The memorial trophy for Formula Ford racer and engineer Paul Simms will be presented for the fourth time during the Historic Sports Car Club’s Silverstone Finals meeting (12-13 October).
The Paul Simms Memorial Trophy will be presented to the aggregate winner across the final two SDC Classic Formula Ford 1600 races at Silverstone in memory of a popular and respected member of the Formula Ford racing community.
Simms, father of newly crowned 2024 Classic FF1600 champion Benn, sadly died in 2020 at the age of 74 after contracting Covid and is greatly missed across the historic racing paddock. As well as being a racer himself in his earlier days, Paul supported his son’s racing and helped Benn prepare championship winning cars across nearly two decades.
Having won nine of the 10 races to date, Simms is favourite to wrap up a stellar season with two more wins in his Jomo JMR7. Once again, a bumper grid of Formula Fords from up to 1981 will be in action at the conclusion of a tremendous year for the championship. The support from SDC has allowed competitors to benefit from reduced entry fees, and grids have been consistently strong with fine racing all the way down the order.
Paul’s memory is honoured with a superb trophy that will be presented to the leading Classic FF1600 racer at Silverstone. Tom McArthur was the inaugural winner in 2021 while in 2022 the winner was Samuel Harrison and in 2023 it went to Callum Grant.
Benn Simms said: “Dad loved Formula Ford 1600 more than any other race category, so this is a fitting tribute. He would have been very humbled by it.”