Baker, Roy

[John Turner]

Taken from a thread in The Chassis Archive:-

Originally Posted by driftwood

Roy Baker

22/2/1936 - 18/12/2002

Roy Baker was one of the real characters in the sports racing world, who lived and breathed competition, and he managed (in most cases) to raise just enough money to race, even taking advantage of local businesses to raise last minute 'sticker' sponsorship at the circuits!

Having raced since the mid fifties Roy started his first group C race at Monza with a Harrier in 1982 ("The worst car I ever owned") and proceeded to race in nearly every Group C race up to 1989. For most of that period he ran and raced in two Tigas and one of them, known as the 'Pink Panther' due to the colour, raced at Kyalami (in narrow body form) and later at Le Mans in 1988. He had purchased the car in 1986, having had it engineered for a Ford BDT. With limited funds, the car was inevitably driven by privateers and had limited success but with around 30 races under its belt, including four times at Le Mans, finishing in 1988 and 1990, it must have been one of the most prolific race cars of all time.