With great regret we have to advise Members of the death of long-serving Associate (Mechanic) Member Michael Walton who died last Thursday 29 May after a short respiratory illness. He was 86 and was originally elected to BRDC membership in November 1959. At that time, he was working for the multiple British Hillclimb champion, Tony Marsh, who also raced extensively in international Formula 2, Formula Junior and occasional Formula 1 events. It was an era when it was possible for a mechanically minded driver with a good mechanic to keep the show on the road across Europe and the British Isles from weekend to weekend, sustained by the variable generosity of race organisers with starting money.
It was Tony who proposed Michael for Associate Membership, the application seconded by Max Trimble. In support of the application Michael submitted a list of events which he had attended with Tony including the Pau Grand Prix, Austria’s Zeltweg airfield where Tony finished first, Clermont-Ferrand, Montlhéry, the Nürburgring and AVUS where more often than not Tony finished fourth behind the professional factory drivers in his Cooper T43 and Lotus Type 18 maintained by young Michael.
Keen to race himself, Michael switched from spanners to steering wheel initially with a Mini and the Hillman Imp-powered Emery GT, sharing the latter with Jeremy Delmar-Morgan in the 1964 Nurburgring 500 kms, a race which ended early in retirement. For 1965 Michael planned to race Don Sim’s delightful little GT cars – the GT10F, the Demon (Imp-engined of course!). Disappointingly, while race entries were numerous, race finishes were few although over the course of the season reliability was much improved, Michael finishing second in a London Motor Club GT race at Brands Hatch at the end of November with the Diva Demon.
In May 1966 Michael shared a MGB in the Brands Hatch 500-mile race with ‘Jem’ Delmar-Morgan to finish an impressive ninth overall. Later in the month Michael finished third at Oulton Park. ‘Jem’ was the man behind the Mini-Jem, a little glassfibre GT car very much along the same lines as the Mini-Marcos created by ‘Jem’ Marsh. The next couple of years were spent racing Fiat-Abarths at home and abroad, Michael having a particular fondness for the 1000 SP which he took to 15th place in the 1967 Nürburgring 500 Kms. Jem Delmar-Morgan acquired a Porsche Carrera 6 which he shared with Michael to 15th place overall in the 1968 Nürburgring 1000 Kms round of the World Sports Car Championship. For 1969 a move from the Carrera 6 to its Ferrari equivalent, the Dino 206, was facilitated by the late Alain de Cadenet, the pairing finishing a strong sixth in the notoriously challenging Vila Real 6 Hours in Portugal. Aside from that, however, it was a struggle to achieve results with the Dino and the highlight of the last months of Michael’s driving career was 14th place with David Weir in the 1971 Brands Hatch 1000 Kms with the Ecurie Evergreen (alias Alain de Cadenet) Lola T212.
After retiring from race driving Michael pursued various business interests, becoming the UK importer of Weber Carburettors, of which he was Managing Director, in association with Tommy Sopwith and Ronnie ‘the Colonel’ Hoare. He retained his enthusiasm for motor racing and was very proud of his BRDC Membership. Michael was married for over 50 years to Genevieve, who survives him as do their two daughters Stephanie and Charlotte to whom the BRDC extends its most sincere condolences. Michael’s funeral will take place at 1pm on 17 June at Randalls Park Crematorium, Randalls Road, Leatherhead KT22 0AL.
