John Zimmer

John Zimmer (born 28th January 1969) is an Australian racing driver who won the F1RGP2C in 1995, and has competed in the F1RWRS and various touring car categories around the world. He is known for running the international motorsport team, ZimSport.

Racing career

Zimmer first started racing in 1982, at the age of thirteen, being fairly successful. At sixteen, he advanced to the Australian Formula Ford Championship, winning the championship in 1988. That year, he went to Britain to compete in the Formula Ford Festival, finishing 6th, and decided to stay there to compete in the British Formula Ford championship. He ended the year in 8th, finishing fourth at the Festival. He then entered the British F3 series, first in his own car and then driving for Alan Docking Racing, finishing fifth in 1991. He won the BF3 championship in 1992, as well as the Macau Grand Prix in his second attempt. His performances got him noticed by F3000 team Forti Corse, who signed him up for the 1993. After a fairly solid performance, he was signed to compete in the new F1RGP2C for Benetton. He did well in the 1994 championship, winning his first race at Monaco, before losing the championship to Jack Christopherson at the final race when his engine blew. In 1995, he became the seatholder for Benetton, and won 7 races on his way to championship victory, beating Williams driver Daniel Moreno by 5 points. However, despite two successful seasons, Zimmer had yet to win the Australian Grand Prix, his home race, after mechanical failures both times put him out despite starting from pole on both occasions. In 1996 however, with the race moving to Melbourne and the start of the year, Zimmer didn't take pole but managed to win the race, but it was one of only two wins that year. Zimmer had sacked his previous teammate Kazuhiko Takagi in favour of Andrew Spokes, who Zimmer planned to turn into a champion. Spokes finished third in the championship with Zimmer fourth.

Complete results

F1RGP2C

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	DC	Pts
1994	Mild Seven Benetton Ford	Benetton B194	Ford ECA Zetec-R	BRA Ret	PAC Ret	SMR 3	MON 1	ESP 1	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 2	HUN 1	BEL 5	ITA 2	POR Ret	EUR 1	JPN Ret	AUS 8*		2nd	58
1995	Mild Seven Benetton Renault	Benetton B195	Renault RS7	BRA 1	ARG 1	SMR 2	MON Ret	ESP 1	CAN 4	FRA 3	GBR 1	GER Ret	HUN 1	BEL Ret	ITA 1	POR 1	EUR 2	JPN 2	PAC Ret	AUS Ret	1st	95
1996	Mild Seven Benetton Renault	Benetton B196	Renault RS8	AUS 1	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	LUX 4	SMR 4	MON 2	ESP 3	CAN 4	USA Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 1	GER Ret	HUN 4	BEL 5	ITA 7*	JPN 9		4th	44
1997	Mild Seven Benetton Renault	Benetton B197	Renault RS9	AUS 4	BRA Ret	ARG 5	SMR 10	MON Ret	ESP 7	CAN 8	USA 7	FRA 2	GBR 6	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 6	AUT 4	JPN Ret		10th	16
1998	Mild Seven Benetton Playlife	Benetton B198	Playlife GC37-01	AUS 3	BRA 5	ARG 5	SMR 9	ESP 7	MON 4	CAN Ret	GBR 4	USA 3	FRA 5	AUT Ret	GER 17	HUN Ret	BEL	ITA	JPN		6th*	20*

F1CC

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	DC	Pts
1997	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber C16	Petronas SPE-01	Goodyear	AUS 5	BRA 7	ARG Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 6	GER 6	HUN 9	BEL Ret	ITA 10	AUT 9	LUX 5	JPN 7	EUR 11			20th	6
1998	West McLaren Mercedes	McLaren MP4-13	Mercedes FO110G	Bridgestone	AUS 8	BRA 3	ARG 4	SMR 7	ESP Ret	MON 7	CAN Ret	FRA 5	GBR 3	AUT Ret	GER Ret	HUN 7	BEL 8	ITA 8	LUX 5	JPN 10				11th	15
1999	Lucky Strike Reynard Racing	Reynard 001	Toyota	Bridgestone	AUS Ret	BRA 8	SMR Ret	MON 12	ESP C	CAN C	USA C	MEX C	GBR C	FRA C	GER C	AUT C	HUN C	BEL C	EUR C	ITA C	MAL C	PAC C	JPN C	NC	0

* F1CC collapsed after the qualifying session of the 1999 F1CC Spanish GP.

RTCC

Year	Entrant	Car	Cl.	#	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Pts
1998	Kickert Motorsport Engineering	Holden Vectra	I	31	SIL 1</br />8	SIL 2</br />13	DON 1</br />24	DON 2</br />2									5th	33
2015	ZimSport	Holden Vectra	I	031	ORA 1 12	ORA 2 20	KNO 1 9	KNO 2 14	SAN 1 Ret	SAN 2 10	SPA 1 7	SPA 2 14	SUZ 1	SUZ 2	LIE 1	LIE 2	12th	30

F1RWRS

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
2011	Fwifwi-Holden Racing	ZimSport FHR1	Holden HSV LS3	BAV 19	GER DNPQ	SAX DNPQ	LUX 5*	BEL 7												=14th	26
	NAB-Holden Racing Team	Holden HRT-001	Holden HSV LS3						GBR DNPQ	ENG DNPQ	KEN DNPQ	NED 10	TAS DNPQ	AUS 4	NSW 1	SUR Ret	CHN INJ	USA 14
2013	Team Calinetic	Calinetic CAL4	Ford HB I	TAS	AUS	MEX 6	USA DNPQ	MON DNPQ	FRA DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	GER DNPQ	NED DNPQ	BEL 13*	POR DNPQ						20th	5
	Holden F1RWRS Racing Team	Holden HRT-003	Holden HSV L12-1												MED 3	MAC Ret	CHN 9	JPN DNQ	BRA
2015	Valvoline Holden Racing Team	Holden HRT-005	Holden LSF1	TAS	AUS	MED	MON	MEX	USA	CAN	GBR	GER DNPQ	BEL 9	AUT DNPQ	ITA DNPQ	SEA DNPQ	CHN Ret	JPN DNPQ	BRA DNPQ	=23rd	0

Career Summary

Year	Series	Team	Pos.
1982	Australian Rookie Karting	Independent	7th
1983	Australian Rookie Karting	Independent	2nd
1984	Australian Rookie Karting	Independent	1st
1985	Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series	ZimSport	17th
1986	Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series	ZimSport	10th
1987	Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series	ZimSport	5th
1988	Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series	ZimSport	1st
	Formula Ford Festival	ZimSport	6th
1989	British Formula Ford	ZimSport	8th
	Formula Ford Festival	ZimSport	4th
1990	British F3	ZimSport	17th
1991	British F3	Alan Docking Racing	5th
	Macau Grand Prix	Alan Docking Racing	3rd
1992	British F3	Alan Docking Racing	1st
	Macau Grand Prix	Alan Docking Racing	1st
1993	International Formula 3000	Forti Corse	8th
1994	International Formula 3000	Forti Corse	16th
	F1RGP2C	Benetton	2nd
1995	F1RGP2C	Benetton	1st
1996	F1RGP2C	Benetton	4th
1997	F1RGP2C	Benetton	10th
1998	F1RGP2C	Benetton	3rd*
2011	F1RWRS	ZimSport	15th
		NAB-Holden Racing Team
2013	F1RWRS	Team Calinetic	20th
		Holden F1RWRS Racing Team
2015	F1RWRS	Valvoline Holden Racing Team	=23rd