* Kieth O’dor (GB):
b. 5/4/1962 (Salisbury); d. 11/9/1995 (Berlin, D)
- Son of János Ódor from Janspeed
1980s - Began career in rallying;
1987 - British Production Saloon Car Championship - 2000cc Class Champion (Peugeot 205);
1989 - British Production Saloon Champion (Ford Sierra Cosworth), 11 wins;
1990 - British Group N Saloon Champion (JanSpeed Nissan Skyline GT-R);
1991 - BTCC (JanSpeed Nissan Primera eZX);
1992 – BTCC (JanSpeed Nissan Primera eGT), 12th;
1993 - BTCC (JanSpeed Nissan Primera eGT), 6th;
1994 - BTCC (JanSpeed Nissan Primera eGT),15th;
1995 – STW (scuderia Italia Nissan Primera eGT), 10th, 1 win;
Keith O’dor was born at Salisbury, Wiltshire at 5th of April, 1962. Son of János Ódor, an Hungarian man that came to England in 1957, after his native country’s invasion by the Soviet Army, following an uprising against the Communists, in order to keep Hungary under the Warsaw Pact. It was his Hungarian ascent that made his name being misspelled along all his career. His correct name was Ódor, later simplified to Odor, but in his later career, he had in his card O’dor, as we know him nowadays. At the interviews, he said, joking, that he changed it to look Irish.
He started racing in British rallies in the middle 80’s and became known for the general public after switching the mud for the race tracks of the British Saloon Car Championship in 1987. In that year, he won his first title, the 2000cc Class Championship. After a less-succeeded 1988 year, he won the Production Championship in 1989 with a Ford Sierra, winning 11 races! Next year, he won the Group N title with a Nissan engaged by JanSpeed, the team created by his father. For the remaining of his short life, he always stood with Nissan.
With 29 years old, he raced for the first time at BTCC series. With Nissan’s tuned by his father, he raced till 1994. Although he wasn’t a driver with many great results, he was very fearless and determined and many times outpaced his teammates with a bad car, although he was quite irregular. He suffered with the poor performances of the Nissan those years, although he was 6th at the BTCC final standings in 1993, grabbing a win at the Silverstone’s British F1 Grand Prix support race. The year before, he suffered one of the most spectacular BTCC’s accidents; at Donington, he lost the control of the car, left the track and took of, passing over a security fence. He escaped unharmed.
At the end of 1994, Nissan withdrawl from BTCC but he kept with the manufacturer, driving at German STW series for the Scuderia Italia team, with Ivan Capelli. The car wasn’t the best in the series, but it was improving during the year and, in September, he won the 1st race for the team at AVUS 1st race of the meeting. He was running 3rd and battling for the lead at the 2nd race when the Nissan suffered a front left suspension failure or a front left tyre explosion at the 23rd lap. The Nissan crshed at the wall, spun and stopped at the middle of the track. The first drivers behind him managed to avoid his car, although Altfrid Heger touched him slightly. Sadly, Frank Biela failed, although he tried to brake hard, he hit O’dor, “T-boning” him. Because of his English driving experience, he was driving a right-hand drive car and suffered the full impact. The damage was clearly visible and O’dor was evacuated to a Berlin hospital, after 30 minutes to extract him from the car remains. Suffering of massive head and other internal injuries, beyond some broken bones, Kieth O’dor passed away in the early morning the following day.
* References:
- Speedsport Magazine
- Motorsport Memorial
- Suite101:
http://autoracing.su....cfm/kieth_odor
- Motorsport.com
- The FASTLANE Forum
- 10 Tenths Forum