There seems to be very little information available about Sir Nick himself. He was born on October 26th 1937 and I believe he was 'independently wealthy'. He was an hereditary baronet: Sir Nicholas Frederick Hedworth Williamson 11th Baronet of East Markham, Nottinghamshire to be precise.
His
Who's Who entry shows he lived at a house called Abbey Croft in Mortimer - which would almost certainly have been within earshot of the now-closed Great Auclum hillclimb. Not all that far from Taplow either. Other than that and his parentage, there is nothing else in his
Who's Who entry! He apparently never married.
He died on December 31st 2000 and the title died with him.
This is his obituary from
Motor Sport, February 2001:
Quote:
Of all the characters in off-track motorsport, none was more splendidly eccentric than twice RAC British Hillclimb champion Sir Nicholas Williamson, who died on New Year's Eve, aged 63.
The dashing Baronet, the honour bestowed upon his family in 1647, was fearless in battle. 'Sir Nick' won his titles in 1970 and '72, following an impressive three-year apprenticeship with a Brabham BT21. The first to unleash a Formula 5000 car 'up the garden paths' at the end of '69, Nick's McLaren M10A won at Prescott and Harewood out of the box. Five wins secured the coveted crown the following season,
But he duly bucked the V8 trend, returning to F2-based cars, and topped the pile again with a 2-litre BDA-powered March 712S despite rolling it mid-season at Bouley Bay.
With an Fl Cosworth DFV transplanted into the chassis (by Lyncar's Martin Slater) he scored a debut win in '73. This led to an influx of redundant grand prix cars. Like his first win in '68, his last came at Bouley in '76, driving a March 741.
Asked what he did for a living, Nick once memorably replied, "Not very much at all, actually." But the tweedjacketed nobleman enjoyed life to the full. Despite declining health, he remained omnipresent at Wiscombe Park, the Devon venue co-owned by his uncle, Major Charles Lambton, MP.
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Note that this adds to the info in my previous post - which I apparently can't edit to correct it. The DFV wasn't installed until 1973, so the 'Hart' reference is presumably to a Hart-tuned BDA.