THE JACKSON THREE
The jackson dynasty has three champions and brothers dom inik and cameron both claimed titles in 2018. Paul lawrence reports
Simon Jackson and his sons Cameron, 31, and Dominik, 34, are all accomplished racers and in 2018 Cameron won the hugely competitive Historic Formula Ford title while Dominik clinched the Radical Challenge. Meanwhile, dad Simon raced his Formula 3 Chevron to second place in the French Classic F3 Championship. A year earlier he won the corresponding British-based series.
“Dad has raced forever,” says Cameron. “Particularly in Caterhams in the 1990s, and we grew up around cars and race tracks. We went karting and raced at British Championship level.”
Though the brothers started out in karting, their racing careers took rather different trajectories. “I raced karts against people like Oliver Turvey and Tom On slow-Cole,” says Cameron. “I then went into BARC Formula Renault and was just getting up to speed when I had a huge off at Croft and wrote the car off. I took a fair whack to the head and we decided not to continue. I was a drummer and wanted to pursue being in a band. So I had 10 years off from racing but I always said once I could afford to go racing again and do it properly, I would.”
Dominik, on the other hand, progressed well up the single-seater ladder before the funds and opportunities were exhausted. He says: “When I did Formula BMW in Europe I was only Brit there. Lewis Hamilton was doing F3 and I was doing FBMW in the DTM paddock. Sebastian Vettel was my team-mate and Adrian Sutil was there as well. I beat them both at some point in the season.”
He raced single-seaters in the USA and raced the Tottenham car in the Superleague Formula before calling time on a professional career. Instead, he and Cameron developed property businesses in the Lincoln area and both resolved to return to racing when funds allowed.
“I went to the Silverstone Classic and saw Formula Juniors racing and loved it,” says Cameron. “So it went from there and we’ve got a Brabham BT2.”
This season, armed with a Lola T200 from the Neil Fowler stable, Cameron won an enthralling Historic FF1600 Championship after a wheel-towheel contest with Ben Mitchell.
Dominik, meanwhile, took the Radical route for his racing return. “I got back into racing last year in Radicals after about 10 years out. It was great to get back in the car and it was a big challenge as it is very competitive at the front of the Radical Challenge field. I had a warm-up year in 2017 and that gave me more experience for 2018. Steve Burgess was the big rival,” he says.
With two and a half years between the brothers, they are at a similar stage in life and both have young families. In fact, the impending arrival of Cameron’s second child almost gave Dominik a chance to race his brother’s beloved Formula Junior Brabham at the Goodwood Revival. “I was stand-by driver for Cameron’s Formula Junior at Goodwood and had a test there in the wet,” says Dominik. “They are fantastic bits of kit but totally different to drive to what I’ve done before.”
Dominik was privately relieved when he was not needed as the possibility of damaging his brother’s car was uppermost in his mind.
The brothers are close and support each other in racing. “Dom and I have worked together for years and we get on great,” says Cameron. “We live less than two miles apart. But we’ve got different approaches to the sport. I love the historic element and the close racing. I didn’t race at anywhere near as high a level as Dom did when I was younger. He was very focused on his career in motorsport and he did very well.”
They do jointly own a rare Classic Formula 3 Euroracing 101, but it has proved a troublesome project and each of them has only raced it once or twice in the last three seasons as ongoing engine issues have hampered progress. If the project was sorted it would offer the chance to take on dad Simon.
After their twin successes this season, thoughts are turning to 2019. “It has been an amazing season with 13 wins and eight second places,” says Cameron. “I led the Formula Juniors at Goodwood but lost out in the end. I would like to drive other cars and help sort them for owners. There are a lot of very quick drivers and preparers in historic racing.
“I’m working on plans for 2019 and it is difficult to get as good racing every time you go out as there is in Formula Ford. I’m a bit addicted to that! I love driving the Junior and will definitely do some of that. If I was to do Formula Ford again I’d want a challenge, maybe taking on and developing a different car. I absolutely love the Lola but I like that there are so many chassis that can win and I like the idea of a challenge with a new project.”
With two young children and another on the way, Dominik’s time for racing is restricted. “In an ideal world I’ll do more sports and GT racing with racing at Le Mans as the obvious target. We have lots of conversations when either of us is racing. For everyone else in the family it’s pretty boring,” he laughs.
Will they ever get to race against each other? “We’ve always been competitive with each other,” says Cameron. “We’ve never raced against each other, which is probably for the best. It could end badly! But we’ve had fun in rental karts.”
Dominik adds: “We’ve not yet raced against each other yet but I quite fancy having a go at some historic stuff: it’s a really nice paddock. I don’t think there’s a lot in it between us, but it would be interesting to see!” ■
The 2018 MSA British Sporting Trial champion Ian Wright won the final round on Sunday at the Gloster Trial, having not won since September.
A fabulous climb during the afternoon as conditions rapidly deteriorated, gaining seven points on second placed Roland Uglow helped him to glory.
Having returned to his liveaxle Sherpa, Josh Veale led at lunch but, three hills from the end, broke something in the drivetrain and dropped to eighth.
Boyd Webster completed the podium just ahead of autumn form man John Fack, Stuart Beare and Julian Fack who all tied.
Arthur Carroll just pipped Veale to finish top live-axle, with Andy Wilks and Jerome Fack completing the top 10 tied on 68. Pat Henson had a great day to win the intermediate independent class from Martin Grimwood.
Richard Sharp returned from a broken arm, having had the cast off in the week to finish midfield, while Darren Underwood won the Rookie class and Phil Haines won the clubman class.