FEATURE : MARTIN WOOD
Bangers to F2 in 50 years
The first race back : Donington Easter 2021
Kent-based Martin Wood has had a pretty varied life story and is now competing in Historic Formula 2 . Paul Lawrence chatted with him about his racing story and life in general .
“ I went to watch a banger meeting when I was 15 ,” said Martin ( 68 ). “ I thought : ‘ Wow , let ’ s have a go at that .’ And so the next time I went , I was racing myself . And it was actually the Sunday after the British Grand Prix , which used to be on Saturday , at Brands Hatch . I had my first race on the Clearways oval , and I was absolutely hooked . After seven years we won the national points ’ championship and I did 58 meetings in one summer . I tried hot rods the year after but I didn ’ t have the right temperament for that as I ’ d been a banger boy .” Martin thought he ’ d got it out of his system . However , visiting a friend ’ s office in Sittingbourne one day there were some pictures of Clubmans cars on the wall . Phil Brown was racing in Clubmans and said : “ Why don ’ t you come racing with us ?”
In no time at all Richard Mallock sold him an ex-Formula Ford Mallock Mk22 and he won the 1982 Oceanair Clubmans Championship with the converted car . On the back of that success he bought a Formula 3 Ralt RT3 for 1983 . It was the infamous Senna / Brundle season and Martin admits that he was usually towards the other end of the grid .
“ I had an okay year with two seventh places . It was a huge step and the ground effect car didn ’ t suit me . They were very knife edge : they ’ d grip and then it was gone and then they didn ’ t grip . It was too big a step for me really .”
Things literally came to a head in the British Grand Prix support race at Silverstone . “ I went off Beckett ’ s and had a catch fencing pole hit me on the helmet . The race was late morning and I actually woke up in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford when it was dark that night . I ’ d been hit on the behavioural side of my head . I climbed off the stretcher in the helicopter and jumped on the pilot and I was just being a lunatic .
Martin Wood
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