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ED HUBBARD BIOGRAPHY |
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Ed Hubbard, 59, is owner of the famous "Old Number One" Bentley now in the news. The car's authenticity is focus of the court action he has taken against Middlebridge Scimitar Ltd which had contracted to buy "the world's most important racing Bentley" for £10 million sterling. Like the car, two years older than him, Hubbard's globe-trotting life has been varied and eventful. Long an enthusiast for vintage Bentleys, he has owned 70 of these impressive cars, 38 of them simultaneously. Rhodesian by birth and the son of a property developer, his London base is by the river at Chiswick. His love affair with speed began at the age of 17 when he entered his first race at Ascot Speedway in California. The track's owner had told him: "Go away and get killed somewhere else." But he won. Hubbard continued sprint car racing throughout the Mid-West and, during a very successful initial season, amassed sufficient prize money to buy his first boat - the 27ft Jean that he sailed across the Atlantic and later sold in Rome. He returned to America and raced sprint cars, midgets and stock cars for several more seasons. Then he went broke, trying unsuccessfully to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. "I started with too little capital," he muses. Next, in his mid-20s, he focused on Latin America, competing in long-distance city-to-city mountain races of the kind in which Juan-Manuel Fangio first made his name. In Mexico, he crashed and broke his neck. To recuperate, he bought a 34ft ketch and again sailed the Atlantic. He went back to the Americas, racing Chrysler Corporation's stock cars for a couple of years, and he began to develop automotive-related business interests. At about this time, he became involved with Bob Topping and Lana Turner, racing Skirows on motorcycle speedway tracks. And he actually beat Mike Hawthorn while the English World Champion was still a club racer. Hubbard spent much of the 1960s in South America, mostly in Argentina and Chile, competing in mountain races and continuing businesses that both made and lost money. By the end of the decade, he was back in southern Africa, and driving for General Motors. He was very successful, campaigning the "Little Chev" and other GM cars until 1974. For the next 10 years, he concentrated on sailing and business, building up his Swiss company, Waxoyl A.G., with a US$350 million annual turnover world-wide. Hubbard sold Waxoyl in 1984 and "retired". In truth, this meant turning his energies to collecting, restoring and racing historic and other cars. And, lately, he has been told he is the oldest holder of a current international racing licence. It was his company Dutton UK Ltd, in Watford, that recently completed immaculate restoration of the ex-Woolf Barnato "Old Number One" Bentley in the form in which it crashed during the 1932 500-mile Race at Brooklands. Hubbard's versatility does not end there. A crack shot, he once won a round of the International Hand Gun Championship. His enthusiasms also include scuba diving, wrestling and aviation. And he reckons his many voyages across the Atlantic and Pacific tot up to more than 100,000 sailing miles. Other diversions, he declares, are "good food and the company of ladies". In 1988, he organised the "Cars of the Century" rally at Brands Hatch. This raised more than £100,000 sterling for the Prince's Trust and, in the process, Prince Charles drove Hubbard in one of his vintage Bentleys. In the past 12 months, Hubbard has won races at Silverstone, Sebring in Florida and Montlhéry near Paris. He has also established an impressive number of United Kingdom speed records on the banking of the Millbrook vehicle proving ground in Bedfordshire. Quickest of these was a daunting average of 162.75mph over 5km with an eight-litre CanAm McLaren-Chevrolet and slowest was 117.69mph for 500km in a Rolls-Bentley "special". His team, Hubbard Racing, fields Formula 3 cars for drivers Hilton Cowie and Nico Palhares, as well as five historic cars raced by Norris Miles and Ed Hubbard himself. By Anthony Howard Copyright © 673 words |
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