Mike Kimpton 1948-2022
Mike Kimpton, who succumbed to COVID-19 on 20 January, aged 73, having survived cancer and pneumonia, was a tour de force in the motor trade’s aftermarket accessories sector.
Apprenticed at 18 to Godfrey Davis in Welwyn, he soon established Kimpton Marketing Ltd, selling products to big players Halfords and Gordon Spice. He later bought Mountney Steering Wheels and also added roof-bar manufacturer Summit Accessories to the group.
Among 1977’s Sports 2000 pioneers, Kimpton finished ninth in the points, besting at fourth in Brands Hatch’s wet enduro in John Brown Wheels’ second Lola T490. Switching to Tiga for 1980, he was third to James Weaver and
Geoff Farmer at Donington Park’s nonchampionship National Racing Festival.
Kimpton saddled a Ford Capri
3.0S in the 1981 British Saloon Car Championship, claiming a fifth at Brands, again in the wet. Kimpton, Adrian Hall and Robert Parker also finished 13th – second S2000 behind aces Ian Taylor and Richard Eyre – in the Brands Hatch 1000Km, Britain’s world sportscar championship counter.
Outings in a Mazda RX-7 followed in 1982, and Kimpton contested FIA World Championship (Group C2) and Thundersports thereafter, mainly in Tigas with Toyota, Hart, Ford BDT and Cosworth DFL engines. In 1988, partnered by American Lon Bender at Roy Baker Racing, the proud BRDC member landed a personal best 12th in Brno’s 360km WSPC round.
Mike is survived by his wife Ann, son Dan (Mountney’s MD), daughter Louise and their families, to whom Autosport offers condolences.