Alan Everest Brown (born in Malton, Yorkshire, 20 November 1919 – died in Guildford, Surrey, 20 January 2004) was a British racing driver from England. He took up motor racing in a Cooper, later forming the Ecurie Richmond team with Eric Brandon.
He participated in 9 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 18 May 1952 and numerous non-Championship Formula One races. He scored two championship points. He was the first driver to score championship points for Cooper and also gave the first Vanwall its race debut. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Stephen Latham
As well as being a Formula 3 champion, Alan Everest Brown was the first driver to score World Championship points for Cooper and also gave the Vanwall its race debut. He became a Formula One constructor, with the Emerysons of 1961-62, and as a private entrant he ran drivers including Jim Clark, Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham.
Born in Malton, Yorkshire, on the 20th November 1919, growing up on a farm gave him opportunities to work on vehicles and drive them. He also experienced early competition when he and his friends did motorcycle grass track races and he went on to become an apprentice mechanic at Dennis Bros, who made trucks, lawn mowers, fire engines and refuse carts. He joined the Territorial Army as a truck driver and finding himself in Reims in 1939, was unable to resist the temptation and drove the track to set a lap record for an Amy truck. During the War he joined the British Army, reaching the rank of Major, and after missing the Dunkirk evacuation was among the last British troops to leave France. Following the War, after various jobs he eventually worked as a truck salesman and he and a dealer, Bob Hamblin, sold so many that after he asked him how he could express his gratitude, Alan suggested he buy him a racing car. After buying an F3 Cooper, with Alan buying the engines, a truck and trailer, he was off on his racing career and started by finishing second in the Great Auclum hillclimb and second at Luton Hoo. He eventually sold the car to Ken Tyrrell and bought a new car on hire purchase.
In 1950 he was third in the Blandford International and in the Winfield Invitation GP, fifth in the Coupe des Races at Reims, followed by twelfth in the International Trophy F3 race. However, he himself said it wasn’t a good year; “I stuffed my car at Silverstone, but was offered another in the Monaco GP support race. I shunted that into a tobacco kiosk. Its owner cracked open some champagne while we watched the rest of the race. It all sounds a huge laugh, but I was ready to quit. I was in second place when I crashed and racing was the reason I was there. Following so soon on my crash at Silverstone, it completely undermined my confidence” However, he credits Charlie Cooper for his help in encouraging him and restoring his confidence. In the remainder of the year he took a win, three seconds and nine thirds and then helped form Ecurie Richmond with fellow driver Eric Brandon and haulage contractor Jimmy Richmond.
He and E.Brandon ran Cooper-Nortons and had a strong season in 1951, with Alan winning the high profile Luxembourg GP and then finished second to team mate Brandon at the support race at Silverstone’s International Trophy. There were victories at Draguignan and Grenziandring and he ended the season with nine wins, twelve seconds and two third place finishes and was second to Stirling Moss for the BRDC Gold Star. There was also an outing with HWM at Winfield, taking another second place finish. Smartly attired in pale blue helmet and overalls, he gained the nickname ‘Chiron’ Brown (after driver Louis Chiron). Eric won the newly introduced British 500cc Drivers’ Championship and Alan won both the Half-Litre Club’s Championship and the Light Car Cup.
For 1952, they added a pair of F2 Cooper Bristols to their F3 cars while another Cooper was raced by a young driver (who had also been an apprentice at Dennis Bros) and he said that when they were testing, “he was so much quicker than either Eric or I it was embarrassing. He was five seconds a lap faster…I knew we were up against someone very special.” The driver was Mike Hawthorn; he later said how “The only time I ever beat Mike was when I took his first girlfriend, Ann, and married her.” Ecurie Richmond enjoyed a good season and were painted pale metallic green, Brandon’s with a red noseband while Alan’s being pale blue. At Goodwood’s Lavant Cup, he was second (to Hawthorn) in the F2 race, with Eric Brandon third for a Cooper-Bristol T20 1-2-3 finish and at an extremely wet Boreham race he was the second F2 driver home (ahead of S.Moss). In F3 he won at Boreham and Fairwood, took second place finishes in the Earl of March Trophy, the International Trophy support race, Brussels GP and was fifth at Zandvoort. The year saw his World Championship debut in the Swiss GP, finishing fifth (and achieving Cooper’s first ever Championship points) which was followed by sixth in the Belgian GP at Spa, and later in the year he contested the British and Italian races.
In 1953 he had left Ecurie Richmond to join Bob Chase and raced a Mk2 Cooper-Bristol under the banner Equipe Anglais plus during this time he had also become much in demand as a test driver. There was a second place finish in the Coronation Trophy at Snetterton, plus a further second at Goodwood and third places at Goodwood and Crystal Palace. With his Sports Cooper Bristol he had a class win at the International Trophy and the Norbury Trophy plus second in class in the Nurburgring 1000km while in F3 he won the Earl of March Trophy. But there was tragedy during the Argentine GP, when nine spectators were killed after Giuseppe Farina crashed into the crowd and a young boy also died after being hit by Alan. President Peron had ordered the organisers to open the gates to the vast crowds and estimates of the number who turned up vary from 300,000 to 400,000. Hours before the race the stands were full and the police were unable to contain the growing numbers surrounding the circuit, with many standing on the grass verges along the edge of the tarmac. Some drivers wanted to postpone or abandon the start but the worry was it could cause a riot, so they raced but the spectators caused problems for the drivers, with Mike Hawthorn describing how “Time after time I waved at them to get out of the way, but this only made them worse. They began standing in the roadway holding shirts and pullovers, which they snatched away at the last moment like a toreador playing a bull”. Alan was right behind Farina’s Ferrari when a spectator crossed the track and in taking avoiding action he spun into the crowd. He said ”I was half a second behind when he had his accident, and the crowd mushroomed with people hitting my car.” The race continued, with Alan finishing eighth and both he and Farina were later exonerated of any blame. He retired in the Buenos Aires City GP at the same venue two weeks later though this time the event was nearly deserted. In later GPs that year, he finished twelfth in the Italian GP though retired from the British and German races. During the year he appeared as himself in the race movie, ‘Mask Of Dust’, which was also released as ‘Race For Life’ in some countries.
Alan had a few outings with the 500cc Beart-Cooper and took a memorable victory (and lap record) at the Easter Monday Goodwood meeting when he beat a class field which included Stirling Moss. Racing the ex-Mike Hawthorn F2 Cooper, which he had converted into a sports car, he took three strong victories with it in the Empire Trophy at Oulton Park, the Dutch Grand Prix (for sports cars) and the Hyeres 12-Hour race, with Bob Said. He retired from the Lavant Cup though was the first Vanwall works driver when the car was entered in the Daily Express International Trophy. He qualified on the front row for his heat, but spun in the appalling wet weather though fought to sixth place, and the first 2-litre car home. During the final, he was running fifth but retired when an oil pipe broke. There was a second place at Silverstone with a Jaguar XK120 and third in class with a Cooper Alta at the Brighton Speed Trials. He drove a Connaught at the International Trophy in 1955, though had to retire with transmission problems, but took second with a sport version in Brand Hatch’s Rochester Cup. In further races there he had a podium finish with a Cooper Maserati Sports plus was fourth in the Wroth Cup in a Cooper Aston Martn.
His final year of racing in 1956 saw him compete in a number of races with Ecurie Ecosse, and early results included third place at Snetterton and fourth at Goodwood. There was a good fourth place (against works Jaguars and Aston Martins) in the main sports car race at the International Trophy meeting but after stepping from the D Type after the race he announced his retirement.
Although he had been running a Ford dealership for his friend, John Coombs, he left to set up a garage with Ken Tyrrell, who had himself retired from racing. He and Ken (plus Cecil Libovitz) began running an F2 Cooper which was entered as a works car and during 1957 and 1958, entered drivers such as Jack Brabham, Innes Ireland, Carroll Shelby, Harry Schell, Masten Gregory and Bruce McLaren.
Eventually, Ken moved on and not long afterwards Alan was approached by Rodney Clarke to become the sales director at Connaught Engineering. Alan and the three other directors later bought Clarke out and formed Connaught Cars (1959) Ltd, with Alan as managing director. In 1960, an agreement was reached with Paul Emery to use the Connaught workshops to produce a range of Emeryson racing cars, but the partnership did not last long. A highlight for the Connaught-built Emerysons was Mike Spence taking victory in the Commander Yorke Trophy with a Formula Junior version in 1961.
After a brief period away from active racing, in 1963, supported by Esso, he imported a Ford Galaxie to contest the British Saloon Car Championship and his cars were raced by drivers including Jim Clark, Jack Brabham and Dan Gurney. Although remembered for his Lotus Cortina drives, Jim Clark scored his first British Saloon Car Championship win at Brands Hatch driving Alan’s Ford Galaxie. In 1964’s St.Mary’s Trophy race, Jack Brabham had a big accident in the Galaxie in qualifying, when a puncture caused the car to hit an earth bank and flipped. Motor Sport magazine describing it as “a crashing and banging the like of which had never been heard before on the Sussex circuit.” Fortunately he was uninjured but as he was walking to the pits, team boss Alan came running towards him, but hardly looking at Jack, was more concerned about the Galaxie, shouting “How bad’s my car?” A Ford Mustang was later acquired for his team, with Jack Brabham racing the 4.7-litre machine.
Moving away from racing, Alan owned a number of garage businesses and retired to Marbella, Spain, in 1990 but had returned to England when he passed away due to a heart attack on the 20th January 2004, in Guildford, Surrey.
Alan Brown – Driver-entrepeneur that scored Cooper’s first points – from 
