12/1/1938
Record updated 12-Jan-07
Alan Rees was a useful Formula Junior driver winning the British title in 1961. He started in three Grands Prix, two in a Winkelmann F2 car and a single outing in a rather tired works Cooper at the 1967 British GP. Later he was one of the founders of March Engineering and was also involved with the Shadow and Arrows teams.
Alan Brinley Rees was born in Newport in Wales, the son of a successful haulage contractor, he had the finacial support to enable him to go racing.
Starting with a Lotus 11 sports car he moved into single seaters in the early 1960s and became a very useful driver in Formula Junior winning the title in 1961 driving a Lotus 20.
This brought an invitation to join the works Lotus team for 1962. He took three wins that season in the Lotus 22 before a crash in a Lotus 23 at the Nurburgring 1000 Km sports car race curtailed his season. The Lotus 22 was surrounded by controversy during the season. von Frankenberg, a former racer and editor, alleged that the Lotus 22s were running with 1450cc engines instead of the 1100cc units specified in the rules. Colin Chapman issued a challenge stating that he would 'repeat their race-winning speeds at any European circuit'. If they were able to match their winning speeds, von Frankenberg would have to make a public apology. Monza, where Arundell had won with a fastest lap of 115.9 mph was selected. Arundell proceeded to turn in a lap at 117.1 mph. The engine was disassembled and inspected. Everything was found to be in order and von Frankenberg duly made his apology.
For 1963, he joined Roy Winkelmann's team driving a Lola Mk 5A Ford/Cosworth in Formula Junior. For the next few years he concentrated on Formula 2 driving the team's Brabhams to many wins between 1964 and 1968. His first win coming at Reims in July 1964 beating Jack Brabham, Mike Spence, Jim Clark and Denny Hulme. He took on the role of Team manager and in 1965 took on Jochen Rindt to be his team mate. He started in three Grands Prix, two in a Winkelmann F2 car and a single outing in a rather tired works Cooper at the 1967 British GP.
often beating the stars of the day, such as Rindt, Stewart and Clark. However, his Grand Prix opportunities were limited to a couple of races in the Winkelmann F2 car and a single outing in a rather tired works Cooper at the 1967 British GP.
For 1969 season Roy Winkelmann Racing switched to Lotus and Rees stopped driving to concentrate on the business side of the sport. That year he became one of the founders of March Engineering along with Robin Herd, Max Mosley and Graham Coaker.
He managed the March F1 team until the end of 1971 when he left to join the Shadow F1 team. He stayed until the end of 1976 when along with Oliver, Southgate, Patrese and Ambrosio, he left to start the Arrows team, taking most of the Shadow staff as well.
Rees was the team manager of Arrows until 1991 when the company was sold to Footwork. He then became the finance director until a couple of years later when Ohashi sold his shares back to Oliver and Rees. The two of them remained in charge until they finally sold out to Tom Walkinshaw in 1996.
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