23 replies to this topic

[simonlewisbooks]

A customer just asked me if I had any photos of Jac Nellemann in qualifying for the Swedish GP 1976 with the RAM Brabham BT44B .... he has one side view and was interested in any others.
I had to admit he's a new name to me and I had no idea he was one of the plethora of drivers who tried and failed in that particular car. he ran #33 and Pan-Jack logos.

Anyone know any more about him? I assume he was a local driver?

[Peter Morley]

He has raced Lotuses (fifteen & seventeen I think) in historic races pretty recently.
His company website is www.nellemann.dk but that doesn't seem to mention his racing exploits (or maybe it does, my Danish is non-existant!).

[ensign14]

There was a small 3/4 view photo in F1 Racing about 8 years ago...and an article about Nelleman wishing he had had more time cos he had sussed out how to handle the BT44B when it was too late to do anything about it and can see on video (!) where he was going wrong...

[Mallory Dan]

He was fairly well known as a F3 driver in the early-mid 70s I thought. GRDs perhaps?

[Tomas Karlsson]

There is a good picture in the book: Dansk Bilsport i 50 år, by Morten Alstrup.

The text tell the story how he tested the rented car at Jyllands-ringen, but still didn't qualify at Anderstorp. In '77 he tried to start a team of his own: Grand Prix Racing Danmark. He bought a Penske PC3 but a four-month long newspaper strike (!) made it a non-story in Denmark and he was never able to attract enough sponsorship to go racing.

There is a b/w picture of Jac and the Penske in the book too.

[KWSN - DSM]

Jac Nelleman was "The" Danish driver for some years in the 1970ies. He never really amounted to much outside Denmark, but he was seen by the Danes (most likely the Danish media) as a grea talent who just needed the proper funding / chance and he would be a F1 in the making.

His attempt at qualifying for the Swedish Grand Prix came to nothing, and he never tried again.

This is the picture from Forix:

http://forix.autospo...76/07033_rn.jpg

The link quoted above is to his business of selling cars, no mentioning of his racing exploits there.

He had some points in the European F3 championship in 1977, but hard to track down the results right now.

[antony duprat]

i just Know this picture from Sutton
http://www.suttonima...390D779902E7A46

[Tomas Karlsson]

Does anyone know if he was related to any of the fifties drivers Robert or Wilhelm?

[ReWind]

Originally posted by Tomas Karlsson
Does anyone know if he was related to any of the fifties drivers Robert or Wilhelm?

Yes, I do!
.
.
.
.
.
In this thread Morten Alstrup explained it all (especially posts # 14, 18, 20).

[Tomas Karlsson]

Thanks!

[Ray Bell]

I wonder what his lash in the Brabham cost him?

Ah, the good old days of buy-a-drive...

[Barry Boor]

As opposed to the modern habit of 'buy-a-drive', Ray?

[Ray Bell]

As opposed, Barry...

Or as melded into. Today it seems more like you have to buy a season.

[Barry Boor]

Oh yes.... and you need a pen that can write a lot of zeros.

[David M. Kane]

In 1974 USD around $20,000 to $30,000...or 10,000 Pounds thereabouts...other options?

[KWSN - DSM]

Originally posted by David M. Kane
In 1974 USD around $20,000 to $30,000...or 10,000 Pounds thereabouts...other options?

Sounds like the same number they came up with in one of the Nostalgia threads I read a couple of weeks ago. If anything, it's a little on the high side.

[David M. Kane]

That's based upon what they charged at Watkins Glen. Clearly, it probably is not as expensive to get the car to Sweden as opposed to the USA.

[Morten Alstrup]

Originally posted by simonlewisbooks

Anyone know any more about him?

Jac Nellemann - or Jacob Vilhelm Nellemann - as his full name is, was one of Denmark's top karters in the middle sixties, where he actually arranged the two first in-door kart meetings in the country (besides racing he was some kind of entrepreneur, as he was also instrumental in introducing both Formula Ford 1600 and Sports 2000 to Denmark).

He raced Formula Ford 1600 from 1968 til 1973, finishing fifth in the unofficial European Championship in 1970 and taking the Danish crown in 1973. Parallel to that he took his first Danish saloon car championship in 1971 aboard a Chevrolet Camaro, upon which he graduated to Formula 3, initially racing a Palliser (which has now been restored) and the GRDs at the beginning. In 1976 he became Danish F3 champion and finished 7th equal in the FIA European Championship due to a second place in the Ring Knutstorp round, and the year after that he repeated the national crown but dropped down to 19th equal in the international series.

In 1978 he won the Scandinavian Formula Super Vee title upon which he set up his own Formula Super Vee team Landsholdet , running Kurt Thiim and Peter Elgaard to first and second in the Scandinavian series, while both Kurt Thiim and Jac himself won rounds of the European series (Jac was substituting for one of his drivers). He then took Kurt Thiim into Formula 3 in 1980 with an old Chevron, where he performed wonders against more modern machinery. In 1982 he also took part in the Rallye Monte-Carlo where his Triumph was co-driven by Søren Aggerholm. After that he concentrated on building up various business, amongst others Den Blå Avis , which later was taken over by partner Karsten Ree, and then more recently the old family company.

Jac Nellemann is still involved in racing, as he is the owner the Aston Martin DBR9 that was seen last year at Le Mans as #007. And he can still race at the age of 62. He is taking part in historic races and the odd karting event, like in December 2006 when was on the winning team of the Tom Kristensen Xmas Karting event, where yours truly's team finished 17th or something like that.

As for pictures of the event go to the following website Grand Prix Photo and type 'Nellemann'. I do personally have some scans in my files, by I unfortunately cannot distribute them due to copyright protection.

[DN5]

I thought I remembered something about Jac as I recalled that he had an unusual non-qulaifying effort (as this was my time when I was so formula 1 about this time).

Here is what Autocourse said:

"The Dane, trying to qualify for his first Formula 1 race (total experience: a few laps in the car in the rain a week before!) had suffered through four changes of spark box in his initial car the team's BT42. Then he was put into thr 44B for Saturday - and promptly came to rest on the circuit yet again. "I don't know, it must be me that makes the car keep cutting out - perahaps I'm radioactive!"

I hadn't come across such an excuse before.....

Geoff

[ex Rhodie racer]

Originally posted by DN5
I thought I remembered something about Jac as I recalled that he had an unusual non-qulaifying effort (as this was my time when I was so formula 1 about this time).

Here is what Autocourse said:

"The Dane, trying to qualify for his first Formula 1 race (total experience: a few laps in the car in the rain a week before!) had suffered through four changes of spark box in his initial car the team's BT42. Then he was put into thr 44B for Saturday - and promptly came to rest on the circuit yet again. "I don't know, it must be me that makes the car keep cutting out - perahaps I'm radioactive!"

I hadn't come across such an excuse before.....

Geoff

I hope they gave him a refund.

[simonlewisbooks]

Originally posted by ex Rhodie racer


I hope they gave him a refund.

I'm fairly sure that word isn't in the F1 dictionary...

[Ticker]

In the Sutton image linked by Antony Duprat in post #7, what is the grey/silver item just ahead of the rear wing, between the rear wheels ? - it looks as if it may be some sort of mini low level additional wing but I had not expected to see such a thing ?

or am I mistaken?

[Tomas Karlsson]

It's the background...

[Ticker]

Ahh, I think it is time for a revist to the opticians !