Jacky Ickx

Ickx was born on 1 January 1945 in Brussels. He was introduced to motorsport when his father, motoring journalist Jacques Ickx, took him to races he was covering. Ickx had limited interest in the sport until his father bought him a 50 cc Zündapp motorcycle. He began competing in road racing and motorcycle trials, winning the 50 cc class at the 1962 Mettet Grand Prix road race, then defeating future motocross world champion Roger De Coster in the 1963 Belgian 50 cc trials national championship. He won 8 of 13 races in his first season and took the European 50 cc trials title. Despite this success, Ickx has said that in his youth he disliked noise and had ambitions to be a gardener or gamekeeper.

After two further titles, Ickx moved to touring car racing in a Lotus Cortina, taking the Belgian national saloon car championship in 1965 and winning the 24 Hours of Spa in 1966 in a BMW 2000TI. This success attracted the attention of Ken Tyrrell. Ickx entered his first Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in 1966, driving a Matra MS5-Cosworth one-litre Formula Two car entered by Tyrrell, but a first-lap collision with John Taylor at Flugplatz caused both cars to retire; Taylor later died of burns. Returning to the Nürburgring in 1967 in an F2 Matra MS7-Cosworth, only Denny Hulme and Jim Clark qualified faster than him; starting behind all the Formula One cars, he reached fifth place within four laps before retiring with broken front suspension, setting the fastest lap among the F2 runners. At Monza in 1967 he made his Formula One debut in a Cooper T81B-Maserati, finishing sixth despite a last-lap puncture, then retired from the United States Grand Prix with overheating.

In 1968, Ickx drove in Formula One for Ferrari. He took his first win in heavy rain at the French Grand Prix at Rouen, finished third at Spa-Francorchamps and Brands Hatch, and fourth at the Nürburgring after driving most of the race in heavy rain without his helmet visor. He broke his left leg in practice in Canada, missing two races, and finished fourth in the standings with 27 points behind Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Hulme.

In 1969, Ickx moved to Brabham, partly at the instigation of the John Wyer team, whose sponsor Gulf Oil wished to retain his sports car services. After Jack Brabham broke his foot, Ickx's results improved: he finished third in France, second in Great Britain, and won in Canada and at the Nürburgring, where he also took pole and fastest lap. He finished the season runner-up to Jackie Stewart.

Returning to Ferrari for 1970, Ickx suffered severe burns when he collided with Jackie Oliver's BRM on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix; he was back racing at Monaco after 17 days. He finished a close second to Jochen Rindt at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, then won in Austria. After Rindt died in qualifying at Monza, Ickx was the only driver who could take the title from him; he won in Canada and Mexico but finished only fourth at Watkins Glen, where Emerson Fittipaldi won, mathematically ending his title hopes. Ickx later stated he was glad he did not win the 1970 championship, not wishing to win against a man who could not defend his chances.

In 1971 the title went to Stewart and the new Tyrrell; Ickx won at Zandvoort in the rain on Firestone wet tyres, but suffered many retirements afterwards. In 1972 he stayed at Ferrari, finishing second in Spain and Monaco, and took what proved his last Formula One win at the Nürburgring. In 1973 the Ferrari 312B3 was no longer competitive; with the team skipping some races, Ickx left halfway through the season after the British Grand Prix. He drove the German Grand Prix in a McLaren, finishing third behind the Tyrrells of Stewart and François Cevert, returned to Ferrari at Monza, and drove for Williams at the United States Grand Prix.

Ickx signed with Team Lotus in 1974. With Lotus struggling to replace the ageing Lotus 72 with the troublesome Lotus 76, he managed a third place in Brazil and another at the British Grand Prix, and won the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch after passing Niki Lauda around the outside at Paddock Bend. He had a strong duel for fourth at the German Grand Prix. The 1975 season was more disastrous; he managed second in the chaotic Spanish Grand Prix but was stood down after the French Grand Prix and did not race again that year.

In 1976 Ickx began with Frank Williams Racing Cars before signing with Walter Wolf Racing, running the uncompetitive Wolf–Williams FW05. He failed to qualify on four occasions, a first in his career. For a large payment from Wolf, Chris Amon agreed to swap drives, and Ickx raced the rest of the season in the Ensign N176, running competitively at the Dutch Grand Prix until his engine expired ten laps from the end. After a bad crash at Watkins Glen he competed only sporadically: one race at Monaco in 1977 and four in 1978, both for Ensign. In 1979 he ended his Grand Prix career at Ligier, standing in for the injured Patrick Depailler, but found the ground effect cars dangerous and ill-suited to his precise style.

Ickx won the 24 Hours of Spa in 1966 with Hubert Hahne in a BMW 2000TI, and the 1000 km of Spa in 1967. He won the 1968 Brands Hatch six-hour race with Brian Redman in a John Wyer Ford GT40, and won at Brands again in 1972, 1977 and 1982.

He won the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans with Jackie Oliver in a Ford GT40 that was widely considered obsolete against the new Porsche 917. Opposed to the traditional running Le Mans start, which he considered dangerous, Ickx walked across the track and was the last to start; on lap one, private driver John Woolfe, who had not belted in, was killed in his 917. The race became a duel between the Porsche 908 of Hans Herrmann and Gérard Larrousse and the Ickx/Oliver Ford, which Ickx won by less than 120 yards. From 1970, all drivers could start seated with belts properly tightened.

Ickx won Le Mans a record six times, becoming known as "Monsieur Le Mans"; three wins came with Derek Bell. From 1976 he was a factory driver for Porsche, driving the turbocharged 935 and 936, and considers the 1977 race—won after being moved to a recovering car and nursing it home on five cylinders—his favourite victory. His 1982 win came in the new Porsche 956, which carried him to World Endurance Championship titles in 1982 and 1983. His record at Le Mans stood until Tom Kristensen surpassed it in 2005.

He also won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1969 and 1972, and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1972 with Mario Andretti, making him the fifth driver to complete the Triple Crown of endurance racing.

In 1983, Ickx was Porsche team leader, but new teammate Stefan Bellof was faster, setting lap records at the Nürburgring in the last sports car race on the original configuration of the track. In 1984, Ickx acted as Formula One race director in Monaco and stopped the race before half distance due to heavy rain, with leader Alain Prost being caught by Ayrton Senna and Bellof; Prost was awarded half points and later lost the 1984 championship to Niki Lauda by half a point. In 1985 at Spa, Bellof, in a privateer Porsche 956 of Walter Brun, attempted to pass Ickx's factory Porsche 962 at Eau Rouge; they collided and Bellof died after crashing head-on at Raidillon. Ickx, unharmed, retired from professional circuit racing at the end of the season.

Ickx co-drove with Allan Moffat to victory at the 1977 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst in a Ford XC Falcon, becoming the last debutant to win the race until 2011. He revisited Bathurst's National Motor Racing Museum in January 2025, reunited with the winning car. In 1979 he won the revived Can-Am series against opposition including Keke Rosberg, Elliot Forbes-Robinson and Bobby Rahal, clinching the title at Riverside, and did not return to defend it. He consulted for the Oreca team running a Mazda 787B in 1991, and took part in the 1978 and 1984 International Race of Champions. Entered to race the 1969 Daytona 500 in a car owned by Junior Johnson, he crashed it in practice and did not start. Between 1981 and 2000 he entered 14 editions of the Dakar Rally, winning in 1983 in a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, later competing alongside his daughter Vanina.

Ickx was a record-setting RACB Belgian driver's champion, was named Belgian Sportsman of the Year in 1982, and received the ACO Spirit of Le Mans trophy in 2004. He was named an Honorary Citizen of Le Mans before the 2000 race, the first sportsperson to be so, was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002, and into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2020. For his 75th birthday in 2019, Porsche produced a special-edition 911 (992) Carrera 4S "Belgian Legend Edition", painted in X-Blue with white trim referring to his helmet design. His father Jacques Ickx and older brother Pascal Ickx were racing drivers, and his daughter Vanina Ickx became a racing driver as well. He is married to singer Khadja Nin, became a resident of Monaco in the early 1980s, and still acts as Clerk of the Course for the Monaco Grand Prix.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.