Rally champ I loved for 65 years
DOT’s favourite saying was: ‘If you can do it, so can I.’ she was barely 5ft, but she was a champion rally driver — fearless, fast and hugely respected by her fellow drivers.
she drove Escorts Mk I and II on a specially adapted seat because she was so short, rallied in England and Ireland and was ladies’ champion of southern England three times in the Eighties.
we only once drove together, in our very first race, in 1968. we did half the driving each — and at the end she said briskly: ‘Right, we’ll never do that again!’ and we never did.
I’m quite content to say she was the better driver — and she was. we’ve got 118 trophies at home and most of them are Dot’s.
we met in 1952. she was 22 and had been looking after her family since her mum had passed away four years earlier. I was 19. we were married in Henley-on-Thames, but the honeymoon was just the one night because I was doing National service.
as well as rally driving, Dot loved knitting, cooking, did lots of charity work and organised many fundraising jazz nights near our home in Devizes. she finally stopped racing about 15 years ago, when she was in her early 70s, but she carried on driving — off the track, she was always the one behind the wheel. we were together for 65 years and had one daughter, Janet, and two grandsons. It was the happiest marriage that any man could wish for. My memories of Dot will last for ever.