Innes Ireland

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Innes Ireland
Formula One Career
Nationality	British
Active years	1959 - 1966
Team(s)	Lotus, BRP, BRM
Grands Prix	53
Championships	0
Wins	1
Podium finishes	4
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First Grand Prix	1959 Dutch Grand Prix
First win	1961 United States Grand Prix
Last win	1961 United States Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix	1966 Mexican Grand Prix

Robert McGregor Innes Ireland, known as Innes Ireland (1930–1993), was a Scottish military officer, engineer, and race car driver. He was a larger-than-life character who, according to a rival team boss, "lived without sense, without an analyst and provoked astonishment and affection from everyone."

Ireland was born June 12, 1930 in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England, the son of a Scottish veterinary surgeon. His family returned to Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, in Scotland during his youth, and he trained as an engineer with Rolls-Royce, first in Glasgow and later in London. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the King's Own Scottish Borderers, he served with the Parachute Regiment in the Suez Canal Zone during 1953 and 1954.

Ireland's first serious year of auto racing was 1957, by which time he was running a small engineering firm in Surrey. Success in sports car racing saw him make his Formula One debut for Team Lotus in 1959. In 1960 he won three non-championship Formula One races and finished fourth in the World Drivers Championship. Badly injured in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, Ireland recovered to win the Solitude and Austrian Grand Prix races, then finished the season with a victory in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

Ireland upset Lotus Cars boss Colin Chapman and the team sponsors by giving up his car to Stirling Moss of the rival Rob Walker team at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. This led to him being arbitrarily sacked at the end of the '61 season. Despite occasional successes, Ireland never again had a car to match his talent, and his last serious race was the Daytona 500 in 1967.

A talented writer, Ireland produced a classic autobiography, All Arms and Elbows (ISBN 0-85184-050-7), and worked as a journalist for the American Road & Track magazine, as well as skippering trawlers in the North Atlantic. Towards the end of his life, he was elected president of the prestigious British Racing Drivers' Club, which post he still held at the time of his death from cancer on October 22, 1993, at Reading, Berkshire, England.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Team	WDC	Points
1959	Lotus	MON	500	NED 4	FRA Ret	GBR	GER Ret	POR Ret	ITA	USA 5		Lotus	14th	5
1960	Lotus	ARG 6	MON 9	500	NED 2	BEL Ret	FRA 7	GBR 3	POR 6	ITA	USA 2	Lotus	4th	18
1961	Lotus	MON	NED	BEL Ret	FRA 4	GBR 10	GER NC	ITA Ret	USA 1			Lotus	6th	12
1962	Lotus	NED Ret	MON Ret	BEL Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 16	GER	ITA Ret	USA 8	RSA 5		Lotus	16th	2
1963	Lotus	MON Ret	BEL Ret	NED 4	FRA 9	GBR Ret	GER Ret	ITA 4	USA	MEX	RSA	BRP	9th	6
1964	BRP	MON	NED	BEL 10	FRA Ret	GBR 10	GER	AUT 5	ITA 5	USA Ret	MEX 12	BRP	14th	4
1965	Lotus	RSA	MON	BEL 13	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	NED 10	GER	ITA 9	USA Ret	MEX	Lotus	-	0
1966	BRM	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER	ITA	USA Ret	MEX Ret		BRM	-	0