Webb, who ran the track as its chief executive from 1964 to 1989, was a leading visionary in British motorsport whose entrepreneurial skills moulded its structure over nearly four decades.
He was born on 10 February 1931 in Caversham, just outside Reading, the son of an accountant. Born with dislocated hips, he walked with a distinctive rolling gait, having been told that nothing could be done and that he might even be in a wheelchair by the age of 25.
The young Webb, who was “nuts about aeroplanes and railway engines”, but not about road cars,
was sent to a private school where he showed an aptitude for mathematics and history. His father wanted him to join a bank “because you get a pension”, but instead he left at the age of 16 to pursue a career in press and publicity work for the aircraft industry.
His first job was at Miles Aircraft, an aeroplane manufacturer based at Woodley in Berkshire. He immediately showed a flair for publicity and also became a freelance aviation journalist. When the company went broke, Webb worked for the Royal Aero Club before becoming assistant press officer for the Farnborough Air Show. He then took over press work for Silver City Airways, which was the first company to fly cars across the English Channel commercially.
To the young Webb, generating publicity about such a glamorous subject came easy, and in September 1953 he formed his own press and PR company. One of his first new clients was Brands Hatch, which at the time was managed by John Hall, an accountant appointed by the shareholders in order to safeguard their investment.
Webb’s first impression of the place wasn’t exactly favourable, and he described it as having poor amenities, but he pressed ahead with writing and sending out press releases detailing forthcoming meetings. One of his first specific jobs, in February 1954, was to announce the opening of the Druids loop extension to the track.
Up until this point, Webb’s interest had been almost exclusively in aircraft. But as a result of the Brands involvement, he also acquired the account for the Connaught Formula 1 team and began to take more of an interest in motor racing, acquiring a Jenson 541 that he entered in various races, sprints and hillclimbs with a degree of success, at one time holding the Brands Hatch saloon car lap record.
Webb’s fertile mind was always looking for new way to publicise Brands Hatch, and one innovation was the 1954 Boxing Day meeting, at which 20,000 spectators turned up on 26 December for a seven-race event that included an ox-roast and Stirling Moss dressed up as Father Christmas.
In January 1960 the Grand Prix loop was added to the circuit and, less than a year later, the track underwent a complete change of ownership, with Grovewood Securities Ltd, a general investment company headed-up by John Danny, taking over. Three other circuits were acquired – Oulton Park, Mallory Park and Snetterton – and in May 1966, a separate company, Motor Circuit Developments Ltd, was formed, with Webb as full-time executive director.
Prior to that, in July 1964 Brands Hatch had hosted its first British Grand Prix, which then alternated between there and Silverstone for the next 22 years. Webb was criticised at the time by some purists for providing a spectacle for the paying public with a number of activities ancillary to the racing. It could be said that he was pointing the way for the ‘festival’ style of entertainment that is so prevalent at today’s grands prix.
The following year Webb instigated a season-opening non-championship Formula 1 race, the Race of Champions, which continued until 1983.
Webb was instrumental in introducing a number of innovations to British motorsport, but perhaps the most successful and long-lasting was the concept of Formula Ford, which provided a cost-effective introduction to racing for many, while at the top of the scale the noisy, ground-trembling Formula 5000 cars also proved hugely popular.
There were many other Webb-inspired formulae that came and went over the years – Formula F100, Formula Ford 2000, Sports 2000, Formula Atlantic, Multisports, Formula Turbo Ford, Formula First, Thundersports and Thundersaloons to name just a few – with some enjoying more success than others. There was even a methanol-fuelled Formula Talbot as an insurance against the petrol crisis.
At the bi-annual Grand Prix, Webb continued to offer ever-more lavish entertainment for the spectators, particularly in the form of spectacular air displays. The Red Arrows put in their first appearance at the 1966 event and were joined over the years by a Vulcan V-bomber, a Harrier Jump Jet, and even Concorde, which diverted while on a scheduled flight to the Middle East.
Webb retired with his wife Angela to Spain in 1989, but continued to take an active interest in motorsport.
