EX-FORMULA ONE star Jody Scheckter has a unique place in the sport’s history.
Born and raised in East London, Cape Province in South Africa on January 29, 1950, Scheckter’s illustrious career with McLaren, Tyrrell, Wolf and Ferrari led him to 10 race wins from 112 race starts.
Jody Scheckter went through a stunning career change after becoming an F1 world champion[/caption]
Scheckter is the only African F1 driver to have won an F1 race[/caption]
He became F1 world champion with Ferrari in 1979[/caption]
After retiring he opened a weapons simulation firm in America[/caption]
Scheckter started out his F1 career in 1972 as an erratic racer labelled a “madman” by Emerson Fittipaldi following a crash at the 1973 French Grand Prix.
Fittipaldi, then the reigning world champion, went so far as to call for Scheckter to be banned from the sport.
His case was not helped when he caused a huge crash at the British Grand Prix, with eight cars destroyed in what is one of the biggest F1 crashes of all time.
The Grand Prix Drivers Association added their voice to those demanding Scheckter be removed from the motorsport, although he survived after McLaren agreed to “rest” their driver.
Scheckter’s driving took a dramatic turn after he was the first driver on the scene when Francois Cevert was killed in a crash in 1974, with the father of six saying: “From then on all I was trying to do in F1 was save my life.”
He straightened himself out and fine-tuned his talent to eventually become a world champion with Ferrari in 1979, becoming the last driver to score an F1 title with them until Michael Schumacher ended a 21-year wait in 2000.
He raced for one more season with Ferrari before retiring in 1980, and the South African remains the only driver from his continent, let alone nation to win an F1 race or be crowned world champion.
Following his racing career, Scheckter worked as a pundit for a variety of broadcasters including ITV.
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A venture into business followed with a weapons simulation firm in America which had boomed to a revenue of more than £100m by the early 1990s.
However, Scheckter eventually swapped the loud bangs and roar of car engines and firearms for a completely new line of work; organic farming.
Scheckter opened a pioneering 2,500 acre farm in conjunction with biodynamic principles, meaning it excludes synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides, with animals being the key cog in keeping soil healthy.
The Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire was home to sheep, cows and most notably water buffalo, which were used to make mozzarella cheese from 2009 – a UK first at large scale.
The farm, which had products including ice cream and sparkling wine, won a number of awards including the Taste of Britain award while Waitrose, Ocado and Gourmet Burger Kitchen were some of its customers.
From 2012 the farm has held the CarFest South every August, which raises more than £1million for UK children’s charities every year, while the Universal Cookery and Food Festival was held there in 2016.
However, the farm was forced to shut down its buffalo farming and diary manufacturing operation at the start of 2024.
An announcement on the company website cited “unprecedented levels of cost increases including our energy costs that more than doubled earlier last year”, as the reason for the closure.
The company added it had tried diversifying into new products and introducing new production methods.
It said: “However, as a consequence of the significant increases in costs, a reduction in milk volumes, and the additional capital investment required for future proofing, the very difficult and sad decision has been made to close down our buffalo farming and dairy manufacturing.”
The site has remained fully operational as a compost site and continues to take in greenwaste and produce compost.
In addition, the farm has continued to host CarFest, with no more changes being anticipated.
Two of Scheckter’s children, Toby and Tomas followed his career in becoming a racing driver.
Toby got as high as F3 and won the SKUSA SuperNats kart finals in Las Vegas in 2004.
Meanwhile, Tomas also made it to F3 but then moved over to racing in IndyCar between 2002 and 2011.
Jody Scheckter eventually opened an organic farm in Hampshire[/caption]
It was the UK’s first large scale buffalo mozzarella farm[/caption]