John Coombs

John Coombs
John Coombs in 2012
Nationality	British
Born	1 February 1922 Chertsey, Surrey
Died	3 August 2013 (aged 91) Monaco
Years active	1949–c. 1955

John Coombs (1 February 1922 – 3 August 2013) was a British racing driver and racing team owner. After a driving career in various formulae, including a win in a minor Formula One race, he became a team owner in sports car racing and Formula Two. During the 1960s and 1970s, working closely with Tyrrell Racing, he ran cars for several top drivers of the time, including Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jack Brabham.

The owner of a Jaguar dealership in Guildford, Coombs began racing in 1949 with a Cooper, fitted with an engine from a Rover 10. He graduated to Formula Three and campaigned a JBS in 1951, and later a Cooper-Norton and a British-built Erskine Staride. He finished on the podium on several occasions, and won two races in 1952 with the Cooper – at Thruxton and in the Commander Yorke Trophy at Silverstone, beating Bob Gerard. He also achieved the lap record at Fairwood Circuit, which still stands as the circuit was redeveloped into Swansea Airport in the late 1950s. He won at Thruxton again in 1953 in the Staride.

Also in 1953, Coombs earned a test at Snetterton with the Connaught Engineering factory team, alongside Roy Salvadori, Jack Fairman and Ian Stewart. Salvadori was fastest with Coombs second, and Coombs was subsequently entered into a number of Formula Two races both in the UK and abroad. In 1954, he bought a 1.5 litre Connaught and soon replaced it with a Lotus Mark VIII, retaining the Connaught engine. With this car he achieved a number of second place finishes, and won the Cornwall MRC Formula 1 Race at Davidstow Circuit on 2 August 1954, marking the first victory for a Lotus in a Formula One race, although the Mark VIII was not a Formula One car.