Alan Carter – how an 18-year-old became youngest ever GP winner
At 18 years old he became the youngest GP race winner ever – then life got in the way...
In 1983 Alan Carter seemed destined to be the next Barry Sheene. At just 18 in only his second grand prix he stormed through the Le Mans field from the back of the grid to stand on the top step of the podium. It made him the youngest GP winner ever, a record that stood for 21 years until Dani Pedrosa eclipsed him in 2004. “I actually nearly won several GPs,” says Alan today. “I finished fourth in a few, led the British GP by 13 seconds before crashing, led in South Africa before a tyre shredded, a crank broke when I was catching the leaders at Paul Ricard, the list goes on. Honestly, it’s unbelievable to me that I only won one. That said, Le Mans was very special.
“It was only my second ever GP, but after being in the leading pack at the opening round in South Africa before my chain snapped, I was full of confidence. To be honest the Yamaha was crap. In South Africa it was 15kph down in a straight line on everything else but for Le Mans we had some upgrades. We were low in the pecking order so our kit was a bit second rate, which meant we had a load of issues that saw us qualifying on the back row, but we had one trick up our sleeves… “At the end of 1982 Dunlop had a super-soft 724 tyre but this was superseded by three new compounds in 1983. When we arrived at Le Mans it was actually snowing and perishing cold and these new compounds were way too hard. I had a single 724 front tyre left over from the year before and we kept it back for the race. Dunlop got wind of this and tried to get us to give it to Christian Sarron, but dad, who was team manager, had two words for them and one was ‘off’…
“I didn’t really think I had a chance as I was so far back on the grid but I had one of those races where I made a good start and ahead of me people ran off or crashed and they did it in a way that opened gaps rather than take me out. I kept passing people, the bike was running well and I was on a roll. But I had no idea where I was in the race. “At Le Mans your pit boards are on the right side of the track and the final corner is a right so most laps I was passing riders on the outside and often missed the board. I knew I was in the top three, but that was it – I’d have fallen off if I’d known the truth! “In the last few laps raindrops started to fall and the leader, a young French star called Thierry Rapicault, rolled off. I kept it pinned, overtook him and set a new track record! “In the pits MCN journalist Norrie Whyte ran over and I said ‘Who won?’ He looked at me and said ‘You did!’ I couldn’t believe it. The next thing I knew I was on the rostrum,
‘It’s unbelievable to me that I only won one GP’
‘I had a few dark days but I’m in a good place now’
being paraded around the track and drinking too many beers!” Sadly what followed, instead of the expected glittering career was an extraordinary series of devastating personal tragedies, bad luck and uncompetitive rides that saw him fail to fulfil his potential.
Four years in 250GPs produced a best of only seventh in the championship and a move to the US saw race wins but never the AMA 250 title. After returning to the UK, a one-off WSB ride in 1994 at Donington in what was his first superbike race reminded fans of his prodigious talent when he took fourth and sixth place in two wet races on a Ducati 916 (he also won at Daytona and at the North West 200 on a Ducati Supermono that same year). By this time, however, he’d fallen out of love with racing and retired at the age of 30.
Today Alan runs a landscaping business and is back in the BSB paddock, passing on his wisdom as a riding coach to a new generation including 2018 Superstock 600 champion, Ryan Vickers.
“I had a few dark days, but I’m in a good place now and I’m feeling really fulfilled,” he reflects. “I had a good run in racing, have written a book on my life and still have a 250GP win to my name.”