The world of motorsport has always been home to an enormous variety of characters; some of them with their skill occasionally masked by their ego. Some have let wealth tarnish the simple pleasures in their lives or perhaps they have a tendency to be ‘a handful’ in PR terms.
Other than having a copious quantity of talent, Paddy Hopkirk, who passed away in July, was none of those. An astute businessman, a gentleman, convivial company and an endless font of stories, Paddy hid a mischievous sense of humour and a passion for doing the right thing behind his mild-mannered exterior. In later years an ambassador for BMW MINI, the British Racing Drivers’ Club and the charity ‘Road Safe’, Paddy never seemed to slow down throughout his 89 years. Best known for his victories in the Works BMC Mini Cooper ‘S’, Paddy also drove MGs with distinction.
He was born into a very different world; a world which he sometimes worried risked being forgotten. “I was interviewed at Silverstone by some MG people from India, and although they were clearly already getting into the history, they evidently hadn’t heard of Le Mans; to me it was a bit like D-Day – a moment in history that, having been born in 1933, I could remember very well as a kid in Ireland…” He went on to worry about the state of industry in the UK: “ I deal with engineers all the time and, if they ran the country, we’d all be okay because, if you give them a problem, they’ll solve it…”
Growing up in Belfast, Paddymaintaining a mechanical contrivance. Practicing with this eccentric motorcycle-engined vehicle in the grounds of a local estate, Paddy would later recall that the strange contraption, with its rear-wheel brakes, gave him an early appreciation for the merits of skid control.
