Keith Wiggins (born 1 July 1958) [1] is a motor racing team owner born in Great Britain and one of only three people ever to have owned a Formula One team, an IndyCar and a ChampCar team.
Born in London, England on 1 July 1958, Wiggins began his racing career while at school as a kart driver in 1973. He was selected as a member of the British International Kart Team for 1975–76. He trained as a design engineer for specialist road car conversions and later joined Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing in 1977 for Formula 2, and then as an engineer in British Formula 3 in 1988. In 1979 Wiggins continued his driving career in British Formula Ford, finishing 2nd in the Championship. The following year (1980) he focused on his management and engineering skills, joining Rushen Green Racing for British F3. In 1982 he was appointed team manager and chief engineer with Van Diemen in British and European Formula 2000. During this period, he also constructed a development Formula Ford chassis designed by David Baldwin which became the next generation Van Diemen Formula 2000 chassis.
Wiggins established Pacific Racing in 1984 as owner, chairman, and chief engineer. The team went on to unrivalled success over the following 13 years. Pacific won every European single-seater championship on its way up to Formula One and is the only team ever to climb from the lowest ranks to compete at the premier level. With JJ Lehto, David Coulthard, Eddie Irvine and Christian Fittipaldi behind the wheel of his cars, he moved the operation to Formula One in 1994.
Pacific Racing Achievements:
The team Pacific Grand Prix ran on a shoestring budget for two seasons, designing, building and racing their own chassis, with highest finishing positions of 7th in Brazil 1994 and 7th in Australia 1995. The inaugural year they ran struggling Ilmor engines and battled with Simtek at the rear of the grid. Just making the grid was a challenge; while Bertrand Gachot qualified for five of the first seven events, Paul Belmondo made it just twice. They qualified and ran every race in 1995 with Gachot and Andrea Montermini, Jean-Denis Délétraz, and Giovanni Lavaggi, but Wiggins returned to F3000 in 1996, plus competed at LeMans with a BRM-Nissan and then closed Pacific in 1997.
In 1998, following MasterCard Lola's ill-fated decision to enter Formula One, Wiggins helped to get the newly purchased Lola out of receivership and back on its feet, then serving as Vice-President and then President of Lola Cars International Inc. in America and Sales and Marketing Director of Lola Cars International in the UK.
Wiggins left Lola in 2000 and took over as president and team owner of Tony Bettenhausen Jr.'s CART team following a tragic plane crash which killed Tony, renaming it Herdez Competition in 2001. Michel Jourdain Jr. remained in the cockpit and Mario Dominguez replaced him in 2002, winning at Surfers Paradise and claiming Rookie of the Year. Herdez remained as title sponsor until 2005, with three further wins, by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mario Dominquez and a dominant performance of first and second in the streets of Miami in 2003. In 2005 promising youngsters Björn Wirdheim and Ronnie Bremer were signed, together with others to get through a tough season due to a lack of sponsorship.
By that point the team had been renamed HVM (Herdez Viva Mexico) and in October 2005 Cedric the Entertainer announced he had become a partner in the team. The team's name changed in 2006 to CTE-HVM Racing. They finished fourth in the championship with Frenchman Nelson Philippe, who won at Surfers Paradise.
In 2007, ex Minardi owner Paul Stoddart bought into the team and they renamed it Minardi Team USA fielding ex-F1 Driver Robert Doornbos and Dan Clarke for a second season, Wiggins being the managing partner. In the 2007 season, the team claimed 2 wins and 7 podiums on its way to third place in Championship standings and Rookie of the Year with Doornbos and a pole position for Clark. With Champ Car's unification with the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series in 2008, Stoddart left the team and it appeared that the team would shut down, however, Wiggins assumed full control of the team again and signed E. J. Viso to continue racing operations in the IndyCar Series, with the team's name reverting to HVM Racing. In 2010 the team brought new rookie driver Simona de Silvestro into IndyCar and she finished 14th at the Indianapolis 500 and became the 'Rookie of the Year'.
HVM Racing earned six victories, three pole positions, 22 podiums, 40 top-five finishes and 97 top-tens. The team also earned "Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year" honors with driver Simona de Silvestro in 2010. HVM finished fourth and third, respectively, in the Champ Car World Series in 2006 and 2007, and earned drivers Mario Dominguez and Robert Doornbos Rookie of the Year honors in 2002 and 2007, respectively.
The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become too expensive, and was dominated by works-run cars with factory engines; the hope was that Formula 3000 would offer quicker, cheaper, more open racing. The series began as an open specification, then tyres were standardized from 1986 onwards, followed by engines and chassis in 1996. The series ran annually until 2004, and was replaced in 2005 by the GP2 Series.
Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal following of fans. In 2001, to save the team from folding, Minardi sold it to Australian businessman Paul Stoddart, who ran the team for five years before selling it on to Red Bull GmbH in 2005 who renamed it Scuderia Toro Rosso. From 2001, all of Minardi chassis were called "PS" then a number, the PS being the initials of team owner, Paul Stoddart.
Paul Stoddart is an Australian businessman, airline owner and former Minardi Formula One team boss.
Lola Cars International Ltd. was a British race car engineering company in operation from 1958 to 2012. The company was founded by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England, before moving to new premises in Slough, Buckinghamshire and finally Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and endured for more than fifty years to become one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola Cars started by building small front-engined sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles.
Justin Boyd Wilson was a British professional open-wheel racing driver who competed in Formula One (F1) in 2003, the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) from 2004 to 2007 and the IndyCar Series from 2008 to 2015. He won the first Formula Palmer Audi (FPA) in 1998, the International Formula 3000 Championship (IF3000) with Nordic Racing in 2001, and co-won the 2012 24 Hours of Daytona for Michael Shank Racing.
Bertrand Jean Gachot is a French former racing driver. Gachot enjoyed some success in the junior formulae, winning titles in Formula Ford before progressing through Formula 3 and Formula 3000, reaching Formula One in 1989. After winning the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gachot was sentenced to 18 months in prison for an aggravated assault that had occurred the previous December. He was released after two months on appeal, but his enforced absence enabled Michael Schumacher to make his Grand Prix debut.
Larrousse Formula One was a motorsports racing team founded in 1987 by Didier Calmels and former racer Gérard Larrousse, originally under the name Larrousse & Calmels. It was based in Antony, in the southern suburbs of Paris. It was renamed Larrousse after the departure of Calmels following his murder of his wife. The team competed in Formula One from 1987 to 1994 before succumbing to financial problems, scoring a best finish of third at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix during this time.
Pacific Racing was a motor racing team from the United Kingdom. Following success in lower formulae, the team took part in two full seasons of Formula One, in 1994 and 1995, entering 33 Grands Prix without any success.
Formula racing is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single-seater regulations, or formulae. The best known of these formulae are Formula One, Formula E, Formula Two, Formula Three, regional Formula Three and Formula Four. Common usage of "formula racing" encompasses other single-seater series, including the GP2 Series, which replaced Formula 3000.
Robert Michael Doornbos is a Dutch former racing driver who also competed with a Monégasque licence. He has been test and third driver for the Jordan and Red Bull Racing Formula One teams, as well as driving for Minardi and Red Bull Racing in 2005 and 2006. Doornbos then drove for Minardi Team USA in the 2007 and final season of the Champ Car World Series. He competed in the Superleague Formula racing series in 2008, and drove for the Netherlands team in A1 Grand Prix's 2008–2009 season. In 2009, Doornbos competed in the IndyCar Series. He began the season with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, but switched to HVM Racing after the race in Kentucky Speedway.
Mario Domínguez is a Mexican racing driver. He has competed in the CART and CCWS Champ Car series and later the IndyCar Series.
Tony Lee Bettenhausen Jr. was a Champ Car team owner and driver who died in a 2000 plane crash. He was the son of former 14-time Indianapolis 500 competitor Tony Bettenhausen and the brother of 21-time Indy racer Gary Bettenhausen. Another brother, Merle Bettenhausen, was maimed in his only Indy Car start.
Daniel Clarke is a British auto racing driver, most recently competing in the Firestone Indy Lights series with Walker Racing, having previously competed in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and the Champ Car World Series.
HVM Racing was an auto racing team owned by Keith Wiggins that competed in the IndyCar Series. It competed in the Champ Car World Series in 2007 as Minardi Team USA when it was co-owned by Paul Stoddart. It has a long history of changes of ownership, including a previous incarnation as CTE-HVM Racing, co-owned by actor/comedian Cedric the Entertainer.
The 2005 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season was the 27th overall and the second season of the Champ Car World Series era of American open-wheel racing. It began on April 10, 2005 in Long Beach, California and ended on November 6 in Mexico City, Mexico after 13 races. The Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford Drivers' Champion was Sébastien Bourdais, his second consecutive championship. The Rookie of the Year was Timo Glock.
The 2003 Champ Car World Series, the twenty-fifth and final in the CART-era of American open-wheel car racing, consisted of 18 races, beginning in St. Petersburg, Florida on February 23 and concluding in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia on October 26. For sponsorship purposes, it was branded as Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.
Newman/Haas Racing was an auto racing team that competed in the CART and the IndyCar Series from 1983 to 2011. The team operations were based in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Newman/Haas Racing was formed as a partnership between actor, automotive enthusiast and semi-professional racer Paul Newman and long-time auto racing owner/driver Carl Haas. The duo were competitors in sports car racing during the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1983, they joined forces to enter the ranks of Indy car racing. Newman/Haas was one of the most successful teams in Indy car racing during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The team won 105 CART/Champ Car races and eight season championships.
Reynard Motorsport was the world's largest racing car manufacturer in the 1980s. Initially based at Bicester and latterly at Reynard Park, Brackley, England the company built successful cars in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Vauxhall Lotus, Formula Three, Formula 3000 and CART.
Björn Karl Michael Wirdheim is a Swedish professional racing driver. He is the son of Örnulf Wirdheim, also a racing driver. Björn began racing karts, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to date is becoming the International Formula 3000 Champion in 2003.
The EC and ED family are a series of 3.0-litre and 3.5-litre, naturally-aspirated, V8, Formula One racing engines, designed, developed and produced by Cosworth, in partnership with Ford; and used between 1994 and 1997. The customer engines were used by Benetton, Sauber, Forti, Lola, Simtek, Pacific, Minardi, and Tyrrell.