Unassuming, humble and charismatic, but with legend-beating credentials – these few words perfectly describe Rick Morris, a talented British racing driver who has been competing in motorsport for an impressive 55 years.
At the age of 79, Morris, who lives in Hertford, England, participated in his second consecutive Simola Hillclimb this year. He was part of the line-up for Classic Car Friday and King of the Hill for the past two editions, continuing his long association with Formula Ford single-seater racing over the decades.
What is remarkable about his legacy is that Morris raced against – and often outperformed – some of the biggest names in single-seaters, including future Formula 1 stars. One name that stands out is Ayrton Senna, whom Morris not only competed against in Formula Ford in the UK during the early 1980s, but also beat on numerous occasions. Their rivalry marked one of Senna’s earliest on and off-track feuds with his closest rivals – a trait that would become a hallmark of the three-time Formula 1 champion’s fiercely uncompromising approach to racing and his rise to the very top of the sport.
“I started racing in Formula Ford 1600 in England at the end of 1971 with no money at all. In 1972 I set a fastest lap during a race at Thruxton, which got me noticed by Dave Lazenby who owned Hawke Racing Cars,” Morris says. “Dave gave me some help, and by 1976 I was racing for Lazenby as a team-mate to Derek Daly and Bernard Devaney.” Daly went on to race in Formula 1 from 1978 to 1982, followed by stints in CART and IMSA, while Devaney progressed up to Formula 3.
“My 1976 season was successful, and the following year I moved up to Formula Ford 2000, but that didn’t work out too well. So, in 1978, I came back to Formula Ford 1600 and did quite well, particularly at the Formula Ford Festival where I achieved three second-places, three thirds and two fourths over the years,” Morris says. In 1979, he was team-mates in the works PRS team with Tommy Byrne, who subsequently won the 1981 Formula Ford Festival, the 1982 British Formula 3 championship and competed in two Formula 1 races.
The Festival has taken place annually since 1972, originating at the Snetterton circuit before moving to Brands Hatch in 1976, where it remains today. Held at the end of the British racing season, it has provided a consistent platform for established and up-and-coming racing drivers to prove their mettle in various iterations of Ford-powered single-seaters, and for talent scouts to identify future stars.
Some of the famous F1 drivers that have won the Festival include Daly (1976), Johnny Herbert (1985), Roland Ratzenberger (1986), Eddie Irvine (1987), Jan Magnussen (1992), Mark Webber (1996) and Jenson Button (1998). South African Alan van der Merwe was the 2001 champion, going on to win the British Formula 3 title in 2003, and becoming a part-time test driver for the BAR-Honda F1 team. He raced in A1 Grand Prix from 2006 to 2009, and served as F1’s medical car driver from 2009 to 2021.
Head-to-head with Senna
“In 1980 I was supported by Alan Cornock of Royale in the British Formula Ford 1600 championship, and the following year I raced in the works Royale against the factory Van Diemen cars, which meant I was racing Senna, Alfonso Toledano and Enrique Mansilla,” Morris says.
Despite still working a regular job, Morris proved how competitive he was during the 1981 season by taking a clean sweep of the victories at Thruxton, Silverstone and Brands Hatch. In each instance he beat Senna, Toledano and Mansilla, who were all professional full-time racing drivers. He was second behind Senna at Oulton Park, Donington Park, Mallory Park and Snetterton, with the Royale better suited to the faster circuits and the Van Diemen claiming the advantage on the tighter tracks.
Senna was ultimately crowned British Formula Ford 1600 champion in 1981, with Morris finishing runner-up after leading the series for most of the year, but ultimately losing crucial points with a big crash.
“Funny enough, Senna was horrible to me. We were actually horrible to each other in 1981 because we were both so both competitive,” Morris says. “You’ve heard how focused Senna was, and when I beat him half a dozen times, he was furious. He moved on to Formula Ford 2000 in 1982, and I remained as a works driver in the 1600 category, where I won the BRDC Formula Ford 1600 championship that year driving a Royale RP31M.”
Morris has raced on and off ever since, with his son Steve continuing the legacy. “We had about five years of karting all over Europe with Steve, and then he got a works drive with BMW and later with Subaru in the South African Production Car Championship,” Morris says. “I had driven for Ian Schofield in England a couple of times, and in 2005 he invited me to come race in South Africa. So, from 2005 to 2016 I was racing here and in England in Formula Fords, sports cars and a bit of Formula 3.”
In 2016 Morris had bad cycling accident, breaking 10 ribs, a shoulder blade, two vertebrae, and suffering a punctured lung. As a result, he didn’t race in South Africa for a couple of years, but he eventually came back to compete here, and is still racing most weekends – mostly locally or in England where he remains a top competitor in classic Formula Fords, and is currently second in the British championship. He has also competed in the annual Phillip Island Classic in Australia.
A Simola Hillclimb convert
Morris participated in his first-ever hillclimb at Simola last year, and instantly became a big fan of the event. The Simola Hillclimb is South Africa’s premier motoring and motorsport lifestyle event, and the fastest hillclimb in the world.
“I wasn’t really impressed with hillclimbs until I came here,” he says. “On race circuits you have all that track time, learning the lines and knowing how to place the car to the inch. At a hillclimb it’s very difficult, as you need to very quickly learn the lines in just a few runs, and you don’t know how much grip you’ve got. This makes it a huge challenge, but also great fun.”
The car that Morris competes with in Classic Car Friday is a Royale RP31 Formula Ford – a replica of his Ford Kent-engined British championship-winning car from 1982. Despite tricky wet conditions at the 2025 Simola Hillclimb, he qualified 6th in class H9 for open-wheel single-seaters with a time of 53.309 seconds, and finished 10th in the Classic Conqueror Top 10 Shootout (53.470 sec). In the dry conditions experienced this year, Morris went significantly quicker, posting a time of 50.876 seconds in qualifying, which placed him fifth in H9.
Morris is no stranger to newer-generation machines, having regularly campaigned the EcoBoost 1.6-litre turbocharged 2014 Formula Ford in the local series. At the 2025 Simola Hillclimb, he powered this car to victory in class C1 of King of the Hill with a time of 46.441 seconds in the Class Finals, and secured the runner-up spot (47.444 sec) in the final Top 10 Shootout for the Single Seaters Sports Cars and Sports Prototypes category. This year he finished second in class (46.599 sec), and would have been classified sixth in the Top 10 Shootout, but his final 47.281-second run was deleted for clipping a track limit marker.
“People who haven’t been to the Simola Hillclimb don’t understand how good this place is,” Morris says. “It’s such a challenge for the driver, and the atmosphere is just fabulous. I love it, and I certainly hope to be back next year.
“I’ve been extremely lucky to have the contacts and the cars to compete in South Africa, and I’m especially grateful to Ian Schofield and the Simola Hillclimb for having me here,” he says. “I turn 80 in January next year, and as long as I’m reasonably competitive, I’ll keep going as long as I can.”
The 17th edition of the Simola Hillclimb will take place from 29 April to 2 May 2027.
