Rupert Keegan (born 26 February 1955 in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex – dead 23 September Elba Italy) is a former racing driver from England.
He participated in 37 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 8 May 1977. He scored no championship points.
Keegan won the 1976 British Formula 3 Championship, which propelled him into Formula One. After seasons with Hesketh and Surtees, neither of them particularly competitive teams, he won the Aurora Formula One Championship in 1979. A return to the Formula One World Championship with RAM driving their Williams FW07B yielded little in the way of results, as did a few races with March.
After Formula One, Keegan raced in the United States in CART, and also in endurance racing. After his retirement, he pursued business interests and also worked as a racing instructor. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Westcliffe On Sea, Essex, Rupert Keegan’s father Mike, an extrovert airline boss, started in aviation building Wellington bombers at Vickers and later served in the Royal Air Force, flying an ex-RAF Dakota in the Berlin airlift. He then started his own aviation business, BKS Air Transport, eventually buying a number of other airlines including British Air Ferries and was one of the pioneers of mass air transport in the United Kingdom.
Rupert began racing in 1973, winning his first race in a Ford Escort Mexico and not long afterwards he moved into Formula Ford. By the end of 1974 he was winning races.
His father bought Hawke Racing Cars and there was talk that he would fund the construction of a BAF-Cosworth F1 car, designed by Adrian Reynard. This never came to fruition but Reynard did eventually design a Hawke F3 car.
For 1975 Rupert raced in Formula 3 with a March 743 but it was a frustrating time due to his season a number of crashes, including a hefty one at Thruxton. He stayed with March the following year and his fortunes changed dramatically, winning nine races in the BP Championship on his way to the title.
He briefly contested Formula 2 with a Chevron then in 1977 went straight into Formula 1 with the Hesketh team. His debut came in Spain but the car was uncompetetive, though he qualified for every race he entered and his best results were seventh in Austria and eighth at Watkins Glen. Following this he joined Surtees for 1978 but their cars also proved uncompetitive. There were a number of retirements, though he made the grid in Holland, but crashed in the warm-up and missed the rest of the season with injury. He then switched to the Aurora AFX British F1 Championship with Charles Clowes Racing’s Arrows A1 and took the title, in the last race from David Kennedy.
1980 saw him make a comeback in the World Championship with a RAM Racing Williams FW07 and in his seven races his best results were ninth in the US GP plus eleventh place finishes in Britain and Italy. 1982 saw him back with RAM for several races. The team had backing from Rothmans, and their March 821 saw design work from a young Adrian Reynard. With Jochen Mass and Raul Boesel as drivers, hopes were high but it proved to be a disappointing year and Jochen began to focus more on sports car racing with Porsche. Rupert took over the car for the last five races, at the German, Austrian, Swiss (Dijon), Italian and American, and his best was twelfth at Ceasar’s Palace.
Moving away from F1, in 1983 he teamed up with former Hesketh team-mate Guy Edwards to race a Skoal Bandit Porsche 956 and they finished fifth at Le Mans. In the following season he finished second at Mosport Park and had third place finishes at Silverstone and Brands Hatch.
After three seasons in sportscars he moved to America to compete in CART and contested three races with the Machinists’ Union team March in 1985, with tenth at Miami his best result.
Following this he faded from the international scene though reappeared in 1995 in an FIA GT race at Monza, finishing fifth with a Friesinger Porsche 911 Bi-turbo. The year also saw him race at Le Mans (with Geoff Lees and Dominic Chappell) though the Lister Storm retired from the race.
Rupert eventually retired and began to pursue business interests plus also worked as a racing instructor.
