Sir John Whitmore ‘Racing Baronet’ 1937-2017  Appreciation by Ken Davies

Sir John Whitmore, famously known in the sixties as the ‘Racing Baronet’, sadly passed away on the 28 April age 79 following a short illness.

Although Whitmore inherited the baronetcy on his father’s death in 1962 he was a completely unpretentious figure in motor racing, yet one of the most outstanding British touring car drivers in the early 1960s, winning the 1961 British Saloon Car Championship in a 848cc Morris Mini Minor. By this time, however, John had already made a name for himself on the GT racing scene, in 1959 driving one of the first Lotus Elites, acquired from Team Lotus after Colin Chapman was convinced that John would do his new sports car justice. John repaid Chapman’s faith by winning his first race at Snetterton, then going on to qualify on the front row of the grid at the Daily Express International Trophy meeting, alongside Chapman, who promptly offered John a drive in an Elite as team mate to Jim Clark at Le Mans. The duo finished 10th overall, 2nd in class and were first Elite home.

John then drove a wide variety of cars for the Essex Racing Team ranging from a Formula 2 Cooper-Climax T51 to an Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato and a Tojeiro-Jaguar. In 1960 he drove in Formula Junior for the Fitzwilliam team of Lola Mk 2s and in 1961 raced a Lotus 20 with a Don Moore prepared BMC engine. Moore would also take care of John’s later championship winning Mini Minor. Whitmore would also enjoy success driving Chris Barber’s Lotus Elite which the jazz legend duly replaced with an early, and fragile, Lotus Elan.

In 1961 John drove a Mini Cooper run by Ken Tyrrell, evolving into a Cooper S for 1962 and 1963. Ford then featured for the rest of his John’s career and he achieved considerable success for the Blue Oval in Lotus Cortina, Falcon and Mustang, Shelby Cobras and GT40s. In 1964 he won the 1600cc class of the European Touring Car Championship in a distinctive gold and red Alan Mann-prepared Lotus Cortina and the following year, played a major role in the Shelby Cobras defeating the Ferraris in the FIA GT Manufacturers World Championship.

In the two-part Tourist Trophy round of the 1965 Championship at Oulton Park John drove one of his greatest races, suffering a broken exhaust mid-race which was both deafening and caused him to suffer the effects of noxious fumes. In 1966 in GT40s John was second in the Monza 1000-km race with Masten Gregory and second in a 7-litre Mk 2 at Spa-Francorchamps with Frank Gardner. On the only occasion he raced one of Alan Mann’s Falcons, John was the first driver to lap the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit at over 100mph in a touring car.

At the end of 1966, influenced by the safety vulnerability of drivers during this hazardous era in the sport, John retired from racing to pursue other interests, including flying. He then moved to New York State for a while to live in an alternative community before setting up his successful executive training firm, Performance Consultants.

In 1990 John was persuaded to return to motor racing, competing three times in one of Peter Agg’s fearsome 8.1-litre McLaren-Chevrolet M8F ex-CanAm cars. His return yielded a third place at Montlhery, second at Donington and then finally at the Silverstone Historic Festival, a win in his second race of the weekend after sensationally passing the similar car of Charlie Agg round the outside of Stowe Corner in a manoeuvre that defined the class of this great driver and a fitting way to sign off a legendary racing career.

John was a familiar face at race meetings and a modest and fascinating raconteur who delivered wonderful stories of racing as it was in the 1960s to many a spellbound audience. Retro-Speed extends its sympathy to John’s family and many friends in motor racing.