9 replies to this topic

[Derwent Motorsport]

A couple of today's papers have features on "retired rally driver" Roger Fountain, 77, who has restored a pre war Riley that was burnt out in a fire.   Not really sure why this has hit both the Mail and Express and perhaps others with double page features.  However the name does not ring any bells to me in rallying.

Any more info guys?

[ReWind]

Maybe because he has a book to promote?
About the Author

Roger was born in Derbyshire in 1942, and was educated at Swanwick Hall Grammar School and then took a National Diploma in Design course (NDD) at Derby College of Art before doing a post-graduate year at London University, obtaining an Art Teacher's Diploma (ATD). He taught art for a short while before moving to London in 1965, working in an advertising agency as a junior designer. He then moved to Toronto, Canada with his wife Penny where he worked as an art director for five years before going freelance. He formed a design studio and ran that business for 17 years before selling the company and retiring due to health reasons in 1989. He and his wife returned to England and have lived in Lincolnshire ever since. He spends his time restoring sports cars and racing cars from the fifties and sixties. He was deeply involved in motorsport, and has competed in rallies and races at an international level for more than 30 years, racing in Europe, America, Canada and the UK. He retired from active competition in 2005. He has also enjoyed several architectural restoration projects. The largest, and he says the last, is the conversion and restoration of a derelict Georgian stable and coach house into a residence, in which he and his wife now live. Although he has written several articles for magazines, Phoenix is his first book.

[Derwent Motorsport]

Good PR by his publisher then!   Does anyone know of his competition career?  by saying he is a retired rally driver it implies he was a professional but was that the case? I can say I am retired rally, race and speed event driver but I was never paid to do it! LOL

[ReWind]

No hits on DriverDB, EWRC and RacingSportsCars.

[Tim Murray]

He was briefly a member here, posting in the Peter Broeker thread about an ex-Broeker Chevron B17 he was restoring. See this and subsequent posts.

[Rupertlt1]

Competed in a Vintage Car Race at the Detroit Grand Prix, 6 June 1982.

Finished sixth in a 1959 Cooper.

 

RGDS RLT

[D-Type]

Good PR by his publisher then!   Does anyone know of his competition career?  by saying he is a retired rally driver it implies he was a professional but was that the case? I can say I am retired rally, race and speed event driver but I was never paid to do it! LOL

I once competed in a couple of maximum 10 (was it?) car social rallies, ie navigation exercises.  Does that make me an ex-rally driver?

[hamsterace]

Certainly Roger raced a Lotus Elite with the HSCC many moons ago, occasionally co-driven by George Hadfield (Simon's late father). I recall lining up alongside him on the back row of the grid at Donington in 1992 for my first ever race (in which I drove my TVR Grantura MkIIA) and finishing right behind him at the flag - after perhaps the wettest race I have ever participated in.

 

He was a lovely chap; a true enthusiast, always with a smile on his face and with his equally charming wife Penny always in attendance. 

 

I vaguely recall him making reference to having done the odd rally, but as the posters above imply, I think these were very much of the Club/ navigational kind rather than 1000 Lakes, Monte Carlo, Safari etc....

 

At the time he was restoring a Cooper Bobtail which I think he might have had a couple of outings with, although I assume this is a different Cooper to the 1959 car referred to above.

[BRG]

Good PR by his publisher then!   Does anyone know of his competition career?  by saying he is a retired rally driver it implies he was a professional but was that the case? I can say I am retired rally, race and speed event driver but I was never paid to do it! LOL

I became a professional rally co-driver when we won the Thames Ditton Tennis Club treasure hunt and got the £5 first prize.

 

But I never encountered Mr Fountain in any rallies, as far as i can recall.

[David Birchall]

I met Roger Fountain when he lived in Toronto-about 1980 or so. Roger was/is an architect.  He was a driving force (sorry) in the Toronto based vintage racing group VARAC.  He moved to the UK and raced an Elite among other things.  There was a photo of him rolling the Elite in MotorSport--the car is upside down and about a foot off the ground-somebody must recall it? 

Roger was always an amateur -  this was "journalistic license"

 

His book:  https://www.amazon.c...n/dp/191616000X

Edited by David Birchall, 26 March 2020 - 20:56.