“Oscar” ceremonies, awards for this and that, tend to get a bit overblown. Not so the Ron Staughton Memorial Trophy presented to the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust, “in recognition of promoting the cause of historical motoring.” Last year’s winner Neil Tuckett made a modest presentation to Michael Ware, chairman of the trust, against a backdrop of an original and unrestored 1924 Model T Ford. Appropriate: Ron Staughton was for years Director of Ford’s Heritage Centre at Dagenham. My applause is three-fold. Firstly the trust supported our research on Reggie Tongue, first owner of ERA R11B, making the book on him a practical proposition. His family provided a goldmine of material but making a commercial publication of it was at best uncertain. Secondly the Ford Heritage Centre has been helpful on many occasions in connection with our books on Ford. It also arranged the loan of a Capri for the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Classic last year. See older blogs. Thirdly motoring historians all owe a debt to the late Michael Sedgwick, a meticulous researcher whose work we all gratefully plunder, confident of its precision. The trouble with looking up Sedgwick is that, as you dip into the text, it is so lucid, articulate, absorbing and entertaining that you read on and on…

I read about the award in Beaulieu’s informative Friends of the National Motor Museum Trust’s revamped and useful Newsletter.