Marshall Groves wins the Dave Simpson Trophy for 2024
At the recent Oulton Park race meeting the competitors in the CNC Heads Sports/Saloon Championship competed for the prestigious Dave Simpson Memorial Trophy. This must be one of the most sought after trophies in club motorsport and is eagerly competed for each year.
The trophy was presented to the Centre by Margaret Simpson in honour of her husband Dave. Back in the early days of the series, as it was then, Dave was instrumental with Ken Mitchell and John Leck in setting up the championship. With grids of perhaps 10/12 cars back then it did not look too good for the success of the Championship. However with Dave’s encouragement and enthusiasm the Championship grew from strength to strength and within a few years we saw grids of over 30 regularly. Unfortunately, Dave has not seen how strong the Championship has become in recent years. There cannot be many Championships this strong in their 41st season.
The Trophy was competed for in the first race and be decided by the driver who won his or her class with the greatest speed differential to the driver coming second. This basically translates to the driver who is most dominant in their class. The only proviso is that there must be at least three starters (and of course at least two finishers!).
The entry at the meeting although high was mainly in three classes so the winner could only come from classes, B, D & E. This made the outcome much easier to determine than could have been the case! It was actually quite a close run thing between the three classes. Ben Roberts won Class B from Connor Modro with the better average speed of 0.08mph, Class E winner Wayne Spillar had a 1.23mph better average than Matthew Jones. However, Marshall Groves in his Vauxhall Vectra won Class D from Clive Dix with an average speed 2.07mph to the good. Well done Marshall.
The photographs show Marshall being presented with the impressive Dave Simpson Memorial Trophy from our Chief Marshal and committee member, Margaret Simpson.
John Leck