Bill Aston was born in Stafford, in March 1900. He fought in the First World War, worked as a test pilot and began his racing career on motorcycles.

He was an early Cooper customer, acquiring a MK III in 1949 and became a regular front runner in Formula 3 with wins at home and in Brussels and a third place in the British Grand Prix meeting in May 1949.

In 1951 he led the Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay before retiring with a seized engine.

Bill drove the Cooper Mk V streamlined car at Montlhery in October 1951 where it set new records for the 500cc class at 99 mph.

For 1952, his business acumen helped fund his Formula 2 Aston-Butterworth cars which he ran with Robin Montgomerie-Charrington and were based on a Cooper chassis with engines by Archie Butterworth. Sadly, the car was unreliable and failed to finish in Britain, Italy and Germany. After his brief Grand Prix career he switched to racing in club events racing a Jaguar D-Type and Aston Martins, often winning his class. He continued to race into his sixties and scored wins with Jaguar saloons and Minis.

Bill Aston died in March 1974.