NOTICE OF DEATH - EDWARD LEWIS

With great regret the Club has to announce that Life Member Edward Lewis passed away on 23 September.

Edward, who was originally from Northampton, will be remembered by many Members of a certain age as the manufacturer of the Westover range of racing boots and driving shoes which were particularly popular among the racing fraternity in the 1960s. He began racing in 1951 with Rileys which were followed by a succession of early Lotus models including a Mk VI, a Mk IX and the prototype Climax-engined Seven and it was with an early Elite that he gained the success which enabled him to be elected to Full Membership in 1959. He then switched to touring cars for 1960 with a Don Moore-prepared Austin A40. This was the year when the nascent British Saloon Car Championship organised by the BRSCC was limited to 1000 cc cars and given the title of the SupaTura Cup although they regularly raced with the bigger Jaguars. Along with fellow A40 racer ‘Doc’ Shepherd, Edward regularly rang rings round at least some of the Jaguars, ending the season third in the championship behind ‘Doc’ and John Young’s Ford Anglia.

The BSCC expanded to embrace all classes again in 1961 when Edward began the season with a Don Moore Austin Mini Se7en before switching to a Riley 1.5, with which he was a regular 1600cc class front runner through to the end of 1962 although invariably up against the similar car of Alan Hutcheson and the factory Sunbeam Rapier Series IIIA of Peter Harper. It was back to a Mini for 1963, initially a 997 cc Mini-Cooper until the 1071 cc Mini-Cooper S was homologated part way through the year. As ever Edward was one of the leading privateers, entering under the banner of Westover Racing. He called a halt to his touring car racing after a nasty crash at Crystal Palace on 1964. However, his passion for Norton motor-cycles – he built up a collection of some 20 vintage and post-vintage variants – kept Edward in touch with cars through the Formula 500 movement and he ended his car racing career with second place in one such event at a Historic Sports Car Club meeting in 1985, the year in which he and his wife Marjorie retired to Spain.

Edward stayed very much in touch with the BRDC and regularly attended the Grand Prix and the AGM until the last few years. To his wife and his family, who were with him when he died, and to his many friends the Club offers its most sincere condolences. Edward’s funeral took place on 29 September.