1945-2019 Russell Brookes
Double British Rally champion Russell Brookes, famous for driving his Andrews Heat For Hire Escorts, has passed away at the age of 74.
We are sorry to have to report that Russell Brookes, one of the most successful British rally drivers of the 1970s and 1980s, died suddenly at the end of October. In a long and successful career, he won many events in Escorts and Sierra RS Cosworths, also finding time to be prominent in Vauxhalls and Opels along the way, often with the flamboyant and generous sponsorship of Andrews Heat for Hire on the flanks of the machines.
For Russell, who worked for Land Rover and later Triumph before becoming a full-time rally driver, he set up his links with Ford in 1972 by using cars prepared by Brooklyn Ford of Redditch to contest the Escort Mexico Rally Championship, recording his first victories, and followed this up with an Andrew-sponsored Escort RS2000 in which he won the Castrol/Autosport series of 1974.
Then, from 1975, he ran a series of worksprovided Escort RS1800s, becoming fast, flamboyant, and sometimes victorious against rivals such as Roger Clark, Pentti Airikkala and Billy Coleman. His first International success was in the 1976 Scottish rally, but victories in the Tulip rally of 1977, and New Zealand in 1978 showed just how competitive he always was. He always became known for his detailed knowledge of the regulations, for he and his various co-drivers were often involved in controversy (often successful) with organisers an administrators.
He won the RAC British Rally Championship in 1977, and was always competitive, though he never quite managed to win the RAC event itself.
Moving on after Boreham had retired the RS1800, he then spent years driving Talbot
Sunbeam Lotuses, Vauxhall Chevette HSRs and Opel Manta 400s — all still with Andrews sponsorship, and a number of different co-drivers (latterly with Mike Broad) — before returning to Ford and notching up several victories in Sierra RS Cosworths and, finally, a Sierra Cosworth 4x4: It was in this period that he won the RAC Rally Championship yet again, in 1989.
After retiring for competitive sport, he then set up a success business career, and was often to seen demonstrating Opels at major events at Goodwood, at Race Retro, Rally Day and other prestigious locations, and it was only cruel ill health which stopped him enjoying that second career in the mid-2010s.
To his wife, Julia, and his family, Robert and Anna, we send our most sincere and affectionate condolences. Graham Robson