Jan Lammers

Johannes Antonius "Jan" Lammers (born 2 June 1956) is a Netherlands racecar driver, most notable for winning the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans world endurance race, for Silk Cut Jaguar/TWR; after four seasons in Formula One racing, from 1979 through 1982, for the F1 teams of Shadow, ATS, Ensign and Theodore, respectively.

One of the most versatile drivers in modern motor racing history, Lammers started in touring cars, to become the youngest Dutch champion in history in 1973 while repeating the act in 1976.

Having recognised Lammers' talent, Slotemaker set him up in a Simca Rallye 2 for the 7,500-9,000 guilder Group 1 production car class in the 1973 Dutch Touring Car Championship.

At 16 years of age, Lammers won his first-ever car race and continued to take the season title in his rookie year, becoming the youngest Dutch national auto racing champion in history.

Two more years in the Simca followed in a revised 8,000-10,000 guilder class, Lammers taking four more wins in 1974 but narrowly missing out on a title repeat.

Wins elude him in 1975 but his name has already been made.

In 1976, he switched to an Opel Dealer Team Holland-run Opel Kadett GT/E to take his second Dutch title.

Dovetailing his 1976 touring-car campaign with a first season in Formula Ford, Lammers quickly realises his future is in single-seaters.

Driving a Crosslé in the Benelux, German and European Championship, the touring-car Boy Wonder surprises everyone by grabbing pole position at his first race, winning at the Jyllandring and Mengen and shining in the soaking wet finale of the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.

Stepping up with Hawke to Formula 3 in 1977 proves to be a false dawn, as the Hawke proves no match for the Marches and the Ralts.

As a single-seater driver, his steps towards Formula One include securing the title in the 1978 European Formula 3 Championship.

He remains the only Dutch driver to have done so.

For 1978, he switches to the Racing Team Holland outfit run by Alan Docking, with fellow future Formula 1 driver Huub Rothengatter and later Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendijk as his team mates.

This is an inspired move as it leads to Lammers winning the 1978 European Formula 3 Championship after a close battle with Swede Anders Olofsson, while beating highly touted rivals such as Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell.

Lammers takes wins at Zandvoort, Magny-Cours, Karlskoga and in the famous Lotteria race at Monza to lift the crown.

At the time, leading British magazine Autosport predicts: "He just has to be a World Champion of the eighties."

Having received an offer from the works March Formula 2 team, Lammers decides to jump the category to go straight into Formula One with Shadow in 1979.

In 1979, Lammers and fellow rookie Elio de Angelis join Shadow, but the team led by American Don Nichols is in its death throes, and the pair fail to make an impact with a poor car, with de Angelis scoring the team's only points that year, being an excellent fourth place, at Watkins Glen.

Lammers’ best result is a ninth place in the Canadian GP.

He will make his single Formula 2 appearance in 1980, driving a March-BMW in his home race at Zandvoort, where he retires from third place.

Lammers spends four seasons in Formula One, racing largely uncompetitive machinery and failing to score a World Championship point in any of his 41 appearances.

Both are invited by Colin Chapman to test for Lotus, with De Angelis getting the job for 1980, as Lammers is unwilling to wait for Chapman’s decision.

Instead, he decides to sign for the German-owned ATS team.

The underfunded outfit hands Lammers the old D3 car while team leader Marc Surer debuts with the new D4, but when Surer breaks his legs in an accident, Lammers gets his hands on the new D4.

He immediately qualifies fourth on the grid at Long Beach but the car breaks on the opening lap of the race.

This would remain the highpoint of his F1 career.

His talent is universally recognised, though, and the Dutchman only narrowly misses out on the chance to join Ferrari in 1982 as a replacement of Gilles Villeneuve who was killed at Zolder earlier in the year.

The drive goes to Patrick Tambay instead.

He also raced in the European Renault 5 Turbo Cup, taking the 1983 and 1984 European titles.

Later in life, Lammers became a team owner as well, first setting up his own Formula Opel Lotus team, Vitaal Racing, winning the EFDA Opel Lotus Euroseries with Peter Kox in 1989, then creating the Racing for Holland outfit that raced in sportscars class in 2001-2007.

After a world-record setting ten-year hiatus, Lammers made a brief Formula One comeback, for two races, with team March in 1992.

Aside from racing in these two of the highest leagues of global auto-sports, Lammers has raced in an exceptionally wide number of racing series and competitions, domestic and abroad, over four decades.

At the zenith of his career in Group C sports-prototypes, Lammers lifted the crown in the 1992 Japanese Sportscar Championship.

Lammers has further raced in Formula Ford, Formula 2, IndyCar racing, International F3000, Japanese F3000, the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), BPR Global GT, FIA GT, the European Le Mans Series, the IMSA SportsCar Championship, the American Le Mans Series, Grand-Am, and the Dakar Rally.

Guest appearances include the Grand Prix Masters for retired F1 drivers, the BMW M1 Procar Series, the Dutch Supercar Challenge, the Dubai 24 Hours and Gulf 12 Hours endurance races, the VW Scirocco R-Cup and the Dutch domestic Tulpenrallye.

In recent years, Lammers was an important figurehead / ambassador for reviving the Dutch Formula One GP on the coastal dunes situated Zandvoort circuit, achieved since 2021.

Born in Zandvoort, Lammers grew up washing cars at the nearby school for advanced and anti-skid driving skills training, run by Dutch touring-car legend Rob Slotemaker.

Encouraged by Slotemaker, and while still under-age for a regular Dutch driving licence, the teenager nicknamed ‘Jantje’ (‘Little John’) was also hired to teach drivers on a private, closed track, how to safely recover a car from a skid situation.

During his Racing for Holland days, Lammers combined racing and management duties to win the 2002 and 2003 FIA Sportscar Championship.

Between 2005 and 2009, he was the seatholder of the Dutch A1 Grand Prix team.