Interview: Rex Woodgate

With the recent passings of Carroll Shelby, Roy Salvadori and Ted Cutting, all key players for Aston Martin’s World Sportscar Championship-winning team of 1959, it seemed reasonable to speak with another racer who worked in that fabled John Wyer-run team, Rex Woodgate. Woodgate is a notoriously detail-oriented mechanic who became an early collaborator of Stirling Moss and also drove on occasion. He then had a brief tour of duty as team manager for the Connaught Grand Prix team before hooking up with Mike Hawthorn’s father Leslie and taking a job with the family’s TT Garage. This led him to his tenure with Aston Martin, which in turn sent him to the USA where he eventually became the company’s North American representative. VR’s Mike Jiggle recently sat down with Woodgate to discuss some of the more memorable experiences of his life and career. [pullquote]

“Whatever job or profession you’re in, if you do a job it has to be correct and look right. What is the point of doing a job if you’re not going to do it correctly?”