Malcom WilsonMotorclub President

Malcolm starting driving at the age of 8 in a Ford and at aged 11 was taken to navigation classes to have a taste of life from the hot seat. He passed his driving test in 1973 at the age of 17 and started to take part in local rallies in a Mark 1 Anglia. He completed the Lakeland, Peak Revs, and the Derwent stages.

He has driven many cars including Peugeot, Audi, Astra, 6 R4, but is known mainly for driving all types of Ford.

In 1979 Malcolm entered and won the Pirelli Tour of Cumbria.

As every driver knows rallying is a dangerous sport and have their fair share of 'offs'. Malcolm being no exception had a big one on the 1980 Scottish Rally after giving Ari Vatanen a run for his money. After breaking both ankles he was soon back winning more rallies including the 1984 British Championship in a Ford Escort Pilot.

His forays abroad include the 1987 Pikes Peak Race in Colorado driving a Ford RS200; Australia, South Africa, and the Middle East, before hanging up his driving boots in the mid 90’s after 23 years in the sport. This wasn’t the end of Malcolm’s involvement with Motorsport but rather the beginning of a new challenge.

Having gained the sponsorship of Repsol to run and build the Ford Escort World Rally cars from Threlkeld Leys, Cockermouth with Carlos Sainz and Juha Kankkunen at the wheels for the next two years. 1999 saw a change of driver with Colin McRae at the wheel of the new look Ford Focus 01 - introduced to the rallying world on the Monte Carlo Rally and followed by two consecutive wins on the Safari Rally and Rally Portugal.

It wasn’t long before Malcolm outgrew the workshops at Threlkeld Leys and started searching for larger premises. Ford’s preference was for Malcolm to relocate south to Essex or Milton Keynes, however with Malcolm being a Cumbrian, he preferred to keep the operations running from closer to home.

After a long search Dovenby Hall was finally chosen as the new home of the Ford World Rally Team and the team moved to Dovenby in May 2000, and is still expanding to this day.

The team finally clinched the Manufacturers World Rally Championship in 2006 after 27 years, followed by another victory in 2007, and again in 2017.

Keeping Rallying in the area is very important to Malcolm and that’s one of the main reasons he sponsors and even as been known to take part in The Malcolm Wilson Rally. But on a lighter note there is a new up and coming star taking the shine off Malcolm slightly, but I don’t think he will be that concerned as the new star is his son Matthew who now drives for the Stobart WRC Team.