11 replies to this topic

[pressman]

Sad to have to announce the death of David Winstanley,  Racing Driver  ,  Rally Driver  ,  Video Producer,  Great Friend.

 

Steve Jones

[Giraffe]

Oh gosh, how sad. RIP

[Tim Murray]

Very sad news - sincere condolences to his family and friends. He posted here for a while - here's how he introduced himself:
 

I'm the 'infamous' David Winstanley, 'infamous' to many of the forum members simply because in my early motor racing business days as the boss of Lodge Corner Agencies (named after the famous Oulton Park corner of course) and the originator of the Agent FF2000 car I had the ability of spending about £5 for every £1 that I had. It's not unique I know but caused me, and many other people a lot of stress at the time. I was never crooked though, just as most people who know me know, a bit of a dreamer and quite naive!

I first started racing in 1974 in a modsports Turner, then moved onto a car we called the Roosters Ford which was built by David Coombs and then bought a Brabham BT30, my favourite ever car. Then I moved into Indylantic, which was great, with a Brabham BT40 and then the Sana, followed by Debenhams Escorts in 1977 where I got mixed up with the Wainwrights, if anyone remembers them. In 1980 I moved into FF2000 with a terrible RP27 and then our own Agent, the first ever ground effects FF2000 car which wasn't much better! And then I was made bankrupt by Adrian Reynard who followed that up by employing my designer David Rendall!

In 1984 I started filming with Brian Kriesky of Videovision and have filmed and made motorsport programmes ever since, now producing and presenting programmes for Men & Motors, Motors TV and the Travel Channel amongst others. Most of our coverage is of long distance rally events but I also compete in rallies now and have done the Rally GB 3 times and finished the 2004 London to Sydney Marathon ni 12th position. Generally I find that rallying is much more fun and satisfying from the driving point of view especially as you don't get some twat knocking you off in rallying like you do in racing. I find the driving standards nowadays shameful especially in the BTCC, so don't get me started on that!

My oldest 'friends' on this forum are Alan Cox who I've known since 1977, Phil Rainford and Simon Arron, and Steve Jones. Ian Titchmarsh would be on the list as well although we didn't get off to the best of starts due to my 'Let David Winstanley make you happy' slogan on the side of my Brabham BT40 - which also had the number 69 on the side just in case you weren't sure what the meaning of the slogan was! Ian and many others at Autosport at the time, including Robin Bradford, just thought that I was an idiot and should be taking the sport more seriously!

[hillsprint]

How sad, getting grass roots motorsport onto the Box is something that should always be applauded, and his recent programme on the 2013 Le Jog was in my view the best one he had produced.

Hopefully someone will take over where David has left off, otherwise this truly amateur branch of the sport will disappear off our screens

[Alan Cox]

Great friend, indeed, Steve. I spent many entertaining times with him over many years. Never the most reliable fellow at keeping in touch, it was a few years since I last saw him but I regularly received news of him from his many old friends and colleagues. Invariably impecunious, founder of Lodge Corner Agencies, creator of the Agent FF2000, racer, rally driver, musician, film-maker and distributor, holder of the Aintree FF2000 lap record in perpetuity. I particularly remember a trip we made to the 1980 Monaco GP along with Robin Henwood and respective spouses when David's Granada estate was written off, as we arrived in Nice, by an errant French driver - all he could do was console the guy who had driven into us and gave him a hug. As a result, we watched the GP in a local bar and blagged some spare seats on a Page and Moy coach for the return journey. Never a dull moment in his company.

[Phil Rainford]

Shocked to hear this news

 

From standing next to him in the Lodge Stand in the 1970s, to seeing him filming last year in Kielder Forest, I was regularly in the company of Mr Winstanley

 

David always had a smile on his face and all those with him would be smiling too…………a real character and I will miss him

 

PAR

Edited by Phil Rainford, 19 February 2014 - 20:04.

[Simon Arron]

I can but echo what's been said. Felt a touch numb when Jeff Bloxham imparted the news earlier and my sense of sadness has only deepened since.

 

I first met David while perched on a woodworm-riddled plank in the Lodge grandstand - if memory serves, initial contact was made when Rainford offered him a fruit shortcake biscuit from his packed lunch - but it took a while before we got to know each other properly (when I was a cub reporter and he was a budding manufacturer, with Agent).

 

We were exceptionally rude to each other over the years, but openly so and always with a broad smile. In David's company, it was hard to do much but chuckle.

 

We hadn't seen each other often of late, but whenever we met the conversation flowed as seamlessly as ever. It's a source of huge regret that our paths won't cross again. He was a lovely bloke.

[Mallory Dan]

I was on a Corporate Day about 15 years ago at Oulton, amazed to find my instructor in a Rally Escort of some sort was a certain Mr Winstanley. I mentioned the Agent to him, he was staggered anyone remembered it/him from those days. Very friendly chap, very encouraging, and none too critical of my awful efforts.

 

Another instructor that day on a Land Rover up and down course thing was Clive Baker. Well, I had to ask about his March 73A didn't I....    

[alansart]

Sorry to hear this news. I didn't meet David that often but you certainly knew when you had!!

 

Ironically if my brother in law hadn't got his PRS from Lodge Corner Agencies I probably wouldn't be living up north and my life would be completely different to what it is now   

 

RIP David Wynstanley

[Alan Cox]

Lovely to see an old Lodge Corner Agencies letterhead once again - I designed it for David - all done using a ruler and stencils on a piece of tracing paper! Don't think I ever charged him for it - in fact I'm sure I didn't as was the usual arrangement.

[MCS]

Very upsetting to be reading this.  I knew David well once upon a time and helped him with the Racing Car Show in 1977(?) at Donington's museum and used to visit him at Glover Street more or less every Friday for a while, ostensibly for lunch and to "lay out" his Lodge Corner Agencies advertisement for the next edition of Autosport.  Some of those ads were unusual to say the least.

 

I simply couldn't say a bad word about him and Phil Rainford's last line in his post is phrased perfectly.

[Alan Cox]

How I will always remember him