Jack Fairman

Fairman was an engineer who began competing in 1934 with a 12/50 Alvis in trials, soon moving on to hill-climbs and events at Brooklands. These remained his staple diet until the war intervened, during which he saw service in the Tank Corps.

Jack's career moved onto a wider stage in the late forties as he raced at Le Mans and Spa for the first time. Strong as an ox, and an extremely safe and reliable driver, Fairman was ideally suited to long-distance sports car racing, in which he raced with distinction for Bristol, Jaguar, Ecurie Ecosse and Aston Martin during the fifties. His greatest successes came in 1959 when, driving the Aston, he won the Nürburgring 1000 Km (with Moss at his brilliant best) and the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood (with Moss and Shelby).

With his engineering background Fairman was also in great demand as a test driver and was instrumental in the development of the Connaught GP car, being rewarded with points finishes in each of his two Grand Prix appearances in 1956.

Jack seemed to thrive on picking up irregular rides here and there and raced a bewildering succession of machines in different categories (including on occasion works cars from Cooper and BRM and the Rob Walker 4WD Ferguson) during an extremely long career which lasted into the early sixties. His final Formula 1 race was in 1963 at the City of Imola GP when he took over one of de Beaufort's Ecurie Maarsbergen Porsches at short notice, finishing a distant seventh.