Talk:Mike Harris (racing driver)

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What's Mike Harris' nationality? I gather he was born in Northern Rhodesia and, during his Formula One races in 1962, was in fact Northern Rhodesian. This page lists him as South African, though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lustigson (talk • contribs) 06:31, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

It depends on which source you believe - some say Rhodesian, some say South African. I don't know if Northern Rhodesia issued racing licences, and if not, he may have raced under a foreign licence - it's the nationality of the racing licence that should appear in the infobox. We should probably find a few sources and make a note regarding the lack of clarity - I'll do that when I get the chance, unless someone else wants to. Bretonbanquet 19:23, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

@Bretonbanquet: I know it's an old thread. But any luck in tracking down sources for this? I'm quite curious as to what the situation was. Also, not sure if your guess about Northern Rhodesia issuing racing licenses is relevant, as issuing special racing licenses is a fairly modern phenomenon, isn't it? I believe drivers used to race under their regular driver's licenses, and so most likely Northern Rhodesia issued those at the time. cherkash (talk) 14:58, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

Very old! He's on my list of drivers to work on, but I'll push him up the list and have a good look as soon as I can. As for your last point, you may well be right, I don't know if racing licences were a thing back then, especially in far-flung lands. If I find anything, I'll be sure to add it, or bring it here. Bretonbanquet (talk) 20:10, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

I am rather late to this conversation, but I recently became aware of a new book by Robert Young, one of the foremost authorities on this time and place in motor racing history. In the free extract provided on the publisher's website was the following quote:

"Mike Harris, the 1962 Rhodesian champion, recalled the challenges he faced when he competed in the year-end international series in South Africa as a reward for winning his country’s national championship. He took a month off work to travel to destinations far from home to race at Kyalami, Westmead and East London in his Cooper T53 Alfa." Emphasis mine.

I would note that, not just Harris, but Sam Tingle and John Love were sometimes recorded as South African in the older Grand Prix encyclopedias from the 1970s, such as Grand Prix Chronology by Stephen Hirst. This fact was corrected in the case of the latter two drivers when Steve Small began publishing his Who's Who guides in the 1990s, but Harris continued to be recorded as a South African, likely due to his relative obscurity (he mysteriously "vanished" from motor racing, whereas Love and Tingle continued to be fixtures of the sport in southern Africa for years to come). The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing from around the same time, on the other hand, records Harris (correctly?) as Rhodesian.

On the question of racing licences: they absolutely were a thing and were in fact a long-established practice by this time. An FIA International Licence was a prerequisite for competing in events on the international calendar outside of a driver's home country. Failing that, there was often an unspoken agreement between ASNs of neighbouring countries regarding participation in each other's events, as was indeed the case with South Africa allowing drivers from Rhodesia and the then-Portuguese colonies in the region to compete in races counting toward its Gold Star Championship.

Having said that, I would caution against using licences as a way of sourcing nationality at least for this period, as that was something which was inconsistently reported. John Watson, for example, appeared variously as Irish and British on Grand Prix entry lists in the 1970s.

As I see it, the facts regarding Mike Harris are as follows: he was born in then-Northern Rhodesia, which became part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland when he was a teenager. At some point, he moved to Salisbury where he worked for the local Alfa Romeo agent. He began racing Coopers in Rhodesia (there is no record of him doing so in South Africa prior to the 1962 Springbok internationals), winning the Rhodesian Championship in 1962 (though I cannot prove it in this specific case, national championships of this nature were often exclusively limited to licence holders within the territory in question, as was the case for example with the RIAC Sexton Trophy and the CAMS Gold Star). He did later move to Durban, but that was long after he took an early retirement from racing following his friend Gary Hocking's death in the Natal GP.

On these facts there is far more to connect Harris with Rhodesia than there is with South Africa, though there is nothing to exclude the possibility that he obtained a South African licence if, say, the gentleman's agreement between the two territories could not be extended to World Championship Grands Prix. MTV Simtek (talk) 11:51, 7 March 2026 (UTC)