Paddy Hopkirk

Patrick Barron Hopkirk (14 April 1933 – 21 July 2022) was a rally driver from Northern Ireland, he was considered to be one of the finest rally drivers that the United Kingdom ever produced.

Following his retirement from competing he became well known for his charity work and for running his successful automotive accessories business and driving school.

Hopkirk was born in Belfast, raised as a Catholic, and educated at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare from 1945 to 1949 before attending Trinity College, Dublin until 1953.

However his academic career was held back by his dyslexia.

Hopkirk first learned the basics of car control at the age of nine, when a local clergyman left him his invalid carriage in his will.

He later graduated to a motorcycle with a sidecar - which was added at the insistence of his father, who felt it would be safer - and upon attending Trinity to study engineering, acquired an Austin 7 "Chummy" Tourer which he used to make his rally debut.

Now bitten by the car bug, Hopkirk dropped out of university to start working for Dublin's Volkswagen assembler's retail operation in Ballsbridge, where he purchased a string of used Volkswagen Beetles to enter in competitions.

Hopkirk's first win came in 1953 at the Cairncastle hillclimb at the wheel of a V.W. Beetle, reg no EI 5756.

He was offered a free Beetle for the 1953 Circuit of Ireland by Isaac Agnew of Belfast.

It would be the first of many Circuit entries: the following year he led the Circuit on the first day of the competition.

Hopkirk started his winning career in professional racing and rally driving in 1955, taking a class win at that year's Circuit of Ireland, and clinching his first Hewison Trophy, awarded to the most successful Irish rally driver of the year: he would go on to win the Trophy for three consecutive years.

By this time he had graduated to a Triumph TR2.

His success in the Triumph was noticed by the Standard Motor Company, who offered Hopkirk his first factory drive in a Standard Ten at the 1956 RAC Rally in March of that year, where he took the early lead before suffering problems later on.

Two months later he took a Standard Eight to third place in the Tulip Rally in the Netherlands - his first trip outside of Britain and Ireland.

However he lost his drive with Standard in 1958, after overdriving his car at the Alpine Rally in an effort to make up time lost due to a puncture on the Stelvio Pass, damaging the engine and forcing him to retire from the competition.

The following year he joined the Rootes Group as a works driver, initially picking up a drive in a Hillman Husky at the Safari Rally after reigning F1 World Champion Mike Hawthorn, who was originally meant to drive the car, was killed in a road accident.

Later that year he placed third overall and took a class win at the Alpine Rally in a Sunbeam Rapier, and he led the 1960 Safari Rally until his Rapier suffered a differential failure.

Whilst at Rootes Hopkirk also took part in circuit racing, winning his class in a Rapier in the touring car race supporting the 1960 British Grand Prix.

He took two Circuit of Ireland wins in 1961 and 1962 and another third at the Alpine Rally in 1961.

Hopkirk finished third at the 1962 Monte Carlo Rally in a Sunbeam Rapier.

However, Hopkirk was becoming frustrated by the Rapier's lack of reliability, culminating in all three works cars blowing their engines within the space of a kilometre at that year's Acropolis Rally.

After being impressed by a test drive of Pat Moss's Austin-Healey 3000, he set his mind on a move, joining the British Motor Corporation and making his debut in a 3000 at the Liège-Sofia-Liège rally in August.

In his second competition with the 3000, the RAC Rally, he finished in second despite having to complete two miles of a special stage with a shredded tyre after a puncture.

He first competed in a Mini at the 1963 Monte Carlo Rally, where he finished sixth.

That season he also finished second on the Tulip Rally, sixth on Liège-Sofia-Liège, and fourth on the RAC Rally.

In addition he took the Mini to third place in the Tour de France Automobile's Touring Category behind two 3.8-litre Jaguars, winning his class and the overall on handicap.

Hopkirk also achieved success in circuit racing in France that year when he and team-mate Alan Hutcheson won their class at the Le Mans 24 Hours in an MGB, despite being delayed by 90 minutes whilst digging their car out of a sandbank.

Alongside Henry Liddon he won the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally in a Mini Cooper S car number 37, with the registration number 33 EJB.

He also led BMC to the team win, with fellow Mini drivers Timo Mäkinen and Rauno Aaltonen pacing fourth and seventh.

The victory made Hopkirk a household name: he received telegrams from the then UK Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home and the Beatles, was given the Freedom of the City of Belfast, and appeared along with his Mini on Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

He went on to steer an Austin-Healey to victory at his next international rally, the Österreichische Alpenfahrt, later that year.

Hopkirk also travelled to Australia during his career to drive for the BMC Works Team in the annual Bathurst 500 race for standard production cars at the Mount Panorama Circuit.

He drove at Bathurst in a Morris Cooper S from 1965 to 1967, obtaining a best result of 6th outright and 3rd in class in the 1965 Armstrong 500 when paired with another great rally driver, Timo Mäkinen of Finland.

In 1965, he won a Coupe d'Argent at the Alpine Rally.

He won the 1965 and 1967 Circuit of Ireland Rally, the 1966 and 1967 Alpine Rally, and the 1967 Rally Acropolis.

Hopkirk was elected as a life member of the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1967, and was also president of the Historic Rally Car Register, and a patron of disability charity WheelPower.

Hopkirk was appointed MBE in the 2016 New Year Honours list.

In early 2016, Hopkirk became the IAM RoadSmart Mature Drivers Ambassador.

He was known to be very active within the charity and in addition to his mature driver work, Paddy was particularly supportive of the charity's Young Driver Ambassador.

Paddy's partnership with him lead to a number of successful initiatives to promote advanced driver training to younger people, he used his profile and network to get organisations such as the BRDC to take part and help to raise the profile of further driver training as a way to save lives on the road.