On October 31, David Richards was presented with the Royal Automobile Club's Diamond Jubilee Trophy. This victory honored his motorsport company Prodrive and toasted its successes over the last 40 years in rallying, sports car, touring car and Formula 1 racing.
The Diamond Jubilee Trophy - first awarded on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Royal Automobile Club on December 8, 1957 - has since occasionally recognized outstanding contributions to motoring or motorsport. To date, the trophy has only been awarded seven times; the penultimate time was in 2016.
David Richards founded Prodrive, which became one of the most successful motorsport companies in the world, in 1984. The company has three constructors' titles in the World Rally Championship and has helped Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg to drivers' championships.
Three years before Prodrive was founded, David Richards himself won the World Rally Championship as co-driver to Ari Vatanen, who was also present at the presentation of the trophy. He was joined by Saeed Al-Hajri, who won the first victory for Prodrive at the 1984 Qatar International Rally. The Porsche 911 SC RS that helped him achieve this was on display at the awards ceremony.
Colin McRae's 1996 WRC car, the blue and gold Subaru Impreza, was also on display. Derek Ringer, who won the 1995 World Rally Championship title as McRae's co-driver with Prodrive, was also present. So was Jimmy McRae, who spoke at the event about his son's golden era.
Robert Reid also gave a speech about winning the World Rally Championship with Prodrive in 2001 as co-driver to the late Richard Burns, while Petter Solberg and Phil Mills recalled their own title win two years later.
Many other rallying celebrities were also present at the ceremony. Among them was the most successful rally driver of all time: nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb, with Prodrive since 2021. François Chatriot and his team, who won the French Rally Championship in a Prodrive BMW M3, also took part in the celebrations.
Accepting the Diamond Jubilee Trophy, David Richards said: "Being successful in any form of motorsport is a huge challenge, but we have always recruited the best people in the business and had a clear philosophy for everything we do. We followed the motto 'Just do it', but do it in a way that you can be proud of. Sometimes it's the small successes that bring the most satisfaction."
