David Kennedy

Nationality:	Irish	Races Entered:	7
Date of Birth:	15 January, 1953	DNQ/DNPQ:	7
Team:	Shadow (1980)	Best Result:	DNQ, 25th overall Argentina, 1980

BIOGRAPHY

Before Formula One

For all its global appeal, it's easy to forget that motor racing is still very much a fringe sport in many parts of the world. Whereas countries like England, Italy, Germany, France and Brazil seem to produce top-class drivers at will, in many other places it often takes the exploits of one pioneering driver to raise the profile of motorsport in his (or her) nation's consciousness. Emerson Fittipaldi did it for Brazil, just as Sir Jack Brabham did it for Australia. Right now, Fernando Alonso may well be doing his bit for four-wheel motor racing in motorcycling-mad Spain, and, regardless of their relative skill, Narain Karthikeyan and Alex Yoong are bringing an awareness of motorsport to potentially massive markets. Think Ireland, though, and one name stands tall above the rest: Eddie Jordan. Now meet the man who got EJ involved in motorsport in the first place: David Kennedy, from County Sligo in the Irish north-west.

Although motor racing had firm roots in England and Scotland, it was a very different story across the Irish sea. Thus, how Kennedy became interested in the sport is a mystery even to the man himself. But in 1972 he began competing in Irish Formula Ford. After working in Australia with his countryman Derek Daly to raise funds, and after crossing paths with Jordan in Britain and encouraging EJ to become involved, he finally walked off with the Irish Formula Ford 1600 title in 1975. Going across to Britain and Europe to test his mettle in 1976, far from being found wanting he collected two national British Formula Ford 1600 titles that year, and was 2nd in the European championship as well. But by this stage he was nearing 24, and if he was to progress to F1 he needed to make leaps through the categories, not take steps. And so in 1977 he moved not into British Formula 3, but the cut and thrust of European Formula 3, against the likes of Nelson Piquet and 1977 champion Piercarlo Ghinzani.

Originally driving for the works March team, money issues soon forced Kennedy to switch to the Argo factory outfit to drive their JM chassis with a Toyota engine. Although less well-known than some of the other teams, David still managed two 2nd places at Kassel-Calden and Jarama, and finished the title a sterling 8th with 17 points. His compatriot Daly had joined him in the series as well, and was right behind him in 9th place with 13 points. Staying with Argo for 1978, the revised JM 1 was sadly not as competitive as Kennedy may have hoped, and although he came 6th in the championship, he only scored 13 points, the same amount as Derek Warwick, and he had only managed two 3rd places, at the Nurburgring and at Donington. With his career seemingly stalling, David jumped at the chance towards the end of 1978 to race in the Aurora F1 series for second-hand F1 machines in Britain, and did so with immediate success.

Piloting a Wolf WR3 Cosworth for the Theodore team in the final round of the 1978 championship at Snetterton, he claimed the fastest lap of the race and beat Tony Trimmer's McLaren to take victory, which gave him 12th place in the title with 22 points despite it being his only start! A full assault on the Aurora series followed in 1979 in a Wolf WR4 run by Theodore, and in a consistent season Kennedy scored one pole, two fastest laps, five 3rd places, a 2nd, and two wins at Oulton Park and Mallory Park. It was not quite enough to win the Aurora title, Kennedy's 63 points falling two short of Rupert Keegan's tally, but David continued the success at the end of the year when his team took their old F1 machines to race in the Rothmans Series in Australia in which F1, F5000 and Formula Pacific (or Formula Atlantic) cars were all eligible! He took a win at Surfers Paradise in dramatic circumstances (see our interview with David for the blow-by-blow account!), and by now it was clear that he was ready for a full-time F1 drive.

Formula One

The Theodore team was of course being run by Chinese ex-pat entrepreneur Teddy Yip, who was not averse to funding F1 efforts as well as operating his own team. In 1979 he had supported the Ensign team, and for 1980 he was happy to help Kennedy land a drive at Don Nichols' Shadow team. Unfortunately, though, by 1980 Shadow was a, well, shadow of its former self, having struggled financially and in terms of design ever since the Arrows defectors had left at the start of 1978. Nevertheless, Kennedy could look forward - or so he thought - to competing against the leading F1 stars from Williams, Brabham, Ferrari, Lotus and the like. It would not have been the first time he had raced against the likes of Gilles Villeneuve and Mario Andretti though. Early in 1979, Theodore had entered his Wolf WR4 in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch where he had qualified 13th, only to fail to take the start after gearbox problems.

Little did David know that that one-off experience may have been a portent of his Shadow experience in 1980. Shadow went into the season with the DN11 chassis designed by John Gentry, Owen Morris and Vic Morris. In Argentina for the first round of the World Championship, neither Kennedy nor his team-mate Stefan Johansson were able to qualify. Although the Irishman was 1.32 seconds faster than the Swede, he was still 6.08 seconds slower than Alan Jones on pole. Brazil was next, and it was the same story. Around the Interlagos circuit, Johansson cut his deficit to Kennedy down to 0.96s, but they were still 10.08s and 9.12s respectively off Jean-Pierre Jabouille's Renault on pole, and over two seconds slower than Daly's Tyrrell in 24th and last spot. Then for South Africa, Kennedy had a new team-mate in Geoff Lees, who immediately qualified 24th to record Shadow's first start of the year, while David was 0.77s slower, thereby missing the grid by just one spot.

He would get even closer than that. At Long Beach for the USA West GP, Kennedy went faster than Lees by almost 2 seconds, and was only 3.829s off the pole time set by Piquet's Brabham. But he found himself in 25th place once again, this time only a heart-breaking 0.173s separating him from his first World Championship Grand Prix start. The situation was then little different in Belgium, where once again neither Shadow made the cut, although both were within half a second of Fittipaldi in 24th position. By this stage Yip had bought a share in the Shadow team, but it was to make little difference. With only 20 cars instead of the usual 24 starting at Monaco, qualifying was going to be an even taller order, and that would have been the case in a car where the engine did not keep detaching from the chassis as it did on Kennedy's DN11! The result was an embarrassing time for the Irishman which was over 15 seconds off the fastest time set by Didier Pironi's Ligier.

After this the team finally produced the DN12 chassis, designed by Vic Morris and Chuck Graeminger, but it proved to be only marginally better than its predecessor. Nevertheless, for the Spanish GP, both Lees and Kennedy put the new cars onto the grid in 20th and 22nd positions respectively, Kennedy recording what was at the time his first World Championship Grand Prix start - even if it only lasted two laps after an accident put him out. Lees completed 41 laps before a rear suspension failure. But if you thought there was something suspicious about the relative ease with which both Shadows qualified, you're right. The 1980 Spanish GP was one of the focal points of the never-ending maelstrom that was the FISA versus FOCA battle for political control of Formula One. At Jarama, drivers were refusing to pay fines that had arisen from the Belgium GP, the two Ferraris, the two Renaults and the three Alfa Romeos all boycotted the event, and in retrospect the race was stripped of its World Championship status.

Although if you ask Kennedy, he will say that he couldn't care less, it does have an impact on the record books. For after both DN12s also failed to qualify at Paul Ricard for the French GP, Nichols decided to shut the doors on his team after eight seasons of competition, selling all the assets to Yip, who then used the DN12s to enter his Theodore team into F1 in 1981. Kennedy thus ended up with a World Championship tally of seven entries, seven DNQs, with the Spanish GP counting only as a non-championship race. Though in subsequent years, especially in the late 1980s, there were many drivers who recorded multiple DNPQs without ever qualifying for a Grand Prix, Kennedy has the dubious statistical record of being the driver with the most number of DNQs without starting a World Championship race. However, it mattered little to him; he had tasted F1, and with the Shadows being unstable, unreliable machines - not to mention being dead slow - he was just pleased to have survived the experience in one piece.

After Formula One

Nevertheless, unlike these days when there seems to be any number of 'retirement home' championships for an ex-F1 driver, Kennedy found himself in something of a quandary for the next few years, unable to settle in a drive, despite his not-unimpressive CV. In 1981, apart from some touring car racing, he made two sports car starts in Richard Cleare's Porsche 934 at Nurburgring and Brands Hatch, finishing 12th in the latter. He also went over to America to compete in two Can-Am events in a US Racing Frisbee Chevrolet at Watkins Glen and Elkhart Lake, coming home a fine 4th at the Glen. Then for 1982, he managed a solitary start in the World Endurance Championship for the works Chevron Racing Cars team, driving a Chevron B36B Ford to 20th at Brands Hatch with Gerry Amato and countryman Martin Birrane, thus beginning what would turn out to be a fruitful association with his fellow Irishman.

1983 saw Kennedy compete mainly in the British Thundersports series, where he drove a semi-works Ford C100 sports car with the likes of Birrane, Keegan and Jim Crawford, taking 2nd at Brands Hatch and a win at Donington out of five starts. David also made his debut in the Le Mans 24 hour classic, sharing his Peer Racing Ford C100 with Franç:ois Migault and Birrane, although it was to prove to be a short race for them after fuel pressure problems struck having completed just 16 laps. Finally, though, Kennedy's record and experience caught the attention of some discerning eyes. Japanese constructor Mazda was beginning to test the water in sports car racing, and for them a man of David's pedigree was exactly what they needed. Hiring him as their number two driver, at Le Mans Kennedy came 15th outright and 4th in C2 class in his Mazda 727C shared with Jean-Philippe Martin and Philippe Martin. He backed that up later in the year with another drive at Fuji with Yojiro Terada.

Throughout 1984, Kennedy also had two more starts in the Thundersports series in an Ibec 300LM Ford, coming 3rd at Oulton Park with Eric Paterson and retiring at Brands Hatch with David Sutherland, but from 1985 to 1991 his attention would be focussed almost entirely on racing for Mazda, both in the World Championship and in the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, as the team built up its experience and expertise with their unique rotary-engined machines. For 1985, Mazda had produced the 737C for both the WEC and the JSPC. Kennedy became the team's number one driver, and shared his 737C with Terada in the WEC at Silverstone and Fuji, withdrawing from the latter in the atrociously wet conditions, and coming 19th outright and 3rd in C2 class at Le Mans with the two Martins. In addition to that, in the JSPC he added three more starts with Terada, placing 10th at Suzuka and 8th at Fuji.

1986 saw Takashi Yorino replace Terada as Kennedy's main team-mate. In a brand new Mazda 757, they placed 19th (2nd in GTP class) and 15th in the World Sportscar Championship rounds at Silverstone and Fuji, and they also took two more 5th places in JSPC rounds at Fuji and Suzuka. David also drove the 757 at Le Mans with Mark Galvin and reliable Belgian driver Pierre Dieudonne, although the car failed to make the distance and retired with transmission problems. Away from the Mazda efforts in 1986, Kennedy also renewed his association with Argo when he drove Martin Schanche's Argo JM19 Zakspeed Turbo with Schanche and Torgyar Kleppe in the WSC round at Spa, and he also returned to touring car racing in a one-off in the European Touring Car Championship. At the Donington round, he and Birrane got a drive in, ironically, the Australian National Motor Racing Team Holden Commodore VK run by Allan Grice. For a solitary drive, 8th place was no mean feat.

By 1987, the Mazdas were becoming more consistent and competitive. With the 757s now a proven package, in the WSC Kennedy came 7th at Le Mans with Galvin and Dieudonne, and 7th also at Fuji with Yorino, taking the class win in both races although admittedly the Mazdas had no competition from other manufacturers and teams. Four more top-seven finishes in the JSPC co-driving with Yorino proved that the Mazdas were becoming a force to be reckoned with. For the 1988 season, Mazda had produced the 767, but teething problems saw them revert to the trusted 757 from time to time. Terada returned to partner Kennedy, and together with Yoshimi Katayama they came 9th in the Silverstone WSC round. With Terada and Dieudonne, David then came 15th (taking another relatively meaningless class win) at Le Mans, and he also drove with Terada at three WSC and JSPC rounds at Fuji, coming 4th in one of the JSPC events.

A revised 767B came on stream for 1989, and despite a heavier WSC program the Japanese cars were still not quite up to speed. In six WSC starts with Dieudonne, Kennedy hovered around the top ten, coming 10th at Dijon and 9th at Spa, and at Le Mans, now no longer part of the championship, he placed 7th with Dieudonne and Chris Hodgetts, coming 1st in the IMSA class. A single start in the JSPC also saw Kennedy partner Yorino for a 10th place at Fuji. In a somewhat strange move, in 1990 Mazda concentrated its efforts on the JSPC, avoiding the WSC altogether and making their only European appearance at Le Mans. The plan was to develop the new 787 away from the European spotlight, but as it turned out the new machine proved unreliable. This would have come as a disappointment to Kennedy, who was by this stage not only Mazda's senior driver but also the man co-ordinating the manufacturer's sports car program.

In the 1990 JSPC, driving with Yorino, Katayama, Dieudonne and Terada at various times, Kennedy's 787 could do no better than a single 7th in the last round at Fuji. More interesting was the Le Mans effort, for which Kennedy fused together an all-European driving line-up for the two cars. Amazingly though, after the 787 of Kennedy, Dieudonne and Johansson retired on lap 148 with an oil leak, the sister car of Bertrand Gachot, Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler failed one lap later with an electrical failure. However, things finally came good in 1991. The 787 and its sister the 787B proved not only reliable but competitive. In the JSPC, Kennedy recorded a 9th, a 6th and a 3rd out of six races, but in the WSC finished all but one of his 5 starts in the top 10, sharing the driving mainly with Maurizio Sandro Sala. His 6th place at Le Mans was the perfect back-up for the famous, stealthy victory by the Gachot/Weidler/Herbert, the only win at La Sarthe so far for a rotary-engined machine or for a Japanese car.

Having overseen this tremendous result, Kennedy all but retired from active competition, although he did compete briefly in the 1994 BPR Global GT series in a Chamberlain Engineering Lotus Esprit 300 with the likes of Thorkild Thyrring and Andreas Fuchs. He participated in the pre-Le Mans tests, but declined to have another tilt at the 24hr classic. He has also competed in the odd historic event, like driving a Lola T330 Chevrolet in a meet at Mondello Park in Ireland in May 2001. More to the point, David considerably expanded his non-racing motorsport activities. Throughout the 1980s he had already run a successful racewear business and had established several race car exhibitions in Britain and Japan. In the 1990s he took up the role of expert commentator for Irish television network RTE's Formula One coverage, where his knowledge of the sport and his chatty personality has made him a popular member of the media corps at every Grand Prix.

His friendship with Martin Birrane also led to other opportunities. Birrane was instrumental in the re-development of the Mondello Park track in Ireland, which now hosts a round of the British Touring Car Championship and the FIA Sportscar Championship, and he made Kennedy a director on the track's board. Birrane also owns the Sunday Tribune newspaper for which Kennedy writes, and in 1997 Birrane was also the man who saved Lola Cars International from extinction. As a subsidiary of Lola Cars, Birrane set up Lola Driver Management, of which Kennedy is now the managing director. On their books is none other than Ralph Firman, current driver for Jordan in the 2003 Formula One season. An Ulster driver, managed by the ever-so-Irish Kennedy, driving for the quintessential Irish team. A co-incident perhaps, but one wonders if Eddie Jordan is, in part, returning a favour to the man who encouraged him into motor racing in the first place.

CAREER SUMMARY

Before Formula One
1972	• Began competing in Irish Formula Ford 1600.
1975	• Irish Formula Ford 1600, 1st overall.
1976	• British Formula Ford 1600, 1st overall in two separate championships. • European Formula Ford 1600, 2nd overall.
1977	• European F3, 8th overall, 17 points in a March and an Argo JM Toyota.
1978	• European F3, 6th overall, 13 points in an Argo JM 1 Toyota.
1979	• Competed in the Rothmans Series in Australia, 1 win in a Wolf WR4 Cosworth.
Formula One
1978	• Aurora AFX championship, 1 start, 12th overall, 1 win, 22 points in a Theodore Wolf WR3 Cosworth.
1979	• Aurora AFX championship, 2nd overall, 3 wins, 63 points in a Theodore Wolf WR4 Cosworth. • Race of Champions, DNS in a Theodore Wolf WR4 Cosworth
1980	• Shadow DN11/DN12 Cosworth V8, 7 entries, 7 DNQs. • Spanish GP, retired in a Shadow DN12 Cosworth.
After Formula One
1981	• Competed in touring cars. • World Championship for Drivers and Makes, 2 starts, =235th overall, 11 points in a Richard Cleare Racing Porsche 934 with Cleare. • Can-Am championship, 2 starts, 17th overall, 30 points in a US Racing Frisbee Chevrolet.
1982	• World Endurance Championship, 1 start in a works Chevron B36B Ford with Amato and Birrane.
1983	• Thundersports series, 5 starts, 1 win in a Ford C100 with various drivers. • World Endurance Championship, 1 start at Le Mans in a Peer Racing Ford C100 with Migault and Birrane.
1984	• Thundersports series, 2 starts in an Ibec 300LM Ford with various drivers. • Joined the works Mazda sports car team. • World Endurance Championship, 2 starts in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 727C with various drivers.
1985	• World Endurance Championship, 3 starts in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 737C with various drivers. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, 4 starts, =30th overall, 5 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 737C with Terada.
1986	• World Sportscar Championship, 4 starts in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 and a Martin Schanche Argo JM19 Zakspeed Turbo with various drivers. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, 4 starts, 21st overall, 16 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 with Yorino. • European Touring Car Championship, 1 start in an Australian National Motor Racing Team Holden Commodore VK with Grice and Birrane.
1987	• World Sportscar Championship, 2 starts, =37th overall, 8 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 with various drivers. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, =11th overall, 30 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 with Yorino.
1988	• World Sportscar Championship, 3 starts in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 and 767 with various drivers. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, 3 starts, 27th overall, 12 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 and 767 with Terada.
1989	• World Sportscar Championship, 6 starts in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 767B with Dieudonne. • Le Mans 24hrs, 7th place in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 767B with Dieudonne and Hodgetts. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, 1 start, =36th overall, 1 point in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 767B with Yorino.
1990	• Le Mans 24hrs, retired in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 787 with Dieudonne and Johansson. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, 31st overall, 5 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 767B and 787 with various drivers.
1991	• World Sportscar Championship, 5 starts, 19th overall, 16 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 787 and 787B with various drivers. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, 6 starts, 18th overall, 20 points in a Mazdaspeed Mazda 787 and 787B with various drivers.
1994	• BPR Global GT Endurance series, 3 starts in a Chamberlain Engineering Lotus Esprit 300 with various drivers.
1990s	• Became expert F1 commentator for the RTE network. • Became director of the Mondello Park racing circuit. • Became managing director of Lola Driver Management. • Began writing for the Sunday Tribune newspaper.
2001	• Competed in an historic event at Mondello Park in a Lola T330 Chevrolet.
2002	• Manages Ralph Firman, current Jordan F1 driver.

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