The name behind the race: Earl Howe Trophy

Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon was a Royal Naval officer, MP, and most importantly for us, a racing driver. 

Curzon made his racing debut relatively late, at age of 44, racing a Bugatti Type 43 at the 1928 Irish TT, and would make six appearances at Le Mans between 1929 and 1933.

His first assault on the French enduro was in a Bentley works car in 1929, but with Bentley sold to Rolls Royce and consequently withdrawing from motorsport, he would go on to enter his own machines. 

Success came in 1930 when, along with co-driver Leslie Callingham, he won the 2-litre class in an Alfa Romeo 6C, but his crowning achievement came with outright victory at Le Mans the following year, sharing an Alfa Romeo 8C with Henry Birkin.

The Earl's silverware wasn't limited to Circuit de la Sarthe, though. He won the Donington Park Trophy race in 1933 and South Africa's Grosvenor Grand Prix in 1938, and he took podium finishes in eleven more major races between 1933 and 1939. He was also one of just two drivers to compete in every one of the RAC Trophy races. 

Howe also put his name to speed records, taking his 1938 Lagonda V12 to a record-breaking hundred miles-in-an-hour at Brooklands in 1939, and his passion for motorsport extended beyond the track. President of the BRDC, he was also vice president for the FIA's Commission Sportive Internationale, and served as an MP and member of the House of Lords, becoming a figurehead for the sport. 

As a commanding officer in the Royal Navy, Howe saw action in World War I, documenting the war in his side role working for the Royal Navy’s cinematograph service. It was from there where he he moved to politics, and was elected MP for Battersea South in 1918. 

The outbreak of World War II effectively ended Howe's motorsport career, but his contribution to the sport lived on in the Earl Howe Trophy which, up until 2018, was awarded "to the highest placed British Driver in the Indy 500 race or to the British driver who has established the most meritorious performance of the year in North America."

Now, he’s remembered in the Earl Howe Trophy here at Goodwood, a race dedicated to the British machines Howe loved most – 1930s sportscars, including his own prized Lagonda.

The 82^nd Members' Meeting is live now! You can watch every moment of the action on our live stream right here on GRR.

Tickets for the 83^rd Members’ Meeting will be available for a limited time immediately after this year’s event for Members and Fellows of the GRRC. Admission and Grandstand tickets will go on sale on Monday 14^th April for Members, and Wednesday 16^th April for Fellows.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.