The founder and owner of Pacific Grand Prix, Keith Wiggins represents the new generation of Formula One team principals. At only 36 years of age Keith has already proven his ability to guide Pacific to championship winning success, the team having won 10 major international motor racing championships since 1984.
Pacific's reputation for technical excellence and professionalism is a reflection of Keith Wiggins' determination to ensure that his team has the best of everything : sponsorship, technology, organisation and personnel. In Formula Ford, Formula 3 and Formula 3000 Keith's attention to detail and insistence on meeting high standards meant that Pacific brought Formula One style to the lower Formulae.
Born in Clapham, London, on July 1st 1958, Keith Wiggins developed an early interest in motor sport and began racing karts while still at school. He was immediately successful and eventually became a member of the British International Kart team. Having decided to pursue a career in motor racing, he took a job as a mechanic and worked for a leading Formula 3 team owned and run by Ron Dennis. He used the money earned as a mechanic to continue his own racing career, and in 1979 he finished second in the Dunlop Autosport British Formula Ford Championship. Unfortunately Keith was unable to raise the finance to continue racing, so until 1983 he worked as a mechanic and engineer.
In 1984 Keith founded Pacific Racing and with driver Harald Huysman the team won both the European and Benelux Formula Ford championships. In 1985 and 1986 Pacific's reputation was further enhanced when Bertrand Gachot won the British Formula Ford 1600 and Formula 2000 championships plus the 1986 Formula Ford 2000 World Cup. This was followed by a successful three year partnership between Pacific and Finnish star JJ Lehto. They won the 1987 British and European FF2000 championships plus the FF2000 World Cup, while in 1988 they entered the British Formula 3 Championship and dominated the series. In 1989 Keith decided to move Pacific into Formula 3000, and by 1991 the team had won the FIA F3000 Championship with Christian Fittipaldi.
This track record means that Pacific is the only Formula One team to have won every major single seater championship on the European motor racing ladder. Keith's reputation soon resulted in opportunities to take Pacific into Formula One, and in 1994 the team's first Grand Prix car - the Pacific-Ilmor PR01 - made its debut in Brazil.