FOUNDER

It is not easy to speak about Henry, as he is extremely poliedric and because of all the time he passed at the pitwall or in the paddock.

We can start by saying that he is Irish, from the South of course, and that he was born in 1931. He started racing in Ireland with motorbikes and cars and the first encouraging results arrived so he started racing abroad. At the beginning of the 60s he is an official Renault driver and with the small Alpines he achieves great results. He has great respect for the mechanics and a clean driving style that comes from his experience racing and testing Norton Manx motorcicles, and is also endowed with a perfect tactic vision both for sprint and endurance races.

His mates convince him to open the first racing school in France at Clermont Ferrand. Henry remembers it as a lovely experience also because of the excellent food and wine!

His ability in teaching the basics of motorsport brought him to California in the States: “during the first courses pupils asked me why racing cars had 3 pedals, my hair stood on it’s ends! And in any case the food was terrible.”

At the end of the sixties he arrived in Italy, at Vallelunga which was the most famous racetrack after Monza: “I immediately got on well in Italy, the climate is nice, the food and wine are good too and the the italians did not ask me why the cars needed 3 pedals! Here the Fiat 500 was very important and I no longer suffered for the gear boxes . ” Henry settles down in Campagnano and Italy becomes his second home.

The school increases in fame and notoriety and many cinema stars and artists attend the courses. Also many young guns come to the school, including in the early seventies Elio de Angelis, Andrea de Cesaris and the roman American Eddie Cheever. They started off at Henry’s school really early and the result is known to everybody. Henry is a tough nut (with a soft heart) but the rigid discipline he demanded from his pupils on the track was then useful to them when they reached professionism.