Tiff Needell: Difference between revisions

Tiff Needell

File:Tiffneedell1.jpg
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1980
Teams	Ensign
Entries	2
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1980 Belgian Grand Prix
Last entry	1980 Monaco Grand Prix

Timothy Needell (better known as Tiff Needell), born October 29, 1951 at Havant, Hampshire, is a British racing driver and television presenter.

Career

Needell attended City University, London where he achieved an Honours Degree in Civil Engineering. Hired by George Wimpey & Co, his day job was as a Structural Design Engineer.

Needell's racing career started in 1970, when he attended a drivers course at Brands Hatch. His first results came in the 1970 Daily Mail Stars of Tomorrow FF1600 when he finished fourth. As a result of winning a Formula Ford car in the United Kingdom's Autosport magazine competition, he was able to continue in Formula Fords for 1971. Using a Lotus type 69 for two seasons, and despite limited funds, he was able to forge himself into a front-runner in the category. In 1973 he switched to an Elden chassis. Due to financial struggles, however, he was not able to score any results until 1975 when a friend loaned a Crosslé 25F to him. With this car, Tiff won the Townsend Thoresen Brands Hatch Challenge, ending the year with a "special commendation" Grovewood Award [1]

Progression to FF2000 followed in 1976, with Tiff finishing second in the APG Championship. He also won the Dunlop Award which was based on his qualifying performances. At the end of the year he was awarded the premier Grovewood Award. The remainder of the 1970s saw Needell as a front runner in the British Formula 3 series and then in the Aurora British Formula One championship. In 1979 he was unable to graduate to the F1 World Championship due to the lack of the correct licence, but he was back in 1980, driving two Grands Prix for Ensign, qualifying for one, the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. However, he had an engine problem and did not finish the race. The Grand Prix which he did not qualify for was the Monaco Grand Prix.

Since then, Needell's racing career has mainly consisted of racing tin-tops (hard-topped cars), with varying levels of success in sports cars, historic racing and touring cars. He achieved particular notoriety after an accident with Nigel Mansell at the 1993 TOCA shoot out race at Donington Park. However, Needell is best known in his native country as a noted television presenter and television and print motoring journalist, in particular in association with the BBC TV series Top Gear. In 2001, when the BBC cancelled Top Gear (the show was brought back in 2002), Tiff and the whole cast defected and signed with Channel 5 to produce and host a new motoring show named Fifth Gear. He does however, still contribute to Top Gear magazine. Tiff has also co-presented 'MPH' at Earls Court in 2003, 2004 and 2006 with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. [2]

Tiff Needell says his highlight to date is "accidentally, ahem, ignoring the strict instructions Ferrari issued about not touching the traction control on their half million pound Enzo..." It seems he has done it more than once.

Personal life

The father of three lives with his wife in Wiltshire.

In November 2006 Needell was cleared of failing to supply details in relation to a speeding ticket, and the speeding offence by Pontypridd magistrates. He was defended by "Mr Loophole"^[1].

Complete Formula One Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Trivia

• The nickname "Tiff" came from the inability of Tiff's older brother to pronounce his birth name Timothy correctly when they were both children.

• Tiff has lent his voice to the first and second games in the 'TOCA Touring Car series' for British video game developer Codemasters.

• Tiff is the voice of the Road Angel road safety device and GPS speed camera alert system, as well as the face on their advertising campaigns.

• Tiff's most recent DVD release was 'Danger Zone' in 2000. This features Needell testing various high performance cars

• His younger brother Chris is a team manager for Barwell Motorsports team racing Aston Martin DBRS9

References