Karl Edward Tommy Borgudd, better known as Slim Borgudd (born 25 November 1946 – dead 23 February 2023) is a Swedish former Formula One driver who raced for the ATS and Tyrrell teams. Borgudd was born in Borgholm, Kalmar County.
His first career was as a drummer, mainly in jazz-rock, most notably for short-lived groups Lea Riders Group, Made In Sweden and Solar Plexus. He has also worked with Björn Ulvaeus’s group the Hootenanny Singers and ABBA, being sponsored as a Formula One driver by the latter. Info fromWiki
His first career was as a drummer, mainly in jazz-rock, most notably for short-lived groups Made In Sweden and Solar Plexus. He has also worked with Björn Ulvaeus’ group the Hootenanny Singers.
Borgudd began racing on and off in the mid 1960s with a Lotus Formula Ford car, but his racing career only became more serious in 1972, after taking five wins in five sports car racing club events. Borgudd raced a Hillman Imp and a Volvo 122 in the Swedish Touring Car Championship from 1972 to 1975, finishing runner-up in 1972, as well as racing in the Scandinavian Formula Ford series, which he won in 1973.
In 1976, Borgudd moved up Formula 3, racing sporadically until the end of the 1977 season. In 1978, he formed his own team and raced full-time in the Swedish and European series, in an old Ralt-Toyota, which he took to the Swedish championship title in 1979, also finishing third in the European series. Failing to move to Formula 2 in 1980, he raced only in the F3 Monaco Grand Prix, where he reached third place before the bodywork became loose, forcing Borgudd to finish the race holding the body together with one hand.
In 1981, Borgudd, now 34, finally entered Formula 1 in ATS, making his debut in the San Marino Grand Prix, placing ABBA logos (but no sponsorship money) in the car’s sidepods, a hopeful move to attract other investors. In spite of a run of non-qualifications, Borgudd managed to finish 6th in the British Grand Prix, scoring his first world championship point. In spite of the added morale boost, Borgudd failed to score any more points.
In 1982 Ken Tyrrell hired Borgudd to partner Michele Alboreto, as the Swede had out-qualified the Italian on several occasions in 1981. However, Borgudd did not adapt to his new team, and was unceremoniously dumped when his sponsorship money ran out early in the season.
From 1983 to 1985, Borgudd raced only on occasion, including his taking part in the 1984 and 1985 Macau Grand Prix. In 1985 he returned to race a Formula 1 car, an Arrows A6, in the new Formula 3000/F1 combined championship finishing 10th in the Vallelunga race. He entered 5 races that season, but the rebuilt F1 cars were not competitive compared to the specified F3000 cars. Although he took part in the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans, and in 1989 had an outright win in the Willhire 24 Hour, a minor touring car race where he drove a Ford Sierra, the Swede made his mark in truck racing the following years. In 1986 and 1987, Borgudd was champion in Divisions 2 and 3 of the European Truck Racing Cup, respectively. The following years, success was more fleeting, although the Scandinavian driver managed to finish the 1992 Class B championship in third place.
It wouldn’t be until 1993 that Borgudd made his full-time return to automobiles, joining the works Mazda team and driving a Mazda Xedos 6 in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) with sparse results. However, a switch to the Nordic Touring Car Championship in 1994 saw him take the championship title. The Mazda team made plans to return to the BTCC the following year, but the plan was scrapped.
Also in 1994, Borgudd went back to top form in the Truck Racing Cup, where the Swede lost the race to the championship title to British driver Steve Parrish, after a dogfight that lasted the entire season. Borgudd responded in kind in 1995, beating Parrish and Markus Oestreich by a large margin. In 1996 and 1997, Borgudd finished 5th and 4th only, and announced his retirement after accusing Mercedes-Benz of favoring other drivers. Since then, he has made occasional returns to racing at amateur level, having settled down in Coventry.
Bio by Stephen Latham
Karl Edward Tommy Borgudd, universally known as ‘Slim’ Borgudd, was born in Borholm, on the island of Öland in the Baltic sea, south-eastern Sweden, on the 25th November, 1946. He first developed an interest in cars when he was amongst the spectators watching a race at Karskoga in 1959, with Stirling Moss leaving a lasting impression. During his World Champion drives he raced with ABBA emblazoned down the side of his cars and later contested truck racing, winning four European Truck Championship titles driving the Mobil-backed Volvo White. However, his career at that time was as a drummer, playing for bands such as ‘Lea Riders Group’ and the prog-rock group ‘Made in Sweden’. Björn Ulvaeus asked Slim to join his group, ‘Hootenanny Singers’, and the pair became close friends and Björn would ask Slim occasionally to play the drums in studio sessions with his next group, ABBA. Some articles described him as ABBA’s drummer but Ola Brunkert and Roger Palm were their regular drummers though the band’s success would later help Slim on his path to F1. This you tube link leads to ‘Funky Formula’, a record he released in 1976 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J-jc6KQObk
When he was 16 he joined the Merchant Navy and it was during his time there that he gained his nickname. When his ship docked in New Orleans, he went to a club where jazz legend and pianist Memphis Slim was supposed to be playing but his drummer had damaged his wrist. As he was already proficient on the drums, his shipmates put him forward as a replacement and the session went well. Afterwards, Memphis Slim told him he was Little Slim, though the ‘Little’ was later dropped and the two would play another session together sixteen years later in Helsinki. While on a UK tour in 1968 he met Chris Barber who, besides being a jazz band leader, was also an enthusiastic amateur racer and he bought an old Lotus 22 off him. After attending the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School to learn how to drive it, he began to campaign very successfully in Swedish club racing in FFord, taking sixteen wins and three second place finishes out of twenty races in 1970/71.
During this period, he had gained a reputation as one of Sweden’s best drummers with bands such as the ‘Lea Riders Group’ and then ‘Made in Sweden’ and the album ‘Made in Sweden with Love’ was a big hit there in 1968 and they won the Swedish Grammy for Best Band in 1969 and 1970. The band was considered a progressive jazz-rock supergroup and they were active until 1977 though Slim later formed a third group, Solar Plexus, and they made four albums. He was friends with ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson from the days when they were the Hootenanny Singers and after ABBA was formed, Slim was a regular session drummer for them. ABBA allowed him to use their name in his racing exploits and the association was useful in his quest for sponsorship and publicity.
His career started to progress when he raced a Hillman Imp in the Swedish Touring Car Championship in 1972, where he was second in class and then finished second overall the following year with a Volvo 122S, as well as racing in the Scandinavian FFord series, which he won in 1973. Following this, a lack of funds hampered his racing activities though in 1978 he managed to raise some finance and campaigned a Ralt RT1 in the Swedish and European F3 Championships. He had four podiums and finished fourth in the standings and eleventh in the European series and ‘Motoring News’ ranked him No.7 in Europe. He went on to take the Swedish title in 1979, with victories at Anderstorp and Falkenburg plus four podiums, and did two British rounds with Roger Heavens Racing’s March 793. In the European F3 Championship, Prost was dominant that year though Slim performed well in his under financed Ralt and, despite missing some rounds, he finished third in the standings, with 23 points, behind Alain Prost (67 points) and Michael Bleekemolen (28 points). ‘Autosport’ magazine ranked him No.2 in Europe, after Alain Prost.
He contested assorted F3 rounds in 1980 with a March 803, March 793 and a Ralt RT3 under the Abba Racing Team banner and was ninth at Brands Hatch and fifth at Österreichring. At Monaco, after qualifying sixteenth, he took the lap record and ran as high as third before contact with another car caused the bodywork to come loose and he drove the last four laps with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding the bodywork. There was a single outing in September at Nürburgring with a Klaus Zimmermann Racing Team Ralt RT3, where he finished second.
In 1981, when ABBA were at the height of their fame, Björn Ulvaeus decided to help Slim move up to F1 and the group was part of a sponsorship package used to join ATS. ATS (Auto Technisches Spezialzubehor) was founded in 1969 by Günter Schmid and they specialised in lightweight wheels for Porsche, VW and Mercedes-Benz cars. After sponsoring a string of national motorsport events, Schmidt decided to enter Grand Prix racing with his own team and in 1977 he purchased the remaining PC4 chassis from Penske Racing after the American team left F1. Jean-Pierre Jarier was hired and he finished sixth on the team’s debut at the US GP West then a second car was entered in Germany for Hans Heyer and he was later joined by Hans Binder. In the following seasons, drivers who raced for the team included Jochen Mass, Alberto Colombo (though he failed to qualify in Belgium and was let go), Keke Rosberg, Michael Bleekemolen, Harald Ertl and Hans-Joachim Stuck. Marc Surer and Jan Lammers drove for the team in 1980 (with Lammers taking their best ever qualifying position with fourth place at Long Beach) and Lammers was retained for the 1981 season. Schmidt was described as a ‘mercurial character’, which led to a high turnover of staff and when Slim arrived at the Bicester workshops for a seat fitting a few days before his first race, he only found two people there, as the rest had walked out. However, he managed to persuade his old F3 team boss Roger Heavens and a few mechanics to join the team. His debut came at San Marino, where he out-qualified teammate Lammers (starting twenty fourth and twenty seventh) with the D4, with the car featuring ABBA lettering on its sides) and eventually finished thirteenth and last of the runners. This would be Lammer’s last race with the team and Slim raced a sole ATS HGS1 for the rest of the year. He failed to qualify for the next four races but then finished sixth at Silverstone, taking much needed points for the team, their first of the season. ABBA were so pleased at the result that the band turned up at the following race at Hockenheim but he retired due to engine failure. There was only a tenth place finish at Zandvoort in the remaining five races, as he retired in Austria, Italy and Canada and did not qualify at Las Vegas.
Slim moved to Tyrrell for 1982 and drove their 011 alongside Michele Alboreto, but only entered the first three races. He finished sixteenth in the season opener in South Africa and was ninth in the Brazilian GP at Jacarepaguá though did well to finish as many drivers suffered exhaustion because of the intensely hot weather. In the later stages of the race, the lead battle was between Piquet and Rosberg, with Patrese gaining on them after passing Prost, who was suffering from a misfiring engine. However, on lap 34 Patrese slowed and pulled off the circuit due to total exhaustion and when the marshalls arrived they had to physically lift him out of his Brabham. An exhausted Piquet took the win but whilst on the podium he collapsed and fainted with exhaustion. Slim was later promoted to seventh place after first and second placed Piquet and Rosberg were later disqualified for their cars being underweight. The US GP West at Long Beach saw a tenth place result but this proved to be his last Tyrrell drive as his funds ran out and he was replaced by Brian Henton.
He only raced occasionally from 1983 to 1985 and F3 outings in 1984 with Anson Racing International’s Anson SA4B saw eleventh and sixth at Knutstorp and Jarama plus sixth at Macau with the Trivellato Racing Team’s Ralt RT3. In the following year he entered several F3000 races with Roger Cowman’s Arrows A6, though his only finish was tenth at Vallelunga. He was eighth in a European Touring Car round at Donington alongside Mikael Strauch and Sune Olofsson with Magnum Racing’s Volvo 240 Turbo then was eleventh with Chantaler Avia’s Ralt RT30 at Macau. He then turned to truck racing and was soon winning races, going on to take the European Truck Racing Championship in 1986, 1987 and 1988 plus won Britain’s most prestigious truck event, the Mobil Superprix in 1987, 1988 and 1990. Following this he took the British Open Truck Racing Championship in 1991 and was second in the FIA European Truck Racing Cup then in 1992 he was third in the Class B championship.
Away from trucks, during this period, in 1987 he was entered for Le Mans in a twin-turbo Volvo powered Tiga TC286 alongside Tryggve Gronvall and Andrew Ratcliffe though they did not qualify. In 1989, as he had Firestone sponsorship in truck racing, Firestone UK entered Slim with Mark Hales in the 24 Hour Willhire Production Saloon race at Snetterton in a Ford Sapphire Cosworth and after starting second on the grid they won the race, three laps ahead of the nearest competitor. During the year he also won in the Rover 216GTi Cup and had podium finishes in 500km touring car races at Wellington and Pukekoh in New Zealand. A switch to the Nordic Touring Car Championship in 1994, in a factory Mazda team run by Roger Dowson Racing, saw him take the title and he also raced the car at the World Cup race at Donington Park. There were plans for them to return with Slim to the British Touring Car Championship in 1995 but it never came to fruition. Racing trucks for Mercedes Benz, Slim was on top form in 1994’s Truck Racing Cup though was narrowly beaten to the title by Steve Parrish, after a season long battle between the pair. However, he reversed the result in 1995 and beat Parrish and Markus Oestreich to the title by a large margin though in the following two years, he only finished fifth and fourth and he then announced his retirement.
After retiring from truck racing in 1997, Slim settled down in Coventry, England, though there was a return to the track in Porsche Club racing in 2003 with a Porsche GT3 RS, where he and Jerry Harrison were second at Brands Hatch and won the Memorial Porsche Open at the circuit. He joined Radical Sportscars in 2005 as their Overseas Distribution Manager and, in the following year, racing Radicals in America he finished third in class in a round of the IMSA Light series introducing the Radical PR6 at Lime Rock and won the Annual ‘Winterfest Race at Sebring with a Radical PR06. He then became involved in coaching, testing and car set-up with RH Motorsport and in 2009 founded Slim Racing to campaign Radicals in the UK and Europe. Sadly, Slim was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2022 and after a rapid decline in health, he passed away on the 23rd February 2023.
