Johnny Winchester

Jonathan Thomas "Johnny" Winchester (born 20th of June, 1956) is a American bussinessman and former racing driver, who currently manages the FIA Prototype Challenge series. Before that, he owned his own team in European Formula Two from 1980 to 1984, and was a driver for the Championship Auto Racing Teams series from 1986 to 1988, as well as a team owner in the now-defunct World Touring Car Masters.

Career (1980-1992)

Formula Two

Following a season in the USAC Mini-Indy series, Winchester knew the lack of opportunities for competitive racing in America, and moved to the UK to start setting up his own team there. He formed Winchester Motor Sport, who entered their first season in European Formula Two with the infamous Dywa design, the 08, coupled with a BMW engine. The chassis proved to be a fatal flaw, with Winchester qualifying only in the races with no DNQs, with a best result in the Eifelrennen in Nurburgring, in 15th and last place. Following this disaster, Winchester withdrew from racing and became the manager, in order to allow for more focused decisions in future seasons. With the wound up of Formula Two in 1984 however, and the raft of changes of Formula 3000, he continued for one more season, before selling all his assets of the Formula 3000 operation to Ecurie Monaco.

IndyCar

However, he hadn't give up on racing yet. He setup another operation, this time in the Championship Auto Racing Teams series. 25 points and a 23rd place in the championship is all he had to his name, with only a handful of top 10 finishes, all on very attrition-filled races. He was notoriously involved in a crash in Indianapolis 500 1988, in which he caused a big pile-up in the first lap. He was also notorious for many crashes during qualifying laps, and he also was pretty slow in the races that he did qualify.

WTCM

Johnny originally debuted on WTCM at the final race at Nurburgring using an old Ford 1600i, which he used to enter D-Class. His perfomance was terrible, and he withdrew any possibility of a full-time program.

However, following the buyout of a BMW E30, Johnny Winchester decided to have another crack and enter the 1989 Tooheys 1000. Given the need for a second driver in Bathurst, he needed a partner. He went to a American Racing Series event at Michigan, where he spotted Nicholas Griffith; he won said race in dominant fashion. This impressed Winchester, and he invited Griffith. He accepted. In an unlikely perfomance by both Americans, Griffith was able to pre-qualify with ease and got a fantastic 2nd place, and in the race proper, Winchester was able to hold onto a 5th place in class. This impressive debut prompted Winchester to open a full-time program in 1990, with Griffith as the sole driver.

Team Management

Following some seasons in the British Touring Car Championship, he retired from racing in 1992. He started focusing more on his racing management commitements. He also entered the European Le Mans Championship from 2008 to 2015, with varied results, managing to get a class win in Le Mans in 2009. Following his experiences with ELMS and the extra money he had, he decided to setup the FIA Prototype Challenge.

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Pts
1980	Winchester Motor Sport	Winchester-Dywa 08	BMW M12	THR DNQ	HOC DNQ	NUR 15	VAL DNQ	PAU NC	SIL DNQ	ZOL DNQ	MUG DNQ	ZAN Ret	PER DNQ	MIS DNQ	HOC DNQ	NC	0

American Open-Wheel racing results

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1986	Winchester Motor Sport	PIR1	LBH	INDY DNQ	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MIC1	MDO	SAN	MIC2	ROA	LAG 11	PIR2 14	MIA	35th	2
1987	Winchester Motor Sport	LBH	PIR1	INDY 6	MIL DNQ	POR 22	MEA DNQ	CLE 12	TOR	MIC	POC	ROA	MDO	NAZ	LAG	MIA 12		25th	10
1988	Winchester Motor Sport	PHX	LBH	INDY 33	MIL DNQ	POR DNQ	CLE DNQ	TOR	MEA	MIC 7	POC 10	MDO DNQ	NAZ DNQ	LAG DNQ	MIA 8			23rd	13