Royal Automobile Club supports Bill Boddy tribute day at Brooklands

17/10/2011

The passing of Motor Sport magazine’s founder editor Bill Boddy was marked by a spectacular celebration of his life at Brooklands: the cornerstone of the great man’s existence. Following a request from Bill’s colleagues at Motor Sport, the Royal Automobile Club was delighted to send its 1904 Mors, a car which ‘WB’ drove regularly on the London-Brighton Run, to take its place in the evocative and poignant display.
Motor Sport’s Gordon Cruikshank writes:

“A paddock full of racing cars, engines snarling on the Test Hill and massed starts on the main straight bore witness to the passions of a man for whom ‘The Track’ was paradise – and who lobbied hard to preserve as much of the circuit and many of its cars in the dark days after World War 2.

“Just like WB’s interests, the cars ranged widely: amid the smell of Castrol R, Bugatti, ERA, and Invicta engines barked, a Hispano-engined Berliet throbbed and a minute Humberette chuffered off to the ‘start’, where grids of varied machinery filled the air with the right noises as they executed a standing start and disappeared up the banking behind the Members Hill.

“Stanley Mann in ‘Old Mother Gun’, that historic Bentley special which WB watched on The Track before WWII, gave us a flavour of those days by sprinting high up the banking before he had to shut off in a hurry.

“Bearing witness to the occasion as it stood below the Test Hill, the Royal Automobile Club’s 1904 Mors glinted in the blazing sun, reflecting WB’s many Brighton Runs. It was a wonderful salute to the man who saved Brooklands and made Motor Sport special.”