John Rhodes (born Wolverhampton, Staffordshire on 18 August 1927) is a British former racing driver from England.
He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, the 1965 British Grand Prix, at Silverstone on 10 July 1965, from which he retired on lap 39 with ignition problems. His Cooper-Climax T60 was provided for him by veteran racer Bob Gerard. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Wolverhampton, John Rhodes is well remembered for his legendary tyre-smoking Mini racing, earning the nickname ‘Smokin’, and is still revered for his giant-killing achievements in the mid-1960s.
Motor racing ran in the family as his grandfather had been a pioneer motorist and his mother and father raced a Standard Flying 12 on events such as the Land’s End Trial, and often returned home with trophies. After attending the British GP at Donington in 1938 with his parents he became hooked on motor racing and when he was old enough he started competing in motorbike grass track races. He eventually made the move into racing cars with a Turner in speed events in 1958, and took a class win at the Lydstep Hillclimb.
The following year he and a friend purchased a Cooper Formula Junior but the friend quit after one race so John raced the car on his own and in 1960 there were victories at Linton-on-Ouse and Mallory Park plus three other podium finishes. These results led to sponsorship from the Midlands Racing Partnership and he won the Irish Formula Junior title with wins at Phoenix Park, Kirkistown and Dunboyne. He also took four wins in Britain at Snetterton, Silverstone, Mallory Park (twice) and racing in Formula Libre he took a win at Mallory Park and four other top-three finishes.
Continuing in FJunior, 1962 saw him race an Alexis and an Ausper, winning at Brands Hatch, then he drove a Gerard Cooper at Silverstone’s International Trophy race, plus took two Libre victories at Mallory Park in the Cooper.
For 1963 he raced in FJunior for Ken Tyrrell and his best results were sixth at Oulton Park and in the Chichester Cup at Goodwood, plus he drove a Mini for the first time in the British Saloon Car Championship. The power and handling of the Mini, along with his sideways driving style, would go on to form a spectacular combination though it placed demands on his tyres and Dunlop technicians once recorded a temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit (120ºC).
In 1964 he finished ninth in the BSCC, winning the Motor 3 Hours at Mallory Park with Warwick Banks. He also came third at Brands Hatch and drove in several long-distance events with Rob Slotemaker, including the Coppa Europa at Monza and took a number of class wins along the way. He also continued to race in F3 with his Cooper BMC with his best result being fourth at Zandvoort.
Between 1965 to 1968 he took four consecutive Class Championship Titles (1300cc class), three overall Race Victories, sixteen Class Race Victories and was European Champion in 1968.
In 1965 he won the Guards 100 with Warwick Banks in an MGB (racing 500 miles on the Saturday and 500 miles on the Sunday) and the year saw him make his Le Mans debut, with him and Paul Hawkins finishing twelfth in an Austin Healey Sprite. He also made his World Championship GP debut that year at the British Grand Prix with a Climax powered Cooper T60 though retired after thirty eight laps with ignition problems.
Alongside his giant killing exploits with the Mini in 1966 he also finished ninth outright and first in the 1600cc class in the Targa Florio with Timo Mäkinen in an MGB. John himself spoke of his memories from this event, describing how he drove back with Timo from the race; “I had no one else to go with and he was absolutely lethal. Twice the mafia pulled us up for dangerous driving with revolvers drawn and I had to persuade them that Timo didn’t speak English and that he was a famous rally driver to get us out of trouble. He also had a theory when driving from the circuit to the hotel that if you pulled yourself out of a queue and headed directly for the people coming the other way they would always get out of the way, which they did – but my God, being a passenger, can you imagine?”
There was a return to Le Mans the following, again racing an Austin Healey Sprite, this time with Clive Baker, though they retired from the race after 134 laps with clutch problems. However, the speed differentials were becoming enormous and he described the problems caused by this. The Healey was capable of 148mph down the Mulsanne Straight but the GT40’s would go past at 210mph and they were affected by the wind from them. They had to react instantly to it but it happened continually as the GT40s had to keep pitting for fuel so they were being overtaken all the time by these extremely rapid cars. He described how “the rear mirrors vibrated so much you just couldn’t see what was coming behind you until they went past and the wind hit you. You actually had to steer into the bow wave of those cars as they came past you at 210mph. And we were also far faster around the corners than the big cars. They would brake early and we would keep on going and go past them but you were never sure if they were going to come back past you or not in the corner but they often didn’t because our little cars were so much quicker around the bends but then they would come past us all over again.”
In 1967 there were victories in saloon car racing at Oulton Park, Brands Hatch and Mallory Park and he and T. Mäkinen reunited in an MGB to finish a creditable twelfth in the Sebring 12hrs. Taking his fourth consecutive title the following year, there were class wins at Silverstone and Brands Hatch (twice), plus in the European Championship at Zolder, Zandvoort, Snetterton and Jarama and he finished the year by winning the World Of Sport Rallycross at Croft.
In 1969 he raced Minis, but without the works backing, and finished fourth in the Anerley Trophy at Crystal Palace and at Mallory Park, plus one second and three fourths in class. In the Guards 6 Hour race he finished seventh overall and second in class with Paddy Hopkirk while in rallycross he won at Cadwell Park and came second in the Croft World of Sport Championship.
John continued to campaign a Mini in 1970 in rallycross events while in saloon cars he raced a Steinmetz Opel Commodore. In 1972 he drove a works Group 1 Opel Ascona and in 1973 raced in several events in John Handley’s sports Triumph TR6. John retired in 1973 and after this restored classic cars plus continued to compete in historic events though sadly a crash at Brands Hatch in 2006 cost him the sight in one eye.
1965 British at Silverstone by John Rhodes for Motor Sport Magazine
