Thirty years to the day when he won a Formula Ford race at the Castle Combe circuit, 64 year old Bob Higgins watched his sons emulate and even surpass his achievements, from the cockpit of his race car, just a few places further back! And it was on his birthday, to boot!
As the world had witnessed at Monaco the day before, sons of successful fathers can achieve amazing things, but Adam and Richard Higgins went one further than Nico Rosberg, with Adam, aged 26, winning the race outright and Richard, (31) winning his class and finishing 4th overall in the 3rd round of the Startline Formula Ford 1600 championship.
Bob Higgins, then a resident of Bath, now residing in Tadcaster, has been one of Castle Combe's most successful drivers, winning four championships, three of them consecutively from 1981 to 1983.
But the family were unaware of the significance of their history-making result until they came to the podium. Bob was the first to make his feelings known, in his own ebullient way, "It's just brilliant, it couldn't be better. They've both been working so hard and gradually getting quicker. I won three times on my birthday, in '81, '82 and '83, but today is even better. I was 28 before I even started racing so Adam and Richard have time to do better than me."
Just to add to the achievements, Bob brought his own car home in 7th place overall and 4th in class B, which Richard had won with a superb 'do or die' pass on the last corner of the last lap over Nathan Ward. Bob said," At one time in the race I was ahead of Richard, so it's a good job he got by or we wouldn't have had such a big celebration."
Richard, a martial arts instructor from Burnham on Sea, who is in his 3rd year of racing, described his win very much in the style of his father. He said, "Nathan had got by me earlier, but as we came down into Camp I just decided I was going to go for it and either take the place or go off." The organisers were as impressed as the crowd, giving Richard the Abraham's Jewellers 'Driver of the Day' award, which was shared and presented to him with his brother and family.
Adam, a mechanic from Chippenham, started racing in 2007, his best achievement to date being his class B title in 2011. His first outright wich came at the expense of Saltford's Steven Jensen who seemed to have an invincible lead in his Spectrum, which he had started from pole. Higgins had found a way past for two laps, earlier in the race, but towards the end Jensen had opened a significant gap, only to throw it all away at the Bobbies chicane.
The family will be continuing their championship challenge at Castle Combe's next meeting over the weekend of June 15th and 16th, when Bob will also be taking part in the Mazda MX5 races.
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