Sad Note

[tak43]

Creighton Brown who used to be a Mclaren shareholder and director and was one of the 4 people who set up Mclaren Cars to build the F1 has passed away after battling with cancer.

tak43

[cabrio92]

It is very sad

I have a think to his family, his friends and his coworkers of McLaren.

Phil

[mini magic]

RIP. Regards and wishes to his family and friends

[Le Man]

Very sad indeed, my sincere condolence to his family and friends.

[hurstg01]

Originally Posted by Le Man

Very sad indeed, my sincere condolence to his family and friends.

[ArchangelGTR]

Incredibly sad. My condolences to his family and friends. He will be immortalized by the legacy he left behind.

Cancer is a long hard battle where everyone is trying desperately to find things to comfort the ones suffering through treatments that aren't even guaranteed to cure the ailment.

[F1 monster]

Sad news.

[Peloton25]

Creighton Brown, a leading light in the Project Four Racing group that took over McLaren in 1980, has died of Cancer.

Often described as an “entrepreneur”, Brown's motorsport career, following time in the army, a stint as a jazz musician and management at Ranks Hovis McDougall, began with the construction of a sports car in 1972, aged 21.

Brown had also been a pig farmer, his Camborough Pigs business breeding a particular strain which was marketed worldwide, particularly in Brazil where he eventually settled.

It was under the Camborough name that he went Clubmans Racing in the seventies with particular success, eventually leading to his entry of Ray Mallock in Formula Two, and his charm and business acumen resulted in him running the ICI March Formula Two team. This led to his meeting Ron Dennis, with whom he at one time swapped equity in their respective businesses.

At the end of 1978, Brown joined Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing, and along with John Barnard, took over the McLaren F1 Team. During his time as a director of McLaren (1980 - 1992), the British team won 7 constructor's and 8 drivers' World Championship titles.

In 1990, Brown, along with former Brabham (F1) designer, Gordon Murray, set up McLaren Cars, which led to the revolutionary McLaren F1, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest Sports Cars of all time, and which dominated the World Sports Car Championships in 1995 and 1996.

In recent times, Brown became a director of MRS. Management, which specializes in the management of young professional race drivers. He was also a director of Leisurebox PLC, a UK leisure group, in addition to interests in property and farming.

He had also established South American Sports Cars, in Santa Catarina, South Brazil, together with a second, highly confidential, project, which, in association with a “global motor manufacturer” involved the design and development of a “revolutionary” limited production sports car.

Following a long battle with Cancer, Creighton Brown finally succumbed on Sunday.

“Everyone who knew him will be deeply saddened by the news of his death” adds Bob Constanduros, “because he was probably the most charming man ever to grace a Formula One pit lane. He was well-mannered and a true gentleman in the older sense of the word. A good friend sorely missed.”

To his wife, Terry, and daughters Melanie, Judy and Allie, Pitpass offers its sincere condolences.

Creighton Brown
Creighton Brown, a wellknown racing entrepreneur and a man who helped Ron Dennis win control of McLaren, has died of cancer.

Educated at Radley College in England, Brown worked as a management trainee for food company Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) after completing his National Service with the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment in British Somaliland. He then returned to RHM and began his racing career at around the same time, building his first racing cars. He then decided to go into business on his own and invested in farming and as his business empire grew so too did his involvement in motor racing and in 1972 turned his hobby into a business and started to race semi-professionally with commercial sponsorship, building several very successful Supersports cars. He raced himself in Clubmans and the connection with the Mallock family, which built the Clubmans cars led to the formation of Ardmore Racing in 1975 to run Ray Mallock in Formula 2. The team moved on to run Divina Galica in 1977 and in 1978 landed the works Chevron deal and sponsorship from ICI for drivers Derek Daly and Jochen Mass. At the end of the year Brown joined forces with Ron Dennis's Project Four Racing running ICI Marches for Daly and Stephen South and, while continuing to run an F2 operation, moved into F1 in 1980 in a merger between Project 4 and McLaren Racing. Brown became a shareholder and director of the new McLaren International and would remain a McLaren director until 1992. During that period the team won 15 world titles. In 1990 Brown established McLaren Cars Ltd and oversaw the production of the McLaren F1 road car and the A racing version of the car which won the Le Mans 24 hours race at the first attempt in 1995. Brown's farming assest included a hugely successful business breeding Camborough Pigs and it was this that led him in the end to settle in Brazil.

Brown was always interested in new projects and was involved in a number of different companies including a leisure group in Britain called Leisurebox plc. He was behind a plan to build a sports car factory and racing facility in Brazil, in league with the state government of Santa Catarina and in recent years has also run MRS Management Ltd, promoting young drivers, notably Tarso Marques.

Very sad indeed. My thoughts are with his friends and family.

>8^)
ER