James Crawford’s motor racing career shows remarkable similarities with that of Brian Henton. Both were regarded as extremely talented Brits, both got an early opportunity with Lotus, and both saw their careers falter after that – although many years later they each managed to hit the limelight on occasion: Henton was crowned 1980 European F2 Champion, while Jim Crawford had to save the day once a year in his Menard Lola-Buick. The Menard cars rarely made it to the finish but Crawford was always a star on Pole Day.
So what was wrong with Lotus in 1975 and why did Henton and Crawford suddenly get the chance to drive a works Lotus at their home GP? First we need to see Colin Chapman’s habit of taking on the patronage of talented British youngsters. To name just one example from each of the decades of F1 Chapman lived to see: Stacey, Spence, Evans, Mansell. It was his weak spot and for 1975 he invited Brian Henton and Jim Crawford to become test driver.
With the ancient 72 still running there was a lot of work to be done to keep the old beast at the front of the grid. Apart from the D and E versions run in 1975 one special development was a coil spring rear-suspended version, designated 72F. The Hethel outfit, now a shadow of its former glorious self, had to extract every last drop of developmental nectar out of the ageing 72 because the proposed successor, the 76, proved a disaster in 1974, with the 77 still in an embryonic state on the drawing board.
So from the onset this was clearly an in-between season. The plan was for test driver Henton to debut the F as the traditional third entry for the British GP. This happened alright but there was another new face on the Silverstone grid that year. It belonged to Jim Crawford, the Scotsman entrusted with the second car, a regular E version, after a disillusioned Jacky Ickx had left the team.
Lotus now had hit rock bottom, the all-star line-up of Peterson and Ickx obliged to plug away with an increasingly less competitive pair of long-wheelbase 72Es. The two rarely featured and only seldom managed to convert their mid-grid starting positions into something to write home about. Ickx’s second place in the freak Spanish GP was one but the attrition rate had been literally killing. At Monaco, Peterson managed to salvage some points, as he invariably did at the street venue, but usually he was a lapped finisher, never even close to the top six. With a meagre nine points in the bag for the constructor’s table and yet another retirement for Ickx in France, the Belgian packed in his lot to move to sportscar pastures new.
This meant an unexpected opportunity for tester Crawford who had been a star in Formula Atlantic, first with a March 73B, then picked up by Derek Bennett’s Chevron outfit, driving a works B25, followed in 1974 with his own car, winning six races and the MCD Southern Organs Championship. The fact F1 was way out of the Scot’s league was underlined by his two-timing in F Atlantic in 1975, in which he again finished runner-up in the prestigious John Player Championship – the Lotus connection is obvious…
Still, F Atlantic is hardly F1 and thus, in his natural progression as a driver, F1 just came too quickly, too soon. For 1976, the projected F2 ride fell through and in 1979 he was still dabbling in F3 and F Atlantic, the Atlantic veteran returning to his winning ways with five race wins and another runner-up position in the championship. The Aurora AFX series stood at the basis of a short resurgence, Jim winning the 1980 F2 class in a Chevron (with an surprise outright win at a wet Oulton Park), which led to a full F2 campaign in 1981, ironically in the ex-Henton Toleman TG280B.
This also proved fruitless, and after claiming the final “British F1” title in 1982 in an AMCO Ensign, Crawford decided to try and find better luck in the United States. In 1983 and ’84 he made a name for himself in CanAm racing (adding another two championship runner-up spots to his tally) when the series was already beginning to falter. He then moved camp to Indycars, becoming a Month-of-May wonder for John Menard’s Buick-powered outfit. For seemingly endless years the annual Indy 500 became Crawford’s only race of the season, Jim faithfully sticking with Buick’s stockblock pushrod engine that was eligible only for the USAC-sanctioned classic. The Menard team was the most prominent advocate of the Buick powerplant and regularly managed to upset the CART regulars, for instance when Scott Brayton took pole in 1996 before fatally crashing the day after.
Although the Buicks were known for not lasting the distance Jim’s best result came in 1988 in year-old Lola-Buick T87/01, finishing 6th. This was a startling performance as Jim was still walking with a cane after a 12-month rehab from a huge practice smash in 1987 that broke both his feet. In 1990 his Lola-Buick T89/01 again reached the chequered flag but this time he finished a lowly 15th. He had another eventful qualifying day when he wiped out this Lola T89/01 in a violent crash: coming off the wall his Lola got airborne as high as 6 meters before coming down to terra firma again. This time Jim escaped without injury. For 1991 he got his hands on a brand new Lola T91/01, again with V6 pushrod Buick power behind him, but it ended after 40 laps when the fragile Buick let go again.
For 1993 he abandoned the trusty Buick for an Ilmor Chevy in his new T93/01. In his last Indy 500 race he finished a poor 24th. For both 1994 and 1995 he failed to get his car up to speed and didn’t qualify. His 1994 DNQ came as no surprise however, as he was fielded in an ageing Buick-powered T92/01. The old Lola was just too slow, reaching a mere 217mph. Over 220mph was needed to qualify. In 1995, now at age 47, he did his final attempt in a year-old Reynard 94I-Ford XB.
In 1999 Jim Crawford worked as a car development consultant for IRL outfit Brant Racing, bringing valuable knowledge of Indy racing to driver Andy Michner and his Riley & Scott MkV.
As for Brian Henton, his F1 career also never really picked up. In hindsight, both Henton and Crawford will have regretted taking the chance to drive for Lotus so early in their single-seater careers. To make it in F1 you have to pick your moments very carefully, moving in with the right team to make a solid or even stupifying first impression. Michael Schumacher’s decision to drive for Jordan at Spa in 1991 is the prime example. Jordan was a team on the up, with a neat little well-handling car which allowed a young driver to get acquainted with it very quickly. If it doesn’t, your inexperience will show in all its magnitude. So for poor Jim Crawford, electing to take a ride with top-flight outfit Lotus when the team was down for the count was definitely not the thing to do…
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