Gentleman Jack

Gentleman, entrepreneur, and excellent racing driver, this is the fascinating story of John (Jack) Sears or Gentleman Jack as he was popularly known. As sir John states in the foreword "Jack was the gentleman that I should have been. He had the grace, while I only had the title. I often told him that he should have had it rather than I, but he wasn't buying. Although he started racing several years before I did, our careers took a parallel path for much of the way, and this gave me the privilege of getting to know him really well. That he was an outstanding driver is obvious, and you will have had this reaffirmed by the time you have read this book". This incredibly detailed biography not only tells of Jack's amazing motoring career from his perspective but of the whole Sears dynasty. The businesses, the friends, the highs and the lows. Packed with facts straight from the man himself and illustrated with over 150 unique photos this is a must have piece of motoring history.

ISBN 1845841514   Pages 160 ISBN13 9781845841515 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Veloce Publishing Ltd   Weight (grammes) 894 Imprint Veloce Publishing Ltd   Published in Dorset Format Hardback   Height (mm) 250 Publication date 06 Mar 2008   Width (mm) 207 Writer of foreword Sir John Whitmore   Spine width (mm) 20 DEWEY 796.72092   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

-Foreword; -Chapter 1-The Sears Dynasty.; -Chapter 2-Jack Starts Racing; -Chapter 3-British Saloon Car Champion.; -Chapter 4-Dabbling in Formula 2 and an Introduction to Ferrari; -Chapter 5-The Cortina Days; -Chapter 6-More Cobra's and the Brands Hatch Incident.; -Chapter 7-The Shelby American Cobra Coupe Programme.; -Chapter 8-The London-Sydney Marathon; -Chapter 9-The entrepeneur-David Sears; -Appendix 1-Stanley Sears and His Collection; -Appendix 2-A collection of interesting cars-By Stanley E. Sears.

Motor Sport, May 2008 UK magazine Look up any race report from the 1950s or '60s and the name J Sears will likely be there. Saloons, sports cars or vintage, Sears raced it, and often won. Ken Gregory asked him to join the Yeoman Credit team, but he decided single-seaters were a risk too far. That sums him up: racing was a passion, but his real business was farming. However, as this entertaining book makes clear, his good manners concealed a grit that made him a tough racer. As well as quotes from Sears and his peers the book bulges with photos, many personal, plus results tables, but chiefly some lovely tales from a vanished era. Jaguar magazine, Edition 135, May 2008 Bi-monthly Australian magazine For the first time we review two books by the same author - our European correspondent, Graham Gauld who is a proud Scot with a very long history in the sport. Typically of Graham's depth of first hand knowledge and his passion for the sport and writing, both books are entirely different. One is a biography outlining the long career of Jack Sears, while the other is an amazing book detailing the long history of motor racing in Scotland and includes all of the cars, the circuits and the people. Of course, you can purchase both because it is incredibly difficult to put either down, but you may have a preference for one or the other - you decide, because we have read both and they are highly cherished. 'Gentleman Jack' shows you how to do it in motor racing - be very good at what you do, love it deeply - and come from a very wealthy family! With a foreword by Sir John Whitmore, famous amongst other things for racing Ford Galaxies, it outlines his family history inthe shoe retailing business and farming, before outlining the build-up of his long and successful career. Most of the photographs are supplied by Jack Sears and so make this book all the more interesting and 'real'. He indulged in club motorsport initially, international rallying in the '50s, then raced cars for Tommy Sopwith's team (Equipe Endeavour) with Mk2 Jaguars, Aston Martins and E-Types. The characters of the time are dotted throughout the book including Salvadori, Coombs, Hill, Cooper, Chapman, Bob Jane, Jim Clark and so on. The cars too are charismatic, and look for works-Lotus Cortinas, Ferrari 330LMBs, the Willment Galaxies and AC Coupes Ferrari GTO etc. Son David, who raced Jaguars for TWR, gets a chapter, as does the family collection of vintage cars. Read in there about a 1904 Mercedes, 1905 Rolls-Royce, TT Sunbeam, supercharged Bentley, the Birkin Bentley - and on it goes! A great read and highly recommended. Classic Ford, May 2008 UK magazine Probably best known in classic Ford circles for throwing Galaxies and Cortinas around Europe's racetracks back in the '60s, 'Gentleman' Jack Sears competed in pretty much everything, and was even involved in the organization of the original London-to-Sydney marathon. The book covers his entire career and is packed with great black-and-white photos.

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