TRIBUTE

Born in Sligo, Ireland on the second day of 1937, Bill McGovern settled in north London, and it was here in 1963 that he had a chance wheel-to-wheel encounter with Gerry Marshall on the deserted post-midnight streets – apparently with his wife and father-in-law as passengers! When the racing crowd didn’ t take to his Vauxhall VX4 / 90 – resplendent with Webasto roof and whitewall tyres – McGovern traded it in for a much more fashionable Mini Cooper S. His fast-growing family may not have appreciated the gesture but his early exploits in sprinting, especially in the wet, saw him beat much faster machinery. With a few choice tuning additions to the Mini, he became quicker still.

Offered the chance to make his race debut when a friend’ s car wasn’ t ready, McGovern made the most of his graduation from sprinting. Brands Hatch Clerk of the Course Nick Syrett gave him the nod advising caution, to which he responded by taking pole position! Launching off a grid almost full of Minis, he was headed into Paddock Hill by two more experienced hands but no bother, he thundered past them next time around. Despite his car being shod with road tyres he held off his opponents for several laps, eventually finishing in second place.

McGovern viewed Paddock Hill as his personal Everest and was determined to take the fearsome corner flat in order to make his name, inevitably rolling the Mini in the process when competing in the 1965 British Saloon Car Championship.

Switching to the Mini’ s Rootes Group rival, the Imp, McGovern found it very much to his taste, competing first in a Paul Emery-prepared Hillman before George Bevan invited him to drive his Sunbeam-badged car. With the latter, McGovern became a British Saloon Car Championship( BSCC) title contender. With eight category wins in the 1970 season and a scoring system that favoured class winners, he became champion and took another 10 the following year to match Frank Gardner’ s achievement of back-to-back titles. Another 10 class wins in 1972 made him the first three-time champion in the series’ history. This places McGovern in the rarified company of Gardner, Bernard Unett and Win Percy in the multi-class era, and in the modern British Touring Car Championship( BTCC) by Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden. Only Andy Rouse, Colin Turkington and Ash Sutton have won more titles.

A huge accident early in the 1973 season lost McGovern vital momentum and although he returned at the next round he would win his class on just three more occasions. Bevan turned his attention to the VW Passat the following year but couldn’ t recreate the magic and McGovern took the opportunity to retire from racing. He did, however return in the 1980s at club level, most notably with the Bevan Imp and later a Renault 5 GT Turbo, in which he was still keeping up with much younger drivers. McGovern continued to follow the BTCC in his later years and remained a fan of the sport.

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Revolution- February 2026