Kissing The BLARNEY Stone

With Paddy Hopkirk

I think the word legend tends to get overused these days, it may be because of social media and how easy it is for people all round the world to acknowledge even mediocre accomplishments. But one gentleman who deservedly can claim the title of ‘living legend’ or a ‘legend in his own time’ is Belfast born rally icon Patrick Barron Hopkirk or as he is known Worldwide, Paddy Hopkirk. I recently joked with him, that it really should have been Baron at the front of his name as I considered him rallying royalty. Typical of the man he played it down and told me to quit talking rubbish. It was typical Scots, Irish ribbing between two people who had a just had a great weekend at Watkins Glen International reminiscing of days gone past, of great drivers and great cars. The main focus of the weekend was the Watkins Glen International Mini Festival VIP Experience presented by Towne MINI and our Grand Marshal was none other than Paddy Hopkirk. The VIP Experience idea emerged when Mini race event supremo Rachel Nelson told us about Mini being chosen as the featured Marque for the Hilliard United States Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International in NY. She thought it would be a great event to have a Mini/MINI get together and with MotorWerks Magazine’s experience in organizing the MINI USA Corrals it made sense for us to get involved. So, in late 2017 we started negotiating with WGI to come up with a VIP Experience that would be one to remember. Those that know me have probably heard this a million times, but MotorWerks Magazine is only what it is because of our West Coast Editor, Norman Nelson and his wife Jesse. They are two dedicated MINIacs who have known Paddy for many years, having first met him and Rauno Aultenon at a MINI United event in Europe. It created a friendship that continues to this day and when Norman asked Paddy if he was interested in coming over for the MINI Festival and be the Grand Marshal of the VIP Experience all it took was a check into his diary and a resounding, “Hell yes.”

Growing up in the UK in the 60s, the name Paddy Hopkirk was well known to me, not only as a rally driver to other motorsport enthusiasts but to the general public when his accomplishments on the 1964 Monte and 1968 London to Sydney rallies not only had him on the evening TV news but at the London Palladium in front of 20 million viewers on live television. You were always reading in the motorsport press about Paddy and coupled with name recognition of his business enterprises, he was truly a household name. Imagine asking the British public to name a British rally driver in this day and age. Chances are it would still be Paddy Hopkirk’s name that would come out. It is interesting that Paddy made a comment similar to Grand Prix Champion Jackie Stewart in that when he won, he was British and when he lost he was Scottish. In Paddy’s case he believed being Irish was always used to communicate something negative and his most famous remembrance of one of those occasions was when HM Customs came after him and decided that charging him with smuggling would be a good way to tell the British public they don’t care who you are, they will come after you for not telling them about that extra little something you bought on vacation. So that nice little camera that Paddy had procured while abroad turned into some negative press but he laughs about it now. Laughing is something you see Paddy doing often, he could actually have a second job as a stand up comedian, his delivery is perfect, with a dead pan face and then the audience erupts at the punch line. Over the five days we spent with him at the track, at dinner and over a few aperitifs at Patti Ely’s fabulous B&B, Dragonfly Dreams we heard many stories and typical of his age group he had no problem with any that made fun of himself or the Irish. It was refreshing not having to be politically correct like many of the lefties want us to be now. We were all quite surprised when he said, “You know I’ve seen these American Victorian styled houses on TV and I am really glad I’ve stayed in one before I die” Then he laughed his head off. For a guy in his mid 80’s Paddy is super fit, he would wander off on his own at the racetrack to get his exercise, in fact a couple of times we had to put out a search party. But it was no big deal, some people had recognized him and he simply chatted away to them.

The title of this piece says Kissing the Blarney Stone with Paddy Hopkirk; according to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of the gab, and Mr. Hopkirk has it in spades. Throughout his career he has talked with royalty like Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco, dealt with CEOs of multinational companies and the fans lining up to get an autographic. He treats them all the same. Currently he is President of the British Racing Drivers Club, a job he says he took because nobody else would. His primary focus is to get the new owners of Formula 1 to understand the BDRC is not joking when they say they will walk away from hosting a Grand Prix if it means that have to go into debt to do it. It is sad indeed that Grand Prix the likes of Germany and France have been missing from the calendar in recent years but unlike all these new locations who have their governments fund their events those two and Silverstone has something way more important, history. And let me tell you this Liberty Media, history equates to fanbase and if Silverstone is lost so will a myriad of fans too. So why is Paddy so passionate about racing when he was a rally driver? Well like many of the motorsport greats back in the sixties many racers competed in many disciplines. Scottish F1 World Champion Jim Clark was one, rallying on the 1966 RAC Rally, winning the Indy 500, sports car racing and so on. Paddy is in good company and I really feel honoured to have made his acquaintance. Till the next time, Patrick Baron Hopkirk!