The Mecom Racing Team was led by

John Mecom Jr. John W. Mecom Jr. (born 1940) is the chairman of the John W. Mecom company and former owner of the New Orleans Saints NFL football team. Mecom is the son of Texas oilman John W. Mecom Sr. and his wife Mary Elizabeth. He was a student at the Univer ...

and was active between 1960 and 1967 in the

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...

racing,

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

, and

American Championship Car Racing American open-wheel car racing, also known as Indy car racing, is a category of professional automobile racing in the United States. As of 2022, the top-level American open-wheel racing championship is sanctioned by IndyCar. Competitive events ...

scenes. The Mecom Racing Team and later the Mecom Group were led by John Mecom Jr. John Mecom Jr. was known to have as many as seven different marques not only at the same event but in the same race. In the early 1960s the Mecom Racing Team had great success in the

Bahamas Speed Week The Bahamas Speed Week was an annual motor racing meeting held at Nassau in The Bahamas from 1954 to 1966. History First held in 1954 on the Windsor Field Road Course in Nassau, the inaugural event was titled as the Nassau Trophy Road Races.

Roger Penske Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, t ...

, driving for Mecom in the early years, won in the Bahamas as well as the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...

in a Ferrari GTO with

Augie Pabst August Uihlein Pabst Jr. is an American sports car driver from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In ten years of racing, he won two national championships - the 1959 USAC and 1960 SSCA road racing championships. Pabst made one NASCAR start at Riverside Intern ...

. The Grand Sport

Corvettes A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop ...

were also campaigned by Mecom with tremendous results. The Mecom Group managed ex-

Moto GP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start of ...

Champion

Kevin Schwantz Kevin Schwantz (born June 19, 1964) is an American former professional motorcycle road racer. He was the world champion of the 1993 FIM Road Racing World Championship. Early life Schwantz, whose parents owned a motorcycle shop, learned to ride ...

from bikes and into cars and team ownership. In 1966

Graham Hill Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...

won the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

while driving for John Mecom Jr. and the Mecom Team in their Lola-Ford. The team also fielded a car for

George Follmer George Follmer (born January 27, 1934) is an American former auto racing driver, and one of the most successful road racers of the 1970s. He was born in Phoenix, Arizona. His family moved to California when he was just an infant. Career Follmer ...

in the

1966 Can-Am season The 1966 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the inaugural season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It was for FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began September 11, 1966, and ended November 13, 1966, after six rounds. T ...

. John Mecom Jr. backed

Danica Patrick Danica Sue Patrick (; born March 25, 1982) is an American former professional racing driver. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win by a woman ...

in her transition from a 15-year-old

kart Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ful ...

racer to be a professional racing car driver in 1998, by providing full financial support and securing drives for her to race in England with help of long-time family friend and former Mecom team driver

Jackie Stewart Sir John Young Stewart (born 11 June 1939), known as Jackie Stewart, is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland. Nicknamed the "Flying Scot", he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Cha ...

. This led to her subsequent involvement with Ford and then

Rahal Letterman Racing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is an auto racing team that has participated in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the IndyCar Series. Headquartered in Brownsburg, Indiana and Hilliard, Ohio, it is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winn ...

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

)

External links

Mecom Racing Enterprises
American auto racing teams Can-Am entrants Formula One entrants World Sportscar Championship teams {{F1-stub