Mark Lovell (27 March 1960 – 12 July 2003) was a British

rally driver Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...

. He won the 1986

British Rally Championship The British Rally Championship is a rallying series based in the United Kingdom. The first championship was run in 1958 and it has been licensed by the Motor Sports Association (MSA) since 1999. MSA has opted not to run the series in 2015, in ...

in a

Ford RS200 The Ford RS200 is a mid-engined, four-wheel drive sports car that was produced by Ford Motorsport in Boreham, UK, from 1984 to 1986. The road-going RS200 was the basis for Ford's Group B rally car and was designed to comply with FIA homologation ...

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...

, the 1987 and 1988

Irish Tarmac Rally Championship The Irish Tarmac Rally Championship (ITRC) is the premier rallying series in Ireland. It is held annually and is promoted by the Tarmac Rally Organisers’ Association (TROA). The Championship takes place over seven events, based in the Republic o ...

, the 1988 International Dutch Rally Drivers' Championship and the 2001

SCCA The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...

ProRally Drivers' Championship in the United States. He also won the 2003 Pikes Peak Rally only two weeks before his death. When the

Subaru Impreza WRX The is a compact car that has been manufactured by the Japanese automaker Subaru since 1992. It was introduced as a replacement for the Leone, with the predecessor's EA series engines replaced by the new EJ series. It is now in its sixth gene ...

and the

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, popularly referred to as the 'Evo', is a sports sedan and rally car based on the Lancer that was manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1992 until 2016. There have been ten official versio ...

were introduced in 2002 and 2003 to the United States, both cars created more interest in the sport of rallying.

Subaru ( or ; ) is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first ...

and subsequently

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

entered the US Pro Rally championship with factory teams; Mark Lovell was the lead driver for the Subaru / Prodrive team, with Americans Karl Scheible (2002) and Ramana Lagemann (2003) as teammates. Mark and his co-driver Roger Freeman were both killed in July 2003 during the Oregon Trail Rally when their Works ProRally Subaru Impreza WRX left the road and struck a tree at high speed shortly after the start of the first stage. A memorial page for both Mark and Roger has been set up, which includes many photographs of the team and events at both the Pikes Peak and Oregon Trail Pro Rallies.

Titles

* RACMSA

– 1986 winner, with Roger Freeman in a

Group B. *

– 1987 winner, with Roger Freeman in a

Ford Sierra RS Cosworth The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth is a high-performance version of the Ford Sierra that was built by Ford Europe from 1986 to 1992. It was the result of a Ford Motorsport project with the purpose of producing an outright winner for Group A racing in ...

, and 1988 winner, with Terry Harryman in a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. * Dutch Rally Championship – 1988 *

SCCA ProRally SCCA ProRally was an American rally racing series, run by the Sports Car Club of America from 1973 until 2004. The SCCA discontinued it for 2005, due to concerns about safety and insurance. It allowed Rally America to replace it, utilizing most o ...

Championship – 2001, with Steve Turvey & Mike Kidd in a Subaru Impreza WRX Works car

Awards

Autosport ''Autosport'' is a global motorsport publishing brand headquartered based in Richmond, London. It was established in 1950 at the same time as the origins of the Formula One World Championship. Autosport began life as a weekly magazine in 1950 ...

Magazine's British Rally Driver of the Year, 1985

External links

Memorial page

Biography on RallyBase
1960 births 2003 deaths English rally drivers Racing drivers who died while racing Sports deaths in Oregon {{UK-rally-bio-stub