Chris Clearihan

Christopher Alfred Clearihan is an Australian motor racing driver and Air Race pilot. Born and raised in the New South Wales town of Griffith, Clearihan began his competitive lifestyle with elite high school football.

Chris Clearihan
Nationality Australian
Born10 September 1949
Griffith , NSW, Australia
Previous series
1982
1982-88
1984
1987
1992
1993
2003-05		Australian Formula Ford
Australian Sports Car Championship
ATCC
WTCC
Australian Drivers' Championship
Indonesian Grand Prix
Aussie Racing Cars
Championship titles
1982, 1985Australian Sports Car Championship

Motor racing

Clearihan's first race car was the Canon Bolwell Nagari. It was with this car, previously operated by Terry Spooner, that he showed up to Oran Park, Toby-Lee Series in 1972. With an audience of 20,000 people Clearihan claimed his first win, in his first car, at his first race. He then continued to win a lot of production sports car races in the Nagari, establishing a name for himself. Clearihan then bought a Formula Ford open wheeled Elfin and proceeded to win the TAA Driver to Europe Formula Ford race in raining conditions at Surfers Paradise.

Clearihan won two Australian Sports Car Championships in 1982 and 1985 (while finishing 2nd in 1984 and 3rd in 1983, 1986 and 1988), in addition to various state titles, the Pie Series and Scratch Races at Amaroo Park in Sydney. Finished in the top 10 in the Bathurst 1000, and eighth in the 1988 Indonesian Grand Prix. He competed consistently between 1986–92. After purchasing the Tony Edmondson Alfa Romeo Alfetta-Chevrolet Sports Sedan, Clearihan spent the next 10 year breaking all lap records.

At the 1984 Castrol 500 touring car race at the Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, Clearihan, who was to have co-driven with David Grose in a Mazda RX-7, was excluded from the meeting after qualifying following an altercation in the pits with Allan Moffat in which punches were allegedly thrown. Moffat (also driving an RX-7) and Clearihan had tangled out on the circuit with a confrontation following in the pits. After Clearihan's exclusion, the 1983 Sports Car Champion Peter Hopwood who was driving in the final round of the 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship at the meeting, was given permission to take his place in the RX-7. Moffat went on to take second place in the 500.

He won the 2008 Wakefield 300.[1]

Aircraft

Developing an interest in aircraft in 1992, Clearihan switched to flying in search of a new challenge. In 1992 and 1994 he won the Twin Engine Pylon Air Race, coming second in 1993 while still racing cars. In 1998 Clearihan won the Around Australia Air Race and continued to win other twin engine races.

More recently he has worked on developing an airstrip in Michelago, New South Wales.[2]

Career results
Season Series Position Car Team
1982 Australian Sports Car Championship 1st Kaditcha Chevrolet Chris Clearihan
1982 Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series 10th Bowin P4 Chris Clearihan
1983 Australian Sports Car Championship 3rd Kaditcha Chevrolet Canberra Sports Car Club
1984 Australian Sports Car Championship 2nd Kaditcha Chevrolet Steve Webb
1984 Australian Touring Car Championship 16th Mazda RX-7 Chris Clearihan
1985 Australian Sports Car Championship 1st Kaditcha Chevrolet Chris Clearihan
1986 Australian Sports Car Championship 3rd JWS Kaditcha Chevrolet Chris Clearihan
1986 Australian Endurance Championship 46th Toyota Corolla
Holden VK Commodore SS Group A		 Toyota Team Australia
Fred Geissler
1988 Australian Sports Car Championship 3rd Kaditcha Chevrolet Chris Clearihan
2004 Aussie Racing Car Super Series 25th Falcon-Yamaha Chris Clearihan Racing
2005 Aussie Racing Car Super Series 50th Falcon-Yamaha Chris Clearihan Racing
2006 ARMS Thunder Sports Series 3rd Future Racer-Yamaha
2007 Thunder Sports Series 7th Future Racer-Yamaha
2009 Australian Rocket Sports Championship 11th Future Racer-Yamaha
2011 Miniature Race Cars Championship 6th Future Racer-Yamaha

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

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

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 DC Points
1987 Peter Williamson Toyota Toyota Celica Supra MNZ JAR DIJ NUR SPA BNO SIL BAT
DNQ		 CLD
 WEL FJI NC 0

References
  1. "2011 WAKEFIELD 300 FAST APPROACHING". Wakefield Park Raceway website. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  2. Gocher, Keva. "Michelago airstrip proposal". Australian Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.