SUTTON & CHEAM MOTOR CLUB
ANNUAL AWARDS EVENING
Held on Saturday 22nd March 2025
The 2025 Awards Dinner, celebrating 2024, was held on 22 March at the well-appointed Tyrell’s Wood Golf Club near Leatherhead. It is a venue that we have used before and offers a slightly more relaxed atmosphere than the spectacular Royal Automobile Club in Epsom which we have previously enjoyed.
Almost 50 members and guests attended the evening and were treated to good company and an excellent 3-course meal before the main business of the evening outlined below.
Whilst members and guests enjoyed coffee, a traditional raffle was held to raise money for the British Motorsports Trust and we thank everyone for their generosity as it resulted in a donation of just over £200 to the great cause.
Also over coffee, longtime club member and current McLaren F1 Director of Trackside Operations, Mark Norris chatted with Keith Mainland. Discussing all sorts of topics around the superb 2024 Constructors Championship win, Mark highlighted the logistical effort taken to get 35 tons of Formula 1 Team and over 60 people to 24 events around the world and the huge challenges that occur.
Celebrating his 25th year with the Woking-based outfit, Mark highlighted that he is loving life in the fast-lane and has no intention of giving it up soon!
Mark also offered insights on:
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How McLaren had turned results around so quickly since 2021;
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The scale of McLaren resources working in Woking during a Grand Prix and what they bring to the team’s results;
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The ways of working under Zak Brown compared to Ron Dennis and, in particular, the gap left by Ron which Zak has successfully addressed; and
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The difference in the way that Liberty runs the sport compared to Bernie Ecclestone.
Finally, whilst he claimed he would still be in bed whilst his colleagues were hard at it in Shanghai, Mark accurately predicted a McLaren one-two at the China GP and forecast that there would be no rain during the race.
Social Event of the Year
The Best Social Event of the Year award went to John Phillips for supporting our annual Interesting Car Night by bringing his Sebring Sprite to the event. His participation stimulated the attendance of a second Sebring Sprite owned by Mark Straker. Together, they made a great centre piece. John’s support was all the more meritorious because the weather on the day was appalling until about 7pm – after John had left home to join us. As a result, he spent the evening chatting to attendees pursued by a large damp patch on his back where, as expected, the car had leaked down the back of his neck.
Members’ Award
This is an award to a member(s) who epitomise what a Motor Club is all about. It is a repurposed trophy which is putting up a hell of a fight as it was presented five times up until 1972 and was then lost for almost 50-years. It was re-presented in respect of 2022 but was then lost by the recipient in a house move so it could not actually be physically presented last year. Once again we have recovered the trophy although now the engravers talents have almost disappeared as it appears to be too big for even the most specialised of engravers. This year’s award went to Barry and Sylvia Russell who are both founder members and officers of the club. They still support all our club socials and competitive events when and where they can and are a consistent source of conscience for the committee – “what would Sylvia say?”
CAR-nival Award – the Cosgove Trophy
This award is presented in recognition of contributions made to the running of the CAR-nival weekend at Abingdon. Given the efforts that so many people make it is often awarded for multiple years of outstanding support rather than a one-off. Eddie and Mary Parsons were talked into coming to the event several years ago and they have kept coming back despite living way ‘up-north’ in Penrith, Cumbria. They work tirelessly behind the scenes over the 4 days to make the event a success. No job for them is too small to be done both enthusiastically and properly.
Greville Trophy
This is one of the Club’s longest standing awards. The Greville Trophy is awarded at the discretion of the Chairman and Club Secretary to a non-committee member who they believe best promotes the Club. This year’s award went to Pam Guess, who provides vital back up to Barry when we are putting on events. Equally significantly, she leads on the Signing on Desk as Entries Secretary at all our events and is therefore the first club person that competitors come across at an event. Finally, she is a steady hand processing results and getting them out to competitors.
Official of the Year
This year’s award went to Dave Whyman who has has been the Chief Marshal on all of our events for at least a decade. He cajoles, chases, briefs and allocates marshals on all of our events with knowledgeable enthusiasm. More importantly, he does it in a way that results in marshals returning to our events in the following years. Dave has also been coordinator of the ACSMC Sprint Championship for even longer.
In this picture Dave is not suffering from from some form of disease – instead we failed to be mindful of the projector when taking the photos!
Mark II Motorsport Award
This award was originally presented by Mark Welch and Mark Norris to reflect the efforts of someone supporting those competing. This year, Mark Norris physically presented the award to Norman Phillips. Norman is at the heart of every event from the planning stage, ordering up resources for the venue, loading trucks and trailers to get equipment to events, solving resource problems throughout events and the making sure that all kit gets properly returned to the shed. Norm puts all this effort in without having ever actually competed himself!
This award is made to recognise the efforts of a competitor outside of stage rallying and this year’s winner is someone who focuses on club level events in a standard road car. He competes on 12-Car rallies and occasionally Targa Rallies in either his Mini or a Peugeot 205. Duncan Brown has achieved a string of quality results this year across the south of England. Moreover, he is a proud Scotsman, and made a 1200 mile round trip from South London to Tain in Ross-Shire to compete in the Far North Winter Classic Targa Rally with a friend. Proudly part of the Tour of Mull organisation, Duncan is one of those congenial Scotsman who has a tale or two to tell.
The club is blessed with some very competitive members who generally get to the front of events in their R5 cars. However, this year we wanted to recognise a Team who get out as often as possible, simply to enjoy their rallying. They, and their predominantly family-support team, are great believers in “it’s the taking part that counts”. Scott and Darren Stutchbury focused on the Heart of England Championship in 2024, campaigning a Renault Clio. Despite winning events in their dreams, the reality was a good mix of results. They always took a large entourage to events with them who in true Team Spirit were often spied helping other club members as eagerly as themselves.
The winners of the highest accolade in the club are a Team that have been good quality clubman competitors for several years – another team for whom it’s the taking part that counts. However, post COVID they took the courageous step to put their necks on the line and move up to an Fiesta R5 car. From the get-go their results were encouraging but an influx of fellow competitors also buying R5 type cars has made the front end of rally fields increasingly competitive. However, Sean and Colin Quigley came to the fore in 2024 with a string of excellent results including 5th overall on the Brands Hatch Stages and 4th overall on the Island Stages. However, the highlight of the year was their outright win on the Challenger Stages at Bovington, Dorset in November. 2025 has started well with 22nd o/a out of massive 115 finishers on the East Riding Stages British Rally Championship Round.