[5] Arie van Vliet's riding in the 1,000-metre time-trial inspired him; British amateur champion W. W. Maxfield was also an early hero.

He envied Reg Harris and Dave Ricketts for being selected for the world championship at a young age, "not that I had any claims to such honors but because their good fortune provided them with expert tuition and decent tracks for training.

Godwin was unbeaten in five-mile scratch events and won the Cattlow Trophy at Fallowfield, Manchester, that year and in 1944.

[5] He won the BSA Gold Column, offered by his employers, by winning the five-mile at Herne Hill in south London in 1945.

The win at Herne Hill, the first time he had ridden there, "must have impressed, for an invitation to ride in Paris came my way," he said in the British weekly, The Bicycle.

"[5] At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, Godwin won two bronze medals, in the team pursuit, with Robert Geldard, Dave Ricketts, and Wilfrid Waters, and in the 1,000m time trial.

He ran the first British training camp in Majorca, Spain,[4] and the first track course at Lilleshall, and founded the Birmingham RCC.

For 36 years from 1950, he ran a cycle shop in Silver Street in the Kings Heath district of Birmingham.