Race driver, 80, plans track return (From Worcester News)

Race driver, 80, plans track return

4:00pm Sunday 21st March 2010 in

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A LIFELONG motor racing enthusiast is hoping to make a competitive return to the track at the grand old age of 80.

After yet again passing the necessary medical examinations, Gordon Rae, of Lansdowne Close, Malvern, remains one of the oldest men in the UK to hold a racing licence.

Mr Rae’s long-standing love of the sport saw him start his own team – Racing Auto-mobile Engineering (RAE) – and enjoy considerable success driving single-seater Formula Vee cars, breaking lap records at most British racing circuits.

The thrill of racing has never disappeared for Mr Rae, and even in recent years he has remained heavily engaged in testing cars.

And, after celebrating his 80th birthday last week, he is now hatching plans to make a return to competitive racing for the first time in eight years.

Over the coming days he will be taking a look at some single-seater racing cars with a view to taking part in a competitive race some time towards the end of next month.

Mr Rae’s proposed return to the track is taking place with the aim of raising money for St Michael’s Hospice, Mal-vern, where his wife Elsie spent the last few months of her life in 1988 as she struggled against cancer.

Mr Rae said: “The hospice was absolutely tremendous and I have supported them ever since. I’ve been invited to look at some cars and if I like what I see then I shall go and put in some practice at the Mallory Park circuit, near Leicester.

“If I am satisfied with the performance of both myself and the car then the plan is to race.”

The discipline of Formula Vee is highly competitive and, although races are relatively short at about half-an- hour, they are nonetheless very physically demanding.

Nowadays Mr Rae keeps himself conditioned to drive through cycling and walking.

He said: “There are no wings or downforce aerodynamics in Formula Vee which enables much closer racing than something like Formula One. You have to be really on the ball the whole time. You cannot switch off for even a split-second or else you can slip from first to fifth in the blink of an eye.”