Jack Sears, the first man to win the British Saloon Car Championship, has died at the age of 86.

Motor Sport sends its condolences to his family and friends. 

Sears was a regular in the magazine and Simon Taylor visited Jack on his Norfolk farm in 2010 for lunch. A further tribute to ‘Gentleman Jack’ will published later today. 

Lunch with… Jack Sears

The epitome of the Gentleman Racer, Jack Sears also possessed a steely edge that he put to good use on the race track – but he always saw himself as a team player
By Simon Taylor

Nowadays “Professional” tends to mean doing something properly, and “Amateur” can mean the opposite. But, back in the days of Gentlemen and Players, you’d only be a Player, and get paid for taking part in a sport, if you didn’t have the means to be a Gentleman. In the 1950s, few racing drivers were pure professionals: Stirling Moss was a rare exception. Most of the others had businesses of one sort or another behind them, or were independently wealthy. This was because – apart from a very few at the top level – even works drivers were paid little, if anything at all.