Driving Career (1978-1995)
Dale began his driving career at the age of 16 in the Canadian amateur and vintage car ranks. His first racecar was a 1955 Cooper Formula 3 powered by a Triumph motorcycle engine. He later owned, prepared and raced a 1969 Lotus 69 Formula Ford.
In 1983, to further his skills and increase his racing acumen, Dale focused on learning the minutiae of racecars by attending the Skip Barber Racing School, the Jim Russell Racing School and the prestigious Elf-Winfield Racing School (France), finishing at the top of his class at every school. During the 1984 & 1985 racing seasons, Dale raced in the Skip Barber Northeast Division, winning multiple races and the Rookie-of-the-Year title in 1984 before transitioning to the Barber-Saab Pro Series, winning seven of 27 races over a three-year period.
During the mid-Eighties, Dale began working for the Skip Barber organization as a driving instructor and test driver. Ultimately, Dale would end up working with Skip Barber Racing, on and off in multiple roles, for 17 years. The Barber-Saab Series provided a springboard into a professional motorsports driving career with a number factory-backed sports car drives. Dale was a factory driver for Dodge in the IMSA Firehawk Series in 1988-89. He accrued multiple wins behind the wheel of a Dodge Daytona and Eagle Talon, culminating in a Firehawk Series Championship in 1989. During the 1989 season Dale performed double duty with Dodge as he was drafted into their IMSA GTU program midway through the season, beginning with Round five at Mosport. Dale won his debut outing and eventually posting three more wins before the year was over. He narrowly missed winning the 1989 GTU championship, despite missing the first four races of the season. Dale’s performances behind the wheel of the Dodge Daytona GTU car led to an offer from the factory Nissan IMSA GTO team to participate in a ‘gong show’ driver test for a seat in the 300ZX for the 1990 season. Dale competed against Johnny O'Connell, Mike Groff and Dennis Aase, winning the seat handedly. Dale raced the 300ZX from 1990 through 1992, scoring multiple wins. In 1991, Dale and his teammate were drafted into Nissan’s GTP program for the 1991 Daytona 24-hour, sharing a Nissan Group C car with Arie Luyendyk and Julian Bailey. The car was leading during the 20th hour when it suffered a right rear tire blowout at 215 mph, forcing its retirement from the race.
In 1994, Dale was the lead driver for the Brix Racing / Oldsmobile IMSA World Sports Car (WSC) team, winning his class at the Daytona 24-Hour as well as overall wins in Portland and Phoenix. Dale missed winning the WSC championship in 1994 by a mere two points. 1995 started with another class win at the Daytona 24-Hour and a solid run at the Sebring 12-Hour race. However, at the following round in Road Atlanta, Dale suffered a career-ending injury when he was collected in an accident between two slower GT cars and the Ferrari 333SP WSC car of Fabrizio Barbazza. Dale used a wheelchair for one year and on crutches for another year. After multiple surgeries and countless hours of physical therapy, Dale returned to racing ready to pursue new opportunities outside of the car.
Read more about this topic: Jeremy Dale (racing Driver)
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