Harry Stiller

Harry Stiller (born 28 May 1938)^[1] is a retired British motor racing driver and former British Formula Three Champion.^[2] His racing career covered the years between 1958 and 1969 and he drove a variety of different classes of cars. After stopping driving himself he became an entrant in 1970 and he had cars in Formula Three, Formula Atlantic, F5000 and in 1975, Formula One. After racing he became creator, developer and operator of Tucktonia, a south-coast leisure park in the 1970s and 1980s.^[2] He was also a director of the Rob Walker Motor Group in the UK during the 1970s and the owner of Harry Stiller Motor Cars on Wilshire Boulevard, in Beverly Hills, California, also in the 1970s, with agencies for Fiat, Lancia and Lotus and for leasing Rolls Royce and Bentley motor cars in Los Angeles. During the early 1980s, he was a pioneer of the pound shop concept in the North East of England and opened units in Scarborough, Newcastle upon Tyne, Stockton and moved into the South as well with another 5 units along the South Coast and one in Hatfield.

He is notable as the person responsible for starting Alan Jones in Formula One in 1975 with a privately owned Hesketh 308.^[3] This was not the first time Jones had driven for Stiller as he had driven for him in the works March Formula Atlantic car in the 1974 UK John Player championship.

Stiller is a life member of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), is retired and lives in Christchurch, Dorset, England with his wife Annie.^[1][4]

Racing career

• Double British F3 Champion in 1966 and 1967 (joint holder of the highest number of wins in one F3 season with Ayrton Senna).
• European Cup captain of the British F3 team in 1968.
• Works F2 driver for Cooper, Lola and Merlyn.
• Drove at Le Mans in 1962 and 1967.

References