The Gold Star
First awarded in 1929, the now famous Gold Star was originated through the Committee, although they took a poor view of the number of rays in the first sample submitted. They also had considerable difficulty in deciding quite how the star should be awarded. Initially, the idea was that the Star was an equivalent to the D.S.O., awarded with great care, but little by little it became more the badge of the year’s champion, though the word champion was deliberately avoided. Before this was settled, there had been an annual championship award which, of course, was awarded only once, the winner being Kaye Don.

The Gold Star was presented to the winner or winners for the year at the annual dinner and it was a tradition that the Star should normally be presented by a driver who had won one already.

At first it had been intended that no driver could win more than one Star, the idea being that ‘bars’ would be added for subsequent successes. However, individual Stars were presented for many years and the original idea was not implemented until late in 1950.

The Duke of Edinburgh, a racing enthusiast, attended the Club’s 21st Birthday celebrations in December 1948, and presented Gold Stars to John Cobb, who had beaten his own 1939 Land Speed Record, to “Goldie” Gardner, who had taken international records, to Ian Connell for track racing in 1939 and presented the Star, won by Johnny Wakefield for road racing in 193, to Wakefield’s widow, as Johnny had been killed in the war.

Qualification for the Gold Star was changed, as it was thought to be too strongly weighted towards Formula 1 racing and did not adequately recognise long-distance sports car racing, nor encourage members taking part in other international formulae.

The points scoring system is as follows: