Legendary Malvern racing driver Gordon Rae sadly passed away after a short illness at the age of 92. His friend Mick Wilks pays tribute to him.

A long-standing member of the 750 Motor Club since the 1950s and a successful driver in 1172, Monoposto Formulae and latterly Formula Vee, Gordon was instrumental in inspiring many others to build road and race cars of his design.

A native of Malvern, Gordon was a man of many parts who always brought a sense of fun to everyone's life who was fortunate to be his friend.

He was an engineer par excellence and wouldn't dream of buying off the shelf anything that he could make himself. I once overheard a fellow racing driver say that he would even make his own tyres if only he had the technology!

There were many influences on Gordon's life which made him the well-rounded man he was, beginning with his father, who was a skilled engineer working before the Second World War for the nearby Morgan Sportscar Company.

After schooling in Malvern, Gordon started his working life in 1944, aged 14, as an engineering apprentice with the Flight Refuelling Company run by Sir Alan Cobham which had occupied the Morgan Motor Company works since 1940.

The Flight Refuelling Company returned to the south of England in 1946 resulting in Gordon and his father moving to the Telecommunications Research Establishment.

Gordon subsequently returned to the main establishment site in Malvern and there he remained for the rest of his working life.

While at TRE he was called up for National Service and joined the RAF.

After basic training, he completed a technical training course at Cosford RAF Station, before being posted to Training Command at South Cerney in Gloucestershire.

His love of cake would later result in the nick-name ‘Cakey’ Rae.

The influence of leading scientists on him while creating the hardware required by them for their experiments affected all that he did in his various hobbies.

This influence was clear in his aeromodelling exploits.

He had some of his successful designs published in the Aeromodeller magazine and he was one of the leading aeromodellers who put on displays of control line aircraft flying at the Festival of Britain Exhibition on the Southbank, London, in May 1951.

It was through aeromodelling in Worcestershire that I first met Gordon in the early 1950s when he was held in awe by local modellers.

His shift to cars came in the 1950s when word spread around in the locality that he was building his own racing car. This and all subsequent cars were built in a single car garage beside his family home in Malvern.

The first car was the Type A which won its first 1172 Formula race at Silverstone in Gordon's hands.

In the late 1960s, Gordon was inspired to get involved with Formula Vee racing and subsequently built the very successful Rae Vee.

This car was first raced in 1970 but over the years it was developed to become a race winning car. He continued racing in Formula Vee, latterly in hire cars until the age of 80.

His book, ‘Aircraft Speed and Vintage Team Racing’, published in 2000.

Gordon never married but he proved to be a loving father-figure to his long-term partner’s children and in turn grandchildren. He is also survived by a sister.

Gordon was a larger-than-life character who will be sorely missed by the many who were privileged to have known him.