at the
1968 Dutch Grand Prix. at the
1968 Dutch Grand Prix. Oliver began a long career in motorsport in 1961, driving a
Mini in British club saloon racing. In 1962 and 1963 he raced for Ecurie Freeze in a
Marcos GT. In 1964 He raced in a
Lotus Elan driving for D.R. Fabrications team and entered GT racing, scoring some excellent results, and then having a difficult time in
Formula Three, where his natural speed was blighted by mechanical failures. Nevertheless, for 1967, Oliver was drafted into the
Team Lotus Formula Two team, which also saw him making his Grand Prix debut in the F2 class at the
German Grand Prix, where he came fifth overall and won the F2 class. In 1968, he was called up to F1 by
Colin Chapman to take over the works
Formula One seat for Team Lotus after the death of
Jim Clark. The season would turn out to be difficult, with Oliver struggling for finishes. He led the
British Grand Prix until an engine failure, and would only finish twice, his best result being third place at the season-closing
Mexican Grand Prix. In F2 he was reasonably successful driving a Lotus running for the Herts and Essex Aero Club team. At the end of the year the team was invited to compete in the four races making up the Argentine Temporada. The Herts and Essex Team finished third overall in the series. With
Jochen Rindt signing for Lotus for 1969, Oliver switched to
BRM. He was to suffer disappointing two years at the
Bourne team, which would effectively kill off his Grand Prix career. In two years, he would muster just four finishes, with his only points scores being sixth place in the
1969 Mexican Grand Prix, and fifth in the
1970 Austrian Grand Prix. However, in 1970, he led much of the Race of Champions holding off Stewart and was a strong third for most of the Dutch and British GP. The poor result in the Austrian GP which Team boss,
Louis Stanley thought he should have won, saw the best car go to
Pedro Rodríguez from then on, but Oliver still led some laps at the slipstream Italian race. Stanley described Oliver, as 'good, but not nearly as good as he thought'. The majority of his other races saw the BRM break down. Most pundits and sponsor, Yardley, were surprised and disappointed after Oliver was sacked by BRM. Jackie Stewart, judged Oliver a very good GP and Can-Am driver. Oliver's best results in these seasons would come from
endurance racing, in
John Wyer's Gulf
Ford GT40, winning the
12 Hours of Sebring and
24 Hours of Le Mans events with
Jacky Ickx in 1969, and the
24 Hours of Daytona and the
1000 km Monza in 1971 with Rodríguez. In 1969, he debuted in
CanAm, initially for Autocoast in the TI-22, and then for
Don Nichols'
Shadow team. 1971 saw him out of a full-time Formula One drive, though he had three drives in a third
McLaren. 1972 saw him concentrate mainly on CanAm with Shadow, though he would take a one-off drive for BRM at the
1972 British Grand Prix, where he retired. For 1973, Shadow entered F1, and Oliver was nominated as team leader. The
Shadow DN1 proved a difficult chassis, and once again his season was blighted by mechanical errors. However, in the
Canadian Grand Prix he ran well, and many believe he actually won the race, but the lap charts were thrown into confusion by a rain shower meaning multiple pit-stops, and a staggeringly inept deployment of a pace car by the organisers. As it was, Oliver was classified third, his only points finish of the year. 1974 saw Oliver concentrate on CanAm, taking the series title for Shadow. He was becoming more involved in the management side of Shadow, but would compete in
Formula 5000 for the team for three seasons, and even briefly returned to F1, finishing fifth in the 1977
Race of Champions, and taking 9th in the
Swedish Grand Prix. Oliver also competed in eight
NASCAR Cup Series races between 1971 and 1972, the majority of them for
Donlavey Racing. He attempted the
1972 Daytona 500 but failed to qualify. ==Arrows==