Alan Rollinson (15 May 1943 – 2 June 2019) was a British racing driver from England.
He entered one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, the 1965 British Grand Prix, with a Cooper T71/73 run by Gerard Racing, but he failed to qualify. He competed more successfully in various other formulas, including Formula 5000.
He died of cancer in 2019. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born on May 15th, 1943 in Walsall, Staffordshire, Alan Rollinson began racing in Formula Junior and went on to enjoy a long and successful career in both open wheel and sports cars.
With support from his father, in 1962 he raced with Motor Racing Stables and acquired a new Formula Junior Cooper T59. He performed well, and alongside a fourth at Mallory Park and Aintree, seventh at Castle Combe and twelfth at Oulton Park, his best results came with second at Cadwell Park and Oulton Park, third at Castle Combe plus third twice at Goodwood, in July and October.
His first victory came the following year in the season opener at Oulton Park but he didn’t compete in all the rounds and of the ones entered he was fourth at Goodwood, fifteenth at Oulton Park and sixth at Mallory Park and Snetterton. In a side note, the Snetterton race was won by a Brabham BT6 driven by Roy James, who became involved in the Great Train Robbery. In 1964 he had a sixth place finish in the Leinster Trophy in Ireland with a Lotus and returning to the circuit the following year he took a third place podium result in a Brabham. Frank Lythgoe and Bob Gerard had noticed his performances and assisted him by acquiring an F2 Brabham BT16 for 1965 and 1966. He was entered in Gerard Racing’s Cooper T71/73 for the 1965 British Grand Prix but, up against all the multi-cylindered cars, the odds were stacked against Alan and he just failed to qualify. Despite all the success which he enjoyed in other single-seater categories over the next few years, this was the closest he ever came to taking part in a World Championship F1 race.
Racing the Lythgoe Brabham, he won the qualifying heat at a race at Brands Hatch in 1966 and in the following year drove for both for Bob Gerard and Frank Lythgoe. He impressed by finishing fifth in a very wet Mallory Park F2 race with the Gerard Racing Cooper T82 behind established drivers including John Surtees, Frank Gardner, Bruce McLaren and Jacky Ickx. The Brabham BT16 was replaced by a McLaren M4A during the season but it proved difficult for them battling against works cars though Alan eventually received the Grovewood Award. He moved back into Formula 3 in 1968 with John Bridges’s Red Rose Motor’s Chevron B9 but they faced a tough battle against the dominant Tecnos and Brabhams. He came second to Francois Cevert’s Tecno in the Prix de Paris at Montlhery but despite often running at the front his only win came at Schleizer-Dreieck Rennen in East Germany. Racing TechSpeed’s Chevron-BMW B8, he contested the Tourist Trophy, the Martini Trophy at Silverstone, a 100 mile Oulton Park event plus had three victories in one day at Mallory Park and came home second to Tony Dean’s Ferrari Dino 206S at Crystal Palace. In April that year he co-drove a Porsche 910 with John Fitzpatrick in the 6 Hour Barcelona event and they came home second, behind
Brian Muir/Francisco Godia-Sales’ GT40. There was a shared drive with Mo Nunn in the Nurburgring 1000km and back in a Porsche 910 for two races towards the end of the year he teamed with David Prophet in the Paris 1000km but his best result came with victory when racing solo in the Coupe du Salon at Monthlery.
With support from Frank Lythgoe he ran a Brabham BT21B in F3 and became the man to beat in the first part of 1969’s season. After winning the opening race at Mallory Park, he added to his tally with Snetterton, Oulton Park, two wins at Thruxton and another two at Mallory Park, plus podiums at Snetterton, Silverstone and Crystal Palace. At the support race at the British GP at Silverstone, he took victory with Natalie Goodwin’s Chevron B15 ahead of drivers including Ronnie Peterson, Reine Wisell and Tim Schenken and at season end was second to Emerson Fittipaldi.
Contesting F2 alongside this he was seventh at Hockenheim though retired at Jarama with the Roy Winkleman Racing Lotus 59 while driving Irish Racing Car’s Brabham BT30 he was sixth at Reims and seventh at Enna-Pergusa though wasn’t classified at Vallelunga. He began competing in F5000 that year and in two races with Irish Racing Car’s F2 Brabham BT30 was second to Mike Walker at Silverstone in June and third behind David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood at Mondello Park. A drive in Doug Hardwick’s Lola T142 saw him take second at Koksijde, Oulton Park and Brands Hatch and finish fifth in the Championship.
Continuing in F5000 the next year he entered two races with a Lotus 70 and was seventh at Oulton Park but did not start due to a crash at Brands Hatch. Switching to a Surtees TS5A he was fifteenth and fifth at Silverstone, seventh at Thruxton, tenth at Snetterton, fourteenth and eighteenth at Oulton Park though did not start at the final round at Brands Hatch due to his rear suspension breaking on the warm-up lap. In F2 he was tenth with the Brabham in the London Trophy at Crystal Palace then qualified on pole and went on to win the Players Trophy at Phoenix Park in the September.
At the start of 1971 he was at the the Formula 2 Gran Premio Ciudad de Bogota in Columbia in February but though only fifteenth in the first race he enjoyed international success by winning the second race the following week. This was against a quality field, and he brought Irish Racing Car’s Brabham BT3 home ahead of Rolf Stommelen, Derek Bell, Peter Westbury and Jo Siffert. From here he raced varied cars through the year, including a Daren, a March and Surtees, and in a one-off race with the Siffert Racing team’s March 701 he was fifth in the Rothmans Trophy at Oulton Park (behind Pedro Rodriguez, Peter Gethin, Jackie Stewart and Howden Ganley. Racing a Daren Mk.3 at Silverstone he retired from an RAC Sports Car Championship race in May and in the following month was twenty-second and tenth in the heats though wasn’t classified in the final. He was fourteenth in the Silverstone International with a Surtees TS7 but racing Alan McKechnie’s Surtees TS8 in F5000 he was eighth at Silverstone, fourth at Mallory Park, third at Oulton Park and fourth in the circuit’s Gold Cup (behind John Surtees, Howden Ganley and Frank Gardner). He took victory at Monza and a third place in the final round at Brands Hatch in September and entered the Rothmans World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch in October though only finished seventeenth but any result would have been meaningless and overshadowed by the fatal accident suffered by Jo Siffert. Having missed the early races, Alan ended the year fourth in the points, a position which he repeated in 1972 though now with a Lola T300. He started well with second in the opening race at Brands Hatch, behind Brian Redman’s McLaren, and then went one better by taking victory at Mallory Park. Other results included fourth at Brands Hatch, eighth at Nivelles-Baulers (Belgium), ninth at Mondello Park, seventh at Silverstone and fifth in the final round at Brands Hatch. His best results were two second place finishes at Oulton Park (behind B.Redman’s Chevron and Graham McRae’s GM1), third at Brands Hatch and Mallory Park while in another round at Brands Hatch in September, after qualifying on pole, he went on to take victory.
For 1973 Alan McKechnie acquired a McRae GM1 with which Alan contested the Tasman Series and he was fifth in the standings after taking a win at Teretonga and second places at Pukekohe and Adelaide. On returning to the UK for the European season, it proved a disappointing time with the McRae, with seventh and fourteenth at rounds at Mallory Park, ninth at Snetterton, non-qualification and retirements at Brands Hatch and retirements and a failure to start at two Silverstone races. He decided to retire from professional racing but ten years later, he teamed with his cousin Steve Thompson to contest 1983’s Thundersports Series, a domestic championship for prototype sportcars plus cars that were eligible for Can-Am and Group C2 racing. Driving a Chevron B19 and B26, despite retirements from the Snetterton, Brands Hatch and Donington rounds, there were were two fourth place finishes at Brands Hatch and Thruxton. Returning to the series the following year, in the two races contested at Brands Hatch he and John Salisbury were fourteenth in a Chevron B23 but he and Steve Thompson retired in their Grid S1. There were two further races in 1985, retiring a Chevron B16 Spyder at Oulton Park with Don Shead but in what would be his last race, he and James Wallis were fourth in a Lola T286 at Oulton Park, where he had enjoyed so much success over the years.
Away from racing, he had also run a garage and a vehicle repair business plus worked as a paint sprayer and haulier. Alan sadly passed away on the 2nd June 2019 after a battle against cancer. But, knowing he was terminally ill, a few weeks before he died he took to the track for a final time in a self prepared Mazda MX-5 at a BRDC Members’ Track Day at Silverstone for a final racing lap, much to the delight of his family and friends who were there.
