Gentleman Jack
By Graham Gauld
If you know who Jack Sears is, this book will fill in all the detail, and if you don’t, then read it anyway as a good example of how things were done in motor sport back in the 1950s and ’60s.
Jack was born into a family where his father, Stanley Sears, had a great interest in cars. Sears’ first forays into motor sport were in MG TCs and, improbably, the 1914 TT Sunbeam with which he was often successful in VSCC racing. He soon tried his hand at rallying and became a member of the factory BMC team, though success in the unlikely shape of an Austin A105 saloon in 1957 led to some unofficial factory support that led to Sears winning the first British Saloon Car Championship in 1958.
During the 1959 season, Jack was mainly a BMC works driver in events as diverse as the grueling Liège–Rome–Liège Rally and club races at Snetterton and Mallory Park. However, his abilities had not gone unnoticed and, at the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours, he was paired with Mike Salmon in Maranello Concessionaires’ unique, right-hand drive Ferrari 330 LMB, where the pair finished 5th overall. After that, it was back to continued success in Lotus-Cortinas, AC Cobras, and Ford Galaxies, until an accident in the infamous Lotus 30 put a stop to it all.
This is a very readable and comprehensive book on one of the UK’s perhaps lesser-sung motor sport heroes.
Available for US$49.95 (£24.99) directly from the publisher at www.veloce.co.uk
