“Carter’s achievement has only been surpassed by Márquez and Pedrosa”
MAT OXLEY
Forty years ago, on April 2, 1983, a British teenager made history at Le Mans. Eighteen-year-old Alan Carter won the French 250cc Grand Prix to become the youngest-ever intermediate-class GP winner, an accolade he retained for the next two decades. Even now, his achievement has only been surpassed by six-times MotoGP world champion Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa, the most successful MotoGP rider never to have won the world title.
Alan’s success happened in the strangest circumstances, which perhaps wasn’t all that surprising considering his sadly unusual upbringing. Alan’s father was Mal Carter – car dealer, sponsor, boxer, bit of a gangster and a scary presence in British race paddocks for a couple of decades.
These were the days when riders, mechanics and girlfriends kept their flimsy cardboard paddock passes safe in see-through plastic wallets, attached to their clothes by a giant safety pin. One day at a Continental GP venue Big Mal was stopped at the paddock gate and asked for his pass. “It’s in my back pocket!” he replied angrily. “You must wear your pass,” came the reply. At which point Big Mal took his see-through pouch, pierced one of his ears with its safety pin – punk-rock style – and marched into the paddock.