The greatest club racing characters

Choosing 10 legendary club racing characters from the past 70 years was no mean feat.

From those who have achieved outstanding success, to those who were brilliant underdogs, had sensational driving styles or were as famous for their off-track antics as their triumphs on the Tarmac, there were no shortage of candidates.

Picking just 10 for Autosport's special 70th birthday bookazine in 2020 was therefore a challenge, so here's a slightly longer version of that feature, which includes a few more of the greatest club racing characters.

Peter Baldwin: The Mini master

Few cars have enjoyed such enduring popularity over Autosport's 70 years as the classic Mini. And few drivers have won as many races in one as Peter Baldwin. Having first raced one of the giantkilling machines in 1967, Baldwin has taken countless titles over the years, and still races Minis to this day.

Perhaps it was inevitable that Baldwin would have such a long association with Minis, considering his day job also involved them. He worked at the Marshalls British Leyland garage in Cambridge, principally on the rolling road to improve the cars - experience he put to good use with the many Minis he ran himself. Most notable of those was the BDA-engined Mini Special Saloon that Baldwin used to slay more powerful giants in the 1980s.

"That's really where I got my name from," says Baldwin. "It had a 200bhp, 1300cc engine and I spent a lot of time developing it with Gordon Allen. It was a bit of an animal, to say the least! People used to say they would know when you were coming because it sounded like a swarm of bees!

"I had a really good race with Gerry Marshall at Thruxton with Baby Bertha and he would tow me round the back. On the last lap, I mugged him into the chicane and beat him to the line. He couldn't believe a 1300 could keep up with his monster."

"One time my mechanic drove from Donington to Oulton with the trailer to time it. The scrutineers were on standby so it was rush, rush. I used to phone up the clubs and try to get them to organise the races around me!" Peter Baldwin

Baldwin says the car can now be found in a Tokyo shopping centre, where it's on display!

He later achieved success with the Mini 7 Racing Club, securing the Miglia crown seven times. But he has raced other machinery, including an MG Metro - he won British and European titles -as well as a spell in one-make Rover categories in the mid-1990s. Not that he enjoyed it much.

"That was the worst thing I did when the car was given to someone else to prepare - I had no control, having always run my own cars," recalls Baldwin. "That fizzled out and I went back to racing Minis."

And that, on occasion, involved competing in more than one event on the same day.

"I would be racing at Donington Park, load up, go to Oulton Park and start at the back!" says Baldwin, who would sometimes use a friend's plane to travel between circuits. "One time my mechanic drove from Donington to Oulton with the trailer to time it. The scrutineers were on standby so it was rush, rush. I used to phone up the clubs and try to get them to organise the races around me!"

Only a character such as Baldwin could get away with that.

Rod Birley: Unprecedented success - and still winning

Few club racers have achieved as much success as Rod Birley has during the 70 years of Autosport. He has claimed over 500 circuit racing victories since he began competing back in 1973 and is synonymous with Brands Hatch glory, having taken over 250 of those triumphs at the Kent track.

Birley's inspiration to get involved in motorsport was none other than two-time Formula 1 champion Jim Clark.

"It was 1965, the August bank holiday meeting at Brands Hatch," Birley recalls. "What fired my imagination was him driving a Lotus Cortina and I remember standing at Clearways, and he went up on two wheels and everyone in the crowd was gasping. The way he attacked the corner and the reaction of the crowd always stayed with me. I thought 'wow, that was something else'."

That experience led to Birley finally making his racing debut eight years later. He had met Hillman Imp specialists Peter and George Bevan and asked George to sort the engine for the Imp he had bought.

"I did some of the Radio 1 saloons championship but that was really competitive and the Imp was a bit outclassed," Birley admits. "The Moskvitch was 1600cc against the 875cc Imp and it didn't have the legs. But I did the Scottish series and, in my first year, I won my first championship, which was a bit of a surprise."

It was a hint of what was to come. Birley switched to a Ford Capri in Production Saloons for 1974 before enjoying significant success in hot rods, prior to a long period of racing special saloons. This culminated in him winning the Thundersaloons title in 1993 and 1994 in a Honda Prelude, one of Birley's favourite cars to race.

PLUS: The saloons that thundered to short-lived success

"Jim Morgan designed the car and we didn't cut any corners - we wanted to go out and beat Vauxhall," he says. "It was a really nice car to drive, handled well, it had the looks, and was probably the best car I've ever driven."

More recently, Birley is best known for racing his Ford Escort WRC: "I've had it for 21 years, its longevity means it's a bit like Trigger's Broom. The rollcage is the original but everything else has been changed! It's like a comfortable pair of slippers, although it's a bit long in the tooth."

Looking back now, Birley never imagined he would still be competing all those years on from racing the Imp - and still adding further wins to his ever more impressive victory tally.

Dave Brodie: 'Run Baby Run' dominator

It's scurrilous, possibly libellous, hilarious and comprises five volumes of 300 pages each, all written by the man himself. The autobiography of Dave 'the Brode' Brodie, that is, who's been making his mark in UK motor racing in more than 700 races, and in various other roles, over the past 50 years.

A Harrow Boy, and proud of it, Brodie began racing in 1963 with an Austin A30/A35, which he had tweaked for road use. Thinking that he should try it on the race track, he entered - and duly won - his first race in it at Silverstone. More success followed in a Ford Anglia, before the car for which he became a legend came along - the 'Run Baby Run' Ford Escort Twin Cam.

At Brands, it was reckoned that Brodie and Run Baby Run added around 1500 spectators to the gate

With its black paintwork and yellow pinstriping, the car looked a million dollars and Brodie used its specially developed 2.1-litre Lotus/Ford engine to become almost unbeatable in Special Saloon car races from 1969 to 1971. Note those dates: the black-and-gold pinstriped JPS Lotus 72 did not appear until 1972.

"They used my idea but never paid me a cent!" says Brode. At Brands, it was reckoned that Brodie and Run Baby Run added around 1500 spectators to the gate. Ever the showman, and always ready with advice, Brodie has always reckoned: "If you haven't got a good story, make one up!"

By 1972, Brodie's successes had earned him the backing of the Blue Oval through Ford dealer Norman Reeves with an Escort RS1600 for the British Saloon Car Championship. A great believer in test days when most teams at national level didn't bother that much, by 1973 Brodie had developed the Group 2 Escort into a regular winner, before disaster struck during the BSCC race on Grand Prix day at Silverstone.

A horrendous accident at Abbey involving Brodie, the Ford Capri of Dave Matthews and the Mini of Gavin Booth seriously injured all three drivers. A broken jaw, smashed teeth, burns and a shattered femur condemned Brodie to weeks in hospital.

After a long recovery, Brode returned to racing in a variety of touring cars including a Mitsubishi Colt Starion, Ford Sierra RS500 and Ford Capri V6, enjoying considerable success, but the 'Run Baby Run' Escort is the car for which he will be best remembered.

Off track, teetotal, non-smoking Brodie was a director and financial supporter of Williams Grand Prix Engineering in its earlier years and a director of the British Racing Drivers' Club.

Ian Flux: Would race anything, by any means

Known universally as Fluxie, Ian Flux has been a fixture in racing for 50 of his 64 years. Tom Barnard created the neat Formula 6 single-seaters (part-way between a kart and a car) in which a few lucky aspiring racers got to play. Flux was national champion in 1972, competing against the likes of current Historic F5000 racer Tim Barry, before he joined Token Racing as a junior mechanic.

Three years later, while spannering for Graham Hill's Embassy Racing team, Fluxie won the national Formula Vee title in a Scarab. That fateful November, the air crash that killed the 1962 and 1968 F1 world champion, plus Tony Brise and three team-mates, turned everything on its head. Including a sponsored Embassy F3 deal for 1976 alongside Tiff Needell.

Nonetheless, Fluxie did graduate and finished fifth in the BRDC F3 championship, racing the Ockley Construction Ralt RT1. Having explored all avenues to raise funds, conventional and otherwise, Fluxie raced wherever he could in F3 and Atlantic over the next few seasons, often preparing cars such as the unfancied Ehrlich, in which he took on the mainstream marques, or those owned by loyal and supportive friends.

PLUS: What racing drivers will do for money

His third place in the British Atlantic standings in 1980, having missed a couple of rounds while working, is testament to his enduring talent, which he took to British Touring Car and FIA Sportscar cameo roles.

Sports 2000 with Mick Mobberley's Hi-Tech Motorsport Royale (1986), Thundersports (1988) and TVR Tuscan Challenge (1996) championships, plus the British GT1 class title sharing American Jake Ulrich's McLaren F1 GTR enhance his CV. While he never reached the sport's pinnacle, he has driven hundreds of cars, excelling in them all, and had a whale of a time. Funding was always the stumbling block to furthering his own racing although, on reflection, his fun-loving lifestyle may sometimes have blurred its focus.

Outrageously funny, irreverent and charismatic, there's never a dull moment in Fluxie's company. A veteran of the manufacturer day circuit (instructing guests in road cars around the world) since promotional trackdays took off in the later 1970s, he is one of the finest driver coaches in the business, able to tease the best from pupils of all ages with a style of his own borne out of enormous experience. Generations of pecunious youngsters are grateful for his guidance through conduits such as Radical.

Tony Hazlewood: Self-build genius

Some home-brewed racing saloons of the late 1960s and early '70s were anything but special, featuring 'agricultural engineering' of the garden gate and gas pipe type. Tony Hazlewood was a professional in that field, however, working with brother Gerry's Westwood Lawnmowers concern then designing his own Templar Tillers. While Mini graduate Tony couldn't stop the old ex-Doc Merfield Ford Cortina Mk1 V8 understeering, it was cheap, fast and inspired faster cars.

For '72 Hazlewood and Ray Kilminster underpinned a new beast, based on a new DAF 55 coupe shell collected from Van Doorne's Eindhoven factory at a friendly price, with single-seater technology. Formula 2 March 712 corners and a Hewland FT200 gearbox (in place of Variomatic belts) were acquired but the short wheelbase wide-tracked car was hairy with a 4.3-litre Rover/Oldsmobile V8 engine. The potent ex-John Cannon F5000 version that replaced it tested Hazlewood's reflexes and triggered high-speed spins aplenty.

At Thruxton on 28 October, 1973, Hazlewood set the first 100mph lap for a tin-top, which said much for his ability

The big strongman was far from daunted, however. F1-sized slicks and Chas Beattie's suspension-tuning expertise turned the crowd-pleasing DAF into a wieldy tool. Although wins were scarce in the little car with the smiley face, star of period event posters and programme covers, he never gave up trying. At Thruxton on 28 October, 1973, Hazlewood set the first 100mph lap for a tin-top, which said much for his ability.

Hazlewood and Mick Hill were so enthusiastic about their 'hybrid' machines that they founded the Supersaloon Association, galvanising fellow big-banger owners to race together. Magazine promotions and record prize money from the Tricentrol motor group allowed 'Superloons' to thrive for a couple of seasons, and support the British GP at Silverstone in '75.

Hazlewood continued to race the DAF for Colin Folwell of Corbeau Seats in '74, then built a spectacular Jaguar 'XJ8', its seven-litre Surtees/Chevrolet engine mounted so far back that half of it shared the cockpit! Stirling Moss drove it on a test day, but ultimately it was a disappointment for Hazlewood and co-driver Gordon Mayers, who brought Hughes of Beaconsfield backing.

The devoted family man from High Wycombe adored building and racing cars. For Hazlewood, V8s were king and there was no substitute for power. Unlike Supersaloon rivals Hill and John Turner - who switched to F5000, where greater prize funds offset similar running costs - Hazlewood acquired a Can-Am/Interserie BRM P154, then an F1 Williams FW07 in one of Frank's fire sales. Fitted with an experimental 4.2-litre Cosworth DFV engine, his buddy Mike Wilds saddled both.

Mick Hill: 'Mr Super Saloon'

The days of being able to buy a crashed Lola T70 sportscar for peanuts, or components for obsolete models from Eric Broadley's factory spares department, have long gone. The availability of good bespoke bits was crucial to underpinning ever-quicker club racing cars. Mick Hill was a Post Office telephone engineer by day, but his alter ego was 'Mr Super Saloon'.

Having dabbled with Minis and a Lotus Seven, Hill's passion for racing - and hybrids - was reignited when he bought the ex-Richard Scantlebury 'Janglia,' a Jaguar XK-engined 105E. It devoured diffs and taught Hill and his mates much about how not to go racing. Creating an Anglia Evo around a new shell from local racer Gerry Taylor sowed the seeds of his car-building passion and finally a win at Thruxton in 1970 was sweet.

The quest for speed is intoxicating, as every club racer knows, thus a better car was required. V8 engines were plentiful and offered a lot of bang for the salaried weekend warrior's buck. For 1971, Hill and Dave Steeples built a Ford Capri with a 4.7-litre Ford Boss engine. It won on its debut and Hill gleefully added another 30 laurels to his collection over two seasons.

For '73 a more advanced six-litre Chevrolet-powered Capri was the next step forward. Backed by the Tricentrol motor group, Hill - by now a celebrity - pushed the Silverstone Club circuit record sub-minute for the first time en route to a debut victory, and won the inaugural Super Saloon championship in '74. A change of plan led to Hill competing in F5000 on a shoestring with the ex-Mike Wilds March 74A in '75, but he missed sitting inside.

As reborn Donington Park's GT era developed, Hill and Charlie Harris built the F5000 Trojan T102-based VW Beetle-Chevrolet (sold on to Scot Doug Niven, Jim Clark's cousin). The ex-Tony Hazlewood Jaguar XJ8 and Skoda 'Phoenix' followed, leading to the Group 5 BMW M1 built on the ex-Richard Scott Durex F5000 Lola T400, again with seven-litre Chevrolet power, for '83. The spectacle of it dicing with Jeff Wilson's M1, based on the ex-David Purley Chevron B30 with 3.4-litre Ford GAA V6 power, was impressive. While there were victories, none lived up to the success of Hill's beloved Capris. The charismatic Derbyshire man died in 2014 after years of heart problems.

Tony Lanfranchi: Versatile racer who was Marshall's partner in crime

A gritty all-rounder who flirted with Formula 1 but really made his name across four decades of national and international racing, Tony Lanfranchi was a versatile and successful racer, a pithy racing instructor and a pretty serious drinker in league with his partner in crime, Gerry Marshall.

He was born in Yorkshire of Swiss parents, hence the surname, and raced motorbikes in his early years. A switch to cars was rather inevitable and his first race was at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day 1957 in a Healey Silverstone. Lanfranchi quickly rose to prominence and won the 1964 Autosport championship in an Elva Mk7. He tackled 18 races that season in the works Elva and later did a lot of races alongside Mark Konig in the Nomad sports-racer.

He was rapid in one-litre F3 cars and is said to have turned down an invitation to test a Formula 2 Ferrari when Enzo Ferrari refused to pay his airfare. Once a Yorkshireman...

"He was the archetypal racing driver of yesteryear. Booze, birds and fast cars, though in which order of priority is up for debate!" Brian Jones

Lanfranchi was dubbed the 'King of Brands' for his Formula Libre successes and raced all over the world in sportscars. He raced in the Temporada series in South America and, reputedly, enjoyed the local ambience as much as the racing. He contested several non-championship F1 races but an attempt to make his grand prix debut at Brands Hatch in 1968 with BRM fell apart before the event. He raced in Formula 5000 and tackled Le Mans three times, but never finished.

In the early 1970s a serious road accident curtailed Lanfranchi's racing for a while and, after several thin seasons, he switched to Production Saloon competition with help from Marshall. His performances in the mighty Opel Monza against Ford Capris were a highlight of the era. Alongside the Production Saloons, he raced Thundersports with success through the 1980s and even raced in British GT in the late 1990s, by then into his sixties.

After a battle with cancer, he pre-deceased Marshall by only six months. In their time, they drank a lot, raced hard and played hard. Lanfranchi packed a lot into his 69 years on this planet and was probably a more gifted racing driver than his career tally might finally suggest.

"He was the archetypal racing driver of yesteryear," said his late friend Brian Jones, for so long the voice of Brands Hatch. "Booze, birds and fast cars, though in which order of priority is up for debate!"

Dave Loudoun: The one-make racing king

At first meeting, Dave Loudoun is a laid-back character with an incisive wit and a taste for a pint. But dig a little deeper and underneath there is a very serious racer who was the ultimate one-make ace at a time when manufacturer-based single-marque championships were at their zenith.

The statistics show just how good Loudoun was and why he warrants club racing legend status. The peak of his racing career neatly coincided with the era when one-make racing was a significant part of manufacturers' marketing plans, and Loudoun rode the wave. He moved from one to another as the potential rewards and available sponsors made the numbers stack up.

In the course of a dozen years at the top, Loudoun raced in Ford Fiestas, Renault 5s, Honda CRXs, MG Metro Turbos, Rover 216GTis and Rover 220 Turbo Coupes. He became a front-wheel-drive expert, always seeming able to extract a fraction more than many of his rivals with identical equipment.

Loudoun also had a canny knack of keeping out of trouble on the track, and there was often plenty of it. In his first major championship season, in Ford Fiestas in 1983, he won 12 of the 15 races. But it was under the Rover Sport banner that he did his best work, winning the 1987 Metro title, Rover 216 crowns in 1991 and 1993, and Rover Turbo titles in 1994 and 1995. His rapport with Enterprise Racing was central to that success.

"I had seven or eight fully funded seasons and I normally had a deal to keep the prize money," he says, having earned £17,000 in his best year. "There was sometimes a car as a prize at the end of the season.

"You could certainly cover your costs. Rover did an excellent job and really got behind it. But the racing was fraught! We had four starts one day at Brands Hatch - that was just chaos. In 1994 we had 32 cars and about 20 were driven by people who had won championships. There was a decent bunch of pedallers and we were all determined to win. At the front we all respected each other but it did get a bit hectic in the midfield. We had some great fun. The racing was serious and then it went wild after the races."

Wild is a good description of the after-hours antics of drivers such as Loudoun and his mates including Mark Hazell and Nick Carr. But when it came to racing, Loudoun was deadly serious.

Arthur Mallock: Club racing innovator extraordinaire

The word 'genius' is easily bandied about but, back in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a term that could readily be ascribed to Major Arthur Mallock. In the words of grand prix driver Piers Courage, he was a man who made incredibly simple cars go incredibly quickly.

As a 17-year-old, Mallock bought his first car, a 1929 Austin 7, for £3 and built his first competition special before the Second World War. It was a typical all-purpose Austin 7 special that saw action in any available motorsport. He served in the army during a distinguished military career and worked at a high level in electronics for both the military and the government until his retirement.

Alongside his main career, he continued building specials for his own racing use in the 1950s. Inevitably, one day someone asked him to build a chassis, and so the Mallock dynasty of sports-racing cars and single-seaters was born. The early chassis were sold for less than £50.

"Motor racing for the ordinary man, that was Arthur" Harvey Postlethwaite

Mallock was a gifted designer and engineer as well as a very handy racer, and his understanding of chassis and suspension made him a leader in national racing through the 1960s and 1970s. In many ways he was ahead of his time and was a pioneer in his work on suspension geometry.

Staying loyal to front-engined concepts, even for Formula Ford and Formula 3, Mallock's designs allowed people to race remarkably fast cars on very limited resources. He used everyday components wherever possible, and Mallocks often featured Morris Minor back axles and Ford Popular and Triumph Herald front axles.

He would seek an inexpensive fix to any problem and always wanted to save weight. For three decades, the cars he designed and built dominated the Clubmans formula and his legacy lives on as strong as ever.

PLUS: One of National motorsport's best kept secrets

Mallock died in 1993, aged 75, but is survived by his sons Ray and Richard and grandsons Michael and Charlie. They have all made their mark in the sport.

The late Harvey Postlethwaite, best known for designing Formula 1 cars for Ferrari, was a Mallock racer in his younger days and once said: "Motor racing for the ordinary man, that was Arthur. Yet with a degree of sophistication that was always quite surprising. I don't think anyone has ever achieved anything quite like it."

Gerry Marshall: The ultimate club racing hero

Whoever said sideways isn't quick had not attended the Gerry Marshall School of Motoring, for the big man was awesome to watch as he tamed anything with more power than grip. A prototype drifter, with a purpose, Marshall was the racer whose fan following swelled club meeting attendances in the 1970s.

Gerald Dallas Royston Marshall's father, Albert Moses - Gerry claimed to be Stirling Moss's cousin as their original family surnames were the same - competed in club events but did not encourage Marshall junior to race. Thankfully, Gerry was never one to be told anything. Following some speed events, his race debut came in a Mini Cooper at Snetterton on Easter Monday 1964.

Synonymous with the Vauxhall marque, he played a huge part in its competition success, much of it in league with tuning wizard Bill Blydenstein. Marshall raced Viva, Magnum and Firenza models in Production and Special Saloon guises under the Dealer Team Vauxhall banner, but it was in the 'Superloon' category that his car control left legions of onlookers open-mouthed.

When the Australian Holden Repco V8 Formula 5000-engined Ventora 'Big Bertha' was wrecked at Silverstone, its wilder Firenza silhouette successor was a hammer to crack a nut. Marshall and 'Baby Bertha' were rarely beaten. On one occasion at Thruxton, Marshall the showman pitted from the lead, chatted to his crew, then left black rubber lines as he roared back out to win by a lesser margin. The appreciative crowd went wild as usual.

Motor trader Marshall's career embraced the British Saloon Car Championship (where his Dolomite Sprint somersaulted at Silverstone in 1979), Spa and Bathurst internationals, one-make racing in burly TVR Tuscans, and historics. He won Crystal Palace's final race in a Lister-Jaguar and, much later when he could barely walk, his car control on track remained magical. While testing an IROC Camaro at Silverstone in April 2005 he suffered a fatal heart attack, but pulled off the track gracefully at Luffield, taking nobody with him.

Marshall won an unmatched 623 races, but the one-time Lotus 61 Formula Ford competitor is remembered also for his bar exploits, winning bets for performing cartwheels at Brands Hatch and dashing from quaffing pints at Silverstone because mechanics had delivered his car to the grid. He won of course. Different times!

Chris Meek: Colourful character who would enliven drab paddocks

No one could ever accuse Chris Meek of being understated. With his long black hair and fur coats, Meek would arrive at circuits either on a high-powered motorbike with his female companion of the day riding pillion or in one of his Ferraris. Or, on at least one memorable occasion, livening up the somewhat drab paddock of 1970s Croft in a drophead Rolls-Royce.

One of Meek's most successful cars was the Princess Ita Ford Escort RS1800. To this day, despite considerable speculation, no one has been able to decide who or what the fair Princess was. As good a theory as any, albeit more mundane than most, is that 'Ita' is the middle three letters of the name of Meek's successful property development company Titan Properties, which enabled him to indulge his enduring passion for fast cars and the rest.

Meek was a motor racing benefactor of a different kind when he acquired Mallory Park and saved it from becoming a housing development

Meek began racing bikes in the early 1950s, switching to cars in 1956 after one broken limb too many on two wheels. From a 500cc Formula 3 car, which he christened the Meek Empress, he switched to sportscars with an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce, Elva Courier, Lotus Mk9, a Fairthorpe and various Ginettas, where he became works driver. A nasty accident at Goodwood in an Elva 300 Formula Junior in 1961 did not discourage him from driving single-seaters, an underfunded and uncompetitive effort in F2 being followed by some good years in Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic.

It was during his time in Formula Atlantic that Meek had his eyes opened to the talent of a fellow competitor, the young Tom Pryce, which led to Titan Properties backing the Welshman in F2 and his first steps into F1 with the Token RJ02. Ten years later, Meek was a motor racing benefactor of a different kind when he acquired Mallory Park and saved it from becoming a housing development.

In his later racing days, Meek won many races and titles in production sportscars ranging from a De Tomaso Pantera, Lotus Europa, TVR 1600M, Panther Lima to an MG Midget. He owned 40 Ferraris - not all at the same time - earning an invitation to Maranello from Enzo Ferrari after providing photographic evidence of the speedo showing that he had achieved over 200mph. The story goes that the 'Old Man' was so pleased with Meek's efforts that he arranged for a pallet-load of special Ferrari tiles to be delivered to Leeds.

Meek died in 2016, having given more to the sport than he ever took out of it.

Rick Morris: Senna rival who's still winning titles

Any seasoned racing driver who, in his early seventies, bounces back from a series of rolls that destroyed a car to win the Classic Formula Ford Championship deserves his rivals' respect. Rick Morris did just that last season, splendidly in a clone of the Royale RP29 in which he raced against Ayrton Senna in 1981.

Senna was 21 and Morris knocking on 34, a 10-year veteran of FF1600, when he beat the Brazilian for the first time at Thruxton. Morris, as Royale's sole works driver, defeated Senna six times that year, but his professional rival had the cards stacked in his favour, not least with the mighty factory Van Diemen team's seemingly endless testing regime.

Morris knew the circuits but ended up an honourable second to the ruthless future triple F1 world champion in the Townsend Thoresen championship. Although Senna had gone home by then, he also played second fiddle to his car -in Irish stand-in Tommy Byrne's hands - in the Formula Ford Festival.

Morris had finished third in the end-of-season showcase on three occasions, completing Hawke's clean sweep behind Derek Daly and Derek Warwick's uprated cars in 1976, and for Royale in 1979 and 1980 driving RP24 and RP26 designed by F1-bound Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds respectively.

While the Festival's top prize eluded him, Morris did earn the BRDC Esso title in 1982, winning nine rounds in a Royale RP31M. While he could have looked elsewhere, his loyalty to Alan Cornock's marque and the deals that made racing affordable to him were more important.

Similarly, while Morris tried FF2000, for him the slicks-and-wings class did not offer the same raw, seat-of-the-pants combat that its forbear had done on treaded tyres since he debuted in the Kent-engined class in a Hawke DL2B.

Racing a Formula Ford on regular trips to visit son Stevie in South Africa re-energised Morris after a long layoff, and an opportunity to race at Australia's Phillip Island Classic in 2016 sharpened his reflexes for another campaign.

An accomplished pilot of light self-build aircraft - an interest shared with John Village, another devout Fordster - and keen cyclist (despite injuring himself in a big spill a few years back), Morris is still a yardstick for rivals to beat. Young Classic Formula Ford hotshoes can certainly be proud if they do.

Tony Sugden: The modest man of Special Saloons

Tony Sugden, one of the most successful and enduring club racers of a generation is unassuming, modest, down to earth and competitive in equal measure. As a star of Special Saloons and GT racing from the 1960s to the 1990s, 'Suggie' can rightly be described as a national treasure.

His competition story started on two-wheels and he raced with success from the mid-1950s into the early 1960s, competing on the Isle of Man as well as across the UK tracks. Even then, he was an ace at Cadwell Park.

By the mid-1960s, his focus had switched to cars and it was always saloon cars that held his imagination. He started with a Lotus Cortina, which he rolled in an early speed event, and then raced extensively before moving to Ford Escorts. His red Mk1 Escort, with sponsorship from Brook Hire Liverpool, was an icon of the late 1960s and 1970s. The numbers are impressive: in nine seasons, there were 238 finishes from 265 starts, 150 top three finishes and over 50 wins.

In contrast with some of the leading national racers of his generation, Sugden was a quiet and reserved character who let his pace and results do his talking

However, Special Saloons were moving on and, after a season in Alan Minshaw's DAF, it was time for a Chevron-based Skoda for GT racing in the 1980s. In 1980 alone, he won 32 of the 42 races he contested. Later, a fresh Skoda-clone appeared from the workshop of John Leek and, with two-litre Cosworth turbo power, the success continued right into the new millennium.

Always based in Doncaster, much of Sugden's success has come at Cadwell Park, Oulton Park, Croft and Donington Park. But, notably in the 1970s and 1980s, he'd regularly venture south to go head-to-head with drivers like Nick Whiting, Tony Dickinson, Mick Hill and Colin Hawker. Sugden was a constant through a golden era for Special and Super Saloon racing, but it was always done to a modest budget.

He was forever quick, always straight in a battle and unfailingly modest. In contrast with some of the leading national racers of his generation, Sugden was a quiet and reserved character who let his pace and results do his talking. That served to make him a very popular figure across the paddocks, always supported by his wife Rose.

Finally, in 2003 after racing for 52 years, Sugden retired at the age of 71. However, he didn't walk away from the sport he loved and found gainful employment at the wheel of the safety car at race meetings.

Barrie Williams: Always on the limit

Known to everyone as 'Whizzo', Barrie Williams was one of UK motorsport's outstanding characters across more than 50 years in racing.

He was known to thousands of people and had time for everyone, from the marshals to friends like Stirling Moss. Indeed, he was a champion of the marshals as president of the British Motorsport Marshals' Club.

Born in Bromyard in Herefordshire, Williams was soon tinkering with early go-karts and cars and made his competitive debut at Prescott in the summer of 1957. His first race was in a Morris Minor at Rufforth in 1960, and he only stopped competing at the end of 2017 when his health deteriorated.

Williams would race anything, anywhere. He was also an accomplished rally driver and won the Welsh Rally in 1964 in his Mini Cooper. The death of Jim Clark persuaded him to call time on any single-seater ambitions, but he rose to be a works driver in the British Saloon Car Championship and had countless successes in a vast array of Production Saloons, sports and GT cars.

His ability to take any car to the absolute limit of adhesion made him a huge favourite with the spectators. But he was also a fiercely competitive racer and won one-make titles, raced and rallied internationally and competed in countless cars for owners. For most of his racing life, Williams didn't own any race cars but was lucky enough to drive hundreds of different machines. From an Austin A35 to an ERA and a seven-litre Jaguar E-type special, he would get the maximum out of any car.

Later in his career, he successfully transferred his innate car control into historic racing and became a regular winner at Goodwood. Wherever 'Whizzo' went and whatever he did, it was always with his trademark grin, cheeky banter and eye for the ladies. Unlike his mates Tony Lanfranchi and Gerry Marshall, he wasn't a big drinker. But he had a big personality and never lost his love of the sport.

Speaking in the later stages of his career in 2010, Williams said: "I've raced every year. I've never stopped racing. I don't know what I'd do without racing, I don't know what else to do. I'll drive anything with four wheels. I race to win, but if I don't it's not the end of the world. With a bit of luck, there's always another race."

Finally, in early September 2018, there wasn't another race.

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