Mark Hales (born 7 November 1950) is a British
auto racing
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...
driver and instructor. He is best known for finishing as runner-up in the
1987 British Touring Car Championship season
The 1987 Dunlop RAC British Touring Car Championship was the 30th season of the championship. The series, previously the British Saloon Car Championship, had a new name and new sponsor. Chris Hodgetts successfully defended his drivers title with ...
.
Career
He was a class B winner in 1987 with his
Ford Escort RS Turbo
The Ford Escort is a small family car that was manufactured by Ford of Europe from 1968 until 2000. In total there were six generations, spread across three basic platforms beginning with the original rear-wheel drive Mk.1/Mk.2 (1968–1980) ...
. He switched to the Group N Production Championship in 1988, winning his class in a
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a mid-size car or large family car manufactured and marketed by Ford Europe from 1982-1993, designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément — and noted for its aerodynamic styling producing a drag coeffi ...
in 1989. This led to him being hired for the 1990 BTCC by
John McGuire Racing team, running a works backed
Mitsubishi Starion
The Mitsubishi Starion is a two-door, turbocharged four-cylinder rear-wheel drive four-seat hatchback sports car manufactured and marketed by Mitsubishi from 1982-1989 — with badge engineered variants marketed in North America as the Conque ...
. His final season in the BTCC was in 1991. He stayed with Mitsubishi, and was the sole driver for the works driver. He competed in a
Mitsubishi Lancer
The Mitsubishi Lancer is an automobile produced by the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors since 1973.
The Lancer has been marketed as the Colt Lancer, Dodge Colt, Plymouth Colt, Chrysler Valiant Lancer, Chrysler Lancer, Eagle Summit, Hin ...
in the first part of the season, switching to a
Mitsubishi Galant for the second part. He got one championship point at
Snetterton
Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 201 people living in 74 h ...
. He raced in the
TVR Tuscan championship in 1993 and 1994, winning the title in both seasons for Team Rallytech. Most recently he has competed in historic racing, winning the Historic Six Hours of Spa in 2004. He was also a contributor and track-tester for the British motorracing magazines
''Evo'' and ''
Octane''. He also writes for the ''
Daily Telegraph'', and has published a book co-written by
Nick Mason, called ''
Into The Red''.
[http://www.markhales.com/sub-pages/about-sub.html Writing Career]
Racing record
Complete British Saloon / Touring Car Championship results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1973–1990 in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded ?–1989 in class)
‡ Endurance driver.
† Ineligible for points.
Complete European Touring Car Championship results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
References
External links
Official site*
1950 births
Living people
British Touring Car Championship drivers
Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers
{{UK-autoracing-bio-stub