The Legend
I am bouncing between airports again, the Goodwood Members’ Meeting having served as the jumping-off point for the European event calendar as far as I am concerned. I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s running, in particular because there was a little tribute to my 60 years in motorsport. By that, I am referring to me participating in my first race after years spent marshalling. What was really special was meeting up with my eldest boy Justin and a few old mates for an evening at The Lamb Inn in Pagham, where we celebrated me reaching my milestone. It was a great laugh as we stumbled and flailed down memory lane.
Among the ‘dignitaries’ was John Penfold, with whom I acquired the Lotus Seven that I raced at Goodwood six decades ago. John has a remarkable memory, and we reminisced about buying the car – or rather the chassis – that had previously been used for hillclimbing rather than circuit racing. It had been campaigned by John Barnes and competitively so. We got the engine from a Ford dealer in Chichester and screwed it all together. That’s what you did then. I won’t regale you with stories of how magnificent I was aboard that little car, other than to say I won first time out and that was all it took.
I received a little carriage clock for winning and it was like I had received The Crown Jewels. I knew then that I was going to be a racing driver. John, for his part, was an able wheelman but he got married and set about earning a crust instead. That was the eminently more sensible approach. Racing was put to one side but he later returned and enjoyed success in assorted Alfa Romeos. He remains one of my dearest friends and I am forever grateful that he decided to go halves on that Lotus. From there it was F3, a few races in F2 and then Formula 1. I made the leap from club outings in the Seven to the big leagues inside four seasons.
I cannot imagine that happening these days because even club racing is prohibitively expensive for most would-be competitors. You need deep pockets to compete in any category, let alone entry-level singleseaters. It is such a shame that this is the case, not that I had it easy. There were several bumps along the way, and seasons when I honestly wondered how I could possibly keep going once I had a family. Paid d
