Malcolm Irving Wilson, OBE (born 17 February 1956) is a British former

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. ...

and current owner of team and constructor

M-Sport M-Sport is an auto racing team and motorsport engineering company headquartered at Dovenby Hall near Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Formed in 1979 by the World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson, and originally known as ...

. He is the father of former

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

driver

Matthew Wilson Matthew Wilson (born 29 January 1987) is a British rally driver from Cockermouth in Cumbria. He is the son of M-Sport boss and former World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson. Wilson competed in the WRC for the Stobart M-Sport Ford team. ...

. He has been married to Elaine Wilson since 1982.

Biography

He has over 20 years experience of rallying at world championship level, much of it with Ford. He drove for three factory teams in the world championship, including MG, in whose

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 ...

Metro 6R4, he shared driving duties with fellow Briton,

Tony Pond Tony Pond (23 November 1945 – 7 February 2002) was a British rally driver. Career His first outings in a rally car were on the then regular (in the early '60s) Saturday night road rallies in the home counties around London, driving a Mini ...

. He spent several years as Ford's chief test driver, developing new rally cars, including the short lived RS1700T and RS200 models. As a driver, he won two British national titles in the late 1970s and achieved a long-held ambition by winning the

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, ins ...

in 1994, all at the wheel of Ford Escorts. He crashed during the 1980

Scottish Rally The Royal Scottish Automobile Club (RSAC) Scottish Rally is the highlight of the Scottish Rally Championship and the longest-standing rally event in Scotland, having been first contested in 1932. The event takes place in May or June of every ye ...

whilst chasing

Hannu Mikkola Hannu Olavi Mikkola (24 May 1942 − 25 February 2021) was a Finnish champion world rally driver. He was a seven-time winner of the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland and won the RAC Rally in Great Britain four times. Career Mikkola's rally career ...

and

Ari Vatanen Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen (; born 27 April 1952) is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rall ...

for the lead, breaking both his ankles and almost ending his career, but amazingly he recovered in time for the

RAC Rally Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...

at the end of the year. After his driving career, he went on to manage and run the

Ford World Rally Team The Ford World Rally Team, also known as the ''Ford Motor Co. Team'' prior to 2005, is Ford Motor Company's full factory World Rally Championship team. In its current form, it has been a competitor since the 1997 season, when Ford Motor Compa ...

with his

operation, based at

Dovenby Hall Dovenby Hall is a country house in of land at Dovenby, about north-west of Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. It is a Grade II listed building. History The oldest part of the estate is a 13th-century peel tower. The main house was built for Sir ...

near

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...

in Cumbria, England. Under his guidance, M-Sport (formerly Malcolm Wilson Motorsport) has become one of the world's leading rallying private teams, with a string of international titles and wins to its credit. The company now employs over 170 people. Their work culminated in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

when Wilson led Ford to the World Rally Championship Constructors' title for the first time in 25 years; the team repeated this achievement in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

. In September 2008, Wilson took part in the ''

Colin McRae Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver and the youngest person to win the World Rally Championship ...

Forest Stages Rally'', a round of the

Scottish Rally Championship The Scottish Rally Championship is a rallying series run throughout Scotland over the course of a year, that comprises both gravel and closed surface rallies.http://www.scottishrallychampionship.co.uk/ SRC Homepage Points are awarded to the top ...

centred in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in Scotland. He entered the event in a VK Vodka Kick sponsored

Ford Escort RS1800 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), ...

with co-driver Peter Martin. He was one of a number of ex-world and British champions to take part in the event in memory of McRae, who died in 2007. Wilson was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(OBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

Complete WRC results

References

External links

M-Sport official websiteMalcolm Wilson Rally homepageRallybase stats page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Malcolm English rally drivers World Rally Championship people 1956 births Living people World Rally Championship drivers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Ford Team RS Audi Sport drivers

Biography

Complete WRC results

See also

References

External links