Dave Morgan (7 August 1944 in Cranmore, Somerset – 6 November 2018 in Leatherhead, Surrey) was a British racing driver from England.
He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, the 1975 British Grand Prix in which, like several others, he crashed during a storm in the closing laps. He was classified 18th and thus scored no championship points. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Shepton Mallet in 1944, he started racing in 1965 with a 1-litre Mini-Cooper and had a third in class that year at Lydden. In the following year results included five victories and two podiums at Lydden, two wins and three podiums at Brands Hatch, two victories at Croft, a win at Castle Combe, then a podium at Mallory Park and class win at Snetterton. Late in the year he also raced an F3 Cooper BMC in a Formula Libre race at Brands Hatch. The following year saw him become the Mini 1000 Champion after taking four wins and eight podiums at Brands Hatch and three podiums each at Oulton Park and Mallory Park plus he contested Formula 3, racing a Brabham BT10 at Brands Hatch to take two podium finishes in Formula Libre.
In 1968 he drove Bowdown Racing’s Lola T64 with his best results eighth at Silverstone and second in a Formula Libre race at Brands Hatch.
Moving into Formula Ford for 1969, racing a Merlyn Mk11A and an Alexis his best results were a win at Brands Hatch plus third and fourth place finishes at Snetterton and Zandvoort. He was given the opportunity to show his potential in 1970 when he shared Edward Reeve’s March 703 and emerged as the best of the March drivers as the season progressed, taking second (behind Dave Walker’s Lotus 69) at Mallory Park in July and third in August at Brands Hatch. In September at Crystal Palace, he came second to Walker in their heat and went on to finish third in the final, behind Carlos Pace and Cyd Williams. Alongside his F3 racing he also competed in some Formula Ford races with an Alexis. Unfortunately, he became involved in an incident with James Hunt during a televised Daily Express Trophy F3 race at Crystal Palace in the October. Tony Trimmer started this race with a 3-point advantage over David Walker and the race was expected to be closely fought, which it proved. Walker went on to win but behind him several competitors’ racing became more frantic as the last lap approached. Eventually, on the last corner he and James Hunt (in a Lotus 59) collided with each other and both cars crashed heavily. A furious Hunt jumped out of his car, ran over to Morgan and punched him though David was later found guilty of reckless driving by the RAC, and was fined and banned. He subsequently appealed and was allowed to continue his racing, completing in Formula Atlantic in 1971. He finished sixth in the Formula Atlantic Championship with a March 702 with his best results a win at Mallory Park, podiums at Brands Hatch, Snetterton and three at Castle Combe plus fourth at Oulton Park. There was a win in an F3 race at Thruxton with a Lotus 60 plus he had occasional drives in the British Salooon Car Championship.
1972 started well when, at the first round of the European F2 Championship at Mallory Park, he qualified Ed Reeve’s Brabham-Ford BT35 (a converted Formula Atlantic car) second to Ronnie Peterson’s works March 722. He went on to win the first 50 lap leg ahead of Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Carlos Reutemann and Peter Gethin and a third place finish in the second heat saw him take overall victory.
Switching to a Brabham BT38, he won the first leg of a race at Salzburgring, leaving past and future World Champions (such as Graham Hill and Niki Lauda) behind him and was classified third on aggregate. Other good results saw him finish sixth in a highly competitive series and at the end of the year he received the Grovewood Award. He continued for two more seasons in F2 and racing Ed Reeve’s Chevron B25 in 1973 he took a fourth place in the opening race at Mallory Park though the rest of the season would prove frustrating. There were also some races in the Texaco Star Lotus 74 although even Ronnie Peterson struggled to achieve any worthwhile results with the car.
1974 saw a return to Formula Atlantic though the early season proved disappointing, with retirements at Snetterton, Oulton Park and Silverstone and only a twelfth place finish at Mallory Park. However, from July onwards his fortunes changed and there was a win at Thruxton plus second at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. Following this came podium finishes at Mallory, Brands Hatch and Oulton Park and victories at Mallory, Phoenix Park and a non championship race at Brands Hatch.
His one opportunity in Formula 1 came in 1975 with the backing of Sidney Miller’s National Organs business when he managed to raise the finance to secure a drive with Surtees for the British GP. The team had raced a single car for John Watson that season but entered a second car for David at Silverstone. After qualifying twenty third in the Matchbox Team Surtees TS16, he aquaplaned and was unfortunately one of several drivers who went off on the soaking wet circuit and ended up in the catch fencing. He was fortunately uninjured in the chaos and classified eighteenth. He also had second and third place finishes with a Chevron B29 at Silverstone in Formula Atlantic and there were a number of entries in sports cars, in the World Championship for Makes, when he shared John Lepp’s March-Hart 75S at the Nurburgring and Osterreichring. They finished seventh overall in Germany (also joined by Vern Schuppan) and fifth in Austria, though won the 2-litre class in both races.
He raced very little over the next few years but returned in 1980 and 1981 to race for Mitsubishi in the British Touring Car Championship alongside Barrie Williams. He started with a Colt though changed to a Lancer later in the season. However, despite some spectacular racing the cars weren’t competitive and the best results were third in class at Mallory Park and Brands Hatch plus fourth place finishes at Thruxton, Brands Hatch and Silverstone. Continuing with the Lancer into the second season he finished third in the Championship and took second place finishes at Thruxton and Brands Hatch, third places at Donington Park and Brands, fourth at Thruxton plus three fourths at Silverstone and sixth at Oulton Park.
Following this, he became well regarded as an engineer, overseeing a number of race teams, from the works Lolas in FFord 1600, with Julian Bailey winning the 1982 Formula Ford Festival and the Townsend Thoresen Championship. He was involved in Johnny Dumfries’s early days in Formula 3 and then worked in South Africa with Wayne Taylor’s team. In the early 1990s he was Eric van der Poele’s engineer in F3000 (Eric taking second place in the Championship with GA Engineering) before moving with him into Formula 1 with the Modena Lamborghini team. He would be remembered for his familiar pose in the pits as he pondered, any issues or problems, usually holding a pipe in one hand. While working with GA Motorsport in 1990, he promised to give up the pipe if Eric van de Poele won a race and the moment came at the Pau Grand Prix. Amusingly, as he approached the finishing line, David threw his pipe in the air and it landed on the track-where Eric unwittingly ran over it and smashed it to pieces.
In 1992 he continued in Formula 1 as an engineer with Brabham before heading to Mexico, then on to the USA to work in the CART series with Payton-Coyne Racing. He worked with Dale Coyne’s team for several seasons in IndyCars and later was involved in Formula Renault 3.5 for Epsilon Eskaudi where he helped to nurture Felix Porteiro and Robert Kubica (with Kubica the winner of the championship in 2005). He was also reunited with Eric van der Poele in 2006, working as his engineer in the GP Masters series.
He was a frequent visitor to Historic races and events, plus occasionally worked as an engineering consultant and was involved in property renovation and maintenance. Sadly David passed away after a stroke in 2018, which followed a period of ill-health and a previous stroke in 2017.
Gallery Other F1 and F5000 F Atlantic and F3
