Steven Rawlins Pickerington

The 1877 winner was a 2nd
Runner-up and one of the top classes of the event. They were brothers
William and Edwin Rawlins from Exeter, Devon. In the same month it
was their first real victory. William was the son of William Rawlins.
He was a captain's officer in the 3rd Light Dragoons.
They were considered as one of the best specimens of the 1877 champion,
and it is almost impossible to find a better illustration of their
career than this achievement. By dint of hard work, careful selection
and due diligence, by mere chance they were selected at the lottery of
the 1884 first class. For the first time the Rawlins beat the old favourite
Rob Mitchell, who had won £200 in the first class in 1865. Edward is
a direct descendant of John Rawlins of Exmouth.
But the Rawlins brothers were not forgotten in the championship. Soon
after their victory at Dartford, the same car-racing interests put
forward James Lawrence as a driver. He was the brother of Edwin's
cousin Thomas Lawrence, who was an active member of a campaigning group
called "Cockney Irregulars". He was the first to secure a car in
a British championship, and the most successful British champion of
the period, until the victory of J.J.T.K. Gilmour of Brooklands in
the 1903 Inter-Cab. Over this time the Lawrence brothers won 20
capitals. They ran good cars. In 1879 Edwin ran a Bresladian car,
and in 1885 they again ran a Caroeo car. In 1896 and 1897, they both
bought motor cars, and the combination led to their long and well
earned reputed supremacy in the car world. On more than one occasion
two brothers (W.S and E.W) used to join forces to drive one rival
to ruin, which they always came out of. It was observed that, "it was
not wise to lose a race," and William in this instance won the first
race in the C.C.C. Cup.
In 1857, Edwin Rawlins bought an unclassified car at Abbotsford,
on the Lincolnshire-Oxfordshire line.