Modest Mortimer

It’s really difficult to write an article about Geoff Mortimer. In a motorsport career spanning more than 6 decades, Geoff has excelled at everything from racing and rallying with distinction to building winning racecars and managing the teams that race them.

- Clare Vale

It’s impossible to cover it all in a couple of pages, and a simple listing of all his accomplishments would never reveal the modest, humorous person behind the trophies.

My husband, Don, has known Geoff since the early seventies, when they were both involved with Leyland. Geoff once invited Don to navigate for him at the Roof of Africa rally, when Geoff was driving the Rover V8 powered Marina. “Don agreed to navigate for me, and we set off on the famous 40 km Lancer’s Gap opening stage using Don’s pace notes,” recalls Geoff. “Some distance into the stage, we approached one of the many blind rises at high speed. Don had called the rise in question a flat, but on cresting the top of the blind rise, we were confronted with a village immediately in front of us, with the road doing a ninety degree left to circumnavigate the village. Needless to say, we did not make it, but managed to drive through the village without hitting a single hut, chicken, goat or local inhabitant. At this point, my trusty co-driver threw his book of notes into the back of the rally car, saying they were a waste of time, bloody dangerous and did not work. As I remember, he declined any future offers to be my co-driver / navigator,” says Geoff with a chuckle.

This story is typical of Geoff. No matter what gets thrown at him, he somehow manages to remain cool, calm and in control. I was lucky enough to have some help with set up from Geoff at the time I was racing WesBank V8s, and he excels at finding simple, practical solutions to problems – and his quiet, reserved manner is a huge asset when the pressure is on!