Alan Mann was a VR friend and subscriber with a penchant for sarcastic and very funny comments on things he read in our pages. He was also one of the most important and influential race preparation and team principals for many years, and it is very sad to have to record his passing at age 75 after a long illness—which he bore with his usual brand of humor and courage. One of the last comments he made to me while sitting in the motorized wheelchair that he needed at times was, “we could widen the track on this and lower the….etc.”
Mann raced in the 1950s and ’60s as a driver, and was in partnership with Roy Pierpoint in the Wayside garage near Gatwick Airport. After joining a Ford dealership in southern England, he set up a race preparation business that led to an invitation from Ford in the USA to run Cortinas at the Marlboro 12 Hours in 1963. After winning outright, he set up Alan Mann Racing. Contracted by Ford, he ran a range of cars for a number of important drivers. In addition to playing a key role in the Ford GT and Le Mans programs, his team won the British Saloon Car series, the European Touring Car Challenge and the FIA World GT Championship. Drivers in the Alan Mann team included Jacky Ickx, Bo Ljungfelt, Graham Hill, Frank Gardner and Sir John Whitmore.
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