The BTCC policeman hangs up his helmet
He’s gone from being a protege of Gerry Marshall to a factory touring car driver in the glory years of the British Touring Car Championship, via success in Europe and Australia, and he’s had a long spell as the BTCC’s ‘policeman’. It’s fair to say that Jeff Allam has seen it all.
For Epsom-born Allam, the love of motorsport was kindled by his garage-owner father, and their many visits to Brands Hatch and Lydden Hill. From there he got involved in karting, but it was the friendship of his father with ex-McLaren mechanic Mike Barley that kickstarted his car racing career. “My dad had an old part-exchange Vauxhall Viva, and unbeknown to me he and Mike put together a racing car for me,” he recalls. “It was a very crude saloon car in those days, and I had my first run in it at Brands Hatch. I’ll never forget the day I dropped down Paddock Hill Bend, as it felt like a bit of a roller-coaster, but that was it.”
It wasn’t long before the fresh-faced Allam was racing against and beating Britain’s best in Special Saloons and Group 1, forming a friendship with flamboyant touring car superstar Marshall. This fast-tracked his route to becoming a professional. “I guess the first real taste of top-end performance cars was the [Vauxhall] Firenzas against Gerry [in the works DTV Vauxhall] and Tony Dron in the Dolomite Sprint,” he says. “That’s when it all started to happen, and it put me on the map really because I was as quick or quicker than Gerry. I was knocking up the odd win or finishing on the podium, and I started to get recognised.
“They were heroes of mine. Gerry taught me an awful lot about car racing, car control, how to perform and start to win
