Rick Gorne

24/7/1954

Record updated 17-Mar-10

After racing in the mid 1970s Gorne turned his attention to maketing and management. He worked with Adrian Reynard to develop the company into a leading manufacturer before joining BAR. He now manages drivers through his company Goman Ltd.

Rick Gorne was born in Scunthorpe Linolnshire, and started racing karts in the mid-1970s. He graduated to Formula Ford 1600 and then Formula Ford 2000 racing a car designed by Adrian Reynard. He won nine races and in 1979 and in 1980 moved up to Formula Atlantic. However following a crash at Ingliston and deeply in debt, he was forced to stop racing.

He went to work for the BARC becoming its Competitions Director later joining Reynard Racing Cars. At the time Adrian Reynard was working for March in F1 to raise money while Gorne ran the company. Reynard eventually quit F1 to concentrated on designing a new Formula Ford 1600. Gorne supported the company financially by managing to sell 12 cars to the United Arab Emirates, after convincing the government that the cars would entertain their fighter pilots while not flying.

The Reynard 82FF made a fantastic debut at the Formula Ford Festival in 1981 and subsequently 50 cars were sold for the 1982 season. Reynard then designed the 83SF which proved to be a dominant car in Formula Ford 2000. With a string of Formula Ford titles, Reynard entered Formula 3 in 1985, winning first time out in the hands of Andy Wallace. 13 chassis were sold for the following year. Further success boosted sales to 65 cars in 1987.

Reynard then turned its attention to Formula 3000 and in 1988 made a winning debut in the formula with Johnny Herbert. Reynard also won the F3000 title that year and by 1990 Reynard was turning over $15m a year and had even won a Queens Award for Export Achievement.

An attempt at F1, however, failed and almost broke the company but Gorne once again managed to save the day by selling 40 Formula 3 cars to Mexico.

As Reynard recovered and it turned its attentions to CART and in 1994, Michael Andretti gave Reynard a win on its debut at Surfers Paradise in Australia. Reynard went on to win the Indy 500 in 1995 and 1996 and the Champ Car World Series from 1995 through to 2001 inclusive, also winning a second Queens award for export in 1996.

During this period Rick Gorne and Adrian Reynard became founding partners in British American Racing Formula 1. Gorne initially divided his time between both Reynard and British American Racing until turning his full time attention to British American Racing until resigning in 2001.

In 2000 Gorne had already setup GOMAN – Representation in Sport to manage established professional drivers careers as well as developing the careers of younger up and coming drivers for the future, 10 years on the company is producing and representing successful race drivers.