John Webb 1931 – 2024

John Webb has died in Spain, at the age of 92. Webb made his name in motor racing circles as the boss of Brands Hatch between 1963 and 1989, although he would also have influence over a number of other British circuits which were acquired along the way by Motor Circuit Developments Ltd, a holding company established in 1966.

Webb’s abilities as a promoter, and his willingness to take risks and try new things had a huge impact throughout the motorsport world, and many of his ideas are being used by race promoters across the world, underlining how far ahead of his time he was.

Born in Caversham, Berkshire, in 1931, Webb had no family connections in motorsport. His passion, like many of his generation, was aviation, which helped him to overcome a difficult childhood caused by hip dysplasia, which meant that he walked in an unusual fashion and was thus teased a great deal as a schoolboy. This had the effect of making him tough and keen to prove the world wrong and to achieve more than others.

He left school at 16 and went to work in the press department of Miles Aircraft, which was based at Woodley Aerodrome, near his home. This did not last long as Miles went out of business, but the experience helped him get a job with the Royal Aero Club before moving on to a role helping to promote the Farnborough Air Show.

At the age of 22, he set up his own public relations business and began taking on clients. The first major supporter was Silver City Airways, but he also did a deal to represent the Brands Hatch racing circuit in Kent.

At the time Silver City Airways was developing fast. It was run by  Air Commodore Griffith Powell – known as “Taffy” – who had been in charge of the RAF’s Ferry Command during the war. He found backing from the Zinc Corporation, an Australian mining firm, to start an airline using old military aircraft, intially with Douglas Dakotas and civilian versions of the Lancaster bomber, known as Avro Lancastrians. These were soon followed by Bristol Freighters, which Powell decided to use to start a cross-Channel ferry air ferry service from Lympne in Kent to Le Touquet. This became the Silver City Air Ferry and proved to be a big success. The firm soon required bigger aircraft and a new base at Lydd. Webb did much to promote the business.

Brands Hatch was also developing fast. It had been a grass track until tarmac was first laid in 1950, after which the first car races began. It was owned by four motorcycle clubs and run by an accountant called John Hall, who oversaw its early development, including the construction of a loop of track up to Druids and then the building of a pit complex. Webb began working on ideas to bring in more people and one of his first big ideas was to create a Boxing Day race meeting, similar to those which took place in horse racing. The first was in 1954 and featured all the top British racers of the day, including a Silver City Airways Formula Libre race, won by Don Beauman’s Connaught, a 500cc Christmas Trophy and Stirling Moss, dressed as Santa Claus, doing some laps in his Mercedes 300SL sports car. Webb soon became involved with Connaught, setting up the supporters’ club and then chartering an old Dakota to take club members, teams and drivers to races in Europe. This led to the creation of an aviation business called Webbair for a few years, flying racing folk to airports close to the big race meetings.

As Brands Hatch developed, expansion followed. A driving school was set up, at which Graham Hill learned to race, and a new “Grand Prix” loop of track added in the woods behind the circuit in 1960. This meant that Brands Hatch could host Formula 1 races and the non-championship Silver City Trophy of 1960 was the first such event, won by Jack Brabham in a Cooper. The following year the Trophy was repeated and Stirling Moss won.

By then Hall had convinced Webb to work at Brands Hatch full time, which was helpful as Silver City was in the process of disappearing. Hall found an investment company called Grovewood Securities to buy Brands Hatch from its various partners and they soon added Mallory Park and Snetterton to the portfolio.

Hall retired in 1963 and handed over the business to Webb. The following year the Royal Automobile Club decided to award the British Grand Prix to Brands Hatch and for the next 22 years the event alternated between the Kent circuit and Silverstone.

Webb was constantly dreaming up new ideas. He believed that race meetings should be festivals and promoted them as such, using whatever he could think of doing. He worked hard to get TV coverage of his races and did deals with radio stations including the BBC’s Radio 1 pop station and illegal offshore pirate radios such as Radio Caroline. He also began to add concerts to race weekends, notably with the Bay City Rollers at Mallory Park. Not all the old racing fans liked his populist approach, but he did not care. The bottom line was the measure of success.

He was constantly looking for new ideas and new spectacles, including air displays, such as the Red Arrows, Harrier jump jets and even Concorde, which did a fly by over the circuit one year while on its way out from the UK.

Webb also instituted the Grovewood Awards, which played a key role in helping young British talent to develop from 1963 onwards. At the same time he experimented with new kinds of races, including celebrity events, notably a race between politicians from Parliament, with the House of Lords versus the House of Commons. He created the annual season-opening non-championship F1 race called the Race of Champions, which became a major feature on the internaional racing calendar.

He was heavily involved in creating and promoting Formula Ford as a new entry level championship and the circuit played host to the first ever Formula Ford race in 1967. It would also become the home of the Formula Ford Festival, which every young driver wanted to win. He imported a lot of ideas from the United States, including the thrilling big-engined Formula 5000 cars, Formula Atlantic and he went on to created the Aurora British Formula 1 Championship.

He championed the abilities of a number of women racing drivers, helping Lella Lombardi to drive in F5000 and Divina Galica and Desiré Wilson in Formula 1 cars. Wilson woulo became the only woman ever to win an F1 race. Webb also brought IndyCars to Britain, although that was not a great success.

There were other series that didn’t work, such as Formula Talbot, which used methanol and was the result of the oil crisis in the aftermath of the 1973 Oil Crisis.

In 1978 he hired the Albert Hall in the week before the British GP and put on the Grand Prix Night of the Stars and even secured TV coverage on BBC1 (because he knew the boss, who happened to be the son of Billy Cotton, the bandleader and a famous pre-war racing driver). F1 stars mingled with the big entertainment acts of the era, including Morecambe & Wise and Bruce Forsyth and he even got British Formula 1 star James Hunt to play his trumpet.

Always looking for ways to generate more revenues he set up all manner of subsidiaries at the various circuits, including a hovercraft school, corporate hospitality and events, clay pigeon shooting and kart tracks.

Brands would continue to be owned by Grovewood Securities until 1986 when the firm needed to sell and the whole group was sold to John Foulston, although he died soon afterwards in a testing accident at Silverstone. His wife Mary and daughter Nicola took over running the business and in 1989, at the age of 68, Webb retired to Spain with his wife Angela, who had been at his side, helping with the business for much of his time at Brands. The circuits would ultimately end up in the hands of Jonathan Palmer’s Motorsport Vision.

After more than 30 years out of the limelight, many had forgotten Webb’s many achievements, but a lot of the ideas he had have become de rigueur at circuits all over the world.

This is perhaps the greatest tribute to an unusual man who was not always easy to get on with, but did great things.