Jack Christopherson

This is the canon ASMF character. For the 18MMF non-canon career, see Jack Christopherson (non-canon).

Jack Christopherson (born January 2, 1968) is a former racing driver born in Birmingham, England. He competed in Formula 3000 for Eddie Jordan Racing in 1988, coming 2nd in the championship. He is also a multiple winner of the non-chamionship F1RWRS Indianapolis World 800 in both 2013 and 2014, plus the winner of F1RICS' 2016 USA 500.

Early Career

Christopherson first rosed to prominence in British Formula 3 with Eddie Jordan Racing, where he jockeyed for success with fellow Brit Johnny Herbert. Having narrowly edged Herbert for the championship title in 1987, he moved up to Formula 3000 with the Irish squad, while rival Herbert moved to Madgwick International.

Formula 3000

Despite his inexperience at the second-highest rung of motorsport going into the 1988 season, he was immediately on the pace, storming to victory in the opening race of the season at Jerez. He followed this up during the course of the season with second places at Pau and Pergusa, and finished the year with a third place at Dijon-Prenois. However, five retirements during the course of the year hindered his progress, including at Monza where he scored both pole and fastest lap. In total, he scored two pole positions (Jerez, Monza) and three fastest laps (Imola, Pau, Monza), but it was not enough to fend off another former F3 rival, Martin Donnelly, whose winning streak was impossible to suppress. He ended the year with 31 points, giving him 2nd in the championship.

Formula One

1989-1990: AGS

Christopherson made his Formula One debut in 1989, driving for the tiny AGS team alongside his former Eddie Jordan Racing teammate Olivier Grouillard. Christopherson opened the season showing strong pace, and was quickly rewarded by a 7th place finish in the San Marino Grand Pix. Crippling reliability issues meant that despite further finishes would be hard to come by, nevertheless Christopherson scored his first ever point at the United States Grand Prix, taking sixth place in a race beset with attrition. This would prove to be his only points haul of the season, with his best finish in the latter half of the season being another 7th place finish in the Portuguese Grand Prix.

The following season, Christopherson remained with the French outfit when no better offers came calling - this time joined by Formula 3000 graduate Fabrizio Giovanardi. Christopherson and AGS struggled in the initial stages of the season, dropping into pre-qualifying after a series of DNFs.

1998-1999: Jordan

By 1998, Christopherson was driving for the Jordan team alongside German driver Ralf Schumacher. Jordan at this point were a consistant midfield team battling for the 'best of the rest' honours with Williams and Benetton Arrows. Christopherson scored two podiums in this season, his best being a second place finish at the Portuguese Grand Prix - enough for seventh in the standings.

The following year saw a marked improvement for Jordan, with Christopherson and new teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen able to fight for wins all season. Christopherson finished on the podium seven times in 1999, including a win in the Austrian Grand Prix. Christopherson finished the year in fifth place - with Jordan finishing the season in a best-ever second place in the constructor's standings.

F1RWRS

Jones Racing (2013-2015)

After many years on the racing sidelines, Christopherson was signed on as a guest driver for Jones Racing to participate in the Budweiser 500, run by another former F1 driver in the form of Sammy Jones. Christopherson wasn't in contention for a full time drive at Jones Racing next year as the team has just completed a deal with Daniel Melrose. Despite that Christopherson did well against competitors that were many years younger than himself and having never drove the car before. Christopherson qualified 11th on the grid for the race before a fantastic drive on race day meant he became the first winner of the Dan Wheldon Memorial trophy after leading the last 50 laps when the Foxdale cars hit problems.

Foxdale (2014)

The win immediately put the Brit on the map for several drives up and down the grid despite facing the potential of being the oldest driver on the grid with the retirement of Chris Dagnall. While Jones Racing had a test contract with Christopherson for 2014, he was free to drive for another team for the foreseeable future unless Jones took out his option on him for 2014. After much debate, Christopherson eventually signed on for Foxdale, the very team he beat for the Bud 500 win a few months before. Foxdale entered the season as one of the championship favourites with a new Renault engine replacing the old Hart engine which game the team so many problems in 2013. However it soon became evident that the car, whilst more reliable, was nowhere near the blistering pace being set by DGNgineering and MRT up front. As a result Christopherson struggled for pace, suffering numerous mechanical failures, and only finished one race before being fired by Foxdale mid-way through the year, following the British Grand Prix. His only race finish was ninth in Mexico.

Christopherson returned to his role as Jones Racing's test driver, and was credited by Jones himself for helping drive development forward on the CJR-103 car as the team finished fifth overall in the championship. Once again he featured in the non-championship races in the off-season and led a Jones 1-2-3 at the Bud 800 race, securing himself the Dan Wheldon Trophy for the second year in succession. Christopherson stayed on at Jones for 2015, once again assuming his test and development role, albeit replaced by Terry Hawkin as offical reserve driver.

Results

Career Summary

Year	Series	Team	Overall
1987	British Formula 3	Eddie Jordan Racing	1st
1988	International Formula 3000	Eddie Jordan Racing	2nd
1998	Formula One	Jordan Grand Prix	7th
1999	Formula One	Jordan Grand Prix	5th
2000	Formula One	West McLaren Mercedes	2nd
2001	Formula One	West McLaren Mercedes	5th
2003	Formula One	Panasonic Toyota Racing	10th
2014	F1R World Race Series	Foxdale Auto Racing Team	33rd
2016	F1R Indy Championship Series	Mastercard Lola	3rd
2018	International Pro Car	Infiniti All Stars Tide Infiniti Voeckler	24th

F3000

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts
1988	Eddie Jordan Racing	Reynard 88D	Cosworth DFY 3.0 V8	JER 1	IMO 4	PAU 2	SIL Ret	MNZ Ret	PER 2	BHA 4	BIR Ret	BUG Ret	ZOL Ret	DIJ 3	31	2nd

F1RWRS

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
2014	Foxdale Auto Racing Team	Foxdale 001	Renault RS01	TAS Ret	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	MEX 9	USA Ret	MON Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER	BEL	ITA	MED	NED	MAC	CHN	JPN	33rd	0

Non-championship Races

Year	Team	Event	Result
2013	Castrol Jones Racing	F1RWRS Indianapolis World 800	1st
2014	Castrol Jones Racing	F1RWRS Indianapolis World 800	1st

F1RICS

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	DC	Pts
2016	Mastercard Lola	Lola B16/00	Honda V6T	SAO 9	ARG 13	HOM 3	GAT 1	LBH 1	CAM 15	POR 2	INDY 1	MIL 17	DON 4	EUR 8	WGI 9	NHA 1	MIC 17	TOR 18	ROA 8	KEN 1	POC 32	MON 25	LAG 4	SUR 2	SUZ 24	TEX 21	FON 23	188	3rd

IPC

Class A

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
2018	Infiniti All Stars	Infiniti G35	AUS1	AUS2	BAT	ITA	FRA	SPA	GBR 2	EUR1	EUR2								95	24th
	Tide Infiniti Voeckler											ILL 2	WIS	NY1	NY2	CAN	RSA1	RSA2

Class B

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Pts
2018	Infiniti All Stars	Infiniti G35	AUS	BAT	ITA	FRA	SPA	GBR 6	EUR	ILL	WIS	NY	CAN	RSA	31	37th