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Richard Harman was born and brought up in West Bromwich, near Birmingham in England. The small town boasted three establishments that engaged teenagers in the 50s and 60s – Jensen cars, West Bromwich Albion Football Club and the Grammar School, each of which occupied most of Richard’s days. His fascination with both sport and cars began at an early age. As soon as he could reach the pedals, he was driving the various cars his father owned, and impressed him enough that by the age of 14, he was chauffeuring him to and from his structural engineering company on traffic-free Sundays.
A career in engineering followed, with employment at a leading world-wide engineering consultancy and involvement with the design of large, prestigious structural projects. He was an early disciple of Computer-Aided Design and oversaw its introduction at the consultancy. A final career move was made to a smaller consultancy, specialising in utilities design projects, where he managed the entire Information Technology System.
An interest in motor racing, fueled by the early memories of the Cunningham Le Mans races, was always present and developed with Sundays spent at the Mallory Park and Silverstone circuits, which only served to whet his appetite. Later, weekends spent at Brands Hatch, where the BOAC Sports Car 1000 km races during the late 60s and early 70s were the contemporary equivalent of the contests that Briggs had competed in, fostered Richard’s strong preference for long distance races.
His first car was a Ford Cortina GT, which was subsequently exchanged for an Alfa Romeo. With this car another passion was started, which has remained to this day, having owned nothing but Alfa Romeos since, loving every one of them. He eventually satisfied his desire to race during the late 80s and 90s, driving his favourite Alfa GTV6. Minor successes followed, but were far less important than the experience of competition. He remains a staunch and active member of the Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club.
He considers himself fortunate to have witnessed some wonderful motor races at a time when great cars were racing and the regulations allowed the combination of fastest drivers and cars to win races; Ferrari winning the Italian GP at Monza, Rodriguez winning in the Porsche 917, Ickx winning six times at Le Mans, plus many more. When compared to racing today, where regulations and artificial constraints driven solely by commercial interests dominate, it is no surprise that historic racing is far more attractive to this author.
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