WRDA Archive

Barry Reece

Barry Reece was the Area Manager of the Greetham plant hire company, later Isis, working in South Wales and the West of England.
Since his first race at Mallory Park in 1969 until 1982, Barry always raced a Mini and notched up over 50 class or outright wins. Many of these were gained in regional events near his South Wales home where he gained quite a reputation for his rapid handling of 850 cc special saloon cars.

Barry Reece 1971-72 Points Score Successes included several class wins in the BRSCC South-Western Championships as well as two Welsh 850 Championships at Llandow, although he has moved further afield later years and 1980 was his best season to date.  Barry Reece/Thruxton Programme 1980. Driving a Maguire Mini, Barry won the BARC Wendy Wools Special Saloon Car Championship outright and also took his class once again in the BRSCC SW series at Castle Combe. In all, he notched up 14 wins that season, usually with an engine built up by himself and his brother Philip, who helped enthusiastically as mechanic, although a further improvement came towards the end of the year when he acquired a short-stroke, eight-port head Arden motor: It made a helluva difference, admitted Barry. On our first outing at Croft, we suddenly lopped two seconds off the lap record!
Looking back on this very successful year, Barry recalled only one non-finish: We failed to score points in only one meeting – due to an engine blow-up at Croft when I selected first gear instead of third! 

Barry competed with his freind & fellow Welsh racer Viv 'Buster' Wallace, a Tyre Depot Manager from Caerphilly who ran him close for his 1982 championship. Barry Reece & Viv Wallace

  In late 1981 Barry changed to a Hillman Imp variant with 850 cc engine Barry Reece Press Cuttings 1981

 In 1982 Barry regained BARC Wendy Wools Special Saloon Car Championship.  

  Barry Reece Press Cuttings April 1982   Cuttings June 1982  Cuttings July 1982 Cuttings 1982  September 1982

In 1983 Barry increased his cars engine size to 1000 c.c and was initallly very successful.  Barry Reece Press Cuttings March 1983.PDF

In July Barry was part of the WRDA party who were the first to try the new Pembrey circuit, and agreed to be our first real WRDA Chairman at a club meeting after the run-out at Pembrey.

He was also had a part in the BBC TV series called Driving Ambition, about 2 suburban housewivies who wanted to go racing. The episode is on Utube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pluUZub-cQ . At 25 minutes Barry has a walkthrough part at signing on. Blink & you’ll miss it but he is the man in the Isis T shirt in front of the main character Donna (played by Rosemary Martin) in the orange overalls.  At 32 to 33 minutes there are some views of the car.

(Gavin Richards was Donnas’ team manager. Richards later went on the play Captain Alberto Bertorelli in the Allo Allo comedy series.)

However later in 1983 he suffered a major accident at Folly Corner at Castle Combe, which ended his career and left him permanently disabled before he sadly passed away in 1989, leaving his wife Jeanette and their 2 children, Claire and David.

In later years, his daughter Claire posted these comments on a forum page. 'Let me clear up any misunderstanding. My father had his horrific accident in Castle Combe during the practice session in September of 1983. He suffered multiple injuries to his legs and head and was in a coma for a number of weeks. It is true that these injuries left him severly dissabled but he never forgot how to drive. He did return home after numerous years of rehabilitation, but died in hospital unexpectedly on 13/10/89. He is still my inspiration after all these years.'

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/86542-what-did-really-happen-to-barry-reece/

Indeed Barry was the continued inspiration to the WRDA, and Jeanette & David were our guests at the 1998 Celtic Motosports Festival and Barry was in our thoughts when we had to make a difficult decision to change the Welsh Championship regulations in 2007.