at Oulton Park Gold Cup

The life and work of Derek Bennett, the founder of Chevron Racing Cars, will be marked during the Oulton Park Gold Cup race meeting on 24/25 August.

In the year when Bennett would have reached his 75th birthday, a special trophy will be presented for the best drive in a Chevron during the Gold Cup meeting.

The Gold Cup meeting is organised by the Historic Sports Car Club and Chevrons will be prominent in several races, with examples of sports-racing cars, Formula 2, Formula 5000, Formula 3 and Formula Atlantic cars all racing during the weekend.

Wendy and Geoff Smith, Derek's sister and brother-in-law will present the trophy. The award is a special Waterford Glass cut crystal bowl known as the Derek Bennett Trophy 2008, and will be awarded only at this event by Helen and Vin Malkie of Chevron Racing Cars Ltd.

Bennett, born in 1933, was a brilliant and intuitive engineer and started building the first customer Chevrons in 1965. The marque was hugely successful in both sports car and single-seater racing right through the 1970s, but sadly Bennett was killed 30 years ago in 1978 in a hang-gliding accident.

It is hoped that a number of people with Chevron connections, including former employees and drivers, will attend be at Oulton Park over the weekend.