THE FIRST LADY OF RACING, JANET GUTHRIE, turned wrenches on her 1953 Jaguar XK 120 coupe and campaigned the elegant machine back in the early 1960s. At the beginning of 1963 she acquired a 1956 Jaguar XK 140 roadster to begin her Sports Car Club of America career as a professional race car driver. I’ve always cringed at the stories in her book, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle of trading paint, banging and bashing during aggressive gymkhanas and hill climb competitions. Determined to arrive first at the finish line, Guthrie did not mind the repair work required afterword. Janet Guthrie shared as much admiration for her Jaguar as her beloved machine did for the courageous woman piloting behind the wheel.
Jaguar has been involved in motorsport since the company was founded by Sir William Lyons in 1922. The Coventry-based luxury car manufacturer has seven times won the world's toughest endurance race at Le Mans. Jaguar has twice been World Sports Car Champions, and in 1956 the company won both Le Mans and the Monte Carlo Rally in the same year.
The roll call of drivers who have raced Jaguars reads like a Who's Who of motorsport. In the 1950s, Mike Hawthorn, Paul Frere, Duncan Hamilton and Stirling Moss were regulars with the Jaguar team. Jackie Stewart (and his brother Jimmy), Sir Jack Brabham, Briggs Cunningham, Graham Hill and others all drove Jaguars during their successful racing careers.
But in my mind, Jaguar and Janet Guthrie are one and the same – elegant, sophisticated, determined, capable, tenacious – and represent the refined beauty of motorsports.
I was privileged to join executives from ACO (Automobile Club De l’Ouest), American Le Mans, Yokohama, Bosch Motorsport ECU at Road Atlanta during the Petit Le Mans as Paul Gentilozzi, RSR team owner and Connell John O’Donnell, Global Marketing Director for Jaguar proudly announced Jaguar’s return to the American Le Mans Series.
The body work features a design that is based on the Jaguar XKR and was completed in the Jaguar Advance Design Studio headed by chief designer Iam Callum. The body has undergone intensive computation fluid dynamic work, known as CFD, by the Jaguar aerodynamics department. Information from the CFD was then incorporated in the finished body work which was made in clay at the RSR facility. Over 1100 man hours were spent during the clay process. The carbon fiber composite body work was molded and produced by a local company in Michigan and conforms to the ACO (Automobile Club de l’Ouest) guidelines.
“The end result is a GT2 car that contains the DNA and the spirit of the Jaguar Design Department and the production car" comments Gentilozzi.
A five time Trans-Am Series Champion, Gentilozzi will wear multiple hats for the team, as not only the owner but also one of the three drivers designated to run at the Petit Le Mans. He will be joined with Sports car veterans American Scott Pruett and Belgian Marc Goossens. During the testing and development process these seasoned drivers will play a key role in getting the Jaguar XKR up to speed for a strong fight in 2010.
Gentilozzi’s relationship with Jaguar dates back to 2000 when he built and raced Jaguar XKRs in the North American Trans-Am Series. In their tenure together, 66 starts were made, 31 of those resulted in team wins with an additional four victories by chassis/customer cars. This led to five Manufacturers’ and five Drivers’ Championships from 2000-2006 with Paul Gentilozzi, Scott Pruett and Klaus Graf. The Jaguar XKR was also entered in the famed 24 Hours of Daytona, where it earned the pole and win in the GTS Class in 2002.
The Jaguar XKR will compete for a full American Le Mans Series season 2010. It is hard to believe that William Lyons original production of sidecars for motorcycles in the 1920s has grown to this Beautiful Jaguar XKR Beast of a racing machine for ALMS 2010. But grown she has; the Lady is back and she is “track chic”!
