Former Mitsubishi Ralliart team principal and 1968 London to Sydney winner Andrew Cowan has passed away, aged 82.
The Scot was at the helm of Mitsubishi Ralliart during Finn Tommi Makinen’s run of four World Rally Championships on the trot, which included the Japanese marque’s sole Manufacturers’ title in 1998.
Born in Duns in Scotland’s Borders region, Cowan was close friends with future Formula 1 World Driver’s Champion Jim Clark before taking to the dirt, first tasting success in the 1962 Scottish Rally piloting a Sunbeam Rapier and going back-to-back a year later.
He later became a works driver the for the British Rootes Group culminating in victory in the inaugural London to Sydney Marathon in 1968 driving a Hillman Hunter alongside Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle, a story Auto Action’s own Mark Fogarty discussed with Cowan in November last year on the 50thanniversary of the event.
He repeated the success in the 1977 event, but this time in a Mercedes-Benz 280E with Malkin and Mike Broad.
Australian’s will mostly now Cowan for his exploits in the International Southern Cross Rally, which delivered five victories between 1972 and 1976 in Mitsubishi Lancers. He also took victory in the world’s longest event, the 1978 South American Marathon of some 30,000km in length.Other international results include a second in the Paris-Dakar in 1985 and four finishes just off the podium in the grueling Safari Rally.
In 1983, Cowan set-up headquarters in Rugby to run Mitsubishi’s sporting activities, which evolved into Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe. The team enjoyed 21 WRC wins between 1996 and 2001 when it dominated the sport when the championship featured considerable manufacturer interest. During this time, he gave WRC champion Richard Burns his big break, initially contesting the Asia Pacific Rally Championship before moving into the WRC where he took two wins for Mitsubishi before moving to Japanese rival Subaru in 1999.
Cowan remained with the Japanese marque until retiring to Scotland on a 700-acre farm near Berwick-upon-Tweed.
MARK FOGARTY COMMENTS:
Andrew Cowan was the greatest long-distance rally driver ever. He excelled in the brutal car-killing trials that no longer exist.
Cowan was the upset winner of the 1968 London To Sydney Marathon in a Hillman Hunter, repeating the feat more dominantly in a Mercedes-Benz in the 1977 re-run.
They and their like were romantic adventures full of hazards. Cowan conquered the toughest.
But he was also fast when required, mixing front-running pace with uncanny composure. He was equally in his element in classic enduros like the East Africa Safari and Australia’s world-class Southern Cross Rally.
The dour Scotsman won the punishing Southern Cross five times consecutively for Mitsubishi from 1972-76.
If a rally was long and arduous, Cowan was consistently a contender, if not always a winner. Not at all flashy or flamboyant, he just did the job clinically and effectively.
A thinker and a planner, he went on to mastermind Mitsubishi’s domination of the World Rally Championship with Tommi Makinen and the iconic Lancer EVO from 1996-99.
In an age of adventure and danger, Cowan had the forethought and mechanical sympathy to survive and thrive.
He was the undoubted master of trans-continental rallies, the likes of which we will never see again.
Andrew Cowan’s place in world and Australian motorsport history should be enshrined for he was the best of a rare, unrepeatable breed.
Auto Action sends its condolences to the family and friends of Andrew Cowan.
Source: Auto Action