Vale: Allan Horsley – Moffat's magician and Mazda Motorsport maestro

Allan Horsley, a man well-known and respected across both the motorsport and automotive spheres, has passed away at the age of 82.

Horsley’s love of speed came early, racing in the 1960s in a homemade 500cc open-wheeler at Tarrawingee in Victoria, before moving into Holden, Jaguar and Peugeot touring cars in the 1960s and ’70s.

Born in Tumbarumba, NSW, Horsley cut his teeth in the motorsport world at the Hume Wier circuit in Albury before taking on a wider role at the now-defunct Oran Park, west of Sydney, where he worked for 16 years.

Famously, he became the first promoter to pay a young firebrand called Peter Brock to race at the venue.

Best known for his thirty-year-plus career at Mazda, Horsley was instrumental in the success of names like Allan Moffat, who drove Horsley’s RX-7s to multiple Australian Endurance Championships and a historic win in 1981 at the Surfer’s Paradise 300 against the big banger V8s of the era.

The success continued into the 1990s, with Horsley spearheading the Japanese brand’s trio of wins at the 12-Hour between 1992 and 1995, with a driver roster that included Dick Johnson, John Bowe and former world F1 champion Alan Jones.

In the latter part of his Mazda career, which ended with his retirement in 2012, Horsley would spearhead road car improvement programs alongside works-level efforts in tarmac rallying.

A brace of RX-7 SPs celebrating the endurance success of the brand are now highly sought after, while his 2002 MX-5 SP brought turbo power to the diminutive roadster for the first time.

A gruff, no-nonsense façade that hid a warmth and generosity that spread to all corners of the industry, Horsley and his small team would produce their world-class builds from a modest workshop tucked behind Mazda’s NSW headquarters, always to the highest standards.

Wheels passes its condolences along to Allan’s family and friends.