juwra.com  |  Journalists - David Williams (original) (raw)

David Williams, or DKW as many of us knew him died at home on the 15th of August 2005 at the age of 43, 15 days short of his 44th birthday, and in doing so has left a hole in so many peoples lives.

David was a world renowned Rally Journalist, much respected in his field and many of his peers refer to him as �The Man�, due to his encyclopaedic knowledge of rallying at every level and his total professionalism and dedication.

As well as working in the sport he was a true clubman rally competitor, competing for many years in various Minis, Metros and latterly his Rover 200. I was honoured to have co-driven for him a couple of times, firstly in Belgium on the TAC Rally and then again on the Manx and both times we retired due to mechanical problems.

The retirements should have been upsetting for me but instead it meant I could chat at length with David without distraction and listen to his many stories about characters in the sport that we both shared a love of. I thank the poor reliability of his Mini for the memories it has now given me.

When David made his to infrequent, due to work commitments, visits to our Motor Club evenings he was always greeted with enthusiasm by his fellow members. He had time for everyone who wanted to speak to him about anything and would never try and finish the conversation and move on to someone more important, everyone was important to David.

He was a modest man and I remember having to persuade him to sign my copy of the Richard Burns biography that he had written, he could not understand why anyone would want his signature but I wanted his autograph as much as I wanted Richard's.

I don�t know whether David would be comfortable with the many tributes that have been paid to him but it�s a mark of the man that his funeral was standing room only and people travelled from overseas to pay their respects and celebrate his life.

DKW R.I.P

Appreciation by Bryan Hull (standing right in the picture)