John Whitmore (racing driver) explained

Sir John Whitmore
Birth Name:John Henry Douglas Whitmore
Nationality:English
Birth Date:1937 10, df=yes
Years Active:1959–1966 (racing) and 1979–2017 (coaching)
Prev Series:24 Hours of Le Mans
British Saloon Car Championship
European Touring Car Championship
Prev Series Years:1959–1966
1961–1963
1965
Titles:British Saloon Car Championship
BSCC - Class A
European Touring Car Championship
Title Years:1961
1961, 1963
1965

Sir John Henry Douglas Whitmore, 2nd Baronet (16 October 1937 – 28 April 2017) was a pioneer of the executive coaching industry, an author and British racing driver.

Family life and background

John Whitmore was born on 16 October 1937, the son of Sir Francis Whitmore and Ellis Johnsen. He was educated at Eton College, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Cirencester Agricultural College. He inherited The Orsett Estate Company at Orsett, Essex, in 1962, on the death of his father. The inheritance included the family seat of Orsett Hall, from the grounds of which he used to take off and land his plane.[1] In 1968, he sold the house to his friends, Tony and Val Morgan. He married twice, first to Ella Gunilla Hansson, from whom he was divorced in 1969, and later to Diana Becchetti. He had a child from each marriage. He died on 28 April 2017.[2] [3] [4] [5]

Early career (in motor racing)

In his first year in the competition, 1961, Whitmore won the British Saloon Car Championship in his BMC Mini Minor. In 1963 he drove again in the BSCC and came second in the championship in a Mini Cooper, finishing just two points behind Jack Sears. In 1965 he won the European Touring Car Championship in a Lotus Cortina (KPU392C). He won by finishing first in his class in 8 of the 9 1965 ETCC races (and finishing first overall in 6 of the races).

Sir John drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for five years between 1959 and 1966. In the first year he finished tenth overall and second in class along with Jim Clark in the Border Reivers Lotus Elite. In 1965 (with Innes Ireland) and 1966 (with Frank Gardner) he raced in a works Ford GT40, but had to retire from the race both years with mechanical problems. At the end of 1966 he retired from racing. He returned later in life to driving in historic car events such as the Goodwood Revival.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

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

YearTeamCarClass1234567891011DCPtsClass
1961Don Moore RacingAustin Mini SevenSNEGOO
?
AIN
?
SIL
?
CRY
9
SIL
4
BRH
Ret
OUL
8
SNE
?
1st531st
1962Cooper Car Co.Austin Mini CooperSNE
?
GOO
Ret
AIN
12
SIL
8
CRY
6
AIN
10
BRHOUL'8th292nd
1963Cooper Car Co.Austin Mini CooperSNE
16
OUL
?
GOO
9
AIN
?
SIL
5
CRY
1†
SIL
7
BRH
7
BRH
4
OULSNE
7
2nd691st
1964Team LotusFord Cortina LotusSNEGOOOUL
3
AINSILCRYBRHOUL17th65th
1965Team LotusFord Cortina LotusBRHOUL
Ret
SNEGOOSILCRYBRHOULNC0NC
1966Alan Mann RacingFord Falcon SprintSNEGOOSIL
1
CRY16th167th
Team LotusFord Cortina LotusBRH
4
BRHOULBRH6th
† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

YearTeamCo-driversCarClassLaps
1959 Border Reivers Jim ClarkLotus Elite Mk.14-ClimaxGT
1.5
25710th2nd
1960 Team Lotus Engineering Innes IrelandLotus Elite Mk.14-ClimaxS
2.0
-DNADNA
1962 Ecurie Chiltern Bob OlthoffAustin-Healey 3000GT
3.0
212DNFDNF
1963 Donald Healey Motor Company Bob OlthoffAustin-Healey Sebring SpriteP
1.15
94DNFDNF
1965 Ford Advanced Vehicles Innes IrelandFord GT40GT
5.0
72DNFDNF
1966 Alan Mann Racing Frank GardnerFord GT40 Mk.IIP
+5.0
31DNFDNF

Later career (in business and coaching)

After leaving racing and the world of motor-sports, he became interested in transpersonal psychology and its emphasis on the principle of will, intention, or responsibility. He went on to apply his learning and skills first to the world of sport and then to business. In 1970, he studied at the Esalen Institute in Slates Hot Springs, California, with the likes of William Schutz (creator of team development model FIRO-B), and then trained with Harvard educationalist and tennis expert Timothy Gallwey, who created the Inner Game methodology of performance coaching.

Sir John founded the Inner Game in Britain in 1979 with a small team of Inner Game coaches trained by Gallwey.[3] Initially they coached tennis players and golfers but they soon realized the value for leaders and managers of organizations. At this point Sir John coined the term "performance coaching" - this was the birth of the modern coaching movement as we know it.

In the early 1980s he and partners founded Performance Consultants, a provider of coaching, leadership development and performance improvement.[6] Sir John and his colleagues spent much of the 1980s developing the methodology, concepts, and techniques for performance improvement in organizations and showed it was possible to improve performance, increase learning and enjoyment, and find a sense of purpose in work.[7] Sir John is regarded as the pioneer in the field of business coaching.[7] Along with Tim Gallwey, Laura Whitworth and Thomas J. Leonard, he is credited with launching modern coaching in the 1970s.[8] For some people, Sir John will always be best known as the co-creator of the GROW model, one of the most established and successful coaching models. He presented at numerous conferences around the world and contributed to many other books such as Challenging Coaching[9] and Coaching at Work.[10]

In the 1990s, Sir John was a co-founder, along with Eric Parsloe, David Clutterbuck, David Megginson and Julie Hay, of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).[11]

Sir John was involved with the Professional and Personal Coaches Association (PPCA), an organization that merged in 1998 with the International Coach Federation (ICF). He served as a Trustee for the ICF Foundation[12] until his death in 2017.

Awards

Whitmore received a number of awards outside his career in motor racing, including:

Bibliography

Whitmore wrote a book titled Coaching for Performance. published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing. It contains details of his coaching model, known as the GROW model. The first four editions sold a million copies in 23 languages. The fifth edition was published in 2017.[15]

Whitmore also wrote the foreword to and is extensively quoted in a book called Nine: Briefing from Deep Space which was published in 2005. The book is based upon interviews with extraterrestrial beings which a group of people including Whitmore, as well as Phyllis Schlemmer[16] and Uri Geller,[17] claimed to have had over a number of years.[18] The book and Whitmore himself have been quoted and spoken about on a number of websites which explore such claims.[19] [20] During the 1970s, Whitmore commissioned Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to write a script for a movie that he was intending to fund called The Nine, but the deal fell through.[21]

Media coverage

Sir John has been interviewed numerous times. Some examples include:

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.basildonuk.com/historydetail.php?id=4444&f=Basildon from The Essex Village Book, written by members of the Federation of Essex Women's Institutes and published by Countryside Books
  2. Web site: Sir John Whitmore: 1937 – 2017. www.goodwood.com.
  3. Web site: Obituary: Godfather of coaching, Sir John Whitmore is no more. 8 May 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170510144439/http://www.hrkatha.com/news/1314-obituary-godfather-of-coaching-sir-john-whitmore-is-no-more. 10 May 2017. dead.
  4. Web site: Sir John Whitmore: 1937-2017 – dailysportscar.com. www.dailysportscar.com.
  5. Web site: British Racing Drivers' Club. www.brdc.co.uk.
  6. Web site: Sir John Whitmore - Founder Of Performance Consultants International.
  7. Web site: Sir John Whitmore . Institute of Coaching . 2017-05-06.
  8. Coaching at Work (2010). "Inside Out", Coaching at Work, Vol 5, issue 3.
  9. Web site: Challenging Coaching. Challenging Coaching.
  10. Web site: Coaching and mentoring industry looks to the future - Major event draws professionals from across Europe . Training Press Releases . 2017-05-06.
  11. Book: Renton, Jane . Coaching and Mentoring: What They are and How to Make the Most of Them . New York . . 107 . 2009 . 9781576603307 . 263978214 .
  12. Web site: Home - ICF Foundation. foundationoficf.org.
  13. Web site: International Association of Coaching Blog: President's Message . Certifiedcoachblog.typepad.com . 2017-05-06.
  14. Web site: From the President | International Association of Coaching . Certifiedcoach.org . 2013-10-07 . 2017-05-06.
  15. Book: Whitmore. John. Coaching for Performance Fifth Edition: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership UPDATED 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION. en. 24 October 2017. 978-1473658127 .
  16. Web site: The Only Planet Of Choice Author Bio. www.theonlyplanetofchoice.com.
  17. Web site: Uri Geller - The Nine - Uri Geller.
  18. Web site: Sir John Whitmore. www.theonlyplanetofchoice.com.
  19. Web site: The Council Of Nine. 31 January 2013.
  20. Web site: Project Stargate: Ancient Aliens and the CIA - Conspiracy School. www.conspiracyschool.com.
  21. Web site: The Great Boor of the Galaxy . . 9 September 2016 .
  22. https://www.performanceconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/images_pdfs_InsideOut.pdf Inside Out, including John Whitmore and Tim Gallwey in conversation
  23. https://www.performanceconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/images_pdfs_Leadership_21st_Century.pdf Leadership in the 21st Century
  24. https://www.performanceconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/images_pdfs_Interview_Whitmore.pdf El Reto del Líder: En busca de los valores. Entrevista a John Whitmore
  25. https://ai.wu.ac.at/~kaiser/Coachingjournal/791925930_content-1.pdf The Evolution of Coaching: An interview with Sir John Whitmore