Johannes “Jan” Lammers (born 2 June 1956 in Zandvoort) is a racing driver and team principal from the Netherlands.
In 1979, Lammers made his debut in Formula One driving for Shadow and moved to ATS for 1980. He moved to Ensign midway through the season but rejoined ATS for four races in 1981. He joined Theodore for 1982. Ten years later he returned to Formula One for the final two races of the 1992 season.He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1988 and later participated in the race with his own team Racing for Holland. He was also the seatholder of the Dutch A1 Grand Prix team. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
As a youth, Jan Lammers worked washing cars at a sliding school in Zandvoort and at the age of twelve began showing customers how to slide the Simca saloons, encouraged by the school’s owner and race driver Rob Slotemaker. At one point, he was asked to open a local supermarket, which he did by cutting the ribbon sideways and backwards in one of the Simcas.
In 1973 he won his first race in touring cars, and after taking three more victories became the youngest Holland auto racing champion. He won four races the following season but mechanical difficulties in the last race prevented him from another title. The 1975 season was disapointing for him but he then moved into single-seater, racing Formula Ford, going on to start his first race from pole and win races at the Jyllandring and Mengen. At the same time, racing an Opel Manta in touring cars, he won three races and took the Dutch title for the second time. 1977 saw him with the Hawke team in European Formula 3 and though the car was not competitive he finished on the podium at Zolder in the German Championship.
He then joined Alan Docking’s Racing Team Holland and won 1978’s European F3 Championship in a Ralt and then came an offer to race in Formula 1 with the Shadow team (alongside Elio de Angelis). Unfortunately there were a number of retirements and his best result was ninth in Canada.
He took part in the Tulpen Rally in 1979 with Opel (finishing 5th overall and won his class) plus raced a Group 5 Ford Capri Turbo in the 1000km race at the Nurburging.
In 1980 he moved to the ATS F1 team but failed to qualify for the first three races; although the team lacked funds and his car at Argentina and Brazil was basically all the team’s spares stuck together. He did qualify a strong fourth at Long Beach but unfortunately his race ended after 200 metres due to his driveshaft breaking as he accelerated out of the first corner. Later in the year he moved to Ensign but it would be a disappointing time as he only qualified three times. He also did some rallying with a BMW plus had one race in a March-BMW, at Zandvoort, in the European F2 Championship but retired from the race while running in third.
During this time he raced Procar M1s, which ran as a support race for Grands Prix and featured drivers such as A.Jones, N.Piquet and C.Reutemann. He won at Donington (starting from pole) and took pole at Monaco, but retired in the race after being by hit Didier Pironi and there was another pole at Norisring plus a second place finish.
In 1981 he was back with ATS but without sponsorship he only competed in four races before losing the drive, though at Kyalami he was running third and battling Elio de Angelis for second until affected by brake problems.
1982 saw him with Theodore but he only qualified at Zandvoort, though in the race he had worked his way from the back of the grid to thirteenth before his engine failed. During the season, Renault asked him to replace an injured Alain Prost at Detroit but Alain recovered in time so Jan drove the Theodore. Ferrari also asked him if he would replace Gilles Villeneuve (sadly killed in Zolder) starting at Zandvoort but Jan broke his thumb when his Theodore’s accelerator stuck and he hit the wall. Patrick Tambay signed the contract with Ferrari. Jan drove his last grand prix at Zandvoort, as he didn’t qualify at Brands Hatch or Paul Ricard and then Tommy Byrne joined the team. Besides F1 he also raced regularly in the European Renault 5 Turbo championship and took wins at the Norisring and podiums at Monaco and Monza.
With no F1 drive in 1983, Jan raced Richard Lloyd’s Canon Porsche 956 and stayed with the team for two and a half seasons. He co-drove during this time with Tiff Needell, Thierry Boutsen and Jonathan Palmer and there were good placings plus he and J.Palmer won 1984’s Brand Hatch 1000Km race.
During 1985, he switched to Indycar, racing a March for Sherman Armstrong’s AMI Racing team at Portland and New Jersey then drove for Forsythe Racing at Laguna Zeca, Phoenix and Miami; his best result was fifth at Laguna Seca.
In 1986 he was entered, and practiced, for the Indy 500 for Mike Curb’s team but did not make a qualifying attempt (team owner Mike Curb was a musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, and politician who served as the 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California).
He also drove for the Machinist Unions Racing team at Phoenix, Laguna Seca (finishing eighth) and Miami (ninth).
He went on to enjoy great success with the TWR Jaguar team, taking three wins in 1987 with John Watson (at Jarama, Monza and Mount Fuji) then won Le Mans in 1988 with J.Dumfries and A.Wallace. There were also victories in the Daytona 24-hour race in 1988, with R.Boesel, M.Brundle and J.Nielsen, then again in 1990 with D.Jones and A.Wallace. During this time he also raced for Dome in Japanese F3000 in 1987 and took a victory at Fuji.
1991 again saw him in Japanese F3000 with Team LeMans (his best results being a third at Suzuka and fifth at Fuji) and then joined the Toyota sports car team for 1992. He took podium finishes in the Toyota TS010 at Suzuka and Magny Cours and following this there was a return to F1 at the end of the year with March, in Australia and Japan. Unfortunately plans for a possible season with them the following year failed when March folded so Jan competed in F3000 for Il Barone Rampante.
In 1994 Volvo surprisingly chose to race the estate version of their 850 model in the BTCC and Jan took seventh place finishes at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park plus a fifth again at Brands.
Jan started 1995 with a win at a F3000/F2 invitation race at Kyalami followed by second place in a Ferrari (with D.Bell and A.Wallace) at the Sebring 12 Hours. He then lined up with Vortex Motorsport for a season in F3000 but left after three races and also competed at the Daytona 24 Hours with M.Andretti and A.Wallace in an Auto Toy Store Spice Chevrolet.
After concentrating on sports car and GT racing, with the factory Lotus team, Team Hezemans, Roock Racing and Konrad Motorsports Jan started his own team, Racing for Holland, which competed in the FIA Sportscar Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There were podium finishes at Spa, Monza, Donington and Mondello and a victory at the Nürburgring while in 2002, wins at Brno, Magny-Cours and Dijon, four pole positions, plus third at Estoril and second at Spa, saw them take the FIA title (Jan’s second after 1978’s F3 championship). In 2003, Jan won the championship (with John Bosch), taking three races on the way, and they finished sixth at Le Mans (with Andy Wallace).
The team also competed in the A1 Grand Prix series, from 2005 to 2009, as the A1 Team The Netherlands, with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Robert Doornbos, Jos Verstappen and Renger van der Zande as drivers.
Since that time Jan has driven a Scirocco Cup race in Moscow, the Mille Miglia in a Porsche 550 Spyder, a Bugatti, an XK120 and a Porsche plus the Carrera Panamericana in a Porsche 356. There were also five Dakar rallies ( in a thousand horsepower, eight-ton Ginaf truck).
Also, using a different form of propulsion, he also ran a couple of New York marathons.
In 2017 a now 61 year old Jan drove Racing Team Nederland’s Dallara Gibson LMP2, with Frits van Eerd and Rubens Barrichello, with the car’s colour and logo relating to Jumbo Supermarkets (owned by Frits van Eerd) plus his passion for Minardi. 2018 saw the team returning with a Dallara P127 to compete in the ELMS and at Le Mans, with Giedo van der Garde, replacing R.Barrichello.
Gallery F3 F2/F3000 Sport cars F1
