Edmund Patrick Jordan, who has died aged 76 whereas present process therapy for most cancers, was an brisk entrepreneur who introduced a disruptive contact of rock and roll to System 1 within the Nineties.
Born in Dublin, Jordan flirted with the thought of becoming a member of the priesthood in his youth earlier than embarking on a profession in finance – extra particularly, turning into a clerk on the Financial institution of Eire. However Jordan was born to hustle, and this humdrum job couldn’t include him.
When a strike left him needing to earn cash elsewhere Jordan relocated to Jersey, working two jobs to get by. It was there he encountered motorsport within the type of karting on the Jersey membership’s Belle Vue circuit in St Brelade.
Upon his return to Eire, Jordan started competing – first in a kart, then in System Ford and System 3 – with combined success. It was solely a brief hop from counting cash to spending it. Nonetheless, racing turned his prime focus, and he developed aspect hustles to enhance his day job as a way of sustaining it.
In 1978 Jordan received the Duckhams-sponsored, Mondello Park-based regional System Atlantic championship in addition to the BP-backed All-Eire championship which took in races at Kirkistown, close to Bangor on the Ards peninsula. This was the catalyst for Irish racing legend Derek McMahon, who had supported Derek Daly in direction of F1 and would subsequently do the identical with the likes of David Kennedy and Tommy Byrne, to recruit Jordan for his 1979 British F3 marketing campaign alongside Stefan Johansson.
Eddie Jordan with Stefan Johansson
Picture by: Sutton Photographs
This was the season the place ground-effect aerodynamics arrived in F3, albeit in a really primary means. McMahon appreciated Jordan’s business savvy and shortly gave him extra duties in workforce administration; on observe, although, Eddie was proven the best way by the likes of Nigel Mansell, Mike Thackwell, Andrea de Cesaris and Chico Serra, regardless of a mid-season improve to the March 793 chassis which finest exploited floor impact.
Potential sponsors have been attracted by Jordan’s penchant for blarney however considerably much less engaged by his outcomes on observe, so Eddie deserted the cockpit and based his personal eponymous workforce in 1980. It was a hand-to-mouth operation, particularly in its early seasons, however Eddie Jordan Racing created alternatives for a younger Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle in addition to Byrne.
That wasn’t fairly the top of Jordan’s racing profession, although. Eddie had a ardour for music – he was a eager and ready drummer – and joined Pink Floyd supervisor Steve O’Rourke in a BMW M1 at Le Mans in 1981.
Brundle completed an in depth runner-up to Senna within the 1983 British F3 Championship, and in ’87, after working Johnny Herbert to the British F3 title, Jordan determined to take Herbert to European F3000. Herbert was already a race winner when his season was curtailed by an enormous accident precipitated by Gregor Foitek at Manufacturers Hatch.
In 1989 Jordan ran Andrew Gilbert-Scott (later Takuma Sato’s supervisor) to second place in British F3000 and Jean Alesi to the European F3000 title. System 1 beckoned and Jordan assembled a shoestring operation in his Silverstone manufacturing facility, the place Gary Anderson, Andrew Inexperienced and Mark Smith designed a automotive, launched in early 1991 in black carbon fibre – Camel cigarettes had determined to go together with Alesi to Tyrrell as an alternative – and named the Jordan 911.
John Watson checks the Jordan 911 which was later renamed the Jordan 191
Picture by: Sutton Photographs
Jordan’s launch introduced warmth from Porsche, prompting the automotive to be rebadged the 191, and sneering from the fourth property; veteran journalist Jabby Crombac famously wrote “Why do they hassle?”
“Fuck ’em,” was Jordan’s response. “I’ll present ’em.”
An opportunity assembly in a pub with Cosworth’s Bernard Ferguson facilitated a deal for second-string Cosworth V8 engines, and an brisk journey schedule yielded sponsorship from 7-Up and Fujifilm. The 191, now in patriotic inexperienced, was well-balanced and aggressive, however by late within the season the payments have been mounting up.
When driver Bertrand Gachot was jailed for spraying a London cab driver with CS fuel throughout a highway rage incident at Hyde Park Nook, Jordan’s issues have been partially solved by a cheque from Mercedes to place its protégé, Michael Schumacher, within the automotive on the Belgian Grand Prix. Schumacher made such an affect that he was relocated to the Benetton workforce, however Jordan survived the winter and hustled by way of the next seasons.
Outcomes remained patchy till the top of the last decade, when Jordan loved two fertile seasons in 1998-1999, together with a dramatic win for Damon Hill within the moist at Spa in 1998. The next season Jordan completed third within the constructors’ championship, however this was to be his workforce’s peak.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jordan Mugen Honda 199, Mika Hakkinen, McLaren MP4-14
Picture by: Sutton Photographs
Jordan bought a 40% stake in his workforce to the non-public fairness firm Warburg Pincus, and the enjoyment of his new-found wealth sapped his focus. Insiders famous that the place Eddie previously had laser focus throughout each facet of the enterprise, after this level he started to float into the background.
There have been difficulties securing sponsors, the most effective technical personnel, and engines – and the dearth of cash and competitiveness was mirrored in a rotating forged of drivers who have been anticipated to deliver a finances. By 2005 Jordan was struggling to maintain the lights on and determined to promote his remaining stake.
The workforce handed by way of plenty of palms and now competes as Aston Martin.
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Jordan expanded his enterprise pursuits into property improvement, horse racing and soccer, and continued his charity work as a patron of CLIC Sargeant (now renamed Younger Lives vs Most cancers), dovetailing this with F1 appearances on the BBC and Channel 4 once they had the published rights.
He additionally purchased one other residence in South Africa, the place he turned a neighbour of F1 tech guru Adrian Newey, who additionally has a property there. In 2024 Jordan acted as Newey’s agent in negotiations for his high-profile transfer from Crimson Bull to Aston Martin.
Though not a frequent customer to grands prix, Jordan remained well-connected, and his distinctive mixture of wit and perception made him a go-to pundit on TV and radio. In recent times he established the System for Success podcast with ex-F1 driver David Coulthard.
Eddie Jordan
Picture by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Photographs
After being identified with prostate and bladder most cancers final spring he underwent therapy together with a number of rounds of chemotherapy, however revealed in December that the most cancers had unfold to his backbone and pelvis.
“Go and get examined,” he stated on his podcast, “as a result of in life you’ve received probabilities.”
In current months he acted to safe his legacy, main a consortium to purchase the skilled arm of the London Irish rugby membership out of administration with the goal of returning it to competitors in 2026.
“EJ introduced an abundance of charisma, power and Irish attraction in every single place he went,” an announcement from the Jordan household reads. “All of us have an enormous gap lacking with out his presence. He shall be missed by so many individuals, however he leaves us with tonnes of nice recollections to maintain us smiling by way of our sorrow.”
On this article
Stuart Codling
System 1
Eddie Jordan
Jordan
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