1939 -

Born in Milton, Dunbartonshire on June 11, 1939, Stewart was the son of a motorcycle racer turned Jaguar dealer. His older brother, Jimmy, was also a racer, but because of the many crashes he experienced, Jackie was discouraged by his parents from following in his sibling's footsteps. After this, Jackie took up target shooting and just barely missed qualifying for the 1960 Olympics.

He later finally got into racing himself when a customer of his family's business asked him to test a number of his cars at a local track. Those in attendance were very impressed with Jackie's driving skill, and he was recruited by Ken Tyrell of the Formula Junior team for Cooper in 1963. In 1965 he entered the Formula 1 scene by joining Graham Hill at BRM, and won his first race later that year at Monza. In that same year, he barely missed winning the Indianapolis 500 because of equipment failure.

Stewart later re-joined Ken Tyrell's team in the 1968 season, finishing the year in second place in the World's Championship standings. He then won his first World Championship in the following year (winning 7 of 14 races), which he followed up with a second in 1970. He missed much of the '72 season because of a bleeding ulcer, but came back in the final year of his career to win his third World Championship in 1973 and in doing so set a record of races won that would stand for 14 years.

In addition to his 27 Formula One wins and 3 World Championships, Stewart has also been honored with the Order of the British Empire, and has been inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. During his career, Stewart was known for more than just his driving ability. Intelligent, outspoken and well-liked by the press, he was also one of the earliest major advocates for improvements in safety measures in the sport and remains to this day an eloquent spokesman for the sport.

In 1997, Stewart returned to the sport, this time as chairman of Stewart Grand Prix, which he owns with his son. He is said to use the same machine-like intensity in coaching as he employed in racing, and his team's future looks bright.