James James Davies

''This page is about the F1RGP2C driver James James Davies. For the unrelated driver who competed in F1RWRS, please visit James Davies (F1RWRS driver)''.

James James Davies, more commonly known as just James Davies, or as JJD, is a British racing driver best known for his career, encompassing 2 LGPS championships (1992, 1993), the 1998 F1RGP2C championship, as well as Formula 1, as well as his various feuds with fellow drivers, and team bosses. The most notable feuds Davies has had include John Zimmer, Daniel Moreno, and Andreas Stefano. He is also known for changing his name to incorporate a middle name midway through the 1998 season. He is no relation to the F1RWRS driver James Davies or his cousin Jordan.

He is the son of former sports car driver John Davies.

When asked why he changed his middle name to James via deed poll, James responded "I figured that James sounded so good I might as well have people say it twice..."

Pre-LifeGP Career
Born in Monmouth, Davies got his first taste of racing at the age of 6, at a friend's birthday party. Although he quickly displayed an incredible talent, winning the race with remarkable ease, his father was initially against James beginning a racing career due to suffering some serious crashes during his own career, most notably his career-ending crash in 1979. However, he eventually relented when James saved up his pocket money and went to a karting track without his parents permission when he was 12. Although he didn't have enough for the bus home and had to be picked up by his parents, he did set the lap record on the children's course - which incidentally still stands today. Although he was grounded for 6 months after that, James was bought a kart for his 13th birthday. Within 2 years he had promptly demolished anything even remotely resembling competition in the domestic kart scene, and was strongly being considered being moved straight to Formula 3.

LifeGP Career
However, this was still not enough to remove all his father's doubts, and so James made a bet with him: he would enter for one race in the newly formed Life Grand Prix Series, and should he not be one of the leading drivers, he would end his career immediately. As LifeGP lacked age restrictions, this made Davies at 15 the youngest driver in the series by far.

Any doubts over Davies' career were quickly erased in the first race, as he dominated the race, only to lose out with a late-race car failure. His father relented, and James prepared to run the full schedule, completing his school work in between each race. However, the story of his first international race would be largely the story of Davies' season, as he would only finish twice all season before the team's money and his patience ran out after the 13th race. He then switched over to British F3, where the higher build quality ensured he was able to make good on his speed and win most of the time.

He then continued in British F3 for 1992, and was leading easily when he got a call from Good Call Racing, inviting him to return to Life GP in place of the very disappointing Evelyn Gomes with a substantial paycheck. Not keen to let unfinished business stay that way, Davies accepted the offer, and promptly sat on the pole for the first 4 races of his comeback, finally winning his second race in the series when the car actually held together for the duration at Mid-Ohio, with practically no opposition. He continued his form at the next two races, winning at Phoenix and Mine with ease, to make him a serious title contender by the time the season finale came along.

As in the 3 previous races, Davies qualified on pole, and proceeded to dominate in the rain, even as conditions grew more and more treacherous. This continued until Davies, unsighted, crashed into the back of his teammate, Jeremy-Etienne Voeckler. Voeckler had yet to pit for tyres, and so was leading at the time - as the red flag was thrown, it seemed that Davies' title challenge had crumbled into dust, as with only half-points being given out, he did not have enough to overhaul Dave Wilson. That was until the results were pushed back one lap in a controversial decision, allowing Davies the extra 2 points he needed to take the title by half a point.

Davies' title defence began in the worst possible way, as he was once again leading dominantly in the season opening Argentine round, only to crash and miss the next 4 races due to injury. While James recovered, his father pleaded with him to stop racing before he permanently injured himself. Naturally, James took no notice and completed the season. It bore more resemblance to his 1991 campaign, with far more mechanical problems and crashes, as Davies spent most of the season behind Vic Sunset, however, a strong 2nd place at the penultimate round of the season secured Davies' place as the only 2-time champion in LGPS history.

Personal Life
In 2017, James James Davies was featured as a guest for the 'Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car' segment on long-running British motoring show, Top Gear. He set the fastest lap of the F1 and F1RWRS drivers to have been guests on the show.

Formula 1 Results

 * Season in progress