Mitchel Godden

Mitchel Godden
Born	13 February 1975; Pembury, England
Nationality	English
Individual honours
2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011	British Sand Ace Championship Winner
1999, 2003, 2005, 2009	British Best Pairs Championship Winner
2001, 2003, 2008, 2012,2021	South-Eastern Centre Championship Winner
1999	Southern Centre Championship Winner
2018	Pokal Bergring Cup Winner
2007,2009,2011	MSC BadWalsee Wolfegg Winner
2016	Sidecars Super Series Winner 2021 & 2022 British Champion
Team honours
2015	Team Long Track World Championship Winning Manager

Mitchel Stuart Godden is an English motorcycle rider who competes in Longtrack and Grasstrack Racing for Solos (1992) and more recently 500cc Sidecars (2015). He is the son of Don Godden who won the Individual Speedway Long Track World Championship in 1969.

Mitchel Godden followed in his fathers footsteps and started racing in 1992. He started on a 250cc (ex Jeremy Doncaster) Honda red Rocket and rode this for one season before using Godden works 350cc machine and then after a couple of seasons progressed to 500cc class. Godden later progressed to international racing becoming a specialists on German grasstracks and Dutch sandtracks.

In 2015 Godden went in to 500cc Sidecar racing and had success in the UK and on the continent. With his passenger, Paul Smith, he has won international events in Werlte, Ludinghausen, Osnabrook, Hertingen Berghaupten, Bielefeld, Rastede & Angenrod, (Germany) and Roden & Eenrum in the Netherlands amongst others.

Using his track racing knowledge and engineering background Godden produces his own complete 500cc Sidecar machined known as Zircon Racing. The team Godden/Smith raced to an impressive 19 podiums from 22 starts in 2017, 18 podiums from 23 starts in 2018 and 21 podiums from 23 starts in 2019, and 15 podiums from 16 starts in 2022 including 8 first places, and probably the most impressive season in 2023 with 21 podiums from 23 starts including 16 Gold medal positions with most events being fought out of foreign soil.

Godden/Smith finished 4th in their first attempt at the European title in Tayac France July 2017, 2nd in the 2018 FIM-Europe Championship in Werlte Germany July 2018, 3rd in 2019 FIM-E Championship in Eenrum Netherlands August 2019, 2nd in 2022 FIM-E Championship in Eenrum Netherlands August 2022, and 2nd again in the 2023 FIME Championship held in Bad-Hersfeld Germany.

The team are the only British team in history to hold 4 European championships medals and the only team in British history to win a championship medal(s) on foreign soil.

The team won their first British 500cc sidecar championship in 2021, after several near misses in the years before, taking the title with an unbeaten performance. This was followed by taking their second and successive British title in 2022 and the third and consecutive title in 2023.

Promotion[edit]

In recent year Godden has also turned his hand to promotion. He started the charity Kart meeting at Buckmore Park as well as promotion and running of the Invicta International Grasstrack meetings at the Hop Farm and Collier Street 'The Kings of Speed' in 2008, 2011 and 2012. In 2016 he started the Pit Bike Winter Series at Iwade Stadium.

Management[edit]

In 2013 Godden on behalf of the ACU took over the manager role of the Great Britain World Longtrack team. In 2013 he led the team to the bronze medal and 2015 he led the team to their only championship. His last year in the role was 2018.