Vale Allan Horsley

The Australian motorsport and automotive industries lost a titanic figure overnight with the passing of Allan Horsley.

Horsley was an instrumental player across both the motorsport and motoring landscapes as the mastermind behind some of the greatest innovations and successes on the Australian racetrack, as well as the development of some heroic locally-produced sports cars.

As colourful as he could be cantankerous, Horsley is best remembered for his 40-plus year association with Mazda in Australia, first joining forces with the Japanese manufacturer in 1981 to oversee its Group A Touring Car campaign with Allan Moffat and the giant-killing RX-7.

But his legacy runs so much deeper than that. A racer in his own right, Horsley built a series of home-made race cars as a youngster to compete at the Hume Weir circuit outside of his hometown Bonegilla, east of Albury.

He also cut his teeth working as the circuit promotor in the 1960s and played a pivotal role in building a pedestal for the one and only Peter Brock by being the first circuit promotor to pay appearance fees to the rising star of racing.

Horsley relocated to Sydney in the 1965 as the promotor for Oran Park Raceway and went on to introduce a raft of innovative new entertainment ideas – including the first ever night race. Horsley’s innovations made the venue the most popular circuit in the country for both drivers and fans alike.

Success with Mazda and Moffat was almost immediate, with Horsley overseeing the team’s first victory in the season-ending Surfers Paradise 300. While victory at Mount Panorama eluded the team, Horsley and Moffat managed to win the Australian Endurance Championships in 1982 and 1984.

“Allan Horsley was always an intricate part of the team during the Mazda racing days within Australia and overseas,” Moffat has said previously.

“And he was a great mate.”

Horsley did experience the jubilation of victory at Mount Panorama when he was drafted in at Dick Johnson Racing for the endurance races. He lead the behind the scenes team which delivered famous number 17 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth across the finish line first in 1989 with Dick Johnson and John Bowe.

But Horsley’s day-to-day activities with Mazda remained long after Moffat switched to Ford Sierras, with the Mazda Motorsport founder managing an all-star team to four consecutive victories in the country’s premiere 12-hour production car between 1992 and 1995.

Consequently, Horsley’s one-eyed focus on victory – and an eagle-eyed vision that could read between the lines of a rulebook (Horsley allegedly kept the CAMS manual in the dunny) – lead to the development of one of the country’s best-ever sports cars, the locally-developed Mazda RX-7 SP.

Built specially to meet the strict homologation requirements for the 12-hour production car races, the SP featured a more powerful turbocharged rotary engine, larger intercooler, bigger brakes and a host of lightweight carbon fibre body panels.

Just 25 needed to be made to comply with the rules, but the production run was extended to include another 10 cars due to consumer demand.

“If you think about Allan’s life in motorsport, he achieved more than anyone else from both angles – he was a real entrepreneur in his days at Oran Park, and a mastermind on the pitwall,” said six-time Touring Car champion, Mark Skaife, who drove with Mazda Motorsport to victory in the inaugural Bathurst 12-Hour in 1992.

“I can remember sitting on my dad’s shoulders at Oran Park, overlooking the dog leg, and watching some of greatest races. He introduced match racing and night racing at Oran Park. He was a visionary.

“When he went to Mazda with Moffat, Allan raised the bar. That was the most professional motor racing team in Australia at the time – by a long shot. He was a great team leader, and yet also a larrikin. I loved his company, and he genuinely galvanised everyone around him,” Skaife stated.

After the success of the RX-7 SP, Horsley’s Mazda Motorsport division also created the first turbocharged Mazda MX-5, again using the SP badge, and a limited run of modified Eunos 800M SP sedans.

Later, Mazda Motorsport built a fleet of vehicles that were used in tarmac rallying events such as Targa Tasmania, including RX-8 SPs, a Mazda3 MPS hot hatch and even a Mazda2 city car.

Horsley was also involved in the development of Supercross in Australia, as a co-promotor with Phil Harrison, and the short-lived Canberra Motor Show. He was a passionate rugby union fan of the NSW Waratahs and was inducted into the Motorsport Australia Hall of Fame in 2019.

Horsley retired in 2012 and relocated to the NSW south coast. He is survived by his son David and his sister Mary, passing away less than a week out from his 83rd birthday.

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