Jimmy Davies (racing driver)

James Richard Davies^[1] (August 8, 1929 – June 11, 1966)^[2] was an American racecar driver in Champ cars and midgets. He was the second man to win three USAC National Midget Championships.^[3] When Davies won the 100-mile (160 km) AAA Championship race at Del Mar, California on November 6, 1949 – aged 20 years, 2 months, 29 days, he became the youngest driver to win a race in a major U.S. open wheel series, a record not broken until Marco Andretti won the IRL race at Sonoma, California in 2006. Davies raced AAA on a false birth certificate showing him older (as did Troy Ruttman and Jim Rathmann), and was racing illegally.

The Kurtis 500B driven by Davies to 3rd place in the 1955 Indianapolis 500

Jimmy Davies
Davies, circa 1963
Born	James Richard Davies (1929-08-08)August 8, 1929 Glendale, California, U.S.
Died	June 11, 1966(1966-06-11) (aged 36) Burr Ridge, Illinois, U.S.
Champ Car career
56 races run over 13 years
Years active	1949–1951, 1953–1961, 1963
Best finish	6th – 1955
First race	1949 Arlington 100 (Arlington)
Last race	1959 Bobby Ball Memorial (ASF)
First win	1949 Del Mar 100 (Del Mar)
Last win	1954 Springfield 100 (Springfield)
Wins Podiums Poles 3 9 2
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1950–1951, 1953–1957, 1959
Teams	Kurtis Kraft, Pawl, Ewing
Entries	8 (5 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	4
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1950 Indianapolis 500
Last entry	1959 Indianapolis 500

Midget car career

In 1960 he won the USAC Pacific Coast Midget title as well as the National Midget Championship. He repeated as National Midget champion in 1961 and 1962. He won 46 feature events in the midgets in his career.^[3] Davies won the Night before the 500 midget race three times, in 1960 and 1961 at Kokomo Speedway, and next year at the Indianapolis Speedrome. Davies's midget car was stolen but was recovered a year later when a driver was killed in it at Sacramento. Davies recognized the car in the newspaper photos of the wreck.^[3]

Davies also had success racing midgets (called Speedcars down under) in Australia and New Zealand during his career. He won the 1963 Australian Speedcar Grand Prix at the Sydney Showground Speedway, as well as the 1963 and 1964 South Australian Speedcar Championships at the Rowley Park Speedway in Adelaide.

He died on June 11, 1966, aged 36, from injuries suffered in a midget crash at Santa Fe Speedway in suburban Chicago.

Career award

• Inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1984.^[3]

Complete AAA/USAC Championship Car results

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Pos	Points
1949	ARL 10	INDY	MIL	TRE	SPR	MIL	DUQ	PIK	SYR 8	DET 6	SPR 13	LAN 16	SAC DNQ	DMR 1		17th	330
1950	INDY 17	MIL 3	LAN 11	SPR 10	MIL 21	PIK	SYR 15	DET 2	SPR 8	SAC 15	PHX 1	BAY 14	DAR			12th	605.5
1951	INDY 16	MIL 14	LAN	DAR 24	SPR 18	MIL 13	DUQ 13	DUQ 17	PIK	SYR	DET	DNC	SJS 5	PHX 3	BAY 8	17th	315
1953	INDY 10	MIL 8	SPR	DET 15	SPR 16	MIL 12	DUQ 5	PIK	SYR 16	ISF DNS	SAC 4	PHX 7				12th	494,2
1954	INDY DNS	MIL 17	LAN	DAR 28	SPR 1	MIL 23	DUQ 4	PIK	SYR 11	ISF DNQ	SAC 4	PHX DNQ	LVG 3			12th	614.5
1955	INDY 3	MIL 5	LAN DNQ	SPR 9	MIL 13	DUQ 14	PIK	SYR 8	ISF DNQ	SAC DNQ	PHX DNQ					6th	890
1956	INDY DNQ	MIL	LAN	DAR	ATL	SPR	MIL	DUQ 18	SYR	ISF DNQ	SAC	PHX				-	0
1957	INDY DNQ	LAN	MIL	DET	ATL	SPR	MIL	DUQ	SYR	ISF	TRE	SAC	PHX			-	0
1958	TRE	INDY	MIL	LAN	ATL	SPR	MIL 20	DUQ 15	SYR	ISF DNQ	TRE DNP	SAC	PHX			-	0
1959	DAY 15	TRE 3	INDY DNQ	MIL	LAN DNQ	SPR DNQ	MIL	DUQ	SYR DNQ	ISF	TRE 15	SAC	PHX			32nd	140
1960	TRE	INDY	MIL DNQ	LAN	SPR	MIL DNQ	DUQ DNQ	SYR	ISF DNQ	TRE	SAC	PHX				-	0
1961	TRE	INDY	MIL	LAN	MIL	SPR	DUQ	SYR	ISF	TRE	SAC	PHX DNQ				-	0
1963	TRE	INDY DNQ	MIL DNQ	LAN	TRE	SPR	MIL	DUQ	ISF DNQ	TRE	SAC DNQ	PHX DNQ				-	0

Indianapolis 500 results

Year Car Start Qual Rank Finish Laps Led Retired 1950 22 27 130.402 23 17 128 0 Flagged 1951 76 27 133.516 17 16 110 25 Rear end 1953 53 32 135.262 32 10 193 0 Flagged 1954 1 – – – 11* ? ? Running 1955 15 10 140.274 5 3 200 0 Running Totals 631 25

Starts 5 Poles 0 Front Row 0 Wins 0 Top 5 1 Top 10 2 Retired 1

* Shared drive with Art Cross, Johnny Parsons, Sam Hanks and Andy Linden

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	WDC	Points
1950	Pat Clancy	Ewing	Offenhauser L4	GBR	MON	500 17	SUI	BEL	FRA	ITA			NC	0
1951	Parks Offenhauser / L.E. Parks	Pawl	Offenhauser L4	SUI	500 16	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA	ESP		NC	0
1953	Pat Clancy	Kurtis Kraft 500B	Offenhauser L4	ARG	500 10	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	SUI	ITA	NC	0
1954	Bardahl / Ed Walsh	Kurtis Kraft 4000	Offenhauser L4	ARG	500 11	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	SUI	ITA	ESP	NC	0
1955	Bardahl / Pat Clancy	Kurtis Kraft 500B	Offenhauser L4	ARG	MON	500 3	BEL	NED	GBR	ITA			12th	4
1956	Novi Racing	Kurtis Kraft 500F	Novi V8	ARG	MON	500 DNQ	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA		NC	0
1957	Trio Brdeact Wind Allass	Kurtis Kraft 500D	Offenhauser L4	ARG	MON	500 DNQ	FRA	GBR	GER	PES	ITA		NC	0
1959	Sumar / Chapman Root	Kurtis Kraft 500G	Offenhauser L4	MON	500 DNQ	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	POR	ITA	USA	NC	0

• In 1954 Davies shared his drive with Art Cross, Johnny Parsons, Sam Hanks and Andy Linden. Davies also shared the 20th-placed car with Hanks and Jim Rathmann.
• Between 1950 and 1960, the Indianapolis 500 was included as part of the Formula One World Championship.

References

1. "Jimmy Davies". www.champcarstats.com. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
2. Jenkins, Richard. "The World Championship drivers – Where are they now?". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
3. Biography at the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame Archived November 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine

External links

• Profile on Historic Racing^{[dead link]}

Records
Preceded by Johnnie Parsons 31 years, 330 days (1950 Indianapolis 500)	Youngest race leader, for at least one lap in Formula One 21 years, 285 days (1951 Indianapolis 500)	Succeeded by Fernando Alonso 21 years, 237 days (2003 Malaysian GP)