Sir Jackie and James
He made his name as one of the all time greats behind the wheel. Winner of three Formula One Championships, 27 Grand Prixs and ranked in the top ten drivers of all time, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE is one of the most highly regarded names in global sport.
On the track Sir Jackie’s story is an inspirational one of drama, drive, determination, danger, excitement, tragedy, controversy, glamour and, of course, massive success.
Beyond the sport, his life is a compelling tale of his early battle with dyslexia, and achieving world-wide recognition as an outstanding sportsman, a role model and more recently as a highly accomplished and respected businessman.
From growing up in a Scottish village, to the racetrack of Monaco, and the boardrooms of the world, Sir Jackie Stewart has led a ‘chequered’ and eventful life. Revealing all however, the former race ace explains, “everything has not always been champagne and parties.”
Although Sir Jackie will be seventy-one in June it seems evident he has no intention of slowing down as he motored into the room at some speed.
Born, as he put it, “in a wee village called Milton better known for Ballantines whisky”, Sir Jackie explained his love of fast cars began, at a tender age, while he worked at his dad’s garage.
These days, racing prodigies begin competing in karts from as young as four and have their education structured accordingly. That wasn’t an option in the Forties where Sir Jackie was raised.
Although it seems no surprise that racing became a passion it was however during a chance meeting with a customer, while he was an apprentice mechanic, that put him on the road to becoming a world champion.
As he sat sipping a glass of Coca Cola the Dumbarton born Scot explained, “When I left school at fifteen I became a garage mechanic. I was preparing, what I would call, some club racing vehicles for a racing enthusiast, who was not allowed to drive himself. One day he came in and he asked me if I would like to do a wee event as a reward, which I did and I finished second. He came back and said ‘what about doing the next one’, which I did and won. It was then a kind of rocket ship. I was never really aware that I had any skills as such for racing, but once I got a taste for it I definitely wanted to do it again.”
His first attempts were impressive, showing exceptionally quick reflexes and a cool demeanour behind the wheel. As a youngster the talkative racer showed incredible hand-eye co-ordination and it looked likely he would follow in the footsteps of his dad, a former amateur motorcycle racer and his older brother Jimmy, who was already a successful racing driver.
According to the affable Scot, it was Jim’s brilliant career in motor racing that ignited the flame of a young Jackie’s burning passion for the sport. “He was one of the best and smoothest sports car drivers in the world during the 1950s”, he explained. Before adding, “He was my hero. He was everything I ever wanted to be.”
Despite his eminent rise to the top, Sir Jackie explained he had an unhappy school life and was by his own admission, “a failure in the making”.
Although education played a huge part in his formative years, it was for all the wrong reasons. Twiddling with the phone cord next to him, Sir Jackie mused, “Yes I was a failure educationally. I’m a dyslexic so my school years were by far the unhappiest of my life. In those days, as it still is in some places, dyslexia was never identified. You were just stupid, dumb, or thick. These were difficult times because it’s humiliating not being able to read or write, and do all the things everybody else does so easily.”
Adding with what can only be described as a real sense of sadness, “Dyslexics need to understand that they can achieve and they can succeed. What is a shame is a great many of them are never going to reach their full potential.”
Nevertheless, his harsh Scottish school days are what instilled in Sir Jackie the will to triumph. Like many dyslexics wee Jackie had an extra desire to prove himself in life.
“Because you cannot do the things that people your own age can do so easily you’re made to feel inadequate. You feel humiliated. You have no self esteem. I had a terrible complex but managed to rise over it. Sport gave me my chance in life, starting off with shooting, where I shot for Scotland and then Great Britain, and then motor racing. Now it doesn’t really worry me that I can’t read or write correctly, and it doesn’t bother me that I don’t know the alphabet. I do look back and wish my teachers were here to see me now because they and the educational system had totally written me off.”
The triple Formula One world champion, who last stood on top of the winners’ podium in 1973 -the year he retired- is clearly proud of all he has achieved. So, I wondered, what does it feel like to be the fastest man on the planet?
Launching into what can only be described as a vivid description, he exclaims “The adrenaline is incredible, but a good racing driver doesn’t make it look like he’s going that fast.”
He added, “The first time I won the world championship I thought there was going to be thunder and lightning and the world was going to change. In fact it didn’t change at all. It’s one of those titles that I think its better when you haven’t been world champion thinking wow what if I were a world champion once you’ve won it you say well maybe I could win it again. Once you’ve won it again and again it loses its sparkle slightly but when you’re introduced as world champion it’s a nice experience because you’ve worked hard to achieve it. From my point of view I can’t say it devalued its currency the second or the third time. In fact it enhanced it.”
Sir Jackie might not have enjoyed the playboy reputation of many racing drivers, but his impact on the sport extends far beyond spraying champagne on the podium and showing beautiful girls around the F1 garage.
With his pioneering efforts to revolutionise track safety measures, the ‘Flying Scotsman’ never shirked from a challenge or turned away from a crash.
In 1966, while racing at 164mph in the rain, Sir Jackie Stewart left the track, crashing into a tree during Spa-Francorchamps. He remained in the upturned car while the vehicle’s fuel poured onto him. “The tiniest spark would have made me a human bonfire,” he said.
After this near-death experience, Stewart became an outspoken advocate of Racing Safety. Having driven through an era when fatalities were almost shockingly inevitable, Stewart knew what it was like to lose friends. He was the F1 Champion who wanted to live fast but not die young.
Sounding somewhat frustrated, Sir Jackie explained, “In those days, if you were racing for a five year window in formula one, there was a two out of three chance you were going to die, which is a ridiculous average. People did not think racing drivers needed to think of safety because they were seen as gladiators and if you were killed that was your full awareness before you went in there. I thought that was all wrong. I thought I was being paid for my skill not for the risks I was taking.”
Having tirelessly campaigned for racing safety, Sir Jackie became incredibly unpopular with a number of those involved in the sport. He boycotted, campaigned and protested and was involved in a very major change in the safety of racing, making him more than just a wizard at the wheel.
In an emotional tirade, the Scot explained, “It needed to be done because there was a period in 1968 where four of our drivers died in consecutive months. When that happens to you and you’re constantly going to funerals and you’re witnessing the grief and the devastation, when it doesn’t have to happen, I realised I had to do something.”
With sporting success comes adoring fans who, more often than not, verge on the obsessed. This is certainly the case for the one-time racer.
There was an undeniable sense of excitement amongst the hundreds of fans who had flocked to meet Sir Jackie- their hero – who was here to meet his legions of fans, who had painstakingly waited in a queue that circled the block in the relentless rain. Judging by the number that had turned up, it seemed he would be here for quite some time.
Sir Jackie, a man of immense charisma, charm and integrity rather humbly reflected on his A-list lifestyle, putting the whole showbiz razzmatazz into perspective.
He explained, “When I first met Peter Sellers or when I first met the Beatles, Elizabeth Taylor or the Queen you do get slightly star struck to begin with, until you met a great collection of people and you then get used to it. You find that people are just as anxious to meet you as you are of meeting them. The real stars I don’t think see themselves as celebrities. It’s the would be’s who see themselves as important. The real stars don’t need to act or behave in a manner that lets people think they’re something different. So I think that soon wares of. If you get intoxicated by that you’re going down the wrong road. Although I’m Sir Jackie Stewart OBE I’m still Jackie.”
