The lucky winner of our 1999 Rover BRM, Neil Owen, has a stronger connection to the car than most.
Neil’s late Grandfather was Sir Alfred Owen who, at the age of 21 became the Chief Executive of The Rubery Owen Group. After being run by his father up until his death, the Rubery Owen empire dominated the light steel industry in Britain for the first half of the twentieth century. Once Sir Alfred took over though, it expanded on a global scale.
In 1952, The Rubery Owen Group (under Alfred’s control) acquired the BRM Formula 1 team. The team was struggling but that was soon to change. Along with the team’s fortunes, the team name was also changed from BRM to the Owen Racing Organisation, however, the cars were still always known as BRMs.
Despite now picking up occasional international victories, Sir Alfred wanted more and even threatened to close the team down for good if success was not achieved. With the introduction of the new BRM P57, driver Graham Hill became the world champion with BRM also taking the constructors championship at the same time.
Sir Alfred Owen continued to sponsor the BRM team until his death in 1975. The team would ultimately come to an end just 2 years later in 1977.
Now Neil Owen is the new owner of our 1999 Rover BRM. It seems a fitting home for this car and is something of a homecoming to the family that kept BRM racing for so many years.
Neil was randomly selected as the winner of our BRM with his ticket number 1890 during the live draw held on 2nd March 2023. Everyone here at Bridge Classic Cars would like to congratulate Neil again on winning the car and we are extremely happy it has gone to someone with such a deep connection to the vehicle.
