Patrick McNally

Patrick Sean McNally (born 20 December 1937) is a British businessman, former journalist and racing driver. He was the founder and chief executive of Allsport Management, a Swiss company which controlled Formula One circuit advertising, corporate hospitality, and the Paddock Club.

Beginning his career as a motorsports journalist for ''Autosport'' magazine, after racing for two seasons in 1968-1969, McNally became a sponsorship consultant for Marlboro. He was then driver manager for James Hunt, McLaren 1976 Formula One champion. In 1983 McNally founded Allsport Management SA, which acquired the advertisement rights for Formula One circuits. By 1984 the company had expanded its operations and established the F1 Paddock Club, the exclusive hospitality provider. McNally worked closely with Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile president, and together the trio are credited as being the principal architects of modern Formula One. In 2006, he sold Allsport for $400 million.

McNally is best known for his friendship with Sarah, Duchess of York, who he was romantically involved with between 1981 and 1986.

Family and early life

McNally was born in Gravesend on 20 December 1937. His father was Group Captain Patrick McNally, a Royal Air Force medical officer from Monaghan stationed in Iraq, Egypt and West Africa during the Second World War. His mother, Mary Deane Outred, was of English background. He was the youngest of five; among his brothers was Peter McNally (1933–2021), a socialite and businessman for London Weekend Television. McNally grew up in Ireland during the war, at Poplar Vale, County Monaghan. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Lancashire.

In 1967, McNally married Anne Downing, daughter and heiress of Monaco-based racing driver Ken Downing. Downing, a successful Connaught driver, had raced in the 1952 Formula One season and went on to establish a business diamond mining in South Africa. In 1969, their first son, Sean, was born, and in 1972 their second son, Rollo. McNally and his wife divorced shortly before she died from cancer in 1980. He has remained a widower since.

Racing career

Throughout the 1960s, McNally had been involved in Touring car racing and Le Mans. In 1962, he raced a Lotus Elite at Castle Combe circuit for the British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC) and finished second. He was a passionate driver and by 1965, raced a Shelby Cobra at Goodwood, Silverstone and Nürburgring. McNally entered for two seasons in the 1968 and 1969 British Saloon Car Championship, driving a Porsche 911 T/R and wining several races.

McNally started his Formula One career as a motorsports journalist in the late 1960s, contributing to ''Autosport'' magazine in London. In the early 1970s, he began working as a sponsorship consultant for Philip Morris's Marlboro. He was also a driver manager for James Hunt, a Hesketh, Wolf and later McLaren racing driver, whom McNally was good friends with.

Allsport Management

In the late 1970s, McNally came into contact with Bernie Ecclestone and obtained the Formula One advertising rights. In 1983, he founded Allsport Management SA, a company which provided corporate hospitality and reformed trackside advertising for Formula One events. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Allsport owned the lucrative advertising rights, acquired by McNally from each organiser, and operated The Paddock Club, the Grand Prix hospitality provider founded by McNally in 1984. The Paddock Club offered luxury dining, accommodation, tours and superior views at Formula One events and eventually turned into a very successful business.

McNally had developed a system of signage which gave advertisers maximum exposure. Formula One and related companies were under pressure from the European Broadcasting Union to introduce standards in their advertising, and McNally was encouraged by Ecclestone to form his company as such. He stated that he had formed a solution to "tidy up" trackside advertising with a strategy called "themed advertising", whereby one advertiser is given full exposure at each section of the course; essentially, reducing the number of advertisers and repackaging the way they were sold. This strategy proved very successful. McNally ultimately took over the sales of all Formula One trackside advertising, with the exception of the Monaco Grand Prix.

On 30 March 2006, McNally sold Allsport Management to CVC Capital Partners, who acquired the company via Alpha Topco. The figure agreed was $400 million. McNally remained chief executive of the company until 2011, when he announced his retirement from the Formula One circuit.

Personal life

McNally dated Sarah Ferguson throughout the 1980s before her marriage to Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Ferguson was 'desperate' to marry McNally but ultimately became engaged to the Duke of York. The pair remain close friends. He is currently with his former cook Sarah Tyzack, who is nearly thirty years his junior.

Warneford Place, Wiltshire, the former home of Ian Fleming, is among several properties owned by McNally. In 2004, the property was burgled by the Johnson Gang. In addition to Warneford, his principal residence, McNally owns Buckland House, Oxfordshire, which he renovated. He owned Glenlochy Moor, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands; on 20 March 2008, the grouse moor was raided by over 50 police officers. McNally has homes in the Côte d'Azur and Switzerland, most notably in Verbier where his chalets are locally referred to as "the Castle", or occasionally "Cocaine Castle".

After retirement, McNally has indulged in a lavish lifestyle and is an avid partaker of skiing in Switzerland and shooting at his estate in Wiltshire.

Explanatory notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNally, Paddy
Living people
1930s births
Auto racing executives
Swiss businesspeople
British people of Irish descent
Motorsport journalists
British racing drivers
British socialites
People from Gravesend, Kent
People from County Monaghan