On This Day

Monday 12th January 1998

22 years ago

Four time British Rally champion Roger Clark died in Leicestershire, England, at the age of 58, after suffering a stroke. Although justly famous for the first British driver to win a World Rally championship event and twice winning Britain's RAC International Rally in Ford Escorts - in 1972 (with Tony Mason as his co-driver) and in 1976 (with Stuart Pegg) - in a glittering career he won 25 other major international rallies, in Britain, Europe, Canada, and South Africa. For two decades he was not only the best of British, but was warily respected by rivals all over the world. When not rallying, which was rarely, he helped run the expanding family businesses in the Leicester area, and opened Roger Clark Cars in Narborough (Leicestershire) in the 1970s. Hit hard by the collapse of the economy in 1990, these had to close down, but in his final years, even though in precarious health, he set up Roger Clark Motor Sport, which prepared cars for others to use in rallying.