blaupunkt Joest Racing	David Hobbs/ Didier Theys/ Franz Konrad	Porsche 962C	Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	380
1989	26 Ret'd.	C1	15	Richard Lloyd Racing	Steven Andskär/ David Hobbs/ Damon Hill	Porsche 962C GTi	Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	228

Indy 500 results

Year Car Start Qual Rank Finish Laps Led Retired 1971 68 16 169.571 30 20 107 0 Crash FS 1973 73 22 189.454 30 11 107 0 Flagged 1974 73 9 184.833 10 5 196 0 Flagged 1976 33 31 183.580 14 29 10 0 Water Leak Totals 420 0

Starts 4 Poles 0 Front Row 0 Wins 0 Top 5 1 Top 10 1 Retired 2

References

1. ^ FIA Year Book of Automobile Sport 1975. Patrick Stephens Ltd.. white p. 37. ISBN 0850591853. 
2. ^ H. H. Pitt and M. N. Wicks, The Pitt Family of Payneham (Adelaide, 1977)
3. ^ F.I.A. Year Book of Automobile Sport, P.S.L. Publications Limited., London, 1969.
4. ^ "The Class of 2009". AutoWeek (Detroit, Michigan: Crain Communications) 59 (17): 62. August 24, 2009. ISSN 0192-9674. 
5. ^ http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/hobbs-the-north-american-swing/
6. ^ Trenton Evening Times, September 7, 1971, Page 37.
7. ^ David Hobbs 1976 Winston Cup Results – Racing-Reference.info
8. ^ Motor Sport, August 1962, Pages 594–595.
9. ^ Motor Sport, July 1963, Pages 500, 501, 504.
10. ^ Motor Sport, July 1964, Page 536.
11. ^ Motor Sport, July 1965, Page 565.
12. ^ Motor Sport, July 1966, Page 596.
13. ^ Motor Sport, July 1967, Pages 587–589.
14. ^ Motor Sport, November 1968, Pages 1016–1017.
15. ^ Motor Sport, July 1969, Pages 723–725.

External links

• SpeedTV bio
• David Hobbs Honda
• Stats from David Hobbs' IROC and NASCAR careers on racing-reference.info
• David Hobbs, MyF5000.com
• David Hobbs - Test Driver Jaguar XJ13 - Building the Legend

Sporting positions
Preceded by John Cannon	US Formula A/F5000 Champion 1971	Succeeded by Graham McRae

Persondata
Name	Hobbs, David
Alternative names
Short description	British former racing driver, Speed commentator
Date of birth	1939-06-09
Place of birth	Royal Leamington Spa, England
Date of death
Place of death