Victor Woodall 1913-2000

Most gassers will not remember my father, as he had stopped competing actively some years ago but he was a great link with the what we think of as the golden age of our sport and a contemporary of Austen May. He joined the MCC in 1937 and started competing with a Wolesley Hornet. This then gave way to the first of a series of specials. The first was based on a Hornet chassis (not the car he had been using previously) with a Ford 8 (933cc) engine and Morgan Three wheeler front suspension. The control provided by the independent front suspension made the car very successful with victories in a number of one day events and a "premier award" plus a special Simms award in the1939 Exeter. After the war the car was refined further and used to great effect in events that you may all have read about in "More Wheelspin" such as the Cheltenham, High Peak and Jeans Gold Club I still have a copy the original results from the famous 1947 snowbound Clee Hills Trial. He shared the car with his brother Bert, and when not driving it used an MG J2 on such events as the short (Taunton- Peranporth) 1947 Lands End. During the fuel rationing restrictions of 1949 he and Bert put together a new car based on the popular Austin 7 A-Frame and ford 1172cc engine. The difference between this car and its contemporaries was that the engine was set so far back in the chassis that the prop shaft was just 4 inches long. Everyone said that it would not handle, but as we all know now, mid-engined cars do handle, even when the driver and passenger still sit behind the engine. This car dominated events immediately after the restoration of fuel supplies with such effect that the RAC was obliged to step in and introduce a rule restricting the position of the engine and thus create what we now think of as the National Trials Formula. Incidentally, the dimension chosen was based on that already used by the Dellow, so that owners of those "production" cars would not have to change. It was this car that gave my aunt Margaret, known to you all as one of the MCC Finish ladies, the first ladies triple award. The 50's & 60's saw a reduced competition season as the demand of bringing up a family (me) got in the way, but saw the use of a great variety of vehicles including an MG TC in which I had my first taste of trialling. My carrycot was wedged behind the seats so that he and my mother could compete in the 1953 Fedden: Later Austin 7 Ruby Saloon with the inevitable 1172 Ford engine installed gave way to a Morris Minor Traveller into which a supercharged 1275 Midget engine was placed - This car was used as a runabout by my elder sister much to the confusion of several boyfriends! In the late 60's & early 70's when Austen May returned to MCC events he and my father ran identical 998cc Imps for a few years and had great fun reliving their battles of 20 years previously. Immediately after I had passed my driving test he simply passed me the keys of the Imp and said " now its your turn". With him as passenger telling me what to do we treated the Lands End with complete contempt and took a First at my first attempt just 2 months after passing the test. Two events later he wanted the car back, and it took me along time to repeat the feat on my own.

He continued to follow the sport into his old age, and even though he was ill last weekend, I was "ordered" to go on the Edinburgh rather than stay at his bedside. He died last Monday morning aged 87.