By 1979, at the age of 18, Allen had his first foray in race cars, where he finished 2nd in the Canadian Formula Ford Championship, and grabbed 3rd and Rookie of the Year honours in the North American FF Championship. 1980 was also the first year that Allen shared his knowledge as a racing instructor at Mosport Racing School.

“Formula Ford really laid the foundation for me,” explains Berg, “I had moved away from home to pursue my passion, and my first few laps of Mosport were exciting, intimidating and terrifying! Racing against the likes of Chip Ganassi, John Paul Jr., Scott Goodyear, Ludwig Heimrath Jr. in Formula Fords was some of the most intense racing I’ve ever had, and memories and lessons I cherish to this day.”

Allen’s ascent continued in ’81 and ’82. Moving up to the North American Formula Atlantic Series in ’82, Allen captured the Rookie of the Year honours and earned his first of two consecutive “Canadian Driver of the Year Awards”. Allen was also named the Deutsche Automobile Club Driver of the Year.

In 1983, Berg captured the Championship in the New Zealand / Australia International Formula Pacific Tasman Championship.


Later that year, Berg claimed a hard fought 5th in in the ultra-competitive British Formula Three Championship. Maybe “ultra-competitive” is insufficient, as the four racers that finished ahead of Allen in British F3 were Ayrton Senna (Champion), Martin Brundle (2nd), Davy Jones (3rd), and Calvin Fish (4th).

“That year in British F3 was incredibly intense. Of course, at that time, we didn’t know what Ayrton and Martin and the others would become, but we all knew that we were involved in something special,” enthused Berg. “The rivalry between Martin and Ayrton affected the entire Championship, all of the teams, all of the drivers, race control, the corner workers, everyone. I vividly recall a race at Thruxton where on lap 1, corner 1, I went off (maybe I was helped off). I had started 5th in that race, but my race was over. After the race – which Ayrton won – he came up to me and said ‘What happened to you on Lap 1?, I saw you going into the corner in 5th place but coming out of the corner you weren’t there anymore?’



“To this day, I am amazed at the awareness that he had. Here he was battling for the lead, and he knew that I was out of the picture. It was a great lesson in intensity, preparation and a champion’s mindset that I try to pass on to my students today. And of course, driving for Eddie Jordan means that I have many stories…. which we’ll save for another day. And, I did learn a lot about the business of motorsport from Eddie. I’ll leave it at that.”

Following the 1983 season, Allen and many others from the ’83 British F3 season all converged on Macau.“I went out for drinks the night before on-track activities with Ayrton and Joe Stoup, and Ayrton bettered me there too. Before long, I was a lap down and headed to my hotel while Ayrton and Joe carried on. Ayrton won Macau that year.”

In 1984, Berg finished runner-up to Johnny Dumphries – again in British F3, and again driving for Eddie Jordan.

At the end of 1984, Berg was invited to test with Arrows F1 team and as a result earned his Superlicense, as well as invitations from several teams (Arrows, Tyrrell, March, Osella, Minardi, Arrows, Tyrrell, Larrouse, Brabham) to join them for the 1985 season. Unfortunately, Allen was unable to raise the requisite sponsorship.

Beginning in early 1985, when his classmates as it were – Senna, Brundle and others – were off to Formula 1, Allen also set his sight on joining the World Championship, and began the hard work that it took to raise his profile, and the sponsor partners as required. Parallel to that, Allen competed in the ’85 Mexican F-K Championship, capturing three victories and two podiums in five events.

In early 1986, Allen had captured the attention of Labatt Breweries – maybe the holy grail of motorsports sponsors at that time – at least for an aspiring Canadian.



And in June of ’86, Allen made his first start in Formula 1 – on the wall-lined streets at Detroit. This was turbo-era F1, fast, loud and dangerous, and Allen was on the grid, which was the fulfilment of his dreams and goals.

The names of the racers that Allen was able to compete against in his nine Formula 1 starts in the Osella Scuadra Corse / Alfa Romeo is pretty remarkable. World Champions like Senna, Mansell, Prost, Piquet, Rosberg and Jones, and legends like Johansson, Berger, Brundle, Warwick, Alboreto, Nannini, Boutsen, Palmer, Arnoux, Patrese, Alliott, Fabi and more.