Allen Berg

Canadian Allen Bernard Berg started in karting and went on to contest F1 for Osella in 1986 then remained involved in motor sport as a driver, team owner, series administrator, driving coach and instructor and set up Allen Berg Racing Schools.

Born on the 1st August 1961 in Vancouver, British Columbia, his father was a drag racer, and he began racing karts in Alberta in 1978. He them moved into Canadian FFord in 1980 and finished second in the following year, to Scott Goodyear, then contested Formula Atlantic in 1982, and won the rookie of the year award. In late 1982 he travelled to Australia/New Zealand to race in the Formula Pacific Tasman Championship with Graeme Lawrence’s Ralt. He won the Lady Wigram Trophy plus took the title and from this was offered a drive with Neil Trundle in the following year’s British F3 Championship. However, this would be the year that Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle dominated in a head-to-head season long battle, both driving Toyota-powered Ralt chassis, for West Surrey Racing and Eddie Jordan Racing. In the first four races in March Allen was tenth at Silverstone and seventh at a second Silverstone race though retired at Donington due to an accident. The following races saw third, fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth at Silverstone, fifth at Brands Hatch, third and fifth at Oulton Park plus fifth, sixth and eighth at Thruxton. There were retirements at Cadwell Park and Thruxton due to accidents, mechanical issues at Snetterton and Donington plus he did not start at the final round at Thruxton, after retiring on the parade lap and finished fifth in the standings. Recalling Senna, he said “the thing about him was that not only could he drive the car to its limits, he could do it on the first lap of the race. He’d be able to pull a gap and then hold it-one or two seconds. He had amazing visibility-an awareness of everything around him. He would say things after the race about conditions on the track that maybe you hadn’t seen or realised. I think that’s the sort of thing that makes the difference between a good driver and a great driver.”

In the following year’s F3 Championship he took eight second place finishes and was runner-up to Johnny Dumfries, who took the title with three rounds left to run. Racing Eddie Jordan’s Ralt RT3, he was third at Zolder, Silverstone and Zandvoort, sixth at Thruxton, eighth at Silverstone plus sixteenth at Thruxton and Snetterton. He retired due to an accident at Oulton Park and his second place finishes came at Spa, Brands Hatch, Thruxton, Donington (twice) plus three at Silverstone.

He returned to Canada to try to raise sponsorship plus did some racing in Mexico then was able to race with Osella in F1 for 1986. He only joined the Championship at the fifth round though retired in his first three races due to mechanical issues in Detroit (electrical) and France (turbo) plus was caught up in the multi-car accident at Brands Hatch. Entering Paddock Hill Bend for the first time, Thierry Boutsen had something go on his Arrows and the car turned sharply and hit the barrier. This bounced him backwards across the road and in trying to avoid the Arrows, most of the following pack either hit each other or hit barriers. Both Osellas were out but unfortunately Jacques Laffite hit the Armco and suffered two severely fractured legs and a fractured pelvis. There were further mechanical retirements in Hungary (turbo) and Austria (electrical) though he was twelfth in Germany and thirteenth in Portugal and Mexico but was not classified in the final race in Australia. Reaching F1 was the culmination of a dream he had since he was four years old and he told how “it never really impacted me until the drivers meetings (that I was really in F1). I was surrounded by these living legends who I idolised when I watched the races on TV”.

Unfortunately the issue of sponsorship thwarted a second season in F1 as “at the end of my first year, I was in discussions with five different teams to race for them in F1 the following season, contingent on sponsorship, of course. The fact that there were five teams that had an interest in me-well, that was pretty good. Osella, of course, Minardi, Arrows, Tyrrell, Brabham-they were all interested.” Labatts was negotiating to try to arrange a drive (they had funded his one F1 season and were keen to continue the relationship) but when the 1987 Canadian GP was dropped from the calendar “that’s when the whole bottom fell out. Without a home race, Labatt didn’t have the motivation to sponsor a Canadian. And that was that”. The race was cancelled because Molson and Labatt were fighting over who would promote it. Molson had sponsorship rights and Labatt had the rights to the track in Montreal but they went to court and Molson won.

He only raced occasionally in sportscar events, contesting the Silverstone 1000km in 1987 with Volker Weidler and Kris Nissen in a Kremer Porsche 962C plus was eighteenth in 1989’s 24 Hour Daytona with a Porsche 962 alongside Bernard Jourdain, Oscar Manitou and Andres Contreras. During this time he also tested for the Jaguar IMSA team and raced in TransAm plus while doing a couple of seasons in the Players Challenge Series he got to know Paul Cooke, president of ASN Canada, telling how “I got to know Paul well in the late 1980s and we would spend a lot of time together in the stewards office. As a result of those meetings during that two-year period, I was single-handedly the biggest financial contributor to ASN Canada.”

In 1990 he raced at Le Mans with Richard Lloyd’s 962C alongside Bruno Giacomelli and John Watson (though they did not finish due to an accident) before heading to Japan to race sportscars. In 1991 he returned to Europe, racing in the DTM with a privately entered BMW M3 Sport Evo, with his best result eighth at Alemannenring, before enjoying success on the Mexican racing scene in the F2, and later F3, championship. He was third in 1992 and won the title in 1993 while also racing in local sportscar events.

He later won the Indy Lights Panamericana title in 2001 as a driver-owner and in 2002 ran his own Scuadra Fortia team in the North American Toyota Atlantic Series and also acted in an administrative capacity in organising the Formula Renault racing series in Canada. For three years he was the Chief Instructor for BMW Mexico and before that, worked as a coach for the Derek Daly Racing Academy, Skip Barber Racing School and the Mosport Racing School. He also served as Chief Instructor for the Calgary Sports Car Club in its basic competition licence school and in 2007 founded Allen Berg Racing Schools.