Tiff Needell

Born on October 29th 1951 in Havant, England, Timothy "Tiff" Needell attended the City University where he achieved an Honours Degree in Civil Engineering. He worked as a Structural Design Engineer with George Wimpy & Co Ltd. In 1975, driving a Formula Ford Lotus F69, he became 'Townsend Thoresen' Formula Ford Champion and turned professional in 1977 to drive for the 'Unipart' Formula 3 team. A year later he achieved the ultimate status of Grand Prix Driver with a couple of outings for Team Ensign. Although only joining the team while they waited for Jan Lammers to be free from his commitment to another team Tiff's results in a difficult car were every bit as good as the Dutchman's. Despite a great deal of interest in his services there were no Grand Prix seats free for 1981 so Tiff switched to Endurance Sportscar Racing to further his career and soon became established in that arena of motorsport. His best results have been two third classifications, a fourth, a fifth and a sixth in World Championship events while he has contested twelve Le Mans 24 Hours races with a best result of 3rd place in 1990 from his six finishes. Now, with the growth of World GT Racing, he is back in sportscars having returned to Le Mans, after a two year break, for the '95 race in a Jaguar XJ220 and then in '96, '97 and '98 with the Newcastle United sponsored Lister Storm. Needell began his media career writing track tests and feature stories in the early '80s. He is currently a columnist and feature writer for 'Top Gear Magazine' one of the most successful BBC publications. He is an established television personality with regular appearances as a presenter on the BBC motoring programmes Top Gear and Top Gear Motorsport. He originally joined the BBC TV motor racing commentary team in the early 80s and worked alongside Murray Walker and as anchorman. He became part of BBC 2's 'Top Gear' team in the spring of 1987, and has now completed over 90 assignments for them. He also presented 'NASCAR' and 'Indycar' on Sky Sports in 1992.