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| Andy Rouse | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  British |
| Born | (1947-12-02)2 December 1947 (age 77) |
| Retired | 1994 |
| British Saloon / Touring Car Championship | |
| Years active | 1973–1976,1978–1994 |
| Teams | Andy Rouse Engineering BMW (GB) British Leyland Team Broadspeed Castrol Carrier Properties Ltd. CSH Racing with Esso Team Esso Uniflo Gordon Spice Racing Industrial Control Services Ltd. Kaliber Racing Team Mondeo Triumph Team Piranha |
| Wins | 60 |
| Best finish | 1st in1975,1983,1984 and1985 |
| Previous series | |
| 1987 1972 | WTCC Ford Escort Mexico Challenge |
| Championship titles | |
| 1972 1975,1983,1984,1985 1973 1974,1975,1983 1984,1985,1986,1988,1989 2003 | Ford Escort Mexico Challenge British Saloon Car Championship BSCC - Class C BSCC - Class B BSCC / BTCC - Class A Britcar |
Andrew Ernest Rouse[1] (born 2 December 1947) is a British racing driver, most notably in theBritish Saloon Car Championship.[2] He won the BSCC in 1975, 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Andy Rouse is one of the most successful drivers ever to appear in theBSCC. His 60 overall wins in the category was the highest total by any driver for many years, until being overhauled byJason Plato at Brands Hatch in the opening round of the 2011 season.
Rouse was born inDymock,Gloucestershire. Coming from an engineering background, he 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 autograss specials in his teens and then Formula Ford. In 1971 he funded his racing activities by working forBroadspeed, the race car engineering company set-up byBrummieRalph Broad. Rouse's 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.[citation needed]
His first step into saloon car racing came in 1972, when he entered theFord 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 Escorts,Triumph Dolomite Sprints andFord Capris) winning his class in 1973, 1974 and taking the title in 1975.[3]
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. Rouse drove alongsideGordon Spice in 1979 and 80, getting good results in the works Ford Capri team.[4]
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 in 1983 and 1984. His 1983 win came about afterSteve Soper, driving for the worksTWRAustin Rover team, had his championship win disqualified. Rouse took over theAlfa Romeo GTV6 entered by Pete Hall's Industrial Control Services (ICS) plc company, won his class and latterly the championship, and also founded the long running sponsorship deal between himself and ICS. He also won theWillhire 24 Hour in 1981 and 1983.[5] After competing in aRover Vitesse in 1984 and winning the title against the factory Rover team, Ford gave him the 'works' contract to build and drive their next generation touring car, theSierra Cosworth, which was to dominate the BTCC until the end of the decade. Rouse won the championship again in 1985 driving aSierra XR4Ti,[6] but this was to be his last overall title. For 1987, Ford homologated theSierra RS500, and ARE set about transforming it into a BTCC machine. The result was one of the most famous touring cars of all time.[7] Rouse never won the title outright in an RS500, although he won Class A again in 1988 and 1989. He was third overall in1988,1989 and1990.[8]
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As a prelude to the new 2.0 litre formula for 1991, Rouse built a 2.0 Sierra Sapphire run under the Hawaiian Tropic banner, driven first byRay Bellm and thenChris Hodgetts.[9] The car was not very successful, but it did give useful experience for the super touring era to come. For 1991, ARE picked up the works contract to run theToyota team. The car was a success, challenging for the1991 title. In 1992 Rouse was joined byWill Hoy, again running theToyota Carina, before setting up the worksFord Mondeo team for1993, hiringPaul Radisich to drive alongside himself. The Mondeo was the class of the field in the second half of the 1993 season, but had to give best in 1994 toAlfa Romeo. He retired from driving at the end of1994, hiringKelvin Burt as Paul's teammate for1995. That year was frustrating, and Ford gave the works contract toWest Surrey Racing for the following season. Rouse instead ran a semi-worksNissan team in1996, runningGary Ayles andOwen McAuley with limited success. Rouse later built a Super Touring specificationToyota Corolla which failed to find a racing team.[10]
Since the demise of his touring car teams, Rouse spent several years trying to promote a rival series to the BTCC; his proposed "Supercar V8" was based on a spaceframe chassis, normally aspirated V8 engine, and bodywork modelled on medium to large saloon cars. This series has not yet materialised.[citation needed]
Rouse has since wound down Andy Rouse Engineering and retired from motor racing. He now runs a commercial real estate business and restoresCadillac vehicles.[citation needed]
His son Julian is a director of theArden International racing team.[11][12]
In 2003, Andy and Julian won the 2003 Britcar season in aMercedes 190 DTM. Julian continued to race in Britcar and even competed in the 24 Hours of Silverstone a few times.[citation needed]
In 2005, a poll by readers of Motorsport Magazine voted Rouse the third greatest touring car driver ever.[13]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position – 1973–1990 in class) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded ?–1989 in class)
† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.
‡ Endurance driver.
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Team Butch Broadspeed | Tony Dron | Triumph Dolomite Sprint | Div.3 | 280 | 5th | 3rd |
| 1980 |  Belga Castrol Team | Thierry Tassin | Ford Capri III 3.0 | serT+2.5 | 415 | 7th | 6th |
| 1987 | Andy Rouse Engineering | Win Percy Thierry Tassin | Ford Sierra RS Cosworth | Div.3 | 252/rim failure | DNF | DNF |
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 |  Porsche System | Tony Dron Eberhard Draun (DNS) | Porsche 924 Carrera GT | GTP | 311 | 5th | 3rd |
| 1981 | Porsche System |  Manfred Schurti Siegfried Brunn (DNS) | Porsche 924 Carrera GT | IMSA GTO | 316 | 11th | 1st |
| 1982 | Porsche System | Richard Lloyd | Porsche 924 Carrera GT | IMSA GTO | 77/gearbox | DNF | DNF |
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Andy Rouse Engineering | Ford Sierra RS Cosworth | MNZ Ret | JAR ovr:14 cls:3 | DIJ ovr:5 cls:3 | NUR ovr:8 cls:2 | SPA Ret | 25th | 58 | ||||||
| Ford Sierra RS500 | BNO Ret | SIL Ret | FJI ovr:2 cls:2 | ||||||||||||
 Allan Moffat Enterprises | BAT Ret | CLD Ret | WEL |
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Allan Moffat Enterprises | Thierry Tassin Allan Moffat | Ford Sierra RS500 | 1 | 31 | DNF | DNF |
| 1989 | Mobil 1 Racing | Peter Brock | Ford Sierra RS500 | A | 81 | DNF | DNF |
| 1990 | Mobil 1 Racing | Peter Brock | Ford Sierra RS500 | 1 | 160 | 4th | 4th |
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Autosport National Racing Driver of the Year 1985 | Succeeded by |
| Sporting positions | ||
| Preceded by | British Touring Car Champion 1975 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | British Touring Car Champion 1983–1985 | Succeeded by |