OBITUARY Russ Cockburn 1943-2020

Motorsport News was very sad to learn that the highlyrespected BMW engineer Russ Cockburn passed away last week due to coronavirus.

Cockburn’s competition heritage includes rallying to a high level in Ford Escorts, as well as hillclimbing. He was best known though for building and running BMWS, and Cockburn even counted Charly Lamm at Schnitzer among his friends. Cockburn was a paddock regular in several categories including BMW Car Club Racing, the Northern Saloon and Sportscar championship and Britcar. He had a particular passion for endurance racing, and looked after drivers such as Guy Povey, Chris Hodgetts and Ian Flux.

“They don’t use the term legend lightly but he was,”

BMWCCR boss Neil Mcdonald told Motorsport News. “Someone said if he spoke he either spoke words of wisdom or something very funny!

“He built a lot of engines, gearboxes, diffs, and was a bit of a character and a personality. Just an incredibly nice bloke who had a lot of knowledge. It’s left a big hole in the knowledge area certainly because he just knew everything, and he was in his 70s and he’s still wanting to learn new stuff, a very rare commodity.” Mcdonald confirmed also that the next BMWCCR race meeting will be held in Cockburn’s memory and there will be a trophy for him.

“He was famous for having a pair of glasses with one broken arm, because he didn’t have time to get his glasses sorted, it wasn’t important!,” Mcdonald continued. “There’s stories of him building Supertourer engines is in his bedroom of his house. He’s a rare breed.” Russ is survived by his son John who runs JC Racing in Thirsk.