Derek Patrick Daly (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish-American former racing driver. He won the 1977 British Formula 3 Championship, and competed as a professional racing driver for 17 years participating in 64 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 2 April 1978. He scored a total of 15 championship points, and also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Derek Daly won the 1977 British Formula 3 Championship and went on to compete in 64 World Championship Grands Prix plus several non-Championship F1 races.
Born in 1953, he grew up with a fascination for cars and after his father took him to watch a race in Dunboyne, from then on he aspired to be a race driver. At 15, after attending stock-car racing at Santry Stadium, he bought his own car and began competing the following year. By the time he was 21 he started on the circuit but needed funds to finance his racing. He had two choices to get money fast and his options were working on the pipeline in the Alaskan oil fields or in the iron ore mines in Australia for six months in the winter. Eventually choosing Australia he returned with £5000 and bought a Formula Ford and surprisingly, went on to win the Formula Ford championship that same year.
He sold his championship-winning Crossle and his plan was to drive to England, live on the road and race to try and gain a reputation. He bought an old bus and converted it to transport his car and set off to go from racetrack to racetrack and in 1976 he won 23 races and won the British Formula Ford Festival.
Then came a move into Formula 3 and while in Austria for a Formula 1 support race he was on pole, alongside (future F1 world champion) Nelson Piquet. While sitting on the grid, he was told that if he won the race he would be placed in a Formula One car before the end of the year; he won the race and a few months later found himself testing a Theodore F1 car at Goodwood.
On his first appearance as a F1 driver in 1978, he led at Silverstone in the non-championship International Trophy. In an impressive performance in torrential rain, he weaved his way to the front and beat 1976’s Champion James Hunt but his helmet visor broke and he lost control, ending up in the fencing. At Brands Hatch, while on the grid he found himself looking around, in awe of drivers around him, such as Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson, Mario Andretti, John Watson, Jacques Lafitte. He thought to himself “This is the most amazing thing that could ever have happened.”
He did not qualify for his 3 races with Hesketh in 1978 but at the end of year he was with Ensign and collected his very first championship point with a sixth-place finish in Canada. Before Montreal, he had taken back-to-back top-ten finishes in Italy and the US.
In 1978 and 1979, alongside his F1 racing he competed in F2, finishing third in the championship in both seasons, with Chevron Racing and Project Four Racing.
Driving for Candy Tyrrell in F1, he had an eighth place finish in Austria in 1979 while racing for the team the following season saw him achieve fourth places in Argentina and Britain (Brands Hatch). The followin season saw him with March, with his best results being seventh and eighth in Britain and Canada.
However, despite being in Formula 1 he never got accustomed to the ambience (big personalities and characters and its luxurious and lavish lifestyle). He admitted he found it overwhelming and was still starstruck by the likes of N.Lauda and J.Hunt. Unfortunately, there were a number of driver fatalities and in his second Grand Prix at Monza in 1978 he was involved in the race’s major accident. After jumping from his car, he told how “there were five of us who ran back to this burning wreckage, it looked like a plane crash. We tried to pull Ronnie out and it was James Hunt who actually got in, undid his belt and pulled him out. He was so badly injured but was lying on the road in front of me. I’m so scared that I’m almost in shock at what I’m experiencing. The race was stopped and I went back to the pits. I’m telling my team what happened and I just start to cry. Ronnie Petersen was a hero of mine. I grew up idolising him. I’m trying to pull myself together and 45 minutes later, the team owner Mo Nunn taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘The race is restarting and we’ve got the spare car ready so pull yourself together’. I’m thinking, ‘What?’ And you have to boldly and coldly strap yourself in and I ended up having an outstanding race, having seen that accident and having been part of it. And Ronnie Peterson died in hospital later that night. Gilles Villeneuve was a friend of mine, who lived close to me in Monaco and I’d see him there and chat to him and then he gets killed at Zolder in Belgium in 1982. Didier Pironi, who was the Ferrari driver and leading the World Championship at the time, tries to pass me at Hockenheim in the rain and crashes and his career was over because his injuries were so bad. Montreal in 1982, a start-line accident and Riccardo Palletti is killed.”
Derek himself luckily escaped injury in a crash at Monaco in 1980 when racing for Tyrrell and later went on to take fourth-place in the British Grand Prix. His best season came in 1982 though frustratingly he came agonisingly close to winning at Monaco with Williams. In what turned out to be a chaotic race, he hit the barrier and the impact turned his car around, leading to yet more contact with the barriers. He had lost his rear wing and one of his front winglets but unknown to him his gearbox had cracked and was leaking oil. The lead changed hands several times as cars spun or failed (Prost, then Patrese, Pironi and de Cesaris) but Derek had kept going after his earlier crash (minus most of the car’s aerodynamic aids). He seemed set to take the prestigious Monaco victory but his cracked gearbox cruelly gave up and he was classified sixth.
He would take fifth place finishes at Detroit, Zandvoort and Brands Hatch, plus seventh in Canada and France then ended with sixth at the final race at Caesar’s Palace. Team-mate Keke Rosberg won the championship but Derek then stepped away from F1 at the end of the season.
Following this he began driving in CART and made his debut in 1982 in a Wysard March 82C-Cosworth. Front row starts at Laguna Seca (1983) and Long Beach (1984) showed promise with Tony Bettenhausen’s Provimi Veal March-Cosworth. He continued through 1989, competing in 66 races and finished in the top ten twenty one times and had a podium finish at Milwaukee in 1987. During this period he was nearly killed in an horrific crash at Michigan International Speedway in 1984. He hit the concrete wall head on at approximately 206 mph and the car exploded around him. The front end of his car was sheared off and he suffered multiple injuries including a crushed left ankle, double compound fracture to the left tibia and fibula, fractured left hip socket, severely fractured pelvis, several broken left side ribs, broken left hand, third degree burns to the left arm, dislocated right foot and ankle, deep abrasions and soft tissue to right heel and internal bleeding. He had fourteen various operations over three years and therapy also went on for about three years. Unfortunately, he became hooked on his medication but against his doctor’s advice to wean himself off gradually, he decided that he would stop everything immediately. This led to dizzy spells, sweating, nausea, cravings for the medication and at one point he was awake for two or three days and nights straight. For long periods during the days he would have to focus on a point on the wall to stop the room spinning in his head. Slowly he worked through it and after about four weeks he went back to rehabilitation without medicinal assistance.
Derek returned to the grid at the Indy 500 just 8 months later and resumed his full time racing in 1987 then went on to win the biggest international races of his career, the Sebring 12 hour race in 1990 & 1991. In 1990’s race, he had the unusual result of finishing both first and second at Sebring. Driving for Nissan, he won with Bob Earl and was second with Chip Robinson and Geoff Brabham and in 1991’s race he was teamed with Geoff and Gary Brabham.
During his ChampCar racing, he was fourth in 1988’s Le Mans 24 Hours with Silk Cut Jaguar, which was his best finish in his three starts there.
After retiring he ran a performance driving school, worked as an analyst for ESPN plus did various motivational speaking engagements. He has many business interests and also served as a steward at several F1 races, including Azerbaijan and Sochi
His son Conor took up motor racing, winning the 2010 Star Mazda Championship and then graduated to IndyCar.
