David Hobbs

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David Wishart Hobbs is a former British racing driver in Formula One. He is most well- known for his role as a commentator for Formula One races in the United States, first on ESPN, then Speed Channel and finally on NBC and NBC-Sports Networks.



David Hobbs is part of the broadcast team for the NBC Sports Group’s Formula One™ coverage, which began in March 2013. Respected by fans and critics alike, Hobbs will help bring continuity to NBC Sports Group’s Formula One™ coverage. Motorsports Hall of Fame member Hobbs is a veteran commentator who draws on 30 years of racing experience, including stints in both F1™ and IndyCar. NBC will televise all F1™ races, as well as qualifying, practice sessions, studio shows and re-airs that amount to more than 100 hours of programming annually. NBC Sports Live Extra will serve as the Formula One™ live-stream platform.

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Former racing driver David Hobbs was among the 1969 F.I.A. list of graded drivers, an elite group of 27 drivers, who by their achievements were rated the best in the world. David Hobbs’s natural speed and engaging personality eventually took him around the world, racing in every major championship for the sport’s top teams in the era’s most iconic race cars: Formula 1 for McLaren, Honda, and BRM; sports cars in the Ford GT40 and Mirage, the Ferrari 512M, Porsche 917s and 956/962s. He raced IMSA Camel GT for BMW, finished fifth in the Indy 500 for McLaren, won championships in Formula 5000 and Trans Am, and even led the Daytona 500 in a NASCAR stocker. He is most closely associated with Le Mans, where he raced 20 times and finished third on two occasions. Hobbs was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009. David Hobbs has spent the last half-century as one of the sport’s most popular figures on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to the driving skills that propelled him to success in an astonishing array of machinery, out of the car David is upbeat, personable and often hilarious. Though he won more than his fair share, David’s self-deprecating stories about the times he “coulda, woulda, shoulda” are what make him a popular speaker for a variety of audiences. His commentary style, mixing fragments of the good ol’ boys with British slang and a host of hilarious, if politically incorrect, dialects, have molded the racing vocabulary of his legions of fans in America. His ability to address the human side of the sport, the physical and mental challenges, as well as the funny, frustrating, and sometimes tragic elements of racing life have made him a staple in American television since his first broadcast with CBS in the early 1970s.                                       David Hobbs - car
During his 30-year racing career, Hobbs drove nearly every kind of race car, including sports cars, IndyCar and Formula One™. He has participated in the world’s top races, including four Indianapolis 500s, and amassed 22 wins in a seven-year Formula 5000 career, second on the all-time win list. Hobbs finished third in his Formula One™ Grand Prix debut and had three third place finishes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
David also appeared in the movie Cars 2, as announcer “David Hobbscap”, a 1963 Jaguar from Hobbs’ actual hometown of Royal Leamington Spa, England.

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On Track With David Hobbs

Full Biography

David Hobbs is a British former racing driver currently employed as a commentator for NBC. In 1969 Hobbs was included in the F.I.A. list of graded drivers, an elite group of 27 drivers who by their achievements were rated the best in the world. Hobbs was also inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009.

Driving career: Hobbs was born just months before the outbreak of World War II, and has a vast, 30-year history of international driving experience at all levels of motor sports, including sports cars, touring cars, Indy cars, IMSA, Can-Am and Formula One. He has participated in the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona. He made twenty starts in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, finishing in 8th place at the first attempt in 1962, following with a pole position and a best finish of third (in 1969 and 1984) to his credit. Hobbs was due to make his F1 Grand Prix debut for Tim Parnell Racing at the 1965 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand, but a serious road accident put him in hospital for three weeks. In 1971 Hobbs won the U.S. Formula 5000 L&M Continental Series championship driving for Carl Hogan out of St. Louis, Missouri, in a McLaren M10B-Chevrolet. He won five of the eight rounds that year at Laguna Seca, Seattle, Road America (Elkhart Lake), Edmonton and Lime Rock. Twelve years later, he would claim the 1983 Trans-Am Series championship as well. He also made two NASCAR Winston Cup starts in 1976, including leading two laps at the 1976 Daytona 500 and drove a race in the 1979 International Race of Champions.

Television commentator: Hobbs provides commentary for Formula One and GP2 races (alongside Bob Varsha and former Benetton engineer Steve Matchett), the SCCA Valvoline runoffs, and parts of the 24 Hours of Daytona. He has also worked for CBS on its Daytona 500 coverage, working as both a color commentator and a feature/pit reporter.

Speaker: David Hobbs – one of the most popular figures in racing on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to the driving skills that propelled him to success in an astonishing array of machinery, out of the car David is upbeat, personable and often hilarious. His ability to address the human side of the sport, the physical and mental challenges, as well as the funny, frustrating, and sometimes tragic elements of racing life have made him a staple in American television from his first broadcast with CBS in the early 1970s through his position with SPEED and now with NBC.

Automobiles were the family business when David Wishart Hobbs was born in the British midlands in 1939. His father Howard pioneered the automatic transmission through his creation of the Hobbs Mechamatic, a component that eventually appeared on the cars raced by his youngest son. An automotive apprenticeship gave David a primer in hands-on engineering. Starting out in his mum’s Morris Oxford in 1959, he was soon in demand to drive for other owners. When he made his first trip to America to race in the 1962 Daytona Continental, he did so driving someone else’s Jaguar, while bringing his own Lotus Elite to be driven by another rising British name, Jimmy Clark.

David’s natural speed and engaging personality eventually took him around the world, racing in every major championship for the sport’s top teams in the era’s most iconic race cars: Formula 1 for McLaren, Honda, and BRM; sportscars in the Ford GT40 and Mirage, the Ferrari 512M, Porsche 917s and 956/962s. He raced IMSA Camel GT for BMW, finished fifth in the Indy 500 for McLaren, won championships in Formula 5000 and Trans Am, and even led the Daytona 500 in a NASCAR stocker. He is most closely associated with Le Mans, where he raced 20 times, finishing third on two occasions.

Though he won more than his fair share, David’s self-deprecating stories about the times he “coulda, woulda, shoulda” are a part of what makes him so popular. His commentary style, mixing fragments of the good ol’ boys (“she done blowed up”) with British slang (“mind the klag, lad”) and a host of hilarious, if politically incorrect, dialects, have molded the racing vocabulary of his legions of fans in America. David Hobbs has spent the last half-century as one of the sport’s most popular ambassadors, and he remains so today.