Go big or go home: JRDA wants a Jewish F1 world champ by 2016

Will Formula One ever see another Jewish world champion like Jody Scheckter (seen above in his Tyrrell P34 in 1976)? (photo/lothar spurzem)

Everyone knows that old "Airplane!" joke about Jews and sports, but of course there have been many excellent Jewish athletes over the years. I don't think I need to name names here, but I'm sure Sandy Koufax, Max Baer, Ron Mix and Kerri Strug ring a bell.

One sport where Jews haven't been so visible is motor racing. The Jewish Racing Drivers Association, based in the U.K., is aiming to change that. The newly founded organization made headlines today when it announced its goal of finding a Jewish Formula One world champion within five years.

Yes, you read that right.

Jody Scheckter (photo/courtesy of formulaone.com)

There's even been a Formula One competitor - sort of - from Israel, Chanoch Nissany. Nissany was a test driver for the now-defunct Minardi team and got the chance to race in a practice session at the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix, but never made it to the qualifying session. (It's generally acknowledged that Nissany's deep pockets, rather than his skill as a racer, got him as close as he did to a grand prix.)

But in general, Jews just haven't been that into motorsport, and there are currently no Jews in racing aside from Tomas Scheckter and Kenny Bernstein, a drag racing driver and former NASCAR and IndyCar team owner.

Why Jews haven't excelled in motorsport is anyone's guess. Personally, I'd pin it on anti-Semitic attitudes that persist in regions where motorsport is especially popular - the American South and Europe. And with sports such as Formula One adding more and more wealthy Muslim countries to their schedules, Jews may be even less inclined to enter motorsport (especially after what happened to Israeli tennis phenom Shahar Pe'er in Dubai two years ago).

Putting one's money on a Jewish F1 world champion is a longshot bet, to put it mildly. Obviously there are no Jews currently competing or even test driving in Formula One, nor are there any Jews in F1 feeder series such as Formula 3 and GP2, making the prospect even more unlikely.

To top it off, the sport isn't exactly known for its progressive attitudes - even non-fans may remember the Nazi-themed orgy story starring Max Mosley (then-president of the FIA, the governing body of Formula One) from a few years back. And Bernie Ecclestone, F1's president and CEO, has put his foot in his mouth a number of times - remarking once on IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, he called women "domestic appliances", and has also said that women would never excel in F1. He's also made a number of questionable statements about Jews and Hitler.

But F1 has made a few inroads in the past couple years. It crowned its first black world champion, British McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, in 2008. And after Hamilton was the target of racist heckling while practicing in Spain, the FIA launched a "Race Against Racism" campaign.

And the JRDA website does specifically say they want to find a Jewish world champion. So presumably that means the guy (or gal - hey, I can dream too, right?) doesn't actually have to win by 2016 - just be on their way to winning in the future.

Will the JRDA's goal come to fruition? I wouldn't count on it. But if you're going to dream, why not dream big? Props to the JRDA for their audacity, and I do hope they (somehow) get their wish!

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