I never met David Siegle-Morris (and he would not have had a clue who I was) but, as the key figure behind a rally few of those around now will have even heard of, he changed the course of my life.

As a small child I was mad about racing cars. My interest faded, maybe with the advent of 1.5 litre F1. Aircraft took over. At school, the crowd I hung out with got a bit transatlantic and raved about Cobras etc. I couldn’t see the point then. One of the mates I cycled home from school with arrived one day in 1965 bursting with the news that he’d seen works Saab rally cars, including Pat Moss-Carlsson, at the local Gulf petrol station. I was still unimpressed. I agreed to cycle down to the Excelsior Hotel at Heathrow with him the next Saturday to see what was going on. That’s all it took. The sight of mud-stained rally cars returning from virtually a circuit of the country sold it. I was going to do that. I was somehow going to do it at International level sometime too and in a Mini Cooper S.

The Gulf London International Rally ran 4 times, from 1965 to 1968. It brought top-level motor sport virtually to my front door. David Siegle-Morris was Clerk of the Course and had set out to try and recapture something of the “Liege” rally where he competed in works Healeys. Liege-Rome-Liege finally became Spa-Sophia-Liege and then disappeared as road traffic in Europe increased. The “Liege” was a rally like no other. It drove a horse and cart through even the less-restrictive regulations of its day. Rest stops? You must be joking. The “Gulf”, effectively a summer RAC Rally only slightly shorter and with less rest, also quickly outlived the UK traffic conditions of the time and was not entirely free of some controversy and tragedy as a result. By 1968, school geography lessons in OS map reading had allowed me to find my way into a service crew on the final event. 4 days with no overnight halt. I have never experienced tiredness like it before or since – and it was invaluable preparation for 20-odd Internationals with an “endurance” factor later on. All I know is that, but for that rally, my entire life would have taken a different course – and there are not many key figures you can ever say that about, are there?