You may believe i lost my mind here, and perhaps i did with writing this. Though hear me out! In 1994 Keith Wiggins made it’s debut in the Formula One with his Pacific Grand Prix Team, previously known as Pacific Racing. In 1994, after an absence of 31 years(!) the Pacific Grand Prix returned on the calendar. On a different circuit, in the 1960s it was held on Laguna Seca. Both the team and the race disappeared from the grid and the calendar after 1995. It can’t be just coincidently that this happened. The same name, returning and debuting the same year, disappeared the same year.
I can understand that you don’t follow me with this one and that’s fine! The fact is that Keith Wiggins Pacific Grand Prix is the only team in the history of Formula One that entered a race that shared the same name. In 1994 and 1995 the Pacific Grand Prix (named after the region obviously) was held at Aida in Japan. While Pacific Grand Prix appeared on the grid in 1994 and 1995.
Interestingly, the Aida circuit (now known as Tanaka International Aida Circuit) was a slow and twisty circuit with a length of 3,7KM. If I understood it correctly, the teams and drivers were not that happy with the circuit. Interestingly the Pacific’s, and especially the PR01, were slow and twisty as well. In 1994, Pacific Grand Prix failed to qualify for the Pacific Grand Prix. In 1995, the team qualified both cars on the last two places on the grid. To eventually retire with gearbox failures on both Gachot’s and Montermini’s car.
It would be the last time a Formula One race was held at Aida. After the 1995, Australian Grand Prix Pacific would seize to exist as well. However, where Keith Wiggins had plans to continue in 1996, which eventually did not happen, there were also plans to continue the Pacific Grand Prix. This time on the Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia. The Formula One never went, due to the tight corners.
Was there a conspiracy going on in 1994 and 1995? Well, probably there was no conspiracy going on. However, I like to believe the Pacific Grand Prix Team was just established to appear during the Pacific Grand Prix!
