REMEMBERING RODNEY

Dear CR Hope this note finds you well and continuing with your great endeavour of producing the wonderful magazine that is Classic Racer. It’s always a good day when my subscription arrives in my mailbox here in Canada. I wanted to send in this letter for a well known motor-sport figure and bike racer (and my much loved uncle), Rodney Gooch. As you may know Rodney passed away during April and so I wanted to write down a few words about his lifelong adventure in racing to prompt a few memories for the many in the sport whose lives he touched. Rodney started his love affair with racing, as many a young racer did, in the early Sixties with the Bantam Racing Club (BRC), helping co-ordinate the south east section and editing the club’s national magazine. That role combined with his friendly enthusiasm making him a well known and popular figure in what was surely the best club of the day. On track, ‘Rodders’, as he was affectionately known by his contemporaries, was a fierce competitor, being a regular runner in the 125cc class at international meetings in the late Sixties and early 70s on Bantam (the White BSA) and then the SONDELL Yamaha with many good results to show for it. The Island beckoned for Rodney in 1967 and he accomplished some creditable finishes, taking a best of ninth place in the 1974 Lightweight TT. Over the past 25 years Rodney will be known to most in our sport as the friendly face of Castle Coombe Race Circuit. He coordinated all sorts of motor sport activity with that same friendly enthusiasm from BRC days, combined with a keen and capable flare for marketing and an everpresent sense of fairness. While Rodney was well known in both the car and bike works, his first passion always remained the bikes. Developing the Castle Coombe ‘Grand National’ into the terrific bike racing event it has become. In semi-retirement Rodney continued to improve the brand of that event culminating in the 2017 Mike Hailwood Anniversary meeting (the best ever attended meeting at the circuit) – bringing many of Mike’s bikes together with a host of superstars at the event. Those lucky to be there won’t forget the spine-tingling sight of Guy Martin ringing the neck of the wonderful Honda 6 around the fast West Country circuit. A superb event and a great credit to Rodney. Prior to Castle Coombe Rodney had been a director at Brands Hatch and before that a director at a circuit and sporting event signage business, quite literally spending a life in racing. A lifestyle that while he engineered it himself, he was very thankful for. A passion lived. Since the late Nineties Rodney, together with his oldest BRC muckers, had enjoyed a few racing forays to the roads of Belgium (Chimay and Gedinne) and several memorable parades at the TT, proving along the way that he was as quick as ever. His funeral saw a terrific turnout with the chapel full to overflowing and a memorable celebration kindly hosted by the circuit where many funny, amazing, ‘unbelievable but true’ and kind stories about Rodney were swapped. Donations were raised for ‘Dorothy House Hospice’ and the ‘TT Riders’ Association’. Go to Youtube and search for ‘Rodney Gooch TT’ and you can watch as ‘Rodders’ passes my father Christopher through ‘Barregarrow’ at one of those Isle of Man parade laps and gallops off down the road… Christian Gregory Vancouver, Canada

PS The photo on the right is from Rodney and Jim’s dalliance with the world of lawnmower racing.. He also raced Citroen 2CVS for a while!

Hello Christian, thank you for your memories of Rodney and the photos (I bet he was pretty rapid on a lawnmower! Tony