Alan is one of the overseas contingent coming to the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing: Denny Hulme in January. He is in fact, their leader.
Alan Crocker lives in London with his wife Hilary and two children, Phil and Jaz. Alan was raised in Hamilton on hill climbs and grass track racing, becoming Raglan Grass Track champion before moving into Formula Ford in the early 70’s.
He left for England in 1975 with his life savings to do Formula Atlantic with help from Alan Burrows and qualified at Silverstone 2/10’s off of Brett Riley only to blow the Atlantic engine and thereby end the dream! Don Wood was able to organise an interview with a Formula 1 team thus the start of his F1 experience with RAM, March, ATS and Williams.
He started a property development business but missed the cut and thrust of motorsport. After acquiring his Ray, he started participating in the pre-74 series which was very popular with 2 full fields and reserves. He slowly came up through the field and with help from Bert Ray, the car became super-quick, winning the British 1600 Championship in 2000 and taking most of the lap records, some of which still stand.
Black Magic Motorsport was formed to take on Europe with the German CFFC 1600 Championship, finally winning it outright in 2008 (Alan) and 2009 (Paul McMorran). The next challenge was the HMR Dutch European Championship which we won in 2011(Alan) and 2012 (Paul).
The Ray celebrated 40 years of racing in 2011 with Alan’s car being the first built. It has held and still holds many lap records in Europe.
Most awesome circuit – Montherry Paris, the banking is so steep you can’t walk to the top
Most unusual race – Zandvoort, completing the final lap on 3 wheels to take 2nd place.
Best corners – Spa (Eau Rouge); Dijon (Virage del la Combe and Courbe de Pouas); Zandvoort (Scheivlak); Brands Hatch (Paddock Hill Bend)
Most terrifying circuit – Pau
Many events can be viewed on You Tube – blackmagiccrocker
A note on the pictures:
The planking picture was the end of a fabulous season with the HMR, celebrating on the start/finish line at Dijon after winning the European series 2011.
The trophies picture is in celebration of 40 years of Ray cars – yes, all the trophies are mine and my wife reckons at £3000 per trophy we could have had a different lifestyle!
(Thanks to Alan for providing the above anecdotes)
[youtube=http://youtu.be/zAoq4z0i3N8]
