Ray Mallock goes back to racing

First and foremost, ahead of all the team owner and constructor successes, Ray Mallock is a racing driver at heart – and it still bugs him that he never got his shot at Formula 1, especially as he reckons he’d earnt it.

“I won the British Formula Atlantic championship a couple of times” – in 1979 and ’81, when he won all 10 rounds he entered after a disappointing 1980 in the Aurora AFX British F1 championship in which he raced a Surtees, then later a Wolf. “For the second Atlantic title Bernie Ecclestone had announced the FOCA Cup and the prize for that was an F1 test with Brabham. So we thought, ‘Right, here’s the opportunity to get into F1.’ We ran a Ralt RT2 very closely with Ron Tauranac. I had a great relationship with Ron and did quite a bit of his testing and development. He was a brilliant bloke, a very practical engineer who didn’t suffer fools, but put his heart and soul into any project. A bit like Arthur [Mallock], he was always looking for the most economical way of making his cars. He really understood dynamics and the importance of torsional rigidity and suspension, geometries and dampers. I learnt a lot from Ron.

“Anyway, we did the championship and we won it. So on the Monday morning I rang Bernie: ‘It’s Ray here. I’ve won the championship. What do we do about this test drive?’ He said, ‘Oh right, OK. Well, we’ve got a few tests coming up over the next few weeks, let’s try and co-ordinate.’ I said, ‘Well, next week, I’m going off to Macau, Australia and Malaysia to race, but I can come back in between if I need to because I really don’t want to miss this.’ But he said, ‘You go and do your races and come back.’ So that’s what I did. When I got back, I called him again: ‘Hi Bernie, it’s Ray here. What about this test?’ ‘Oh, there was one last week which would have been perfect for you… probably in the next couple of weeks.’ Two or three more calls like this and by Christmas it was, ‘Well, you made your decision that you wanted to do your races in Australia, so you’ve lost your chance.’ So I never did get my F1 test drive.”

He chuckles. “To be honest Bernie probably did me a favour because I was too tall… always bashing my legs. When I didn’t get this test I noticed Group C was starting. Because of my links with Aston Martin I rang Michael Bowler, who was involved in the Nimrod programme, to see if there was any chance I could get a way in. In the end Bernie did me a favour and got me to Le Mans!”

Mallock remained focused on his career as a racing driver through the 1980s, leading Ecurie Ecosse to a pair of C2 world titles mid-decade, before RML evolved “organically” to become one of Britain’s great racing specialists. But now, as Michael Mallock forges the company into new territories, Ray can indulge his first passion once more, racing one of his father’s masterpieces. “I’m loving it,” he admits with a wide smile. “It’s my dad’s old car, his Formula Junior, a MkII Mallock from 1960. It’s actually the first example of a customer Mallock race car. There were probably about 12 built in period, three of which raced in Formula Junior and I’m fortunate enough to have one of them.

“Bernie did me a favour. I didn’t get my F1 test, but I did get to Le Mans!”

“The Mallock family thing has always been about ride and handling and back in the 1950s Arthur was very much a contemporary of Colin Chapman and Eric Broadley, in the 750 Motor Club where they were exploring ideas and the fundamentals of vehicle dynamics and suspension geometries. So the MkII U2 embodies all of that thinking. It’s a very stiff chassis, much wider than most Formula Juniors. But Arthur’s thing was also about getting onto the racetrack at the lowest possible cost, so his car used a Morris Minor back axle, Ford Popular front suspension arms (albeit modified into a swing axle) and a Morris Minor gearbox. The cars handled well and could go up against Lotuses, Coopers and Stanguellinis, but you didn’t need the same sort of bank balance. It was something an enthusiast could build at home.”

Ray admits he has some advantages that were not open to Arthur back in the day. “He never had a budget for a decent engine. I have now, so I’ve got the best of both worlds! I’ve got a car that handles fantastically – and it really does, it’s a joy to drive – and we’ve got an 1100cc MA Cosworth engine, which was the very first Cosworth customer engine. That’s what Cosworth built its business on, the Ford Anglia Formula Junior engine.”

He admits RML was formed primarily “to fund my motor racing”. In a way, it still is.