José Carlos Pace (October 6, 1944 – March 18, 1977) was a

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

from Brazil. He participated in 73 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting at the

1972 South African Grand Prix The 1972 South African Grand Prix, formally the Sixth AA Grand Prix of South Africa (Afrikaans: ''Sesde AA Suid-Afrikaanse Grand Prix''), was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 4 March 1972. It was race 2 of 12 in both the 1972 World C ...

. He won one race, achieved six podiums, and scored a total of 58 championship points. He also secured one

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

Career

1973-05-27 35 Carlos Pace, Ferrari, Hatzenbach

Pace was a contemporary of the Fittipaldi brothers,

Wilson Wilson may refer to: People * Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...

and Emerson, and began racing in Brazil in the late 1960s. He travelled to Europe in 1970 and competed in

British Formula 3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seate ...

, winning the Forward Trust championship in a

Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

car. In he moved up to Formula Two with Frank Williams, but did not score any points from six races. Nevertheless, he moved up to Formula One in , competing with a Williams-entered March. He scored points on two occasions and finished eighteenth in the Drivers' Championship. His best result came at the non-championship Victory Race, in which he finished in second position. He also competed in some further F2 and

Can-Am The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an Sports Car Club of America, SCCA/Canadian Auto Sport Clubs, CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1987. History Can-Am started out as a race series for group 7 sports racers with two r ...

races. For , Pace moved to the Surtees team and improved to eleventh place in the championship after scoring a fourth place in Germany and his first championship podium finish with third in Austria. He also set the fastest lap in both of these events. He also competed in three F2 races for Surtees, but his main racing activities outside F1 were in the World Sportscar Championship, in which he drove for the works

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

team. Sharing a 312PB with Arturo Merzario, the duo finished second at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

and at

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

(after starting in

for the latter event), and third at Watkins Glen. He remained with Surtees for and scored a fourth-place finish in Brazil, but parted company with the outfit mid-season after falling out with the founder, John Surtees. He drove a privately entered

Brabham Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four ...

for

Goldie Hexagon Racing Goldie Hexagon Racing was a motor racing team from the United Kingdom, founded by Paul Michaels. It raced in Formula One in , using customer Brabham cars. Formula One Goldie Hexagon Racing first entered a Formula One race in 1972, at the non-C ...

at the French Grand Prix but failed to qualify, before moving to the works team alongside namesake Carlos Reutemann for the next race. After initially struggling with the new machinery, he finished fifth and set the fastest lap at

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

, and repeated the feat on his way to second, behind Reutemann, at Watkins Glen, securing a one-two finish for Brabham. Carlos Pace 1973

The Brabham team's BT44B chassis were competitive throughout the season, allowing Pace and Reutemann to feature at the front of the grid. Pace duly took his first and only Formula One victory in front of his home crowd at the

Brazilian Grand Prix The Brazilian Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prêmio do Brasil), currently held under the name São Paulo Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prêmio de São Paulo), is a Formula One championship race which is currently held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace ...

, took his first pole position at the following race in South Africa, and also finished on the podium at Monaco and

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

, ending the season sixth overall in the Drivers' Championship and helping Brabham to second in the Constructors' Championship, behind Ferrari. He remained with Brabham for , but the car was much less competitive due to a change of engine, from Ford-

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

to Alfa Romeo. The Italian

flat 12 A flat-twelve engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-twelve, is a twelve-cylinder piston engine with six cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. Flat-twelve engines are less common than V12 engines, but they have been used in vario ...

units were larger, heavier, less reliable and less economical than their V8 predecessors, restricting Pace to fourteenth place in the championship, whilst Reutemann left the team before the end of the season. By the start of the season, the competitiveness and durability of the Alfa engines had been much improved for Pace and his new teammate, John Watson. He demonstrated this fact by taking second position at the season opener in Argentina, and running strongly in the next two Grands Prix before suffering from mechanical trouble, but he was unable to capitalise on the improved performance for the rest of the season due to his sudden death.

Death and honours

Pace was killed in a private light aircraft accident near São Paulo, Brazil on 18 March 1977, 13 days after fellow F1 driver Tom Pryce and marshal Jansen Van Vuuren lost their lives during the

1977 South African Grand Prix The 1977 South African Grand Prix (formally the XXIII The Citizen Grand Prix of South Africa) was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 5 March 1977, won by Niki Lauda of Austria. The race is principally remembered for the accident that re ...

.Henry (1985) pp. 164, 167 The Interlagos track, the scene of his only F1 win in 1975, was renamed Autódromo José Carlos Pace in his honour. Pace is buried in Cemitério do Araçá, São Paulo. In the 1977 motorsport film '' Bobby Deerfield'', the eponymous title character is represented by Pace in the racing scenes.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete Formula One World Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position / Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One Non-Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position / Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

Books

External links

Pace's profile at Motorsportmemorial.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pace, Jose Carlos 1944 births 1977 deaths Brazilian racing drivers Brazilian Formula One drivers Formula One race winners European Formula Two Championship drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers Racing drivers from São Paulo Brazilian people of Italian descent Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Brazil Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Williams Formula One drivers Surtees Formula One drivers Goldie Hexagon Racing Formula One drivers Brabham Formula One drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers