Jackie Stewart was born in a provincial Scottish town. At the age of 12, he was expelled from school due to the diagnosis of dyslexia - prerequisites that do not leave great chances to achieve anything in life. However, Jack managed to achieve his own heights of life despite all the barriers. Shooter, a great race car driver and, finally, the greatest personality in world sports. The man who was awarded the knighthood for his achievements is Sir Jackie Stewart.
Childhood
The provincial county of Dumbertsonshire is common in Scotland. In the small Scottish town of Milton on June 11, 1939, the future pride of Scotland, John Young Stewart, was born. As a child, John spent a lot of time with his grandfather, the huntsman of the village of Dambek. It is expected that a teenager from a young age became interested in hunting. This hobby did not occupy the last place in the life of the Stuart family. The entire male part of the family fanatically loved hunting, and little Jack was not spared by this family hobby. And it is not surprising that the first sporting choice in Jackie Stewart’s life was shooting.
Trap shooting
Hobbies for hunting did not pass for Jackie Stewart for nothing, excellent gun skills were noticed by the trap shooting coach , and from the age of seventeen Jackie was already seriously involved in this sport. Success in trap shooting was not long in coming: at the age of eighteen Jackie Stewart, whose photo you see in the article, became the champion of Scotland in trap shooting, and at the age of nineteen he won the Nation Cup. At twenty-one, a turning point occurred in Jackie Stewart's shooting career. In the qualifying rounds for the Summer Olympics, Stuart did not have one successful shot to win. The disappointment from losing was so great that, despite all the coaxing trainer, Jackie decided to leave shooting sports.
Work
The young man was not faced with the problem of choosing a profession. His future was a foregone conclusion: Jack's parents owned a large auto repair shop and garages, as well as dealers of a large Jaguar automobile concern in his hometown of Milton. Therefore, it is not surprising that Jackie spent all his free time in the workshop of his own father. He started with a simple one, his duties included washing and refueling cars with his father’s regular customers. Gradually, they began to trust him to repair various breakdowns. Cars occupied an increasingly important place in Jack's life. The day-to-day routine work grew into the main activity of the young man. On weekends, Jackie began to take part in amateur racing, which at some point began to bring tangible income for the young man. Often, the money received for participating in a car race significantly exceeded the income received from working in his father’s workshops.
Jackie Stewart is a racer. Carier start
In many ways, 1964 was decisive for Jack Stewart. During the test races of Formula 3, Jack sensationally beat the famous Bruce McLaren, at that time the vice champion of Formula 1. Such a result could not go unnoticed by experts from the auto racing world. A capable young man interested in many of the teams in Formula 3. The owner of one of these teams, Ken Tyrrel, offered the young race car driver a full-fledged professional contract. Nobody expected big victories from the debutant in the first year of his professional career.
Fate gave a great chance to a young race car driver, and he took advantage of it brilliantly. And if the first successful races could be attributed to luck, then the stability throughout the year, which showed Jackie Stewart, except as skill can not be called. The 1964 season in Formula 3 ended with the confident victory of tournament debutant Jackie Stewart. That's how an ordinary Scottish guy entered the world of car racing.
Formula 1
The winning season in Formula 3 races served as a kind of impetus for the future career of Jackie Stewart. Despite the fact that Jackie had an excellent relationship with Ken Tyrrel, both understood that Jackie Stewart had outgrown the level of Formula 3. Considering that Ken Tyrrel had representation only in the Formula One junior leagues, Jackie decides to continue his sports career in another team. The choice was between the two strongest teams of the time: Lotus and BRM. The owners of the BRM concern, who signed a full-fledged contract with a promising driver, turned out to be more persistent.
In the first Formula 1 race, held in South Africa, the debutant finished in honorable sixth place. As it turned out, this was only the beginning. Already in the second race, the Monaco Grand Prix, Jackie Stewart was on the podium, taking the final third place. A stunning debut for a young rider who spends only the first season at such a high level. This was followed by a series of second places and, finally, the long-awaited victory. At the competitions held in Monza, Jackie Stewart won the first Grand Prix in his professional career. According to the results of the first season, Jackie took an honorable third place in the overall standings, ahead of many recognized masters of that time.
Crash
1966 was essentially a turning point both in the career of Stuart himself, and for the entire racing world as a whole. Everything changed a terrible accident on a race track in the Belgian city of Spa. Safety measures of that time were at an openly low level, which often led to terrible accidents on racetracks, often with fatal outcomes. After the accident, Jackie Stewart began to actively fight for the safety of racing competitions. The main requirements of the rider were the expansion of the race tracks, the appearance of special bumpers on these tracks, the improvement of the road surface, the introduction of personal protective equipment for pilots. At first, these requirements were met with hostility, such innovations required quite large material investments, which absolutely did not suit the organizers of racing competitions. But, as time has shown, Jackie Stewart was absolutely right in his demands. The safety measures proposed by him allowed to significantly reduce the number of accidents on race tracks and save more than one life.
Return to Formula 1
The financial problems that the BRM team had in 1968 forced the ambitious Jack Stewart to look for a new team. Just in time in Formula 1 comes an old friend Jackie Ken Tyrrel, with whom he worked together on Formula 3. Creating his new car, Ken saw Jackie Stewart as the lead pilot. The first season did not bring any special dividends. Designers finalized minor flaws, gradually improving the race car. And already the next season brought unprecedented success to both Jack Stewart as a pilot and Tyrrel’s team as a whole. The subsequent seasons in Formula 1 took place under the sign of the struggle between the two strongest teams, “Tyrrel” and “Lotus”. The entire racing world watched the bitter struggle of the leading pilots of these teams - Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fitipaldi. Pilots in turn won the title of the strongest racer of the planet.
Retirement
The 1983 season was fantastic for Jackie Stewart. Leading throughout the racing season, Jackie wins ahead of schedule the title of the strongest Formula 1 driver. At the peak of success, he decides to end his racing career and leave the big sport undefeated. The race at the American Walkens-Gleni was to become the 100th in the career of the illustrious Scot. But the death in the training race of teammate Franz Sever makes Stuart decide not to go to his last race in his professional career.
In total, for his brilliant career in Formula 1, the Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart spent 99 races, having won 27 victories in them. This result has long remained the world record in auto racing.
To summarize
Race driver Jackie Stewart is a three-time world champion, he is rightfully considered the national hero of Scotland. All his undertakings invariably ended in success. An excellent shooter, a great racer, a man who completely changed the security system in car racing, which saved more than one human life. Throughout his sports career, he has remained a role model, an idol of millions of fans around the world. A successful manager, in his assets created together with his son, the team of Formula 1 "Stuart". Jackie Stewart, whose biography was considered in this article, became a legend not only in his homeland in Scotland, but throughout the world.