Bud Smith

Taking Reed’s concept and finding the venue to try it out (Lydden) and putting together an organising team with his colleagues at the 750 Motor Club (Tunbridge Wells centre), Smith was the fixer who made things happen.

A natural organiser, and one who was prepared to try something new, Smith embraced Reed’s idea and ran with it. Negotiating his way through officialdom and managing to pull the whole event together in just six-weeks, Smith was the kind of inspirational organiser that was perfectly suited to the new sport.

Smith was also instrumental in the spread of the sport both within Britain – he plotted tracks at Croft and Cadwell Park – and in europe where he’d been part of events at Hersbruck in Germany and Esbjerg in Denmark.

He remained involved a little longer than Reed, but had ended his involvement by the mid-70s. Bud Smith died in 1994.