3 replies to this topic

[Tim Murray]

I’m very sorry to learn that Vince Woodman died on Wednesday at the age of 83. For many years he ran the Ford dealership VMW Motors in Frampton Cotterell/Coalpit Heath in South Gloucestershire, near Bristol, and his racing exploits are well known. In February 2009 he turned out in a snowstorm to give a talk to my motor club. Here’s an extract from the report on his talk in our club magazine:

Vince told us that he started his motor sport career in a Triumph TR3 at a Dyrham Park hillclimb, then graduated to an E-type. As a Ford dealer he then got his hands on a Lotus Cortina with which he had a lot of success, including beating Ford star Roger Clark in a race at Mallory Park. This caught the eye of Ford Competitions Manager Henry Taylor and led to the Ford backing that Vince enjoyed for much of his career.

His works Fords included a special 1000 cc Escort built especially to try to take points off Bill McGovern's Imp in the British Saloon Car Championship, and then another Escort with a very special 1300 cc BDA engine which revved to 10,000 rpm and turned out 186 bhp.

Then came the Cologne Capris. According to Vince these were initially undriveable, but once Ralph Broad at Broadspeed got hold of a couple he sorted out the handling. One of these cars was the car, driven by Dave Matthews, that was destroyed in the dreadful pile-up at Silverstone in 1973. The other car was sold by Broad to Bo Emanuelson in Sweden, but when this type of car was banned from Swedish saloon racing, Vince agreed to swap his Camaro for Bo's Capri - Vince reckoned he got the better deal!

Vince has owned this car ever since, and it has brought him much success - it still holds the outright saloon lap record at Castle Combe, set in 1977. The car was 'retired' in the late '80s, but has recently been rebuilt by Roger King, who was the apprentice at Broadspeed in the early '70s and knew the car backwards. Vince brought it out last year at the Classic meeting at Castle Combe, and won the race.

For many years Vince was a leading contender in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and recalled with pleasure the amazing dices between the big Capris and Rovers in the early '80s. Between 1986 and 1990 Vince competed in the Thundersaloons Championship, initially in the Cologne Capri and later in the fearsome Vauxhall Carlton which he shared with John Cleland. Vince had fond memories of this car - 700 bhp, and 198 mph down the straight at Zandvoort.

In recent years Vince has been an instructor for Ferrari UK, and has been having great fun driving Ferrari 360s - he says the only way to drive them is to turn off all the driver 'aids' such as traction control and let rip - unless it's wet. He has done a certain amount of classic saloon racing, and would like to do more, but, as he says, when he was a Ford-supported driver everything came free. Now he has to pay for it, and it costs a lot - £1000 for a set of tyres!

Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

[fyrth]

 

 

 

The late Vince Woodman and his Capri entertain the media at Bristol Motor Club's sucessful Dyrham Park revival in 2010

[Doug Nye]

From the BRDC:

 

It is with great regret that we report that Life Member Vince Woodman died on Wednesday 2 June. He had been in poor health ever since suffering a stroke in the BRDC Clubhouse whilst attending the British Grand Prix nine years ago. 

 

Vince was a successful stalwart of the British saloon car racing scene, competing in the British Saloon Car Championship from 1971 through to 1989 during which time he won 12 races outright. The first part of his racing career centred around various Ford models, beginning with a Lotus Cortina at his local circuit, Castle Combe, in 1965 prior to which he had competed in hillclimbs with the Cortina, a Triumph TR3A and a Jaguar E-type. To begin with, racing was a side line for Vince whilst he concentrated on building up his Ford Main Dealership to the extent that by 1970, at the age of 33, he was the youngest Ford Main Dealer in the country.

 

From 1969 to 1973 Vince raced Broadspeed-prepared Ford Escort Mk 1s with a choice of 1300 cc or 2-litre Cosworth BDA engines. An early BSCC success was victory in the 1300 cc Hilton Transport Services Trophy at Crystal Palace in 1971. Two years later, in 1973, Vince notched up 22 race wins with his Escorts both in the BSCC and elsewhere. It was in 1973 that Vince was elected as a Full Member of the BRDC. When the BSCC introduced Group 1 regulations for the 1974 season, Vince acquired a Chevrolet Camaro Z28 with which he won a championship round at Silverstone against opposition which included fellow Camaro drivers Stuart Graham and Richard Lloyd. The following year Vince won the last three rounds of the series which secured fifth place in the final standings but Stuart and Richard were ahead of him, albeit in the latter’s case by a single point.

 

From 1976 the Camaros were outlawed from the BSCC by virtue of the RAC introducing a 3-litre capacity limit which was good news for Vince since it enabled him to revert to Ford with the Capri 3000GT. Highlight of the first season in the Esso Uniflo-liveried car was victory in the support race at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. He won again at the beginning of 1977 at Easter Monday Thruxton. Away from the BSCC Vince contested the Spa 24 Hours with Jonathan Buncombe as co-driver. Some 90 cars started the race, held on the old Spa road circuit and an excellent performance by Vince and Jonathan resulted in a third place finish behind the winning Capri II 3.0S of Eddy Joosen/Jean-Claude Andruet and the Peter Brock/Gerry Marshall Vauxhall Magnum. Vince and Jonathan also finished fifth overall and first in Group 1 with the Capri in the RAC Tourist Trophy later in the year. The next couple of seasons brought mixed fortunes with the Capri in the BSCC but highlights included a second place at Thruxton, a third place at Donington and a new lap record at the British Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone.

 

To keep himself amused and entertain the Castle Combe crowds when not contesting the BSCC, Vince  also acquired a Broadspeed-built Capri RS3100 with which he won his class in the BRSCC South West Saloon Car championship. Reliability and therefore results in the BSCC were rather better in 1980, Vince taking two seconds, three thirds and three fourths to finish third in his class in the BSCC whilst a return  to the Spa 24 Hours was rewarded with fifth place overall, Vince and Jonathan being joined this time by the late Pete Clarke. 

 

By now the Rover SD1 derivatives were making their presence increasingly felt in touring car racing and the 1982 season saw Vince involved in a great battle for BSCC class honours with Jeff Allam’s Rover 3500S. Both took four race wins and they tied on points but the RAC broke the tie in Jeff’s favour. A move away from Fords occurred in the 1984 Donington 500 round of the European Touring Car Championship when Vince shared a BMW 635CSi with James Weaver to finish second behind the Jaguar XJS of Win Percy/’Chuck Nicholson’ and ahead of a very high quality field including third-placed Hans-Joachim Stuck/Dieter Quester in a similar BMW. Thundersaloons then captured Vince’s interest and he joined forces with John Cleland  to campaign first a Vauxhall Senator (a badged Holden Commodore imported from Australia) with which they won the Thundersaloons title in 1986 and then the British-built Vauxhall Carlton with its 5.7 litre Chevrolet engine with which they repeated their success in 1988 by winning seven of the 10 races, and again in 1989.

j

After the Carlton, the 2-litre Super Tourers were not quite the same and Vince reduced his race driving although he retained the Broadspeed Capri V6 which was fully refurbished and appeared at Castle Combe in 2008 when, with Dan Cox sharing the driving, Vince took an emotional and poignant final victory. Very much a touring car devotee as a driver but keenly interested in all categories of racing, Vince is survived by his wife Caroll, daughter Polly and sons James, Hugh, Daniel and Nicholas to whom the BRDC extends its most sincere condolences.

 

DCN

[dolomite]

Sad to hear of the passing of Vince Woodman. My earliest experiences at a racing circuit were at Castle Combe in the late 1970s and Vince and his Cologne Capri were invariably a star attraction at those events. Here is a fairly terrible photo of the Woodman equipe in the paddock at Combe at the 1979 May Day Bank Holiday meeting.