The following extract from Daily Sports Car.com brings the very sad news that Steve O'Rourke is having to give up racing due to health concerns:

It is with a degree of sadness that we have to report that Steve O'Rourke has had a medical examination and a slight heart problem has been detected - which means that his racing career is effectively over. He and Tim Sugden had planned a return to the FIA GT Championship this year, with the EMKA Porsche - one of the most developed of the breed.

Tim Sugden has been O'Rourke's partner since 1996, and expressed the opinion that "Steve epitomised the spirit of the gentleman racer: he ran a superb team, he treated everyone extremely well, and he loved his racing - perhaps more the historics than anything else. We were going to have a very good year together..."

We at Brain Damage echo these comments; we've enjoyed many race meetings watching Steve and will miss seeing him going "ten tenths". Our thanks to Matthew Barlow for passing this news to us.