Keith Wiggins

Keith Wiggins is a motor racing team owner born in Great Britain.

Born in London, England in 1958, Keith began his racing career while at school as a kart driver in 1973. He was selected as a member of the British International Kart Team for 1975-76. He trained as a design engineer for specialist road car conversions and later joined Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing in 1977, and as an engineer in British F3. In 1979 Keith continued his driving career in British Formula Ford, finishing 2nd in the Championship. the following year (1980) he focused on his engineering skills, joining Rushen Green Racing for British F3. In 1982 he was appointed team manager and engineer with Van Diemen in British and European Formula 2000. During this period, he also constructed a Formula Ford chassis designed by David Baldwin.

Keith established Pacific Racing in 1984 as owner, chairman, and chief engineer. The team went on to win every single-seater championship in Europe below Formula One with luminaries such as J.J. Lehto, David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine and Christian Fittipaldi behind the wheel of his cars, he moved the operation to Formula One in F1|1994.

The team Pacific Grand Prix ran on a shoestring budget for two seasons. The inaugural year they ran Ilmor engines and battled with Simtek at the rear of the grid. Just making the grid was a challenge; while Bertrand Gachot qualified for five of the first seven events, Paul Belmondo made it just twice. At the end of 1995, Wiggins returned back to F3000 and closed up Pacific in 1997.

He helped to get Lola back on its feet in 1998, serving as Vice-President and then President of Lola Cars International Inc. in America following MasterCard Lola's ill-fated decision to enter F1.

Wiggins then took over as president and team owner of Tony Bettenhausen Jr's Champ Car World Series team following a tragic plane crash, renaming it Herdez Competition in 2001. Michel Jourdain, Jr. and Mario Dominguez shared driving duties and in 2003 Dominguez claimed Rookie of the Year. Herdez remained as title sponsor until 2005, when they withdrew their support and promising youngsters Björn Wirdheim and Ronnie Bremer were surplus before the end of the season due to a lack of sponsorship.

By that point the team had been renamed HVM (Herdez Viva Mexico) and in October 2005 Cedric the Entertainer announced he had become a partner in the team. The team's name changed in 2006 to CTE Racing. They finished fourth in the championship.

In 2007, ex Minardi owner Paul Stoddart bought into the team and they renamed it Minardi Team USA fielding ex- F1 Driver Robert Doornbos and Dan Clarke, Wiggins being the managing partner. In the 2007 season, the team claimed 2 wins and 7 podiums on its way to third place in Championship standings and Rookie of the Year with Doornbos. With Champ Car's unification with the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series in 2008, Stoddart left the team and it appeared that the team would shut down, however, Wiggins assumed full control of the team and signed E. J. Viso to continue racing operations IndyCar Series, with the team's name reverting back to HVM Racing.

External links

* [http://www.hvm-racing.com Official website of HVM racing]
* [http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/pacific/index.html F1 Rejects profile of Pacific Racing]