Paddy Hopkirk
| Paddy Hopkirk | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Patrick Barron Hopkirk 14 April 1933 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Occupation | Rally driver |
Patrick Barron "Paddy" Hopkirk (born 14 April 1933) is a former rally driver from Northern Ireland.
He was born in Belfast and educated at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare from 1945–1949 before attending Trinity College, Dublin until 1953.
He was awarded the MBE Honour in the 2016 New Year's Honours list.
He started his winning career in professional racing and rally driving in 1955. He finished third at the 1962 Monte Carlo Rally in a Sunbeam Rapier. Alongside Henry Liddon he won the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally in a Mini Cooper S car number 37, with the registration number 33 EJB. They are the most recent all-British crew to have won the event.
Hopkirk also travelled to Australia during his career to drive for the BMC Works Team in the annual Bathurst 500 race for standard production cars at the Mount Panorama Circuit. He drove at Bathurst in a Morris Cooper S from 1965–1967, obtaining a best result of 6th outright and 3rd in class in the 1965 Armstrong 500 when paired with another great rally driver, Timo Mäkinen of Finland. In 1965, he won a Coupe d'Argent at the Alpine Rally. He won the 1965 and 1967 Circuit of Ireland Rally, the 1966 and 1967 Alpine Rally, and the 1967 Rally Acropolis.
Hopkirk was elected as a life member of the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1967, and is also president of the Historic Rally Car Register, and a patron of disability charity WheelPower.
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