David Kennedy (racing driver)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:BLP sources {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters | check | ignoreblank = y | unknown = Template:Main other | preview = Page using Template:Infobox F1 driver with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | embed | child | subbox | name | Name | image | Image | image_size | upright | image_upright | alt | caption | birth_name | birth_date | birth_place | death_date | death_place | relations | relatives | nationality | Nationality | years | Years | teams | Teams | Team(s) | team | Team | engines | Engines | current_team | current team | Current team | 2025 Team | 2026 Team | car_number | car number | Car number | races | Races | championships | Championships | wins | Wins | podiums | Podiums | points | Points | poles | Poles | fastest_laps | fastest laps | Fastest laps | first_race | first race | First race | first_win | first win | First win | last_win | last win | Last win | last_race | last race | Last race | last_position | last position | Last position | last_season | last season | Last season | bf1_years | bf1 years | BF1 Years | bf1_races | bf1 races | BF1 Races | bf1_championships | bf1 championships | BF1 Championships | bf1_wins | bf1 wins | BF1 Wins | bf1_podiums | bf1 podiums | BF1 Podiums | bf1_points | bf1 points | BF1 Points | bf1_poles | bf1 poles | BF1 Poles | bf1_fastest_laps | bf1 fastest laps | BF1 Fastest laps | signature | signature_size | signature alt | signature_alt | website | module | module1 | module2 | module3 | module4 | module5 | record template1 | record template2 | record template3 | record template4 | record template5 | career template1 | career template2 | career template3 | career template4 | career template5 | updated | Updated }} David Paul Kennedy (born 15 January 1953) is a former racing driver from the Republic of Ireland. He was one of his country's first Grand Prix drivers, and is widely seen as having helped pioneer the Irish move into international racing.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Kennedy has been a prominent driver manager, a popular Formula One TV analyst, a shareholder with championship-winning single seater race teams and a board member at Ireland's Mondello Park Race Circuit.
Biography
Kennedy was in the vanguard of a wave of 1970s Irish international racing talent and became Ireland's first winner of a British single seater championship when he won the RAC British Formula Ford Championship and Townsend Thoresen Formula Ford 1600 Championships in 1976 driving a Crossle-Minister 30F. He also finished a close second in the European FF1600 series that year. In 1977 he graduated to the factory supported AFMP March European Formula 3 team but the squad folded early in the year and Kennedy soon switched to the small Argo team, scoring a number of giant killing results with the Jo Marquart designed JM1 chassis.
He finished sixth in the series in 1978 but switched to the British Formula One series before the end of the year scoring a win on his debut with a Theodore Racing run Wolf WR3 at Snetterton. He finished runner-up in the British F1 Championship in 1979 which helped him to move into Grand Prix racing with the Shadow team in 1980. However, the team was chronically underfunded and had a poorly engineered DN11 chassis. Teddy Yip of Theodore Racing fame took over ownership of the team after a few races but a new DN12 design turned out to be a similar disappointment. Kennedy did qualify and race in the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix, an event subsequently stripped of its World Championship status.
After a part season of North American Can Am racing in 1981 with a Frissbee chassis, Kennedy returned to Europe and went on to forge a successful career in sportscar racing, latterly with the factory Mazdaspeed team with whom he raced extensively at Le Mans, Japan and the world sportscar championship in a series of iconic class winning rotary-powered machines. Kennedy enjoyed prominence as a member of the exclusive club of professional drivers earning a living in Japan's lucrative early ‘90s racing scene. He began to move into driver management before his career behind the wheel ended and was responsible for booking the driver team of Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler and Bertrand Gachot that took Mazda's, and Japan's, breakthrough victory at Le Mans in 1991. He himself finished sixth overall with former F1 and F3 team-mate Stefan Johansson, and Maurizio Sandro Sala in that famous edition of Le Mans which preceded a full-time move into driver management when his career behind the wheel came to an end in 1994. Among the drivers Kennedy aided in their single seater careers are ex-Jordan Grand Prix F1 driver and Formula Nippon champion Ralph Firman, Formula Nippon Champion Richard Lyons, Formula Palmer Audi Champion and Indy Lights second runner-up Damien Faulkner, all of whom went on to have successful careers in GT and sportscar racing.
During this period Kennedy developed a career as TV analyst in Formula One racing beginning as permanent co-commentator alongside Peter Collins on RTÉ in Ireland from 1995 to 2003 after which he sat alongside Declan Quigley at F1 races for Setanta Sports from 2004 until 2009.
He has had a regular opinion column with the Sunday Independent newspaper for many years, earning a reputation as an incisive analyst with a quirky, lateral view of proceedings in F1 racing.
He has always retained a deep interest in club racing and since 1986 has been a director of the Mondello Park race circuit where he began his career in the early 1970s, sitting on the board of the circuit freehold company controlled by former Lola boss Martin Birrane.
Kennedy was part of the consortium that took control of the Ireland team in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in 2006. The team became the final series champions in 2008/09 with Adam Carroll behind the wheel after which the Ireland team moved into the new GP3 series in 2009 as Status Grand Prix. Team principal of Status Motorsport is Teddy Yip Junior whose father Teddy Yip owned the Theodore and Shadow F1 teams that Kennedy raced for from 1978 to 1980.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Kennedy has other business interests outside motorsport. His wife Fiona, with whom he has three children, is herself a former Formula Ford racer.
Racing record
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Shadow Cars | Shadow DN11 | Cosworth V8 | ARG Template:Small |
BRA Template:Small |
RSA Template:Small |
USW Template:Small |
BEL Template:Small |
NC | 0 | |||||||||
| Theodore Shadow | MON Template:Small |
||||||||||||||||||
| Shadow DN12 | FRA Template:Small |
GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | CAN | USA | |||||||||||
Complete Formula One Non-Championship results
(key)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Theodore Racing Hong Kong | Wolf WR4 | Cosworth V8 | ROC Template:Small |
GNM | DIN |
| 1980 | Theodore Shadow | Shadow DN12 | Cosworth V8 | ESP Template:Small |
||
Complete British Saloon Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Template:Tooltip | Pts | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Grundig International / BS Automotive | BMW 635CSi | Template:Tooltip | DON | SIL NC |
OUL DNS |
THR ovr:5 cls:5 |
THR ovr:6 cls:6 |
SIL ovr:10 cls:10 |
SNE ovr:3 cls:3 |
BRH ovr:7 cls:6 |
BRH ovr:17 cls:8 |
DON Ret |
SIL ovr:5 cls:5 |
18th | 10 | 6th |
| {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }} | |||||||||||||||||
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
References
- {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}
- {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}
- {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }} Template:Formula One drivers from Ireland
- Pages using center with unknown parameters
- Irish racing drivers
- Irish Formula One drivers
- Shadow Formula One drivers
- 1953 births
- Living people
- 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
- A1 Grand Prix team owners
- British Touring Car Championship drivers
- World Sportscar Championship drivers
- British Formula One Championship drivers
- Oreca drivers
- Sportspeople from County Sligo