- Andy Rouse
Andy Rouse (born
2 December 1947 ,Dymock ,Gloucestershire ) is an English race driver, most notably in theBTCC . He won theBTCC in1975 ,1983 ,1984 and1985 .Andy Rouse is regarded by many people as one of the most successful drivers ever to appear in the
BTCC and he holds the record for most overall race wins by any driver in history, 60 in total.Coming from an engineering background, Rouse was originally an apprentice with an agricultural engineering company. He had been interested in motor sport from an early age and had run self-built auto cross specials in his teens and then formula ford. In 1971 he funded his racing activities by working for
Broadspeed , the race car engineering company set-upBrummie Ralph Broad . Rouses combined engineering and driving talent soon became apparent to Broad, who then encouraged his motorsport career by providing him with assistance to race in other championships.His first step into saloon car racing came in 1972, when he entered the
Ford Escort Mexico series . He won this one-make championship in his first year, and soon stepped up into the British Saloon Car Championship. Over the following years, Rouse was successful in a number of Broadspeed entered cars (includingFord Escort s, Triumph Dolomite Sprints andFord Capri s) winning his class in1973 ,1974 and taking the title in1975 .In
1976 , Broadspeed ran the worksJaguar XJ12C cars, for which Rouse was both driver and race development engineer. Great results were expected from these powerful cars but unfortunatelyBritish Leyland stopped the program the following season following a string of poor results. With no works deal for 1978,Ralph Broad sold his stake in the company and Broadspeed soon went into liquidation.In
1981 , Rouse set up his own engineering company,Andy Rouse Engineering , taking many of the ex-Broadspeed employees with him. His success on the track continued with Championship wins in1983 and1984 . He also won theWillhire 24 Hour in 1981 and 1983. Ford then gave him the 'works' contract to build and drive their next generation touring car, the Sierra Cosworth, which was to dominate theBTCC until the end of the decade. Rouse won the championship again in1985 driving aMerkur XR4Ti , but this was to be his last overall title, although he won Class A again in 1988 and 1989. He was third overall in 1989, 1990 and 1991, before setting up the works Ford Mondeo team for 1993, hiringPaul Radisich to drive alongside himself. He retired from driving at the end of 1994, hiringKelvin Burt as Paul's team-mate for 1995. He also ran a semi-works Nissan team in 1996, and later built a Super Touring specificationToyota Corolla which failed to find a racing team.Since the demise of his touring car teams, Rouse has spent several years trying to promote a rival series to the
British Touring Car Championship ; his "Supercar V8" proposal was based around a spaceframe chassis, normally-aspirated V8 engine, and bodywork modelled on medium to large saloon cars. This series has not yet materialized.
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