EDITION 198 JAGUAR MAGAZINE 29ToMMysopwiTh
05 06
His blue racing Jaguars were more famous
than him, while his father was known for the
Sopwith Camel fighter plane and owning
Armstrong Siddeley cars - but you will know
him af ter reading his histor y here. Sadly,
the quiet, dashing and reser ved Tommy
Sopwith has died aged 86.
He was the man who famously lost the
inaugural British Touring Car Championship
driving a works-prepared 'Mk1' 3.4 Litre
saloon in a shoot-out with Jack Sears.
He was the son of aviation pioneer Sir
Thomas Sopwith, who was involved in the
early days of Brooklands - Britain's first
purpose-built racing circuit.
Tommy began competing in 1953 with
a Jaguar XK120 before building his own
spor ts-racer, the Sphinx with an Armstrong
Siddeley engine but based on an Allard
J2R. He founded the Equipe Endeavour
team, which went on to score successes in
touring car and spor tscar racing.
Af ter wins in the Sphinx and Cooper
machiner y, Tommy switched to salooncar racing. He quickly became one of the
leading Jaguar exponents, and was the
dominant driver in the inaugural season of
the BTCC, then known as the British Saloon
Car Championship.
Despite taking eight overall wins, Sopwith
ended the 1958 season tied on points
with Class C benchmark Sears. A shoot-
out with t wo Riley One-Point-Fives was
arranged at Brands Hatch, and Sopwith
narrowly lost the t wo-par t contest on
aggregate.
He retired from driving at the end of
the year, but remained one of Britain's
key motorspor t figures through Equipe
Endeavour. He ran future F1 World
Champion Graham Hill, who took the
team's E-Type to victor y on the model's
competition debut at Oulton Park in 1961.
He pursued his interest in of fshore power
boat racing and was one of the instigators
and organisers of the 1968 London-Sydney
Marathon. He became a Director and
Chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club.01/02 Racing icon Graham Hill, F1 World Champion, Le Mans and Indy winner, raced the Equipe
Endeavour E-Type RHD chassis #4. 03 Tommy in later years with his old racing 'Mk1'. 04 At the
wheel of his self-built 'Sphinx'. 05 Tommy with his own 'leaper' on the bonnet while racing his Equipe
Endeavour 'Mk1'. 06 He ran t wo team Mk2s and enjoyed a fierce rivalr y with John Coombs.