Denis Jenkinson
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Denis Sargent Jenkinson, Jenks or DSJ as he was known in the pages of Motor Sport, (1921-1997) was a journalist deeply involved in motorsports. As Continental Correspondent of the UK-based Motor Sport magazine, he covered Formula One and other races all over Europe.
Jenkinson became a motor sport enthusiast in the mid- 1930s, and was studying engineering at the Regent Street Polytechnic (now part of the University of Westminster) when the Second World War broke out. As a conscientious objector, he served in a civilian capacity at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. This brought him into contact with Bill Boddy, editor of Motor Sport, and other enthusiasts.
After the war Jenkinson started competing on two and four wheels, but he lacked the funds to race regularly. He found that acting as sidecar passenger to top riders enabled him to both enjoy top-level European competition himself while being paid and to scratch a living writing about it - he was passenger to Eric Oliver (with whom he became World Champion in 1949) and Marcel Masuy.
Jenks abandoned front-line competition to become Continental Correspondent for Motor Sport. He spent his summers touring Europe and his winters in a succession of 'digs' in England; Jenks eventually settled near Crondall in Hampshire in a tiny run-down house with no mains electricity or water, largely full of his archives and of parts of vehicles he was 'fettling'. He was legendary in the sport for the lack of basic domestic amenities in his home; to Jenks nothing mattered but racing. He became accepted as the 'elder statesman' of British racing journalists due to his closeness to the teams and drivers, his conversational writing style and his obvious and enduring passion for the sport.
DSJ loved to race and drive Porsche cars and coined the term wischening (pronounced as if in German) for the manner in which one may corner successfully in a Porsche 356. He later adopted an E-Type Jaguar as his work transport, although at home he had assorted decrepit vehicles including an elderly Mercedes-Benz saloon, a Citroën 2CV and others. He remained a motorcycle enthusiast, and competed in hillclimbs and sprints on his own Triumph-BSA hybrid well into his seventies.
His most famous competitive outing though was as navigator for Stirling Moss during the 1955 Mille Miglia; his article on this With Moss In The Mille Miglia is generally recognised as a classic of motor racing journalism. His book The Racing Driver was based on his experience as navigator and is a true classic worthy of any motorsports literature collection. His "pacenotes" while on this event was pioneering, leading up to today's use of pacenotes in rallying.
One of Jenks' most famous exploits was road-testing an unregistered, unsilenced and very much not road-legal Lotus Formula Two car on the roads near his Hampshire home on Christmas Day 1958, the logic being that the roads would be quiet and few police would be active.
As well as his journalism, Jenkinson went on to write several other motorsports books about Porsche, Frazer Nash, the Jaguar E-type, the 2.5 litre Formula One, Juan Manuel Fangio, the Schlumpf Collection and a particular Maserati. A compilation of some of his best pieces, and biographical articles about him, was published soon after his death as Jenks: A Passion For Motor Sport.
For many years in the 1950s he produced an annual Racing Car Review for Motor Sport, but stopped doing so as he became increasingly disgruntled with the discrepancies between the chassis numbers teams quoted and what was actually being raced; rather than compromise his journalistic integrity, Jenkinson simply stopped producing the books.
Jenkinson also developed the classification of a driver's effort into "tenths". 10/10ths being the highest, attained by only a few drivers in history; the ability to 'Tiger' (to race at ten-tenths and achieve feats that other drivers would find impossible) was seen as crucial for a champion.
In his later years, he become involved with Brooklands Museum and was involved in several adventurous operations, including exploring sealed up underground air raid shelters. Despite his advanced years, he worked as hard as any of the others involved and never asked for or received any special treatment.
Jenkinson suffered a series of strokes in 1996 and moved to a home administered by the motor industry benevolent fund BEN; he died in 1997.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None |
World Sidecar Champion (with Eric Oliver) 1949 |
Succeeded by Eric Oliver Lorenzo Dobelli |
