Background
Ireland was born on 12 June 1930 in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England, the son of a Scottish veterinary surgeon.
engineer journalist racecar driver
Ireland was born on 12 June 1930 in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England, the son of a Scottish veterinary surgeon.
He was a larger-than-life character who, according to a rival team boss, "lived without sense, without an analyst and provoked astonishment and affection from everyone."
His family returned to Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, in Scotland during his youth, and he trained as an engineer with Rolls-Royce, first in Glasgow and later in London. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the King"s Own Scottish Borderers, he served with the Parachute Regiment in the Suez Canal Zone during 1953 and 1954. Ireland"s first serious year of auto racing was 1957, by which time he was running a small engineering firm in Surrey.
Success in sports car racing saw him make his Formula One debut for Team Lotus in 1959.
Despite these successes, he was sacked at the end of the season, team boss Colin Chapman considering Jim Clark a better bet. A talented writer, Ireland produced a classic autobiography, All Arms and Elbows (), and worked as a journalist for the American Road & Track magazine, as well as skippering fishing trawlers in the North Atlantic.
Towards the end of his life, he was elected president of the prestigious British Racing Drivers" Club, which post he still held at the time of his death from cancer on 22 October 1993, at Reading, Berkshire, England. Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Non-Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position).