The tin-top veteran turned policeman hangs up his helmet

Jeff Allam had a long and successful touring car career, and was a highly regarded works driver for Rover and Vauxhall. Then he spent his weekends policing his successors… Time to look back at a BTCC life spanning almost 45 years

Tom Howard Mar 10, 2021, 10:27 AM

Upd: Mar 10, 2021, 3:32 PM

He’s gone from being a protege of Gerry Marshall to a factory touring car driver in the glory years of the British Touring Car Championship, via success in Europe and Australia, and he’s had a long spell as the BTCC’s ‘policeman’. It’s fair to say that Jeff Allam has seen it all.

For Epsom-born Allam, the love of motorsport was kindled by his garage-owner father, and their many visits to Brands Hatch and Lydden Hill. From there he got involved in karting, but it was the friendship of his father with ex-McLaren mechanic Mike Barley that kickstarted his car racing career.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.