Bill Boddy Tribute Day, Brooklands.  Click to view images

Saturday, 1 October 2011 saw a very special gathering of cars and personalities, drawn together as a tribute to one of Britain’s finest motoring writers whose spiritual home was Brooklands. As a young boy, William ‘Bill’ Boddy had already discovered motor racing at the ‘track’ and by his early teens was confident enough to ask searching questions of the hierarchy.

Asking difficult questions and adopting a forthright attitude was the hallmark of WB, but as Motor Sport magazine’s Deputy Editor, Gordon Cruikshank explained, “In public he tended to be a shy individual, it was only among fellow enthusiasts that he felt at home and able to join in. He was, however, not the easiest of work partners, during the later years I was charged with deciphering his copy which was laden with corrections and scribbled additions. The suggestion that he might use a computer was initially met with polite refusal, it was not his style. His last words for the magazine were received just four days before his death.”

Guest of Honour was ex-Grand Prix Driver, Tony Brooks who, I must say, looked as fit as the day he drove a Connaught to victory in Syracuse in 1955 to become the first British driver to win a major F1 race in a British car since 1923. “I remember we enjoyed close ties with Motor Sport and Bill Boddy and, of course, Denis Jenkinson who was part of our team, helping to refuel the cars and keep the lap charts.” Brooks won six Grand Prix and drove for BRM, Ferrari, Vanwall, winning the 1957 British Grand Prix, and Cooper.

Many made the observation that Bill himself had organised the weather and with a record high of some thirty degrees, Panama hats and summer dresses were the order of the day.

It would have been unforgivable not to have opened the Test Hill and it was indeed a privilege that the editor of upstart magazine, Retro-Speed was allowed two runs in its Lancia Appia. More worthy was the aero-enginned Railton Napier and Bugatti Type 35. After lunch race re-enactments took place along what remains of the ‘banking’ and here it is worth reflecting that, although Bill Boddy fought a passionate campaign beginning back in 1948 to save Brooklands, it was only partially successful. We are left with no more than a pale reminder of Britain’s greatness, while in France, where they look on these things differently, the magnificently maintained Montlhery circuit just south of Paris is a reminder of how things could have been.

Well done to commentator David Burgess Wise, not only was he fluent and the font of all knowledge but he also interviewed with discipline, keeping the ’old fogies’ under control, well almost. Motor Sport magazine, co-promoters of the Tribute were well represented with Damien Smith and Gordon Cruikshank joined by Michael Tee, Nigel Roebuck and Chris Lawrence. And Steve Cropley from Autocar magazine dropped in to pay his respects.

As we departed with the aroma of Castrol R still hanging on the breeze we reflected that this had been the kind of occasion that William Boddy, MBE would have approved of, just a pity he wasn’t there.