Paddy Driver (born 13 May 1934 in Johannesburg) is a South African former professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and a racing driver.
Driver competed on the Grand Prix motorcycle racing circuit from 1959 to 1965. His best result was in 1965 when he rode a Matchless to a third-place finish in the 500cc world championship behind Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini.
He participated in two World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, scoring no championship points. Driver was a regular competitor in the South African Formula One championship for many years, starting with the 1963 Rand Grand Prix, but only graduated full-time in 1969, driving a Formula 5000 Lola for Doug Serrurier. From 1971 he entered his own McLaren under the guise of Team Personality, finishing third in the series final classification.[2] In 1974 he was hired by Team Gunston, racing a Formula One Lotus 72, and repeating his third place.
Driver is one of a small group of people who have raced in both the Grand Prix motorcycle World Championship and Formula One. The group also includes John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Johnny Cecotto. Info from Wiki
From Paddy Driver FB page:
In 1961 he had a short stint as a Suzuki Works Rider and went to live in Japan for 3 months to help develop the bikes. However they were so unreliable he hardly finished a race and they both parted ways before the year was out.
Paddy was a 500cc specialist and it would take another 10 years before Suzuki could field a decent 500cc machine.
Paddy was very disgruntled. He was at the peak of his motorcycle skills and with no works ride he decided not to come back to Europe in 1966.
At the timeto have any chance of doing well you needed a multi cylinder machine like Honda or MV Agusta
He had seen many friends and competitors killed during those dangerous times so a decision was made to stay in South Africa and switch to 4 wheels.
Paddy had been one of the first 2 wheel stars to try out 4 wheels. He had been racing a Formula Junior in the UK with the help of Tony Marsh. All this in between his motorcycle events. Paddy competed against some great names who went on to star in Formula 1 and it was here that he met Dan Gurney who would later provide him a Gurney eagle V8 engine for his McLaren M10 F5000.
He twice won the South African F5000 championship in his privately funded Mclaren M10. It was the same car that Peter Gethin raced for Church Farm Racing in the UK
Paddy didn’t like the Chevy motors and had it replaced with a Gurney Eagle
With the good results Paddy was able to move up to South African Formula 1 in a Gunston Lotus 72. He was team mate to Ian Scheckter and would finish 4th in the SA championship.
Paddy is happily retired at 86 on his Red Berry Farm back Johannesburg, South Africa
