Damien Smith

Bittersweet emotions as motorsport’s awards season kicks into gear.

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It was an honour to take my place for the first time as a judge for the Royal Automobile Club’s Motoring Book of the Year, but boy, did it also twinge as I stepped up in place of my old friend Gordon Cruickshank. It was at the 2024 awards where I last saw Gordon, who died in December last year. That made his absence all the more poignant. But there were smiles and happy memories as the club honoured GC with its lifetime achievement award, collected by another of his friends, and a familiar face to Autocar readers, Colin Goodwin. How would Gordon have responded to such an award, we pondered? Embarrassment and self-effacement would have figured highly, but I think he'd have quietly glowed with pride, too. Gordon was a wonderfully gifted motoring writer and an even greater person, and we miss him terribly.