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PIT STOP
BRIAN FOLEY
One of the Cooper S driving Legends.
Brian Foley got involved in motor racing back in 1956. At that time it was not really racing but sprints and hillclimbs. He was a keen follower of Frank Dent and his A30 Panel Van and pit crewed for him on occasions. In 1957 he bought the Frank’s A30 and went motor racing properly. In his first season with the car he was undefeated in the 1100cc class. In 1958 he bought an Austin Lancer and again during the ’58 season was almost unbeatable.
Brian exchanged the Lancer for a Farina A40 and was again almost immediately successful with it, further developing his growing reputation with the smaller class of car and always remaining a positive threat to the big movers for outright wins. Motor racing was then a fun sport and Brian was at the top of the list of invitees to the post race “yah-hoo” parties.
In mid 1960 Brian’s first sports car entered his life in the form of the famous MK1 Healey Sprite. This car was raced under the old appendix K class as a GT car, and it was with the Sprite that Foley established himself as one of the top rank of drivers in the country. At this time he has still never had so much as a spin in a motor race. In the meantime he had been selected to drive for the BMC works team in the Armstrong 500 of 1960 at Phillip Island.
In ’61 before officially joining David McKay, Foley raced again in the Armstrong, but this time with Mckay in a Studebaker Lark, with which the pair won their class. In 1963 he joined the P&R Williams organisation and moved back to BMC gear with a MK2a Healey Sprite.
Late in 1963 the first Cooper S arrived and P&R Williams soon recognised its potential. Brian found himself back at the wheel of a sedan car and for the next 18 months campaigned an 1100 Morris Cooper S with success. Attitudes in the sport were changing about this time and it was becoming less fun and more of a big business. Contracts were available and there was a lot a racing to be done and the crowds were becoming more conscious of individuals.
Brian’s attitude to the fans then was to make himself available. With a business of his own in mind, public relations was very important. In the June of 1964 the small Cooper became the big Cooper and this car in various stages of tune and development has been raced everywhere since, with an enviable amount of success.
His attitudes to winning were not important, but he felt very strongly about being very competitive. He liked to have a chance and with the Cooper S he did just that at many a race tracks many times.
This article reprinted from the November 1968 “Racing Car News”.
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