Kieth O'dor


Kieth O'dor was a British racing driver, born in Salisbury, who competed primarily in touring cars. He scored Nissan's first win during the super touring era in both the British Touring Car Championship and the Super Tourenwagen Cup. He was killed during a race at the AVUS circuit in Berlin.

Background and early life

Kieth O'Dor was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire in the United Kingdom on 5 April 1962 and was the son of János Ódor whom emigrated from Hungary to the United Kingdom after the Soviet invasion in 1956. He founded the Janspeed automotive engineering company and racing team.
Kieth raced under the surname O'dor or Odor.
He was married to Anita.

Early career and British touring cars

Odor started out in rallying during the mid-1980s before switching to circuit racing, winning his class in the British Production Saloon Car Championship in 1987 driving a Peugeot 205. He won the overall championship in 1989 driving a Ford Sierra. In 1990 he won the Group N Production Championship driving a Nissan Skyline GTR prepared by his father's Janspeed outfit.
The following year Odor moved up to the British Touring Car Championship, again with his father's Janspeed team, driving a manufacturer backed Nissan Primera. He continued to drive for the team in 1992 and then enjoyed a competitive 1993 with improving results including his first pole position, podium and then securing Nissan's first BTCC win of the super touring era at the high profile Formula One grand prix support race on the Silverstone GP circuit eventually finishing sixth overall in the standings.
He continued with the team in 1994 but the Nissan was not nearly as competitive, a fourth place at Snetterton early in the season the only time the car showed any real pace. After only scoring a handful more points during the season Nissan decided to call time on the BTCC program.

Death

Following Nissan's withdrawal from the British Touring Car Championship O'dor switched to the German ADAC Super Tourenwagen Cup driving for the Nissan backed BMS Scuderia Italia in a year-old Primera. Although the Nissan was not the most competitive car O'dor was a regular top ten finisher and had the measure of his team mates.
He scored his and Nissan's first victory in the championship at the first race of the double header meeting at AVUS, defeating eventual champion Joachim Winkelhock's BMW. He was running third behind Winkelhock and Peter Kox in the second race when he clipped the barriers and spinning in the path of oncoming cars. The close-following Altfrid Heger and Hans-Joachim Stuck managed to avoid O'dor but Frank Biela's Audi crashed heavily into the driver's side of O'dor's car at 118mph.
Biela quickly extracted himself from his car, but O'dor did not. Rescuers took several minutes to reach O'dor, while cars continued to circulate behind the safety car for several laps. They were unable to open the door of the heavily damaged Nissan and it took half an hour before O'dor could be removed from the car and airlifted to hospital in Berlin. He died in the early hours of the following morning.

Racing record

Career history

YearTeamCar123456789101112131415161718192021DCPts
1991Nissan Janspeed RacingNissan Primera eGTSIL
SNE
Ret		DON
Ret		THR
11		SIL
13		BRH
15		SIL
Ret		DON
1
10		DON
2
8		OUL
10		BRH
1
Ret		BRH
2
Ret		DON
9		THR
6		SIL
11		17th10
1992Nissan Janspeed RacingNissan Primera eGTSIL
6		THR
15		OUL
12		SNE
Ret		BRH
7		DON
1
16		DON
2
8		SIL
10		KNO
1
10		KNO
2
7		PEM
9		BRH
1
10		BRH
2
8		DON
Ret		SIL
Ret		12th17
1993Nissan Castrol RacingNissan Primera eGTSIL
Ret		DON
5		SNE
DNS		DON
9		OUL
4		BRH
1
2		BRH
2
2		PEM
5		SIL
1		KNO
1
7		KNO
2
11		OUL
10		BRH
5		THR
11		DON
1
8		DON
2
11		SIL
11		6th82
1994Old Spice Nissan RacingNissan Primera eGTTHR
9		BRH
1
11		BRH
2
Ret		SNE
4		SIL
1
8		SIL
2
DNS		OUL
11		DON
1
13		DON
2
12		BRH
1
12		BRH
2
13		SIL
DNS		KNO
1
14		KNO
2
14		OUL
10		BRH
1
16		BRH
2
DNS		SIL
1
11		SIL
2
Ret		DON
1
22		DON
2
18		16th16

Complete Super Tourenwagen results

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