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KK sideways 2

Keith Knox, the man.

Keith joined Whickham and District Motor Club at the age of 15 and remained there for 35 years.
He started navigating on road rallies for John Dawson. At 18 he started to drive himself but he often shared events with navigator Mick Collier.
As a van driver he often went down a selective called Harham but this certainly didn't seem to help him as every time he rallied there he crashed!
His younger brother Kevin started rallying in 1979 and from that day Keith continued rallying as a navigator or co-driver.
Keith and Kevin had much success rallying in the North East but especially on Otterburn Ranges in their MK1 Escort, always known as Betsy.

Otterburn was always Keith's favorite place to rally and there was even a bridge named after them ( Knoxy's Bridge ) and it was Keith's wish for his ashes to be scattered up there once he had passed away.
He had a very real passion for rallying and was always very supportive of young and up and coming drivers.
Keith battled with a brain tumour for a year and a half, with his typically optimistic attitude, but unfortunately succumbed to it on the 15th August 2004. We all remember him in many ways, his infectious humour, his wonderfully calm manner, and especially with this particular rally.

KK Viva

The Keith we knew..

Keith was one of the first people I met when I joined the motor club back in nineteen eighty something, it seems such a long time ago now but I still remember vividly the first time I met him on a club night after a road rally on the previous Saturday where he had had a huge accident while navigating, I can still remember the massive bruising he had, it was in the perfect shape of a harness complete with buckle!

I also have many great memories of Keith while servicing for him, navigating for Jimmy and spectating on countless events including the infamous RAC in the motorhome, Keith cooking breakfast while we drove into the stages was a joy to watch!

Paul Hughes


I first came across Kevin and Keith on the 1985 Tynedale Stages in Wark forest. On the first run through they had gone off backwards into the trees on a deceptive tightening right hander and shortened the back of the Escort by about 2 feet. We dragged them out and sent them on their way.

On the second run they went off again, this time head first and hitting the same tree! It was a heavy impact and everything went quiet. We began to fear the worst until Keith flung his door open and yelled "Hello again lads, come and give us a push then!!!". That summed up Keith's total attitude to rallying.

It wasn't until nearly 10 years later when I joined Whickham MC and started to compete and marshal on events in the North East that I really got to know Keith and the rest of the Knox family. I can clearly remember a very snowy Lindisfarne rally and Keith starting the first loop of stages wearing his wellies and on another occasion doing Otterburn with a plaster cast on his ankle!

Even when results weren't going their way Keith never lost his sense of humour and never took things too seriously.

Guy Wickham

Rallying is indeed a very funny old game, at times it brings out the worst in people, at other times it brings out the very best. It is clear that everyone who met him was, like myself, taken by his infectious love for the sport, his enthusiasm and passion for rallying which encompassed many years in various vehicles, the only common denominator being that they were always gloriously underfunded, and inevitably driven a with great skill and panache which on many occasions considerably embarrassed drivers of much better (and much more expensive) machinery. Having over the years compered many prizegivings and awards nights in the North East, it was always a great pleasure to announce, "The winners are Knox and Knox" - and to hear the tumultuous and richly deserved applause that ensued. It will be both strange and sad not to abe able to do that again.
For all the success he achieved, Keith remained a very down to earth person, always approachable, affable, with a great sense of humour, it will be sad not to see him wandering around the air strips, or grinning ear to ear as Kevin and he got airborne over Otterburns famous "Yumps".

'Hexham'

 

Keith the Big Brother

KK Autotest Hires

He was always the big brother to all at Whickham and District Motor Club and could always be relied upon to drop everything and muck in.

The Knox Brothers epitomised Clubmen Rallying and most of the best memories I have involve them.

Spectating on Road Rallies in the Blue Transit, Keith navigating from somewhere in the back as Kevin was sick unless he sat in the front, Jimmy always drove.
The 36 point turn down a white next to the scissors when a 5 car accident blocked the road,
The Friday nights out in Stanley then back to Keiths with a "cowboy special" from the chippies, Scamp used to love Fridays.
The RAC in the Motor home with the home made passes!.
Servicing for "Betsy" taking the double yump flat!
I remember them receiving a bollocking from Jean for "going too wacky"
The map of Keilder with the lake coloured in in blue pencill- still in use to this day.
The smile when he was leaving the service area to do the big stage at Otterburn in the dark - priceless!!

Ants Wakefield


KK MK 1

I first met Keith in the early Eighties when I joined Whickham and District Motor Club. Keith was one of the first people I met and his infectious enthusiasm was apparent from day one. I knew nothing about motorsport in those days, and when I asked Keith what a 'white' was, I can remember him laughing and saying 'Ee, do you not know what a white is?' before patiently explaining it to me. From the very beginning he acted like I had been a friend for years. Typical Keith.

Over the intervening years I've done Telephone Rallies with him, (we made a great team), tabletop rallies, Superstars events, Wheel Change Competitions, and I've leaned over his shoulder on so many Quiz Nights it's not real. Did he ever mind? No, saying 'It's only a quiz, man, Tosh'. His patience was always incredible, especially in the early days when I asked question after question and he always took the time to answer carefully and truthfully, though he must have been surprised sometimes at how much I didnt know.

When my Son Brian was about 18 months old we used to go up to Kielder to help organise and do recovery in Ari the Land Rover, Brian strapped in his baby seat, and Keith used to laugh like a drain at Brian in his little 'one-piece' suit on his pedal car. 'Ee, look at the Bairn' he'd say. And to the end he always referred to him as 'your little Brian' even though he's 6'1" now.

Keith has been a friend, a confident, a source of help and knowledge and a man you could turn to whenever you were in trouble. I remember ringing him up from London when my wife was stuck with a broken car and he went round and sorted it all out for me without a thought. What a bloke.

For me, Keith epitomised the face of the friendly North-East. Despite having worked away for 22 years, whenever I went back to the Club (wherever it was meeting) and saw Keith, he would always say 'Ee It's Tosh' like I was coming home, and it made me feel so welcome. Keith was very much Whickham Motor Club to me but though it won't be the same, I know that wherever he is now, he'll be looking down at us doing whatever we're doing, saying 'Ee, look at those daft buggers'.

The one thing I can say in all honesty, is that Keith Knox leaves me with absolutely no bad memories at all. There is nothing he did, in all the time I knew him, that didn't make me smile or laugh, and marvel at the way the whole Knox family is such a complete unit. Keith was simply a lovely, lovely man, and even though he is no longer here, he has left me with profoundly happy memories and a lasting legacy that there are truly good men in this world.

Tosh

Knox Trannie

Keith Knox - a wonderful man, never forgotten.

 
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