John Nicol an appreciation

John Nicol – an appreciation

John Nicol was born on March 24th 1955 and was educated in Surrey. On leaving school in the summer of 1973, he joined the Milton Advertiser & Lymington Times series of weekly newspapers as a reporter. 

He worked there for 10 years on general reporting covering the whole New Forest area from Christchurch in the west to Southampton Water in the east. As his experience increased, he specialised in court, crime and police reporting but also worked on local government and specific local interest projects. 

However, the motor racing bug had long taken hold on the young man. From the age of 12 he spent many years as a spectator at Thruxton, Brands Hatch and other venues. Then, for six years from 1973 he raced in FF 1600. 

On the back of his racing, John was largely responsible for the creation of the Pre '74 Formula Ford initiative, developing an enormously successful BRSCC-administered championship for older FF1600 cars, which could be run on smaller budgets than contemporary machines. 

In recognition of work over several years he was elected to the board of the BRSCC in 1981, so starting an association that endured two decades. In September 1983 he left journalism to work full-time in motorsport as Competitions Manager for the club. Within two months, due to personnel changes at the Brands Hatch headquarters of the Club, he was promoted to General Secretary and Competitions Director. He was further promoted a few years later to Chief Executive and held that position until October 1997. 

During his later years with the BRSCC, he also became a non-Executive Director of the Brands Hatch Leisure Group and joined that organisation in an executive capacity in January 1996 as Group Motorsport Director. 

John resigned from BHLG in May 1998 to pursue an independent career in motorsport. He created his own consultancy business and formed International Circuit Consultants, a company dealing specifically with circuits in conjunction with a long-time friend and business colleague, Christopher Parsons. 

Right up until his cruelly premature death in October 2000, John remained active in many areas of the sport, bringing his experience, diplomacy and popularity to bear on a variety of national and international projects. Just six weeks before his death, he masterminded the highly successful Jordan tribute event at Donington Park.

John was one of those rare people in motorsport who were universally popular. From novice marshals to major players at the top of the sport, everyone knew and respected John Nicol. His loss will be felt throughout the BRSCC and British motorsport.

A personal appreciation

"I first knew John as a competitor at Castle Combe in Formula Ford. I remember spotting him with his head above the roll hoop because he was so tall! From there he started the Pre '74 Formula Ford class, which was hugely successful for the club at the time. 

"Around the time that I became chairman of the BRSCC, I recognised that we needed new blood on the board and I proposed John to become a director of the club. It wasn't long before he took a full time post as competitions director and soon after that Peter Browning left. That opened the way for John to move forward and eventually become chief executive.

"We worked together for 15 years and we worked well as a team. It was a bit like Starsky and Hutch! John did so much for the club and was central to many major events. He picked up the Formula Ford Festival and built it up as well as projects like the Willhire 24 hours and the Birmingham Superprix. He also did a great deal to further the cause of the clerk of the course.

"He was a wonderful bloke. A real diplomat and a gentleman. We will all miss him very much indeed."

Howard Strawford

The career of John Nicol

Clerk of Course duties included:

• World Championship Sportscar Endurance and Sprint races at Brands Hatch from 1984 to 1989.  
• World Championship Sportscar race in 1990 at Donington on behalf of the RACMSA.  
• Deputy Clerk of the Course for the Brands Hatch Racing Club for the FIA International F3000 Championship race at Brands Hatch from 1986 to 1990.  
• Birmingham International F3000 Superprix street race from 1986 to 1990 inclusive.  
• Interserie Cup International Sportscar Races at Brands Hatch 1990-1992 and at Donington Park 1993 and 1995 and Brands Hatch again in 1996.  
• The Moosehead Grand Prix, inaugural British Formula 2 street race in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in July 1993  
• The 1989 Autoglass Tour, covering a 2100-mile route through the United Kingdom and Eire.  
• The first-ever British championship race meeting run abroad at Zandvoort, Holland in 1989 and repeated in 1994 and 1995; and also for the BRSCC championship meetings run at Croix-en-Ternois in Northern France since 1996.  
• The Willhire 24 Hour at Snetterton from 1984 until the mid-90s when it ceased.  
• The Formula Ford Festival and World Cup at Brands Hatch from 1984 to 1999.  
• Many British F3000/F2 Championship races and British Touring Car Championship races.  
• The British Truck Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 1992 and 1993.  
• Deputy Clerk of the Course for the 1993 British Kart Grand Prix and British Rallycross Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.  
• The 1994 FIA Touring Car World Cup at Donington.  
• Deputy Clerk of the Course for the 1994 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.  
• The BPR Global Endurance GT races at Donington in 1995 and Brands Hatch in 1996  
• Race Director for the Marlboro Masters Formula 3 event at Zandvoort in 1996, 1999 and 2000.  
• Clerk of the Course for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, on behalf of the RACMSA from 1995 to 2000.  
• Appointed an FIA Formula 3000 Race Director to run the Enna-Pergusa F3000 Championship race in Sicily in 1998.  
• Joint Clerk of the Course or Deputy for the Motorcycle Circuit Racing Control Board at British Superbike events in 1998 and 1999 including the World Superbike event at Brands Hatch in August 1999.  
• Clerk of the Course (and also circuit safety adviser and lead trainer of officials) for the inaugural International Formula 3 Korea Grand Prix at Changwon Circuit, South Korea in November 1999.

Other duties included:

• International Steward at World Championship Sportscar races at the Nurburgring, Fuji and the Norisring.  
• Championship Steward for more than sixty UK racing championships.  
• Member and vice-chairman of the RACMSA Race Committee.  
• Member of the RACMSA Championship Working Group.  
• Chairman of the RACMSA Working Group on Grass Roots Motor Sport.  
• Member of the RACMSA Training Steering Group and involved for several years in the formal training of other motor sports officials. For seven years assisted the governing body in the winter training programme of both licensed and unlicensed officials and involved in the training of officials overseas for other governing bodies.  
• Representative of Brands Hatch Leisure on the Association of Motor Racing Circuit Owners.  
• Chairman of "Racing Ahead", the promoters/clubs' initiative on the future of the sport.  
• Served as Chairman (President) of the Motorcycle Racing Promoters' Committee.  
• Chairman of the MSA Clerks of the Course and Stewards Training Working Group, a sub-committee of the Training Steering Group.  
• Served as requested on MSA Disciplinary and Appeals Tribunals  
• Trustee and member of the Management Committee of the Motorsport Safety Fund.  
• President of the charitable appeal Racing for Children  
• Formerly a Director of Castle Combe Circuit Ltd and the Motorcycle Circuit Racing Control Board Ltd.  
• A Director of Legends Racing Europe and Tour of Britain Management Ltd. 

The thanksgiving service

All Saints' Church in Maidstone was packed on Tuesday December 5^th 2000. Possibly the pretty church had rarely had such a full congregation and certainly it didn't appreciate who was there.
From FIA F1 race director Charlie Whiting to racing legend Gerry Marshall and stalwart Snetterton assembly area marshal Maurice Bennington, there were people from all across the sport, and the country, remembering John Nicol.
The mood was one of disappointment, not that JN was any longer with us, but that he was missing a good do. As Tim Stock reminded us, John would have been embarrassed by the number of people present and would have put the popularity of the occasion down to us all wanting an afternoon off work.
There were stories aplenty of John and his amazing appetite for life. Tales of him and Tim Stock solving a race meeting crisis with copious quantities of Cote du Rhone and neither of them remembering the solution in the morning. Tales of his amazing timekeeping, his unnerving passion for Twiglets and of his ability to structure the Pre '74 FF1600 championship into a success story. 

That congregation, though, reminded you how popular a man JN was. Yes, he may have moved away from the BRSCC a little in recent years; he was the Clerk of the Course for the British GP and a driving force behind the Korean F3 Grand Prix, but if you were a club racer he would still remember you and have time for you. It is that as much as anything which is why here was a man for whom no one had a bad word.
Politics have been rife in the sport these last few months, but they were all laid to one side that Tuesday as a sport, friends and family remembered John Malcolm Abercrombie Nicol.
He did miss a good do!

David Addison

Paul Lawrence and Martin Hadwen