VALE: Martin Hines
(UPDATE: David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson lead tributes on Autosport HERE. Further tribute on GP Week HERE - turn to p24-25)
UK karting legend Martin Hines has died. The 63 year old had been suffering from cancer and passed away on the weekend.
Known in the sport as “Mr Karting”, Hines was an outspoken and entertaining personality. He founded Zip Kart with his father in 1964. The company was hugely successful as a manufacturer but also pioneered 'superkarting' as well as the indoor and corporate karting scenes.
Never afraid of self promotion, Hines was big on publicity, establishing Kart & Superkart Magazine, organising television coverage for the British Superkart Grand Prix and instigating various Young Guns and Champions of the Future programs. He worked with the development of drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Jason Plato and David Coulthard, and introduced Bridgestone to karting in the mid 70s.
He won three world FIA Superkarting titles, six British Championships and five European Championships. The last of these was when he was 56 years old and had just got over a bout of cancer.
He published an autobiography in 2008 titled “Every Split Second Counts - my life with fast karts, fast women and F1 superstars”.
I interviewed Hines for the April 2000 edition of KartOz Magazine (the real and original KartOz, 1997-2004, not the one we have now...) when he was 51. The guy was just flat out and full of energy.
A phenonemanal karting career was never followed by a car racing career. Hines did test a Formula 3 car, but wasn't particularly impressed with its performance. "After you've driven a Superkart, everything else bar F1 is pretty tame!" he laughed.
He was qualified to judge. A mate of McLaren's Ron Dennis, Hines performed a number of aero tests in the Marlboro liveried McLaren Mercedes MP4/10 in 1995 - until he tipped one over in a ditch!
Hines visited Australia on a number of occassions, often staying with friends Dave and Barbara Hepworth in South Australia. Peter Woodgate was a mechanic for Hines on a number of occassions and drove with Hines' Zip factory team in the '95 British Superkart Grand Prix.
RIP Mr Karting
Mark Wicks
Above: Karting icon Martin Hines doing publicity for his autobiography a few years ago
