Tommy Sopwith (racing driver) to powerboat racing. He is the owner of Endeavour Holdings Limited, a car dealership in Portslade, Brighton, with a turnover of £17 million. He was educated at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire. Tommy Sopwith (racing driver) Thomas Edward Brodie Sopwith (born 15 November 1932) is a British businessman and former car racing driver. He is the son of English aviation pioneer and yachtsman Sir Thomas Sopwith, builder of the Sopwith Camel, and Phyllis Brodie. His success as a racing driver saw him win the first ever round of the British Saloon Car Championship in 1958. That year he narrowly lost out on
Thomas Sopwith taught himself to fly on a Howard Wright Avis monoplane and took to the air on his own for the first time on 22 October 1910. He crashed after travelling about 300 yards (275 m), but soon improved, and on 22 November was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviation Certificate No. 31, flying a Howard Wright 1910 Biplane. On 18 December 1910, Sopwith won a £4000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British-built aeroplane, flying 169 miles (272 km) in 3 hours 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of