Russell Brookes

Russell Brookes (Redditch, England, 16 August 1945 – 30 October 2019) was a British rally driver, prominent mainly in the national championship during the 1970s and 1980s. He is remembered for having been British Rally Championship champion in 1977, driving a Ford Escort RS1800, and for repeating the title in 1985 with an Opel Manta 400. At international level, his greatest success was victory in the 1978 Rally of New Zealand, a round of the FIA Cup for Drivers, the forerunner of the World Rally Championship. In WRC competition, he achieved several notable results in the RAC Rally, where he finished on the podium in three consecutive editions between 1977 and 1979. Brookes maintained a long association with sponsor Andrews Heat for Hire, whose distinctive yellow livery became one of the most recognisable in British rallying of the era. His career was closely tied to cars such as the Ford Escort RS1800 and the Opel Manta 400, with which he consolidated his reputation as one of the leading British drivers of his generation.