Jeremy Spocinklass

**Jeremy Spocinklass** is an American racing driver, who competed in Formula One.

## Early Life

Spocinklass was born in Seattle, Washington to musicians Layne and Courtney Spocinklass. Little is known of the family's origin, with Jeremy himself only going so far as "The name sounds kinda German."

Despite pressure from his parents to take up music, Spocinklass found an early passion for motor racing. After some success in state-level karting as a teenager, he was sponsored by music label Epic Records to compete in the USAC National Championship for 1973. At 17 years old, Jeremy was the youngest ever to compete in the competition. While his results were lacking on oval tracks, he dominated the road course rounds.

## Racing Career

Spocinklass' road course performance drew the attention of Lotus' Formula 5000 outfit, who brought him on as a paid driver in 1975. He finished that year a narrow 2nd to Brian Redman, and beat him for the championship the following year.

Sensing an immense natural talent in the young man, Colin Chapman invited Spocinklass to test for Lotus F1 in 1977, just as the team had started to experiment with ground effects. This brought skepticism from the Formula One press, who believed Jeremy was too young to drive in the sport.

In defiance of media pressure, Chapman signed Spocinklass to drive for Lotus in the 1978 season.

**Debut Season**

Chapman's gamble seemed to pay off as Spocinklass placed 3rd on debut and 2nd at the difficult Long Beach street circuit, above his experienced teammate Stefan Van Damme, who crashed late in the race. He continued to score points finishes until the British Grand Prix, where he was crashed out of 3rd by a fast charging Chuck Dingley.

Dingley refused to accept blame for the incident and threatened to shoot Spocinklass. This lead to Jeremy hiring personal security for the next two rounds. However, their disagreement was seemingly short lived as the two were spotted drinking together after the Austrian Grand Prix.

A run of bad luck followed from the British Grand Prix. Spocinklass was crashed out in Germany and Italy. A podium at Watkins Glen pushed him up to a precarious 4th in the drivers' championship, which he held with a 4th place finish in Canada.

**Retirement from Formula One**

Despite coming a respectable 4th in the 1978 drivers championship, the team felt his performance had cost them the constructors championship to Tyrrell. Lotus dropped Spocinklass at the end of the 1978 season. He was immediately hired by Tyrrell in what looked to be a step up. However, Tyrrell lost a major sponsor deal with Candy. Without the funds from the Italian appliance manufacturer, Tyrrell could not afford to run both of their cars in the same specification. Being the newcomer to the team, Spocinklass was placed in the worse of the two cars. While his teammate Chuck Dingley won his second title, Jeremy struggled to score points. The car did improve toward the end of the season, but poor reliability saw Spocinklass slump to 10th in the drivers' championship.

In 1980, Dingley left Tyrrell. Sponsorship interest in the team fell even further and Tyrrell failed to develop the car beyond its late-1979 specification. Spocinklass finished ahead of his new teammate Dale Ballweg, and drew praise for his two podiums in the British and Italian Grands Prix. Despite these performances, he only managed 13th in the Drivers' championship.

Spocinklass was released from his contract for the 1981 season. While rumours circled of a move to Renault, Jeremy was picked up by Smythe for the team's debut season. He was contracted as the #2 driver to the team's owner, William Worcestershire-Smythe, reportedly for a salary second highest on the grid only to Smythe himself. The car proved unreliable at first, with retirements at Long Beach and Imola. However, those issues were solved and both cars scored points at the next three races. Worcestershire-Smythe managed two wins for the 1981 season, while Spocinklass, considered by many to be the better driver, only appeared once on the podium, a 2nd place at Monza. Allegations of favouritism were leveled by some journalists and, while Spocinklass denied these, he left the team after just one season.

**Brief return to Formula One**

Spocinklass returned to the sport in 1987 after being hired to replace the outgoing Pietro Martins. After several years away from the sport he failed to find his feet again and struggled to score points throughout the season. He eventually finished in 21st in the standings, having scored just two points, which paled in comparison to his teammate's three podiums.