Kieth O'dor

Kieth O'dor (5 April 1962 – 11 September 1995) was a British racing driver, born in Salisbury, who competed primarily in touring cars before being killed during a race at the AVUS circuit in Berlin.^[1]

Background

He raced under the surname O'dor or Odor (changing from one spelling to another from year to year) but the original family name is the Hungarian Ódor. Kieth's father, János Ódor (better known as Jan Odor of the Janspeed racing team) emigrated to the United Kingdom after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.

Touring cars

O'dor won the Group N Production Championship in 1990 driving a Nissan Skyline GTR.^[2] Based on this, Kieth moved to the British Touring Car Championship for 1991 with his father's Janspeed team, driving the Nissan Primera. His results were generally good but not spectacular, although he took an excellent high-profile win at Silverstone in the BTCC support race at the 1993 British Grand Prix—a race famous for the collision between Toyota team-mates Julian Bailey and Will Hoy which left Hoy's car on its roof, leading commentator Murray Walker to quip "The car upside down is a Toyota", parodying the company's advertising slogan at the time, "The car in front is a Toyota". Odor finished in the top six in the BTCC standings that year,^[3] but then endured a difficult 1994 season in an uncompetitive car before Nissan chose to (temporarily) end their involvement with touring car racing in Britain.

Death

He moved to a works drive with BMS Scuderia Italia, running the Nissan team in the ADAC Super-Tourenwagen-Cup (the German 2-litre touring car championship) in 1995.

Kieth won the first race of the double header meeting at AVUS (giving Nissan its first win in the series), defeating eventual champion Joachim Winkelhock's BMW. He was running third behind Winkelhock and Peter Kox in the second race when his Primera was pitched against the left wall by a front left suspension failure, which was probably triggered by the way he was riding the high kerbs of the chicanes installed in the temporary track. The Nissan spun twice and stopped sideways in the middle of the track, in the fast approach to Nordkurve. The close-following Altfrid Heger and Hans-Joachim Stuck managed to avoid the stricken Nissan, Heger clipping the spinning Primera, but it was then hit square in the right-side door by Frank Biela's Audi.

Because of his British racing background, and unlike most other competitors in the German series, Kieth was racing a right hand drive (RHD) touring car, and so he suffered serious injuries when the door on that side of the car was struck. He was airlifted to a Berlin hospital, but died later the following night.^[4]

Racing record

Career history

• 1980s – Began career in rallying.
• 1987 – British Production Saloon Car Championship – 2000cc Class Champion (Peugeot 205).
• 1989 – British Production Saloon Champion (Ford Sierra Cosworth).
• 1990 – British Group N Saloon Champion (Nissan Skyline GT-R).
• 1991 – British Touring Car Championship (Nissan Primera eZX).
• 1992 – BTCC – 12th in points (Nissan Primera eGT).
• 1993 – BTCC – 6th in points, British Grand Prix support race winner (Nissan Primera eGT).
• 1994 – BTCC – 15th in points (Nissan Primera eGT).
• 1995 – German STW Cup – 10th in points, 1 win (Nissan Primera eGT) – Killed in STW race at Avus, Berlin.

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

1. ^ – Race was stopped due of heavy rain. No points were awarded.

References

External links

• (German) Berliner Zeitung, sports
• (German) Berliner Kurier