HGPCA Yearbook 2019

HISTORIC GRAND PRIX CARS ASSOCIATION

2019 YEARBOOK

Welcome

Chairman’s Message

It’s a pleasure for me to introduce this the 13th edition of our HGPCA Yearbook, expertly put together by our editor and Cooper-Bristol owner/peddler Martin Eyre and Rob Blayney of the Blayney Partnership. My thanks to them and the much-valued advertisers for their commitment, skill and endeavour in creating this annual publication which brings you a summary of our successful 2018 season and provides not only an appetiser for the coming season but also some thought-provoking articles.

This year is the 40th year of the HGPCA. It was formed by the foresight and commitment of the Founding Members, a group of leading historic racing enthusiasts dedicated to keeping alive the spectacle of the Grand Prix race cars in action - Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, ERA, BRM, Cooper, Lola, and Lotus. Two, Richard Pilkington and Robs Lamplough, are still racing with us today. We are inviting all the Founding Members to our Annual Christmas Lunch this year as the Association’s guests as a mark of our thanks to them.

The past forty years have seen huge changes to historic racing in general and our Association is not immune from them. The sport has increased in popularity in a way not envisaged and the cars have increased in value hugely.

This has led to owners becoming more reluctant to risk their cars on the racetrack: the creation of replicas, the appearance of professional drivers, the spiralling costs of racing and the ‘interest’ of the FIA leading to increased bureaucracy. All these developments, and others, have to be acknowledged but not necessarily embraced by the Association.

I believe that it is our job to create the best possible environment for owners of Grand Prix cars to race them safely on the greatest circuits in Europe. Of course, it is not just the racing in isolation which provides the environment we savour so much but also the enjoyment of each other’s company. We think that the Members’ Association model, rather than the commercial model of most race organisers, provides the best structure to be responsive to the needs and wishes of our Members in providing that environment. Our Association strives to be entirely Member-centric. This will provide the basis of how we will adapt to meet the challenges of the next forty years, whatever they may be.

My thanks are due to our sponsors, Supagard, Dunlop and Hall & Hall, for their support. Thanks are also due to our Members who contribute to the HGPCA with their work and skill when assisting at events and to our directors for their hard work and expertise as well as to Stella, who continues her hard work in binding the whole Association together with her ongoing excellence.

And, of course, to all Members for supporting their Association by bringing their car(s) and themselves and family along to participate in our events. I wish everyone an exciting and rewarding 2019 season.

Peter Horsman Chairman

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Head Office Historic Grand Prix Cars Association PE.B21.2 Parkhall Business Centre 40 Martell Road, London, SE21 8EN Tel/Fax +44(0)20 7785 7204 Email: contact@hgpca.net www.hgpca.com President: Sir Stirling Moss Vice President: Tony Merrick Chairman: Peter Horsman Treasurer: Andrew Beaumont Company Secretary: Brian Horwood Administration: Stella Jackson Race/Events/Elegibility: Martin Grant Peterkin

Board Members Julian Bronson, Sir John Chisholm, John Clark OBE, Rod Jolley, Peter Horsman (Chairman), Andrew Beaumont (Treasurer), Will Nuthall, Richard Parnell, Eddy Perk and Chris Wilson

Founder Members Neil Corner, Colin Crabbe, Martin Dean, Alain de Cadenet, Robs Lamplough, Patrick Lindsay, Christopher Mann, Vic Norman, Simon Phillips, Richard Pilkington, Bill Summers and Sir John Venables-Llewelyn.

Thanks to the following, the HGPCA is the successful Association it is today: Paul Alexander, Richard Attwood, Martin Eyre, Brian Gilbart-Smith, Bob Gilbert CBE, Martin Grant Peterkin, Gerry Hann, Peter Hannen, John Harper, Sidney Hoole, Brian Horwood, Robin Lodge, Roger Lucas, Peter Mann, Nick Mason, Tony Merrick, Allan Miles, ‘Spike’ Milligan, Ian Nuthall, Trisha Pilkington, Ted Rollason, Kirk Rylands, Julian Sutton, Sheridan Thynne, John Ure, Paula Webb and Nick Wigley.

CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME / 1

35 Years of Race Winning

Historic Maserati Experience

Our successful workshop teams’ experience includes Alfa, Lotus, OSCA, Cooper, Ferrari, Chevron, Brabham and as late as F3000, A1GP and Group C Restoration, Race Preparation, Recreation, Maintenance, Track Side and Touring Support Discreet, Independent Worldwide Inspection of Historic Maseratis Re-manufactured engines, transaxles, brakes, suspension & steering components & numerous other ancillary parts renowned for their engineering quality & race winning potential

Trident, Station Road, West Dereham, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE33 9RR Phone: +44 (0)1366 500620 Email: steve@stevehartracing.com www.stevehartracing.com 2 /

Contents

Chairman’s Welcome

1

Alain de Cadenet ‘Boy’s Own’ racer Words by Mike Jiggle

2018 Race Meetings Silverstone VSCC Formula Vintage

4-5

Historic Tour Charade

6-7

Brands Hatch Superprix

8-9

Silverstone Classic Grand Prix Circuit 10-11 Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix

12-13

46.AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix

14-15

Spa-Francorchamps 23rd Spa Six Hours Belgium

16-17

Espiritu del Jarama

18-19

Brabham - In the Beginning Words by Marcus Pye

Algarve Classic Festival Portimao Portugal 20-21 2018 Awards Annual Lunch

22-23

Race Results & Annual Awards

24-25

Where now for Historic Motorsport?

Words by Doug Nye

Features Brabham - In the Beginning - Marcus Pye

28-43

The swell of interest in historic racing - Doug Nye

45-47

Over Here - Andrew Roberts

52-61

Alain de Cadenet ‘Boy’s Own’ racer - Mike Jiggle

63-73

2019 Event Calendar

80

OVER HERE Transatlantic cousins add Brickyard relish.

Words by Andrew Roberts

Membership 80

Publisher Historic Grand Prix Cars Association PE.B21.2 Parkhall Business Centre 40 Martell Road, London, SE21 8EN Tel/Fax +44(0)20 7785 7204 Email: contact@hgpca.net www.hgpca.com Head Office Stella Jackson Historic Grand Prix Cars Association PE.B21.2 Parkhall Business Centre 40 Martell Road, London, SE21 8EN Telephone…: +44(0)20 7785 7204 Editor Martin Eyre Secretary Ellie Birchenhough

Deputy Editor Andrew Roberts Graphic Design & Production Rob Blayney Blayney Partnership Barn 3, Hall Farm, Sywell Aerodrome, Sywell, Northampton, Northamptonshire NN6 0BN Telephone: 01604 671714 www.blayneypartnership.co.uk Advertising Sales Doug Howard TRMG Contributors Doug Nye, Marcus Pye, Andrew Roberts, Mike Jiggle

Photographers Jim Houlgrave, Eric Sawyer, Per Soerensen, Lesley Perk, Kitty Chisholm, Richard Hampson, Daniel Gonzalez, Ellie Birchenhough Laurent Vallery-Masson, Marcus Pye, Andrew Roberts Printer Stephens & George Print Group Goat Mill Road, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 3TD Front Cover Cover artwork from the painting by acclaimed Austrian artist KLAUS WAGGER Juan Manuel Fangio duelling in his Maserati 250F with Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari - Nürburgring 1957 www.klauswagger.at

© HGPCA 2019 While every effort is made to ensure accuracy no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transition or with the publisher or their agents. All information is correct at time of going to print.

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Founder Member Richard Pilkington exercises the Talbot Lago in sports car guise at the popular Friday Test Day. Photo: Jim Houlgrave.

VSCC Formula Vintage 21st - 22nd April 2018 Pre 66 National Circuit, Silverstone, UK VINTAGE SPRING COLLECTION The now traditional Vintage Sports Car Club’s Formula Vintage twoday Silverstone Weekend was again preceded by the HGPCA invitational Friday Test Day that saw members and guests enjoying substantial track time.

Increasingly regarded as the start of the new historic racing season, the 2018 fixture was blessed with unseasonal fine Spring weather and strong fields that thrilled a sizeable audience who revelled in the vintage and historic machinery both on track, in the eclectic paddocks and the ever-fascinating car parks.

While modern F1 dictates have seen the Silverstone track become almost 4 / VSCC SPRING START RACE MEETING

unrecognizable from the early years of VSCC events and the HGPCA itself, the lure of the country’s fastest circuit, now with competitor and public facilities in keeping, ensures strong entries and healthy grids, notably from HGPCA members. Practice was dominated by Barry Cannell in the Brabham BT11A from Tom Dark in the Cooper T51 and Jon Fairley’s Brabham. Fittingly, just days after the 50th anniversary of Jim Clark’s death, his most famous former mount, the 1963 Championship-winning Lotus 25 R4 of John Bowers was out in the hands of Andy Middlehurst.

The first HGPCA race saw an aborted start, the Scarab Offenhauser of Eddie McGuire expiring on the grid. Nothing daunted, the faultless restart would ultimately see the Cannell Brabham

justifying its pole position with a strong Climax-powered win from the early leading Monaco-bound Middlehurst Lotus 25 and the impressive Dark Cooper T51. Rod Jolley in the familiar Cooper T45/51 was next up from Charles McCabe’s Lotus 18 and Mark Daniell’s Cooper T45.

Race 2 was a Cannell Brabham reprise but there was to be disappointment for Tom Dark, the Cooper’s fuel line blowing off on the grid. Andy Middlehurst’s smooth drive in Lotus R4 recalled Clark’s effortless progress on his unchallenged way to second while Jon Fairley’s Brabham BT11/19 rounded out the top three. It was Surbiton honours that would complete the top six with Mark Daniell’s Cooper heading Rudi Friedrichs’ T53 and Rod Jolley’s T45/51.

Above - Determinedly hunting down the Cooper trio ahead are the Tony Best Ferrari Dino BR01 and the Lotus 18 of Charles McCabe.

Photo: Jim Houlgrave.

Above – Rod Jolley’s Cooper T45/51 storms through the field as Scotty Taylor’s Cooper T43 and Bernardo Hartogs’ Lotus 18/21 move over.

Photo: Jim Houlgrave.

Above - Close company for Tom Dark in the Cooper T51 as Barry Cannell in the Brabham BT11A sizes up his former mount.

Photo: Jim Houlgrave.

Above - Modena thoroughbred at play evoking memories of Mike Hawthorn as Alex Boswell revels in the pace of the Ferrari Tipo 625.

Photo: Jim Houlgrave.

Driver of the Day was awarded to Mark Daniell, Cooper T45.

Restarted Race 1 saw polesitter Barry Cannell in the Brabham BT11A taking the first of his brace of wins, with Andy Middlehurst (Lotus 25) and Rod Jolley (Cooper T45/51) marveling at his Hamilton-like start.

Photo: Jim Houlgrave.

VSCC SPRING START RACE MEETING / 5

Italian racing red to the fore as Tony Smith’s Ferrari Dino BR01 and Josef Rettenmaier’s Maserati 250F lead Rod Jolley’s Monzanapolis Lister Jaguar off the start line.

Photo: Laurent Vallery-Masson

Historic Tour Charade 25th - 27th May 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Clermont-Ferrand, France AUVERGNE CHALLENGE Racing in the grand prix tyre tracks of yesteryear is at the very core of the HGPCA and the second 2018 meeting enabled members to turn the clock back at one of the most challenging venues to stage the French GP, the Charade circuit at Clermont Ferrand, often described as the ‘French Nurburgring.’

The road-style circuit of just over 8kms was created around an extinct volcano in the Auvergne mountain range and hosted just four GPs, the first in 1965 when Jim Clark’s Lotus took victory.

Increasing safety issues later saw its demise and subsequent replacement with a shorter circuit of 3.9kms opened in 1989 that again demands skill and determination in equal measure.

Unpredictable weather in the Auvergne has always been a challenge and 2018 was no exception, storm and sunshine providing the unpredictable mix. In complete contrast to the previous day, Sunday’s storm and resultant flooding of the track for Race 2’s Pre 66 grid led to its abandonment following the safety car-led formation lap. Pre 61 qualifying had seen Julian Bronson’s Scarab-Offenhauser and Tony Best’s Ferrari Dino setting the pace. Third quickest was Josef Rettenmaier in the Maserati 250F who would take victory in Race 1 from the Tony Best Dino, with Ian Nuthall’s Alta F2 third. Wet conditions in Race 2 saw the Bronson Scarab taking the flag from Rod Jolley’s Lister Jaguar, the Josef Rettenmaier 250F and the Best Dino with strong performances from Paul Grant’s Cooper Bristol and the Nuthall Alta.

6 / HISTORIC TOUR CHARADE RACE MEETING

The 1963 Championship-winning Jim Clark Lotus 25 R4 of John Bowers with Andy Middlehurst at the helm, returned to the scene of its 1965 glory, promptly going second fastest in qualifying behind Will Nuthall’s Cooper T53. Peter Horsman’s Lotus 18/21 and Barry Cannell’s Brabham BT11A were similarly rapid, auguring well for the race. Horsman and Nuthall provided the closest of racelong dices with the honours going to the Lotus, with both the Cannell Brabham and Middlehurst Lotus in close attendance.

The loss of the second Pre 66 race, disappointing as it was, failed to dampen spirits at this friendly and well-organised HVM event.

Driver of the Day awards were made to Front Engine: Josef Rettenmaier (Maserati 250F) and Rear Engine: Max Blees (Brabham BT7A).

Perfect 1965 French GP timewarp as the Lotus 21 of John Delane heads Tom Dark’s Cooper T51 and Barry Cannell’s BT11A. Photo: Laurent Vallery-Masson

Above – Marc Valvekens brought his Gordini 16 back to the classic Charade circuit to lead Erik Staes’ Cooper Bristol.

Photo: Laurent Vallery-Masson

Above - Julian Bronson in the Scarab-Offenhauser in hot pursuit of Tony Smith’s Ferrari Dino BR01.

Photo: Laurent Vallery-Masson

Above - Shades of 1965 and Jim Clark’s famous victory here as Andy Middlehurst in the same Lotus 25 similarly heads away from his pursuers.

Photo: Laurent Vallery-Masson

In contrast to the previous day, sunshine was succeeded by torrential rain and a safety car start for the abandoned Pre 66 race.

Photo: Laurent Vallery-Masson

HISTORIC TOUR CHARADE RACE MEETING / 7

Legends of Brands Hatch Superprix 30th June - 1st July 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Grand Prix Circuit, UK KENTISH GLORY While John Webb’s unforgettable stewardship of Brands Hatch has long passed into history, the incomparable Grand Prix Circuit is still with us, albeit rarely used in these days of onerous noise restrictions. Happily the HSCC who promote this superb historic meeting always provide us with the warmest of welcomes and it remains an HGPCA favourite, demanding the best of drivers and machinery. Under the banner of Jonathan Palmer’s MSV, Brands Hatch is now much refreshed and offers greatly enhanced facilities for competitors and public alike.

good to see two examples of pre-war machinery in the shape of Tom Dark’s Bugatti T59 and John Gillett’s MG K3 out again to join the strong fields. In keeping with their once local circuit there was a strong Cooper presence that reflected the marque’s period popularity. Joining the grids were four Cooper Bristols and a brace of T43s in the Pre 1961 race, with a dozen Surbiton examples in the Pre 66 race. Qualifying saw heavy metal in the shape of Rod Jolley’s Lister Jaguar taking pole from the KurtisOffenhauser 500C of Geraint Owen and the Alta F2 of Ian Nuthall for the Pre 61 grid while Jon Fairley’s Brabham BT11/19 edged Peter Horsman’s Lotus 18/21 from the Pre 66 pole.

With the HSCC offering us separate grids for Pre 61 and Pre 66 cars, it was

While the Kurtis made an unsuccessful appearance in the 1959 US GP, Geraint

8 /

BRANDS HATCH SUPERPRIX RACE MEETING

Owen determinedly set out to rebuild its reputation in the first Pre 61 race, with a storming win over Rod Jolley and the distant Tony Best in the Ferrari Dino. The Kurtis reprised its win in the second race, despite the hard charging Alta F2 of Will Nuthall and the Lister Jaguar of Rod Jolley. The first Pre 66 race saw the Fairley Brabham leading from lights out, with the Horsman Lotus always in touch. The Cooper-mounted pair of Chris Drake, T71/73 and Rudi Friedrichs T53 upheld Surbiton honours.

The anticipated Fairley/Horsman duel in the second race lasted just three laps before the Lotus 18/21 retired, Chris Drake taking full advantage to move into second, before Mark Daniell’s Cooper T45 displaced him. James Denty’s Lotus 32 took fourth, ahead of Eddy Perk’s, Heron F1 and Steve Hart’s Cooper T51.

Battling Cooper T51s of Steve Hart, driving for Chris Wilson, and rekindling Rob Walker holding off Pre 66Tony cars Smith – Steve Hart, Cooper T51 (nomemories, 27), Tony Smith, Charles McCabe’s Lotus 18.

Cooper T51 (no 5), Charles McCabe, Lotus 18 (no 24) Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Photo: Eric Sawyer

Below - Pre 66 cars - John Fairley, Brabham BT11/19 (no 11) leads Rudi Friedrichs, Cooper T53 (no 12).

Photo: Eric Sawyer

Top - Klaus Lehr’s Cameron Millar Maserati 250F forges ahead of the Cooper trio of John Bussey’s T43 (34), Robi Bernberg’s T43 (43) and Chris Phillips’ Cooper Bristol (33).

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Above - More Pre 61 action from Chris Phillips’ Cooper Bristol (33) leading David Wenman’s Connaught A4 (20) and the Tom Dark Bugatti T59/50D (9).

Photo: Eric Sawyer Below: Immaculate F2 Team Lotus Type 32 in the hands of James Denty leads Mark Daniell (Cooper T43) and Tania Pilkington (Cooper T43).

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Above - Cooper Bristol exponent Paul Grant keeps Klaus Lehr’s Cameron Millar Maserati 250F at bay while Robi Bernberg’s Cooper T43 watches on.

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Drivers of the Day Awards were made to John Bussey and Steve Hart.

BRANDS HATCH SUPERPRIX RACE MEETING / 9

Silverstone Classic

Offenhauser power of Geraint Owen’s mighty Kurtis 500C dwarfs the Maserati A6GCM of Julia de Baldanza as Charles McCabe’s Lotus 18 lines up a pass.

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

20th - 22nd July 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Combined Grand Prix Circuit UK BRILLIANT CLASSIC Proving that Goodwood has no monopoly on perfect Summer days, the 2018 Silverstone Classic basked in glorious sunshine throughout, again drawing a 100,000-plus crowd and more than 1,000 race entries. The open-all-areas policy, live music, family entertainment, funfair, shopping village, massive club presence, car auction and air displays combined with non-stop on track action, again made for a world-beating classic festival.

Such is the meeting’s popularity that some fifty-eight members registered, the HSCC allowing combined grids of 50 cars for the HGPCA races. The 70th anniversary of the first Silverstone Grand Prix in 1948 was duly celebrated, with eight original cars demonstrating.

Scintillating qualifying then saw Jon Fairley’s Brabham BT11/19 just edging out Barry Cannell’s BT11 with Peter Horsman’s ever-rapid Lotus 18/21 third. Timothy de Silva’s Lotus 24 was next up ahead of the Cooper T53s of Will Nuthall and Chris Drake.

Disappointingly, the much anticipated race battle between the BT11 Brabham duo never materialised with Cannell’s car succumbing to oil pressure issues before the start, leaving the way seemingly clear for early leader Jon Fairley until he too was forced to retire on lap 5. Then on the seventh lap a Cooper deposited its oil at Club Corner, resulting in lurid spins from following cars, fortunately without damage, but giving the Clerk of the Course no option but to instantly red flag the race, with the results declared after six laps The

10 / SILVERSTONE CLASSIC RACE MEETING

Cooper T53 of Will Nuthall, which had closely shadowed Fairley in the early laps, took the flag in the truncated race from the Lotus pair of Horsman and de Silva, with Coopers completing the top six via Chris Drake (T53), Rudi Friedrichs (T53) and Rob Hall (T43/51).

Will Nuthall’s hopes of a double in the second race evaporated with electrical problems while the de Silva Lotus retired with misfiring issues. Peter Horsman’s untroubled Lotus went on to win from Mark Daniell by some 26 seconds with Tony Wood’s superb drive in the Tec-Mec Maserati 415 taking third, having started from the back of the grid.

Completing the top six were Sid Hoole’s Cooper T66, a delighted John Evans in the Brabham BT4 and Charles McCabe’s Lotus 18.

Disappointing non-starter was Ben Mitchell in the 1960 BRM P48 of Robs Lamplough. Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Above Right: Superbly presented Cooper T66 of Sid Hoole.

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Above - 50 starters were permitted for the combined front and rear engined GP cars, creating a crowd-pleasing race spectacle.

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Above Top - HGPCA racing at its best. Jon Fairley (Brabham BT11/19), Rudi Friedrichs (Cooper T53), Will Nuthall (Cooper T53), Timothy de Silva (Lotus 24) and Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21), a perfect quintet. Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Driver of the Day awards were made to Tony Best (Front Engine), Charles Gillett (Rear Engine).

SILVERSTONE CLASSIC RACE MEETING / 11

Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix 3rd - 5th August 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Grand Prix Cars, Denmark ROAD RACING Street circuits have a fascination of their own, especially so when they join the fixture list on a ‘pop-up’ basis and their location immediately returns to normal after a weekend of racing. This was the formula for the Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix run on the public roads around Bellaboj Park in the Danish capital, the entire event infrastructure on grass in portacabins and under canvas in the park itself, with competitors and support teams ferried from and to the generously provided hotel accommodation. The challenge of driving such a tight circuit delineated by temporary motorwaystyle concrete barriers inevitably compromised performance, but enabled greatly enhanced spectator viewing.

Miles Griffiths and the Lotus 16 proved fastest in Pre 1961 qualifying, ahead of Guillermo Fierro and Steve Hart in their Maserati 250Fs with Julian Bronson in the Scarab next up. Heat 1 saw the Griffith Lotus 16 setting the initial pace with a fastest lap of the race, but this flattered to deceive with early retirement beckoning.

This left the 250Fs of Fierro and Hart annexing the top two slots ahead of the Bronson Scarab and Ian Nuthall’s Alta F2.

The Lotus 16 was back on form in the Finale, taking a strong win from the Maserati 250F duo, Ian Nuthall’s Alta F2 and the close-running Cooper Bristol of Paul Grant and the Cooper T43 of John Bussey.

12 / COPENHAGEN HISTORIC GRAND PRIX RACE MEETING

The Cooper T53s of Will Nuthall and Rudi Friedrichs set the Pre 66 qualifying pace from the Brabhams of James King (BT7) and Jon Fairley (BT11/19) with the Lotus brace of Peter Horsman (18/21) and Nick Taylor (19) next up. This set the scene for Heat 1 with the Nuthall T53 taking the flag from the Horsman Lotus, the Friedrichs Cooper and Taylor Lotus.

It was a Cooper benefit for the Pre 66 Finale, the Nuthall T53 winning comfortably from Rob Hall’s T43/51 and Sid Hoole’s T66 F1. Nick Taylor’s fourth place Lotus 19 was the only non-Surbiton finisher in the top six.

Drivers of the Day awards were made to: Pre 61 Tom Dark (Bugatti T73C) and Pre 66 Rob Hall (Cooper T43/51).

Martin Eyre in his Cooper Bristol with wife Louise doing the parasol honours.

Photo: Per Soerensen.

Perfectly negotiating the concrete barrier-lined track on his way to a third-place Pre 61 finish, Steve Hart in the Maserati 250F CM7 proved a crowd favourite.

Photo: Per Soerensen.

Ex-Prince Bira MG K3 of Australian John Gillett added Brooklands flavour.

Photo: Per Soerensen.

Marc Valvekens lining up the Gordini 16 with the Cooper T43 of John Bussey in close attendance.

Photo: Per Soerensen.

Barry Wood, Cooper Bristol, moves aside for the rapidly approaching Paul Grant.

Photo: Per Soerensen.

Rare pairing of Tom Dark’s Bugatti T73C and Ian Nuthall’s Alta F2.

Photo: Per Soerensen.

COPENHAGEN HISTORIC GRAND PRIX RACE MEETING / 13

Changing decades as the ‘30s Maserati 6C34 of Josef Rettenmaier encounters the ‘50s Cooper T45/51 of Rod Jolley.

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

46.AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix 10th - 12th August 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Combined Nurburgring, Germany RETRO EIFEL The 46th running of the Oldtimer Grand Prix more than lived up to its reputation for drawing dream fields of historic machinery to the Eifel Mountains - together with 60,000 enthusiastic spectators - for the annual three-day extravaganza. But while the GP days of the daunting Nordschleife, with its Wagnerian overtones and unpredictable weather, become increasingly distant, the memories of such giant ‘Ringmeisters’ as Ascari, Caracciola, Nuvolari, Seaman, Rosemeyer, Fangio, Moss and Stewart remain forever fresh and an inspiration to today’s historic Nurburgring competitors.

As ever, HGPCA members supported the Oldtimer in numbers, with a welcome trio of pre-war entries in the shape of the Rettenmaier’s glorious

Italian duo of Maserati 6C34 for Josef and the Alfa Romeo P3 for Stephan, keeping company with John Gillett’s ex-Bira MG K3. Qualifying provided the perfect racing aperitif. Will Nuthall in the Cooper T53 just edged out Peter Horsman in the Lotus 18/21 with the rapid Lotus 16 of Joaquin FolchRusinol and the Rod Jolley Cooper T45/51 next up.

Race 1 saw the Nuthall/Horsman qualifying duel resumed with a vengeance but to no avail for the Cooper, as Peter brought the Lotus home to take the honours, having set the fastest lap in another HGPCA close race. Will Nuthall’s fine drive was rewarded with the second podium as Rod Jolley took an excellent third from John Chisolm’s chasing Lotus 18. Sid Hoole brought his Cooper T66 F1 home to fifth ahead

14 / 46.AVD OLDTIMER GRAND PRIX RACE MEETING

of the Max Blees Brabham BT7A. It was double glory for Peter Horsman in Race 2, bringing the Lotus home for a comfortable victory from the ever-rapid Rod Jolley Cooper, Will Nuthall’s progress having ended with retirement. Confirming his qualifying pace in third was Joaquin Folch-Rusinol in the Lotus 16, with the Coopers of Chris Drake (T77) and Charles Gillett (T43) next up, with Eddy Perk’s Heron F1 rounding out the top six.

Blessed with superb weather and racing all weekend, the off-duty hours were complemented by the informal Thursday paddock party graciously hosted by the Rettenmaier family, the fantastic Friday evening barbecue of Hubertus Donhoff and the traditional Saturday paddock party.

The 12th century Schloss Nürburg that overlooks the Nurburgring.

Photo: Lesley Perk.

Close company for Tom Dark (Cooper T51), Wulf Goetze (Cooper T53) and Eddy Perk (Heron). Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Josef and Stephan Rettenmaier’s splendid evening party in the race paddock. Photo: Lesley Perk.

Happy first race podium with suitable spoils.

Photo: Kitty Chisholm.

Above: Packed first race grid saw Will Nuthall first away in the Giorgi Marchi Cooper T53 from Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21), Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16), Rod Jolley (Cooper T45/51), and Matteo Tullia (Cooper T51).

Photo: Eric Sawyer.

Driver of the Day awards were made to Front Engine: Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16) and Rear Engine: Charles Gillett (Cooper T43).

46.AVD OLDTIMER GRAND PRIX RACE MEETING / 15

Charging hard, the Richard Wilson Cooper T51 leads the Maserati 250F of Guillermo Fierro, the Barry Cannell Brabham BT11A and the Lotus 16 of Joaquin Folch-Rusinol Photo: Richard Hampson.

25 th Spa Six Hours, Spa-Francorchamps 14th - 16th Sept 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Combined Grand Prix Cars, Belgium ARDENNES MAGIC In these days of increasingly identical and standardised circuits, Spa remains gloriously aloof and utterly unique. Set in the heavily wooded Ardennes and frequently the subject of wildly varying weather, the circuit takes no prisoners and demands nothing less than a total driving performance. The charismatic downward plunge to Eau Rouge, immediately followed by the climb over Radillon, remains one of racing’s finest experiences, fully endorsing Spa’s reputation as providing one of the greatest driving challenges.

HGPCA competitors have long supported the Spa Six Hours meeting and the 2018 fixture attracted some 47 members, just one week after the Goodwood Revival. Qualifying took place in dry conditions with Andy

Middlehurst setting pole in the John Bowers Lotus 25 R4 of Jim Clark fame. Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) and Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16) completed the Hethel grid dominance with a Cooper quartet flying the Surbiton flag, led by Rudi Friedrichs (T53), Tom Dark (T51) Michael Gans (T79) and Chris Drake (T79). Eddy Perk in the Heron F1 had posted eighth fastest but crashed heavily, sidelining the car but happily not its driver.

Coopers ultimately dominated the first race finishing positions. Initially it was the Lotus 25 leading, with Horsman spinning early but brilliantly climbing through the field to take a seeming winning lead only for the Lotus gearbox to jam, handing Rudi Friedrichs and the T53 an unexpected victory, duly celebrated

16 / SPA SIX HOURS, SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS RACE MEETING

at their enjoyable Aachen farmhouse barbecue. In his wake were the Tom Dark T51 and Michal Gans T79, Sid Hoole’s T66 and Richard Wilson’s T51.

Out to spoil the Cooper grand slam was sixth place Guillermo Fierro in the Maserati 250F, with next up James Willis in the Cooper T45.

While Peter Horsman and the Lotus 18/21 had hoped for better in the second race, this was not their weekend, despite taking an early lead.

Michael Gans in the alarmingly smoky Cooper T79 and Rudi Friedrichs in the T53 now joined an oil-soaked dice. Setting the Lotus up for a final effort Horsman slid off-line, letting Gans into the lead. The Friedrichs Cooper took third from Tom Dark’s T51 with Max Blees Brabham BT7A fifth and Sid Hoole’s Cooper T66 completing the top six.

Wrestling with 300bhp and lessening grip throughout, Rod Jolley battles with the Lister Jaguar Monzanapolis.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Cooper T45 duo of Brian Jolliffe and Tony Ditheridge keep Phillippe Bonny’s Brabham BT2 at bay.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Above - Austrian driver Ingo Strolz raced his cream Cooper T45/51, here in close company with Patrick Dunseith in the Alex Morton Lotus 21.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Ian Nuthall’s Alta F2 in period company with the Cooper Bristols of Chris Phillips and Martin Eyre.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Geraint Owen gingerly feeds in the power as he exits the La Source hairpin in the Indy Kurtis 500C. Photo: Richard Hampson.

Fortune failed to smile on early Lotus pacemakers Peter Horsman and Andy Middlehurst in the first race, with an unexpected victory going to Rudi Friedrichs in the Cooper T53.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Glorious historic line-up in the International Pit Lane.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Driver of the Day awards were made to Front Engine: Ian Nuthall (Alta F2) and Rear Engine: Philipp Buhofer (Lotus 44 F23).

SPA SIX HOURS, SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS RACE MEETING / 17

Side-by-side racing at its best from Chris Drake’s Cooper T71/73 and Tom Dark’s ex-British Racing Partnership’s Cooper T51.

Photo: Daniel Gonzalez.

Espiritu del Jarama Madrid, Spain 12th - 14th October 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Combined Grand Prix Cars AUTUMN GOLD John Hugenholtz, architect of Holland’s Zandvoort and Japan’s superb Suzuka complex, created Spain’s first permanent racetrack at Jarama, that would host nine stagings of the Spanish Grand Prix between 1968 and 1989 and count among its winners both Graham Hill and Gilles Villeneuve. Typified by its short main straight, narrow width and tight and twisty corners that forever compromise overtaking, the Jarama circuit has long put a premium on handling. But, despite recent lengthening and upgrading, its character remains little changed from its F1 heyday, with the excellent permanent facilities continuing to make it a popular venue for historic racing.

As the first of the autumn doubleheader events, Jarama drew 21 18 /

competitors together with thousands of spectators from Madrid, to Jesus Pozo’s incredible two-day Espiritu del Jarama Festival de la Velocidad. Qualifying had a familiar look with Peter Horsman’s Lotus 18/21 netting pole, albeit narrowly from the in-form Joaquin FolchRusinol’s Lotus 16. The Coopers of Tom Dark (T51) and Chris Drake (T71/73) were next up ahead of the now inhealth Brabham BT11/A of Barry Cannell and Rod Jolley’s Cooper T45/51.

Unusually for this season the first race started on a wet track and it was the Folch-Rusinol Lotus 16 that initially mastered the conditions but constantly harried by Horsman’s Lotus and Dark’s Cooper. The flying Rudi Friedrichs’ Cooper T53 had now assumed a shortlived lead until a spin allowed Horsman and Jolley to hit the front. Again there was disappointment for Horsman as

EASPIRITU DEL JARAMA RACE MEETING

he clipped a kerb and Jolley cruised to victory. Friedrichs’ fine drive netted second from Horsman with FolchRusinol fourth. The Cooper-mounted Chris Drake and Tom Dark headed James Willis in a fine seventh place.

Traditionally dry conditions returned for the second race that the Horsman Lotus dominated after taking the lead from the Folch-Rusinol Lotus. Potential front-runners Rod Jolley and Rudi Friedrichs were both early retirements with transmission problems. This would benefit both Tom Dark and Barry Cannell now in third and fourth places, the latter’s Brabham recovered from its off after a no-blame altercation in the first race. Chris Drake’s Cooper was a strong fifth but it was the superb sixth place of James Willis in the Cooper T45 that was greeted with much delight in the HGPCA paddock.

More close racing to enjoy from Joaquin FolchRusinol (centre) very much on home ground in his Lotus 16, flanked by (left) Peter Horsman in his Lotus 18/21 and (right) Rudi Friedrichs in the Cooper T53.

Photo: Daniel Gonzalez.

Despite taking pole, Peter Horsman would eventually finish runner-up to the rapid Rod Jolley Cooper T45/51 in the first race, but would ultimately set the record straight with victory in the second.

Photo: Daniel Gonzalez.

Above - Overall Race Winner Peter Horsman, Joaquin Folch-Rusinol 2nd & Tom Dark 3rd Photo: Ellie Birchenhough

Above - Front Engine Overall Race Winner Joaquin Folch-Rusinol, Guillermo Fierro 2nd & Ian Nuthall 3rd Photo: Ellie Birchenhough

Late Autumn sun bathes the popular Assembly area that drew its typically enthusiastic crowd.

Photo: Daniel Gonzalez.

Driver of the Day awards were made to Front Engine: John Gillett (MG K3) & Rear Engine: James Willis (Cooper T45).

EASPIRITU DEL JARAMA RACE MEETING / 19

Algarve Classic Festival, Portimao 19th - 21st October 2018 Pre 61 & Pre 66 Combined Portimao, Portugal ALGARVE FINALE Ending the HGPCA season at Portimao in glorious warmth and sunshine on a superb track with its fabulous facilities, certainly softens the prospect of a chilly northern hemisphere winter, so not surprisingly 26 entries quickly confirmed for a final Portuguese flourish. No mere flat Autodrome, Portimao has everything that historic drivers crave; slow and high speed turns, elevation changes and blind corners and the joy of driving a circuit that tests both pilots and machinery to the full. All topped off by a welcoming and friendly organising team. In short, a happy return to one of the favourite circuits on the HGPCA calendar.

Qualifying saw something of a step back in time, with front-engine cars

taking first and second-quickest times through the Lotus 16s of Miles Griffiths - in Philip Walker’s car - and Joaquin Folch-Rusinol’s. With the Team Lotus cars setting the pace, Peter Horsman’s one-time privateer entry had to be content with third fastest from Chris Drake’s Cooper T71/73, Barry Cannell’s Brabham BT11A and Tom Dark’s Cooper T51.

Race 1 saw the Griffiths-driven Lotus 16 storming to an untroubled win, with Peter Horsman some 20 seconds in arrears. Sadly Folch-Rusinol’s car could not emulate its teammate’s performance, suffering misfiring due to a loose carburettor. No such woes bothered the Rudi Friedrich Cooper that carved its way through the field to annex a strong third place, ahead of fellow Surbiton siblings in the hands

20 / ALGARVE CLASSIC FESTIVAL RACE MEETING

of Tom Dark and Chris Drake and Barry Cannell’s Brabham.

Race 2 would seemingly follow the previous race script with the Griffiths Lotus 16 streaking into an early lead with Horsman, Friedrichs, Drake, Dark and the Richard Wilson Cooper T51 chasing. Five laps in, the Lotus 16 succumbed to propshaft failure and the Friedrichs Cooper was poised to take full advantage. The Horsman Lotus was having none of this, taking a lead he would not relinquish while behind were the scrapping Coopers of Friedrichs and Dark who would ultimately finish second. Chris Drake took the third podium slot, with Sid Hoole’s Cooper T66, Eddy Perk’s Heron F1 and Paul Griffin’s Cooper T51 completing the top six.

Thoroughbreds at play, led by Bernardo Hartogs’ Lotus 18/21, Steve Hart in Chris Wilson’s Cooper T51 and James Willis’ Cooper T45.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Top Right: Regular protagonists Barry Cannell (Brabham BT11/A), Tom Dark (Cooper T51) and holding station, Rod Jolley (Cooper T45/51). Photo: Richard Hampson.

Paul Griffin’s Cooper T51 heads Ian Nuthall’s Alta with Charles Nearburg’s Brabham BT11 leading the chasing pack.

Photo: Eric Sawyer

Middle Right: Anglo-Italian trio of Brian Jolliffe (Cooper T45), Ian Nuthall (Alta F2) and Klaus Lehr (Maserati 250F).

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Right: How low can we go? Chris Drake’s Cooper T71/73 poses the question to Barry Cannell and Tom Dark.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

Driver of the Day awards were made to Front Engine: Klaus Lehr (Maserati 250F CM5) and Rear Engine: Chris Drake (Cooper T71/73).

Class 10: Supagard’s David Paterson presents Eddy Perk (2nd), Chris Drake (1st & rear engine Driver of the Day) & Bernardo Hartogs (3rd) Photo: Richard Hampson

Friendly class rivals: Paul Grant in the ever-present Cooper Bristol and Ian Nuthall ‘s periodperfect Alta F2.

Photo: Richard Hampson.

ALGARVE CLASSIC FESTIVAL RACE MEETING / 21

Awards Ceremony

Lunch is served. The Wood/McGuire table in the Mountbatten Room

Class 5: Supagard’s David Paterson with Ian Nuthall (left), Paul Grant (centre) and Will Nuthall collecting for Guy Plante (right).

Class 7b: Rudi Friedrichs, Tom Dark, Rod Jolley with Supagard’s Chris Benham.

22 / AWARDS CEREMONY

All photographs: Jim Houlgrave

Class 7a: Miles Griffiths (left), Supagard’s David Paterson (centre), Tony Best Winner (right).

Class 7c: Robi Bernberg (left), Supagard’s Chris Benham (centre), Iain Rooney collecting for Winner John Bussey (right).

Our Annual Lunch was held again at The Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, founded in 1897 with the aim of encouraging the development of motoring in Britain, what more appropriate venue for the HGPCA’s annual awards ceremony and lunch.

John Clark and Bernardo Hartogs.

Mary Grant and Lesley Perk.

Duncan Rabagliata of FJHRA

Stella Jackson and Grahame White.

Class 8: Julian Bronson, Rod Jolley, Eddie McGuire with Supagard’s David Paterson.

Martin Eyre presented with the Chairman’s Cup by Peter Horsman.

Class 9: Brian Jolliffe (left), Chris Benham (centre), James Willis (right).

Will Nuthall (left), Julia de Baldanza (centre), Martin Grant Peterkin (right).

Class 11: Miles Griffiths collecting for Harindra de Silva (left), Chris Benham, Sid Hoole (right).

Pre-War Class Winner Stephan Rettenmaier collected first as well as second prize for his brother Josef.

Bertie Gilbart-Smith awards Sid Hoole with the Alan Putt Trophy.

Class 10: Chris Drake (left), Chris Benham, Eddy Perk, Nick Taylor

Class 12: Barry Cannell (left), Chris Benham, Peter Horsman (right).

Richard Parnell presents Ian Nuthall with the Jack Brabham Trophy.

Pre-War 3rd in Class, Tom Dark.

AWARDS CEREMONY / 23

Yearbook: 2018 Race Results VSCC Formula Vintage Silverstone National Circuit, UK Saturday 21st-Sunday 22nd April

Overall Winner: Barry Cannell (Brabham BT11A) Overall 2nd: Andy Middlehurst /John Bowers (Lotus 25 R4) Overall 3rd: Jon Fairley (Brabham BT11/19) Class Winners: Barry Cannell (Brabham BT11A), Tony Best (Ferrari Dino BR01), Rudi Friedrichs (Cooper T53), John Bussey (Cooper T43), Mark Daniell (Cooper T45), Eddy Perk (Heron F1), Andy Middlehurst/John Bowers (Lotus 25 R4) Driver of the Day: Mark Daniell

Rear Engine Race Overall Winner: Will Nuthall/Giorgio Marchi (Cooper T53) Rear Engine Race Overall 2nd: Rob Hall/Tim Ross (Cooper T43/51) Rear Engine Race Overall 3rd: Sid Hoole (Cooper T66 F1) Class Winners: Will Nuthall/Giorgio Marchi (Cooper T53), Rob Hall/Tim Ross (Cooper T43/51), Nick Taylor (Lotus 18), Sid Hoole (Cooper T66 F1), Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Driver of the Day: Rob Hall

Historic Tour Charade

46.AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix

Clermont-Ferrand, France Friday 25th - Sunday 27th May

Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Julian Bronson (Scarab Offenhauser) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Rod Jolley (Lister Jaguar) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Josef Rettenmaier (Maserati 250F) Class Winners: Richard Pilkington/Tania Pilkington (Talbot), Paul Grant (Cooper Bristol), Josef Rettenmaier (Maserati 250F), Tony Best (Ferrari Dino BR01), John Bussey (Cooper T43), Julian Bronson (Scarab Offenhauser) Driver of the Day: Josef Rettenmaier Rear Engine Race Overall Winner: Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Rear Engine Race Overall 2nd: Will Nuthall/Giorgio Marchi (Cooper T53) Rear Engine Race Overall 3rd: Barry Cannell (Brabham BT11A) Class Winners: Will Nuthall/Giorgio Marchi (Cooper T53), Rob Hall/Tim Ross (Cooper T43/51), Nick Taylor (Lotus 18), Andy Middlehurst/John Bowers (Lotus 25 R4), Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Driver of the Day: Max Blees

Brands Hatch Superprix Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit Friday 30th June - Sunday 1st July Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Geraint Owen (Kurtis 500C) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Will Nuthall (Alta F2) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Rod Jolley (Lister Jaguar) Class Winners: John Gillett (MG K3), Tom Dark (Bugatti T59/50A), Will Nuthall (Alta F2), Klaus Lehr (Maserati 250F) DNF, Tony Best (Ferrari Dino BR01), John Bussey (Cooper T43), Geraint Owen (Kurtis 500C) Driver of the Day: John Bussey Rear Engine Race Overall Winner: Jon Fairley (Brabham BT11/19) Rear Engine Race Overall 2nd: Mark Daniell (Cooper T45) Rear Engine Race Overall 3rd: Chris Drake (Cooper T71/73) Class Winners: Charles McCabe (Lotus 18), Mark Daniell (Cooper T45), Chris Drake (Cooper T71/73), Sam Wilson/Alan Baillie (Lotus 24) DNF, Jon Fairley (Brabham BT11/19) Driver of the Day: Steve Hart

Silverstone Classic Silverstone Historic Grand Prix Saturday 20th - Sunday 22nd July

Race Overall Winner: Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Race Overall 2nd: Mark Daniell (Cooper T45) Race Overall 3rd & Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Tony Wood (Tec-Mec Maserati 415) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Eddie McGuire (Scarab Offenhauser) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Tony Best (Ferrari 246 Dino) Class Winners: Luc Brandts (Talbot Lago) DNF, Julia de Baldanza (Maserati A6GCM), Ian Nuthall (Alta F2), Klaus Lehr (Maserati 250F), Tony Wood (Tec-Mec Maserati 415), Charles McCabe (Lotus 18), John Bussey (Cooper T43), Eddie McGuire (Scarab Offenhauser), Mark Daniell (Cooper T45), Nick Taylor (Lotus 18), Sid Hoole (Cooper T66 F1), Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Drivers of the Day: Tony Best (Front Engine), Charles Gillett (Rear Engine),

Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix Copenhagen, Denmark Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th August Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Miles Griffiths/Philip Walker (Lotus 16) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Guillermo Fierro (Maserati 250F) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Steve Hart (Maserati 250F) Class Winners: John Gillett (MG K3), Tom Dark (Bugatti 73C) DNF, Ian Nuthall (Alta F2), Guillermo Fierro (Maserati 250F), Miles Griffiths/Philip Walker (Lotus 16), John Bussey (Cooper T43) Driver of the Day: Tom Dark

24 / RACE RESULTS

Nurburgring, Germany Friday 10th - Sunday 12th August

Race Overall Winner: Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Race Overall 2nd: Rod Jolley (Cooper T45/51) Race Overall 3rd & Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Julian Bronson (Scarab Offenhauser) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Ian Nuthall (Alta F2) Class Winners: Josef Rettenmaier (Maserati 6C34), Ian Nuthall (Alta F2), Marc Valvekens (Gordini 16), Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16), Rod Jolley (Cooper T45/51), Julian Bronson (Scarab Offenhauser), Charles Gillett (Cooper T43), Chris Drake (Cooper T71/73), Sid Hoole (Cooper T66 F1) DNC, Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Drivers of the Day: Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Front Engine), Charles Gillett (Rear Engine)

Spa Six Hours Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium Friday 14th - Sunday 16th September

Race Overall Winner: Michael Gans (Cooper T79) Race Overall 2nd: Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Race Overall 3rd: Rudi Friedrichs (Cooper T53) Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Guillermo Fierro (Maserati 250F) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Steve Hart/Hann Family (Maserati 250F) Class Winners: Stefan Rettenmaier (OSCA Tipo 6), Ian Nuthall (Alta F2), Guillermo Fierro (Maserati 250F), Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16), Rudi Friedrichs (Cooper T53), John Bussey (Cooper T43), Rod Jolley (Lister Jaguar), Tony Ditheridge (Cooper T45), Phillipe Buhofer (Lotus 44), Sid Hoole (Cooper T66 F1), Michael Gans (Cooper T79) Drivers of the Day: Ian Nuthall (Front Engine), Phillipe Buhofer (Rear Engine)

Espiritu del Jarama Near Madrid, Spain Friday 13th - Sunday 14th October

Race Overall Winner: Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Race Overall 2nd & Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16) Race Overall 3rd: Tom Dark (Cooper T51) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Guillermo Fierro (Maserati 250F) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Ian Nuthall (Alta F2) Class Winners: John Gillett (MG K3), Ian Nuthall (Alta F2), Guillermo Fierro (Maserati 250F), Joaquin Folch-Rusinol (Lotus 16), Tom Dark (Cooper T51), John Bussey (Cooper T43), James Willis (Cooper T45), Chris Drake (Cooper T71/73), Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Drivers of the Day: John Gillett (Front Engine), James Willis (Rear Engine)

Algarve Classic Festival Portimao, Portugal Friday 19th - Sunday 21st October

Race Overall Winner: Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Race Overall 2nd: Tom Dark (Cooper T51) Race Overall 3rd: Chris Drake (Cooper T71/73) Front Engine Race Overall Winner: Klaus Lehr (Maserati 250F) Front Engine Race Overall 2nd: Paul Grant (Cooper Bristol) Front Engine Race Overall 3rd: Ian Nuthall (Alta F2) Class Winners: John Gillett (MG K3), Paul Grant (Cooper Bristol), Klaus Lehr (Maserati 250F), Miles Griffiths/Philip Walker (Lotus 16), Tom Dark (Cooper T51), James Willis (Cooper T45), Chris Drake (Cooper T71/73), Sid Hoole (Cooper T66 F1), Peter Horsman (Lotus 18/21) Drivers of the Day: Klaus Lehr (Front Engine), Chris Drake (Rear Engine)

2018 Awards Ceremony

Pre 1950 Group (Classes 1, 2, 3, & 4) Stephan Rettenmaier, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Osca

Class 5 - 1952/53 2 litre Grand Prix cars Ian Nuthall, Alta F2 Paul Grant, Cooper-Bristol Guy Plante, Cooper-Bristol

Class 6 - 1954-58 Grand Prix cars on 16” wheels

Class 9 - Pre 1961 Grand Prix/Formula 2 cars of not more than 2 litres James Willis, Cooper T45 Charles Gillett, Cooper T43 Brian Jolliffe, Cooper T45

Class 10 - Pre 1966 1.5 litre 4 cylinder Formula 1 cars

Klaus Lehr, Maserati 250F Marc Valvekens, Gordini 16 Guillermo Fierro, Maserati 250F

Chris Drake, Cooper T71/73 Nick Taylor, Lotus 18 Eddy Perk, Heron F1

Class 7a - Pre 1961 front engine Grand Prix cars on 15” wheels

Class 11 - Pre 1966 1.5 litre multicylinder Formula 1 cars

Tony Best, Ferrari Dino Joaquin Folch-Rusinol, Lotus 16 Miles Griffiths/Philip Walker, Lotus 16

Rear Engine Cars Class 7b - Pre 1961 Grand Prix cars on 15” wheels

Sid Hoole, Cooper T66 F1 Harindra de Silva, Scirocco BRM Andy Middlehurst /John Bowers, Lotus 25 R4

Class 12 - Pre 1966 Tasman and Intercontinental 4 cylinder cars of not more than 2.7 litres

Rudi Friedrichs, Cooper T53 Tom Dark, Cooper T51 Rod Jolley, Cooper T45/51

Peter Horsman, Lotus 18/21 Barry Cannell, Brabham BT11A John Evans, Brabham BT4

Class 7c - Pre 1961 Formula 2 cars of not more than 1.5 litres

Alan Putt Trophy

John Bussey, Cooper T43 Robi Bernberg, Cooper T43

Class 8 - Formula Libre, Indianapolis & Intercontinental cars Julian Bronson, Scarab Offenhauser Rod Jolley, Lister Jaguar Monzanapolis & Geraint Owen, Kurtis 500C Eddie McGuire, Scarab Offenhauser

Sidney Hoole

Maserati Trophy Stephen & Josef Rettenmaier

Jack Brabham Trophy Ian Nuthall

Chairman’s Cup Martin Eyre AWARDS CEREMONY / 25

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Lara and Adam detailing a 1973 Lancia Stratos Number 3 prototype at Silverstone classic

Supagard’s involvement with and love of motor sport began many years ago when they sponsored drivers in British, European and World Touring Cars, so when John Clark OBE invited them to become a sponsor of the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association in 2016 they were delighted to accept. They have since supplied both products and advice to keep these amazing pieces of motor sport history in prime condition, so their drivers and fans can keep on enjoying them for many years to come.

David Paterson, Supagard Marketing Director commented, ‘Our sponsorship of the HGPCA is an excellent fit for Supagard as our unrivalled expertise in paint and interior protection technology has proven to be beneficial to both Members and the Association in preserving the legacy of these amazing cars. Our team are always thrilled to attend the events and it was a pleasure to see so many familiar faces at Silverstone last April after months of race free weekends.

26 /

Ian Nuthall at Copenhagen

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Their sponsorship of the HGPCA helps Supagard carry out real time research and development by monitoring how the competing cars at every event are affected by the prevailing conditions, which is extremely useful information. Their team’s in-depth knowledge combined with the wide range of Supagard exterior, interior and aftercare products allows them to select the most suitable and appropriate options to treat each vehicle. Whether that’s related to the type of paint finish, application time, application ease, or the level of gloss, this choice of products enables the Supagard team to take a consultative approach and identify the best options to suit every car.

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Historic Racing & Sports Car Specialists

// At the Track // On the Road // In the Showroom // In the Workshop

4, Palm Street, New Basford, Nottingham NG7 7HS Tel: +44 (0) 1159 780663 info@inracing.co.uk www.inracing.co.uk

/ 27

In the Beginning...

Words by Marcus Pye

REPCO- BRABHAM CLIMAX BT3/4: Picture the scene: Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton’s engine blowsup terminally in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, highlight of his home calendar.

A former team-mate, now leading rival, ambles across the paddock to commiserate. Then magnanimously says “take my spare and race me tomorrow.”

It wouldn’t happen today, for many reasons of course, but in a dangerous era of motor racing, when respect and friendship transcended everything, sportsmanship and honour were values the very top competitors espoused.

28 /

Jack Brabham, double F1 World Champion turned fledgling race car constructor, found himself in such a situation in November 1962 at the Australian GP, one of the non-championship events which attracted star drivers to the Antipodes for its summer, Europe’s winter, when the global title race was over for another year. Having debuted a car bearing his own name, the svelte Brabham BT3, at August’s German GP ‘Black Jack’ returned to his homeland as usual, to keep his eye in and hopefully sell some cars, not least production (BT6) Formula Juniors, ultimately hailed the finest of their genre.

Brabham sent down a new tubeframe F1-based chassis – conceived with and penned by his

Aussie friend and business partner Ron Tauranac. It was essentially identical to the cockpit’s rear firewall, albeit with its engine bay reconfigured to take a big CoventryClimax FPF four-cylinder power unit instead of the manufacturer’s shrill 1.5-litre FWMV V8 developed for the current Formula 1, which had supplanted the old 2.5-litre regulations in ’61. This is the story of that car.

The Australian GP, or AGP in local parlance, flitted around the vast island continent to give racing enthusiasts in different states the opportunity to see home-grown heroes take on household name superstars, often the world’s best. Brabham had first won the showpiece at Port Wakefield, South

James Allington’s superb cutaway of Ron Tauranac’s first F1 chassis design the prototype Brabham BT3, of which the second chassis No. F1-2-62 is the subject of this article. This car also assumed a dual identity as a BT4 running in the International Formula under the chassis number BT4 IC 1-2-62.

Australia – the country’s second purpose-built circuit – in 1955, driving his unique Cooper-Bristol T40 ‘Bobtail.’ The streamliner, which he’d masterminded at Charlie Cooper’s Surbiton works and in which he made his F1 bow in the British GP at Aintree that summer, was the first rear-engined car to claim the crown.

More importantly, it pointed the way for the Cooper Car Company’s inexorable rise to motor racing’s pinnacle.

In subsequent seasons the AGP fell to Maserati 250F-mounted Stirling Moss, future key with entrant Rob Walker to Cooper’s period of preeminence – in Melbourne, Victoria’s Albert Park in ’56, Lex Davison and relief driver Bill Patterson (Ferrari 625) at Caversham, Western Australia in ’57, Davison (Ferrari) at Bathurst, New South Wales in ’58, Stan – father of 1980 F1 champ Alan – Jones (250F) at Longford, Tasmania in ’59, Alec Mildren (Cooper-Maserati) at Lowood, Queensland in ’60 and

Debut race for the Brabham BT4 was the 1964 Australian Grand Prix, at Caversham, WA. Jack Brabham was forced to retire after colliding with another competitor while lapping him.

Photo: Milton McCutcheon.

Davison (Cooper-Climax) at SA’s new Mallala circuit in ’61.

It was the West’s turn to stage the prestigious event in ’62. Even for the majority of home teams this meant a grueling 2,000-mile shingle road trek across the dusty Nullabor Plains to the old Middle Swan Airfield, eight miles from Perth’s city centre in its north-eastern suburbs. The venue’s geographical location explained the low turnout of 11 entrants, three of them local. A United States Fleet Air Arm base during WW2, Caversham was opened for racing in 1946, its three runways forming a basic triangular course. The subsequent 2.18-mile, 10 turn circuit proved

popular with spectators at bigger events. Resurfaced for the AGP, loose residual gravel on the corners would cause problems and spins aplenty in practice.

Brabham and New Zealander Bruce McLaren, his brilliant young team-mate at Cooper from 1958 – through the marque and engine maker Coventry-Climax’s World Championship glory years of ’59 and ’60 – into ’61, when the rules of engagement changed, headed the entry. Jack was seeking his second AGP victory, Bruce, suitably encouraged to formulate his own independent team plans for the future, his first. / 29

HAWKER RACING LIMITED Precision Engineering for Historic Cars • • • • • •

Full Historic Race Car Preparation & Restoration Full Engine & Gearbox Rebuilds In House Chassis Restoration/Manufacture Body work, Fuel Tank/Oil Tank Fabrication In House CNC Machining Capability Dyno & Rolling Road Capability

Cars for sale Brabham BT3/4 F1 – 2 – 63 Sister to Ron Tauranac’s first 1500 cc F1 chassis.

Built with 2.5 Climax FPF engine for Tasman Series.

Raced by Jack Brabham and Graham Hill.

Original engine and Collotti gearbox.

Restoration nearing completion.

Potential HGPCA Pre’66 race winner.

Cooper T51 F11 – 9 – 60 Total original Cooper raced from new by John Youl. Championship winning car 2.2 Litre Climax engine, ERSA box.

Body in period Scuderia Veloce Livery.

Extensive documentation.

Can be supplied with 2.5 FPF Climax.

Cooper T53 F11– 2 – 60 Lowline Cooper from the late Joel Finn’s collection. in USA. Works colours, 2.5-litre Climax FPF engine, Cooper/Knight 5 speed gearbox. Unused for decades.

Full restoration underway.

Cooper T39 Bobtail CS/3/56 Cooper central-seat sportscar.

Run by works team for Australian Alan McKay at Imola in 1956. Prepared by Jack Brabham Stunning condition with 1460cc FWB engine, Welcome in Woodcote Trophy and GTSCC.

30 /

HISTORIC SPORTS & RACING CAR SPECIALISTS Maserati, Cooper, Jaguar, Cooper Bristol, Lancia, Alfa, Ferrari, MG Moat Farm, Church Road, Milden, Suffolk IP7 7AF Tel: 01449 740544 Fax: 01449 741584 Email: office@hawker-racing.co.uk www.hawker-racing.co.uk

HAWKER RACING LIMITED Precision Engineering for Historic Cars Cars for sale C Type Jaguar This C Type Jaguar is built to exacting standards from the original factory drawings and is indistinguishable from the original factory design.

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Price: POA

Cooper Bristol This Cooper Bristol is a faithful recreation of the famous Tony Crook, two seat Cooper Bristol has many original Bristol parts. It has a full race Bristol engine and gearbox and is built to exacting standards and in immaculate condition. Fitted with a removable roll bar.

This car has competed in the Woodcote Trophy as a front running car, and comes complete with HTP papers . The car can be configured as a 2 seat sports racing car or as a Grand Prix car, once the wings and lights have been removed.

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HISTORIC SPORTS & RACING CAR SPECIALISTS Maserati, Cooper, Jaguar, Cooper Bristol, Lancia, Alfa, Ferrari, MG Moat Farm, Church Road, Milden, Suffolk IP7 7AF Tel: 01449 740544 Fax: 01449 741584 Email: office@hawker-racing.co.uk www.hawker-racing.co.uk

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Brabham’s Double World Champions Jack Brabham (left) BT7 and Graham Hill (centre) BT4 atLongford for the 1964 Tasman Series finale.

Photo: Reg Dalwood Collection.

The field for what was essentially a glorified Formule Libre race saw the two internationally established stars take on a quartet of talented and resourceful Aussies equipped with competitive Coopers. Shoe magnate Lex Davison saddled his Ecurie Australie 2.7-litre T53, motor dealer Bib Stilwell and Tasmanian grazier John Youl (entered by David McKay’s Scuderia Veloce) 2.5 T55s and veteran Patterson an older 2.5 T51. The rest of the pack was a rag, tag and bobtail mix, typical of the period, ranging from Arnold Glass’ Buick V8-powered BRM P48 through Syd Negus’ 10-year-old Cooper T20 with a 2.3-litre Holden-Repco ‘six’ in place of its Bristol motor, to Jeff Dunkerton’s 1500cc Lotus 7 and a couple of ‘specials’!

Racing under the Ecurie Vitesse banner, Brabham was favourite to win the race on the debut of his F1-derived BT3/4 hybrid Libre/ Intercontinental car, built up by Roy Billington. For reasons described

later, the car was described variously as F1-2-62 and IC-1-63, with its stretched 2.7-litre engine originally evolved by Coventry-Climax for Cooper’s 1961 Indianapolis 500

Back in Australia, McLaren’s similarly-powered Cooper T62 was sent from the UK by sea on the Stratheden. Following a threeday delay en route and customs

Traditional cornering style of Graham Hill’s Brabham BT4 at Longford for the 1964 Tasman Series.

Photo: Reg Dalwood Collection.

assault. The only non-American in the field there, Jack’s rear-engined chassis was a low-slung curiosity among the traditional ‘roadsters’ in Indiana, but the pioneers qualified seventh and finished ninth.

clearance issues, it finally arrived at Caversham, where he set the fastest lap in practice. Brabham, his great mentor, was soon in trouble though.

As Bruce wrote in his Autosport column “after smoking around

/ 33

for several laps in practice he pulled in to find oil spraying out of the bellhousing. He cleaned the engine up and pressed on for a few more laps, but eventually gave up and took the car back to town to trace the cause of the external oil bath.

He found it all right. A gudgeon pin has come loose and scored the bore so badly that the sump was being pressurised and was consequently pushing oil out of every available gap.

“As Jack’s car had arrived in knocked-down (disassembled) condition in the cargo hatch of a Boeing 707 only a few days before the race, and his spares were strictly limited, it looked as though he would miss the race, but I lent him my spare 2.5 to get him mobile. During the race, when I couldn’t seem to get that light green (turquoise) nose out of my mirrors, I was beginning to wonder at the wisdom of my generosity.”

34 /

David McKay with the Brabham BT4 at 1963 Sandown Park, Melbourne.

Photo: Copyright Autopics.com.au

Respite from the pressure came in the closing stages, on lap 51 of 60, but not before McLaren had a scare. “I overcooked things and spun with just 10 laps to go, and as I went gyrating into the scrub I was conjuring up thoughts of having to say ‘well, if I hadn’t spun…’ but fortunately I finished on the track pointing the right way and grabbed

a low gear to take off before Jack came on the scene.

“Jack disappeared from the lap chart in a rather violent manner,” related Bruce. “He must have got a little over-anxious when he saw how much the gap had narrowed, but unfortunately – fortunately for me – he tangled with a slower car (Arnold

Glass’s 3.9-litre BRM-Buick hybrid, while lapping it again) and smashed in the nose of the Brabham against a line of markers.” McLaren thus won the race by just over 40 seconds from Youl, 4.7s clear of Stilwell. Three laps adrift, Patterson was fourth of the nine classified finishers, the last four of whom were split by a lap and hadn’t matched sole retiree Brabham’s tally.

But fastest race lap of 1m20.0s, 0.4s outside McLaren’s practice best, underlined the potential of the Repco-Brabham as it was badged.

As Jack was returning to the UK to oversee his fledgling marque’s growth and race on in F1 alongside lofty American Dan Gurney – who would triumph in the French and Mexican GPs in the BT7 long raced in HGPCA events by his compatriot James King – he sold the ‘BT4’ to well-heeled Sydney motoring writer/racer David McKay, whose Scuderia Veloce was making a name for itself on the circuits.

The deal, which would see the Australian body take it over once Jack had contested New Zealand’s four international races, packed into successive weekends in January, suited both parties. With a seven-

week break, the damage inflicted at Caversham was expediently repaired and the car shipped to Auckland where it joined others from Australia and the UK to contest the 10th New Zealand GP in early January. Previously run on Ardmore aerodrome, built near Manurewa by the US Army Air Force during WW2, the event had been moved further south to the purpose-built and newly-extended 2.1-mile Pukekohe

Photo call for Scuderia Veloce patron David McKay at Lakeside in 1963. Photo: Laurie Johnson

Park Raceway, 35 miles from the country’s largest city.

Having won three of the previous four NZGPs driving Coopers, Brabham was hopeful of a fourth title in the car bearing his name. It wasn’t to be. Those travelling from the South African GP at East London – including McLaren and BRM’s jubilant F1 World Champion Graham Hill, set to saddle the four-wheeldrive Ferguson-Climax (now with Stuart Rolt) – the marathon trip was a nightmare. Their trip via Karachi (where, with the onward connecting aircraft delayed by fog in London, Pakistani authorities discovered that several had not been innoculated against yellow fever thus quarantined them under armed guard), Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territories and (following an hydraulic problem with the plane) Sydney, arriving exhausted in NZ after four days was a blessed relief.

With poleman McLaren and John Surtees (2.7 Bowmaker Lola Mk4) disputing the lead, third qualifier Brabham retired after nine laps when his 2.7-litre engine’s head gasket popped. A cooked magneto ended Bruce’s race leaving Surtees to win from locals in Coopers Angus Hislop (T53) and Jim Palmer, celebrating his 21st birthday in a Reg Parnell-loaned T55. The by then Chevrolet, rather than Maserati, engined TecMec of Rod Coppins failed to qualify.

What a difference a week can make. Brabham turned things round in style as the circus moved on to Levin, 30 miles north west of Palmerston North, close to the Bulls home of 19-year-old rising star and future Le Mans winner Chris Amon who was racing a Cooper T53.

Nobody could touch Jack in the BT4 who landed a trio of victories from pole during the day. In the 28lap Vic Hudson Memorial / 35

feature race he powered away from South African Tony Maggs (2.5 Lola Mk4), who finished clear of Innes Ireland, now in the ‘blue Fergie’ in which, with all four Dunlops biting, he had led the preliminary race at the start.

Previous lap record holder Tony Shelly – whose 53s mark was shattered by Brabham, who left it at 51.8s – had been lying third in his Parnell-built Lotus 18/21 (long raced

by HGPCA chairman Peter Horsman) before its suspension collapsed on the penultimate tour. Nevertheless, he was classified fourth – first Kiwi – since McLaren, Amon, Hyslop and Palmer all retired. Having run a bearing at Pukekohe, necessitating a rapid mid-week engine rebuild, Shelly deserved the break and accolade. Surtees’ Lola succumbed to transmission failure after a lap.

After packing up and heading for the ferries from Wellington through the fjords to Picton, the circus regrouped on New Zealand’s south island for the Lady Wigram Trophy race on the scary-fast 2.11-mile airfield circuit outside Christchurch. Brabham again started the BT4 from pole, with the sleek blue Lolas of Surtees and Maggs to his right, split by McLaren’s BRG Cooper T62 on the all 2750cc Climax-motivated front row.

McLaren, Surtees and Brabham set off at a terrific pace, but Big John’s steed wilted and he peeled into the pits after 30 laps. Jack drafted past Bruce shortly afterwards and opened a gap, only to pit for oil, a stop which cost him a lap. Having passed Hyslop and Maggs, Brabham coolly unlapped himself reducing the lap record to 1m18.3s in his charge. Even with his old pal and rival gaining three seconds per lap, McLaren could afford to cruise to his first international victory in his homeland, which the partisan 36 /

crowd greeted joyously after 71 laps.

Brabham took the chequer half a minute later, a lap clear of Maggs and Hyslop.

The final stop on the tour was the 1.63-mile Teretonga Park, outside Invercargill, then the world’s most southerly circuit – with Antarctica the next landfall beyond the Hairpin!

Following two six-lap sprint heats, won by McLaren and Brabham respectively, the latter pipping Surtees, the pattern of the final was similar to that of Wigram’s, with

Bruce and Jack dropping the rest after John retired. Seemingly secure in second, Brabham was again out of luck for his right rear tyre started to deflate, forcing him to cede places to Maggs’ Lola – 10 seconds behind the conservative McLaren at the chequered flag – and Innes Ireland in the Ferguson. Jack salvaged fourth with chunks of tread ripped out of the tyre revealing its cords, but another lap record of 1m03.6s on his fifth and last event in the BT4.

Seeing Red The peripatetic Australian Grand Prix of 1963 took place a fortnight after Teretonga on February 10 at Sydney’s Warwick Farm circuit – yes, less than five months after the previous season’s at distant Caversham! Competing teams thus had plenty of logistical work getting their cars back from New Zealand to New South Wales even before they serviced them.

David McKay had taken delivery of the Repco-Brabham, and repainted its bodywork bright red, stylishly set off with a black noseband. With Scuderia Veloce transfers on its

Total concentration from Graham Hill on the grid at Longford.

Photo: Grant Twining.

Second scorer behind third-placed Bib Stilwell’s sister BT4 at Lakeside a week later – race winner Surtees, Hill and Amon were ineligible for points – and to John Youl (Cooper T55) back at Warwick Farm, helped the dapper, moustachioed, McKay to finish a career-best third in the CAMS-sanctioned Australian Drivers’ Championship. Beside that accolade he won a race at Bathurst, resetting the outright lap record on the fearsome Mount Panorama circuit, and the New South Wales Road Racing Championship event.

Basking in the Warwick Farm sun Graham Hill hustles the Brabham BT4, a far cry from the European winter.

Photo: Richard Austin.

flanks it looked very different. At 41, this urbane and able competitor had the pockets to equip himself with the finest machinery. His CV already included victories in the ’58 Australian TT at Bathurst (Aston Martin DB3S) and the country’s inaugural single-event Touring Car Championship of ’60 in a Jaguar Mk1.

No stranger to powerful singleseaters having raced 2.5 CooperClimax T51 and T53 chassis in SV colours, McKay – who had been the influential motoring editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph – immediately found the relatively sophisticated and well-balanced Brabham to his taste. That was abundantly clear when he qualified third, a tenth behind McLaren (Cooper T62) and 0.7s shy of polesitter Surtees (Lola Mk4). Maggs (Lola) and Amon (Cooper) shared row two, with World Champion Hill (Ferguson) beside the capable Aussies, the promising young Frank Matich (Elfin) and veteran Lex Davison (Cooper).

McKay ran a brilliant third in the race initially and eventually finished fourth, first Australian resident, on the same lap as winner Brabham

in a brand new BT4, IC-2-62. A meritorious achievement. Surtees, who had spun away his early lead, and McLaren chased Jack in. Seventime World Motorcycle Champion Surtees, who had started his first car race at Goodwood in May 1960 from pole in a Ken Tyrrell-run Formula Junior Cooper, would become F1 World Champion with Ferrari within three and a half years.

McKay had reached his peak as a single-seater driver, thus hung up his helmet at the end of ’63, but continued to run the Brabham alongside Ferrari 250LM (and later P4) sports prototypes. Hiring ’62 F1 champ Graham Hill to drive the BT4 in a couple of home rounds of the new for ’64 Tasman Series was a coup for Scuderia Veloce.

Eschewing the long-run Formule Libre (literally free formula or ‘runwhat-ya-brung’ as Americans loved to call it) class, regulations for the Tasman competition – four rounds

Impressive rig for dirt-track Australian roads and long-haul races for Scuderia Veloce.

Photo: Suderia Veloce Collection.

/ 37

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in New Zealand that year, then four in Australia – were formalised. Out were the top cars’ cool-burning methanol-fuelled 2.7-litre engines in favour of 2.5-litre power units running on Avgas (aviation fuel).

Coventry-Climax FPFs, their strokes shortened, proved more than adequate, even when Repco (which had been making parts in Australia to keep the Climaxes alive) and reduced-capacity Cosworth ‘DFW’ V8 engines came on stream.

Hill and the immaculate scarlet BT4, now two years old and evolved by his own engineers, joined the fray for round six at Warwick Farm, finishing fourth behind Brabham, McLaren and the latter’s promising American team-mate Timmy Mayer.

Having sat out Lakeside, apparently because the Brisbane organising club could not raise sufficient start money, McKay’s resourceful equipe kept its powder dry. Instead it set off across the Bass Strait to Tasmania, regrouping 900 miles from home for the finale at Longford, near Launceston, the island’s second town.

At 4.5 miles long the spectacular closed road circuit – which first hosted an International status race in 1960 – was not for the faint of heart. Threading beneath a railway viaduct shortly after the start, then over the line on a level crossing and twice traversing the South Esk River on wooden bridges made it unique!

Preceded by a momentum-building left kink, after Newry Corner, he longer straight, known as the Flying Mile, brought a super-fast approach to the tight right-handed Mountford Corner at the end of the lap.

Practice was overshadowed by the death of Mayer, whose Cooper touched down after an undulation, left the circuit and was bisected by a stout tree. Despite the track’s nature Timmy’s accident was its first fatality.

Alas, Lex Davison’s protégé Rocky Tresise would die there the following season, tragically a week after his patron at Melbourne’s Sandown Park. These were dangerous times.

Following Mayer’s accident, team leader Bruce McLaren did not contest Saturday’s 45-mile

preliminary races, won by Stilwell (BT4) and Jack Brabham (BT7A) respectively. Tasman Series tabletopper Bruce – following three wins in his native New Zealand, subsequently matched by rival Brabham in Australia – was permitted to start the 25-lap, 112mile points race, run on the Monday, from the back of the grid however.

Second to Stilwell in heat one, Hill’s fastest lap – two tenths quicker than Brabham’s best in qualifying – earned him pole position for the grandly named South Pacific Trophy final. Jack sat alongside, having nudged 170mph as he honed his car, which had conked-out in the first race. Rising Aussie star Frank Matich (BT7A) joined them on the front row.

Brabham scrabbled past Hill at the start, with Stilwell and Matich in pursuit as McLaren cut through the Australian National F2 (1500cc) runners before setting his sights on hounding down the leaders. Bruce was past the misfiring Matich into third by lap nine, leaving him to scrap with Stilwell and local hero Youl.

Graham chased Brabham for all he was worth, sweeping past when the crown wheel and pinion in Jack’s transmission stripped, stranding him without drive at Newry Corner on lap 22. After an hour’s graft in front of a big audience, Hill duly clicked off the last three laps, beating inaugural Tasman champion McLaren to the chequer by 10 seconds. Matich, Stilwell, Youl and Davison also covered the full race distance.

On the cooling-off lap Hill stopped to pick up Brabham who rode back to the pits perched precariously on the back of the BT4 to a tumultuous reception. Tasmanian premier Eric Reece, an influential supporter of racing and its benefits to the local economy, presented Graham

/ 39

40 /

with the garland of victory and McLaren with the magnificent gold Tasman Cup. So, the BT4 had now won International races in the hands of two F1 World Champions, but McKay did not retire it from active service.

His mechanic Spencer Martin was entered in it for the remainder of the season, and proved as capable at the wheel as he was on spanners, winning national races at Lowood, Sydney’s Oran Park and Warwick Farm, among other placings.

At the end of the year New Zealander Len Southward – a petrolhead industrialist who had dominated powerboat racing in the 1950s – bought the Brabham. His Lesco Racing Team fielded it for Kerry Grant who finished fifth in the Tasman counter at Levin, where he’d shadowed Jim Clark’s Lotus 32B in the NZGP before spinning at Cabbage Tree Bend, and fourth the following weekend at Teretonga, behind F1 champions Jim Clark and Phil Hill, split by McLaren.

Retirements were posted in all three Australian rounds.

Australian-built Formula Junior Nota chassis (a Lotus 22 copy built in Sydney by expat British aero engineer Guy Buckingham), which he’d supercharged. “I’d been influenced

by Brian Bowe Mighty Dodge Fargo paired with famous Rice trailer was the choice of the (future champion McCormack equipe. Photo: BP Trucks. driver John’s dad) and was pointed towards Len “The original 2.7-litre Climax engine Southward – a fine man, owner had been reduced in capacity to of successful tube mills in New 2.5 (in line with the later Tasman Zealand and a wonderful motor regulations) and went well. I raced museum – who said ‘get yourself it for the first time at Symmons over here.’ He provided a guy to Plains (the Youl family’s permanent show me round and there, in a circuit, situated close to Longford) corner, was the Brabham, still with a in November ’66, four years after left hand corner damaged. It fitted Jack debuted it.” Third place in the bill so I bought it and shipped it the Examiner 1000, penultimate back to Devonport in Tasmania (on round of the Australian Gold Star the Waikere). I had a workshop doing Championship, was an auspicious mechanical repairs and a BP service start. A second at Baskerville and a station so gave it a bit of love, fixed it win at Symmons Plains followed in up and repainted it yellow. early ’67.

In other events Grant was lucky to walk away from a startine shunt at Renwick, then a roll following having been punted into Rex Flowers’ Lola Mk4 on the startline back at Levin, scene of the car’s first big win in ’63. Cooper T45 graduate Neil Whittaker raced the Lesco Brabham occasionally, finishing 10th in the ’66 NZGP at Pukekohe. A crash at Longford, venue of its Tasman glory day, wasn’t the end of the old warhorse’s contemporary action though. Far from it.

Mellow yellow Tasmanian John McCormack was looking for a car to graduate to, having previously raced an

Triple Tasmanian Road Racing Champion John McCormack and the BT4 at the curiously named Penguin Hillclimb.

Photo: Grant Twining.

/ 41

of watching Chris Amon opposite-locking, left and right, through the viaduct just after the start in his little F2-based Ferrari. I survived to finish ninth.

Importation document on return to Australia.

“John Price of BP then offered to help me with £250 start money if we’d enter some national championship rounds on the mainland. A young apprentice mechanic, David Yeomans, came on board to look after the car. We set up a Dodge Fargo van with living accommodation and towed the Brabham in a Rice enclosed trailer, one of the first of its kind I guess. After the sea crossing (to Melbourne), David would drive the van to events, sometimes for two days with an overnight stop, and I’d fly up to race. It was very pioneering stuff. We did Lakeside, Surfers Paradise and Sandown (over three months), then finished the year with a second back home at Symmons Plains.

“In March ’68 we did the very wet Longford, the last race there. It was also one of (’63 and ’65 F1 World Champion and newly-crowned Tasman Cup champion) Jim Clark’s last. He was in a Lotus 49. I wouldn’t say that I raced Jim, but I passed him – in the toilet – and had the joy

42 /

“All formula cars are control chassis now but in those days as a privateer you did the best you could with what you had, trying to improve the car as you went along. There were virtually no limits other than what you could afford. I had three very good years with the Brabham (winning three successive Tasmanian Road Racing Championships), but by 1969 it was dated technology. So I bought one of Garrie Cooper’s Elfin 600 chassis and put the 2.5 Climax in it, debuting at Mallala, locally to where his factory was near Adelaide.

“I ended up racing in F5000 with Elfins, winning two Australian Drivers’ Championships. But as the cars went quicker the loads went up and we had a few serious component failures, so I switched to a McLaren M23 with a Leyland Repco engine and won a third title. Looking back, the old Brabham set me on course for a successful career as a driver, but I stopped in 1980 after I’d almost been finished-off, as a sleeping passenger, in a road accident. I’ve no regrets beyond that, and eventually (in ’79, more than a decade after he first advertised it) sold the BT4 to enthusiast and historian John Blanden. He rebuilt it (with Ken Messenger, its next owner, who ran it in half a dozen Australian events from June ’82- March ’86). I knew the car went to the States later, but I’m glad it is being restored to race again.”

RETURN TO GLORY The Brabham’s custodian for more than 30 years was Californian Art Valdez who fell in love when he saw it demonstrated at the ’85 Australian GP (an F1 World Championship round) and promptly added it to his collection. Used eight times in the USA from ’86-’89, according to its log-book, the BT4 returned to its birthplace after almost 55 years when it was acquired by the Rare Metals consortium for restoration in 2017.

That work was entrusted to vastly experienced aero engineer and aviator Tony Ditheridge’s Hawker Racing concern in rural Suffolk, and followed the superb rebuild of the unique ex-Jack Brabham 1968 Brabham-Repco BT23E in which John McCormack’s compatriot John Harvey won Australian Gold Star races in ’69 and ’70. Now proudly owned by long-time racer Aaron Lewis it is wowing enthusiasts in Oz. The complementary engineering skills and pragmatism of Jack Brabham and design genius of fellow Australian Ron Tauranac made the beautiful cars they created at Byfleet an irresistible force at all levels for more than a decade. From a single Formula Junior in ’61 to F1 little over a year later, then World Champions in ’66 (Brabham) and ’67 (Denny Hulme) with Repco V8 power, it was a magical era. For many, the BT cars’ functionality and purity of form remains unparalleled.

Their lean workforce, including numerous instinctively-talented Aussies, turned out winning chassis galore. They sold like hot cakes, indeed by the time the multi-

purpose BT21 and F3 BT28 were duffing-up the opposition in the later 1960s, parent company Motor Racing Developments was the largest volume producer of single-seater racing cars – and Brabham himself had won a third F1 World Championship driving a car bearing his own name. That ’66 feat remains unique.

“When the BT4 turned-up with us it was a bare chassis, dry-stored like many other cars in the collection, with everything else in crates,” said Ditheridge. “As we always do with such a big project the team stripped the frame back to bare metal and checked it for integrity and alignment, crack-testing and replacing much of the suspension.

The uprights were refurbished – one needed some remedial work – as were the original Armstrong dampers, with their knurled single adjusters.

“The Climax engine, still with its original number FPF 430/17/1261, was rebuilt by Hawker’s team of craftsmen to standard 2.5-litre configuration (3.7in bore and 3.54in stroke), breathing through twin Weber 58 DCO3 carburettors, and dyno run in house. The five-speed Gear Speed Developments (Colotti T32) gearbox, which we think is original, was checked and carefully reassembled from a box of bits.

We also rebuilt the steering rack, crack-tested the steering arms and wheels (before repainting them), and overhauled the brakes with new pistons and seals.”

Remarkably, on close inspection, both right-hand side calipers still bear their original Girling factory date stamps, manufactured two days apart in September 1963! Their opposite numbers were replaced with components dated February ’64 and September ’65 respectively, the latter certainly consistent with accident damage prior to McCormack’s ownership, as evidenced by the professionally-spliced tube repair on the rear corner.

“The complicated alloy fuel tanks have been foam-filled, the radiator rebuilt and exhaust repaired. The whole car has been replumbed and rewired, with new joints as necessary.” Before refinishing the body in Brabham’s original turquoise and gold livery (Australian green and gold came later towards the twilight of Jack’s glorious F1 career, with Repco V8 engines from his homeland) - it was more decided to invest in new fibreglass panels. The original hand-beaten aluminium tail is

How many cars of this colourful, charismatic and courageous era, have been raced to victory in International events by not one but two F1 World Champions? Though long gone, Jack Brabham and Graham Hill are giants immortalised in motor racing history.

The person privileged to take on this magnificent car, impeccably provenanced by continuous history, will be welcome at circuits worldwide, perfectly equipped to win HGPCA races or star in demonstrations.

with the car, but the nose had long been a GRP panel.

Three of the four Brabham BT4s are back in the UK, the exception being IC-2-62, Jack Brabham’s ’63 works car, later raced by Kiwi Denny Hulme and subsequently by Aussie Lex Davison, is with Terry Rush in New Zealand. IC-3-62, supplied to Bib Stilwell in Australia has recently been bought from the Minshaw family’s 15-year ownership by John Emery, who has had it totally restored by Hawker Racing for 2019.

Sister car F1-4-63, originally Swiss privateer Carlo Vogele’s, is owned and raced by John Evans.

But their illustrious sister, identified as F1-2-62 per original Brabham plate indicating the spare F1 (BT3) frame and IC-1-62 as the first InterContinental Formula – essentially Europe’s pre-Tasman class run in protest at F1’s ‘downgrading’ to 1500cc – the car which started the successful line seeks a new owner. / 43

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Plus ça change, plus la même chose The swell of interest in historic racing has led to the creation of wonderful, world-class events, but is everything really as it seems, questions Doug Nye This will set the spirits of The Bod and Jenks absolutely bouncing off their ethereal rev limiters, but just for once I do feel moved to quote Shakespeare. Where presentday top-level historic racing is concerned, as Marcellus says in Hamlet, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Very sadly, the days when historic races were populated mainly by genuine old-car enthusiasts seeking merely to conserve and preserve the great cars through keeping them running, and competing in the public eye, are now long gone.

The accent within historic racing - as founded by the VSCC, then extended by the HSCC and HGPCA and ultimately elevated to truly world-class international level by the Goodwood Revival and Monterey meetings, plus the Silverstone Classic and the retrospective Monaco and Le Mans events - has very much changed. And it is just one of the largely unforeseen consequences of this genre’s rampaging success.

It used to be based upon active conservation of at best truly great cars, augmented by a broader base of perhaps not-so-great but still

genuinely historic machinery. Even the most fiercely competitive owner-drivers through the 1970s, and even far into the 1990s, still generally cared enough about what made their prized cars great in period that they would not - to quote

‘A true enthusiast familiar with their historic car will have in their DNA at least some preservation reflex’ one of them -”bugger about” their piece of automotive treasure in search of such a fleeting prize as a marginally improved lap time.

The best of those fiercely competitive owner/drivers would seek more to generate a performance improvement simply by making themselves a better driver - a sportsman more worthy to sit where a past sporting great once sat, to emulate his (or her) actions and to perform at something at least approaching that past star’s level.

Well in most cases that has changed. It really has. Today the accent, it seems to me, is very much more upon experimentation than upon conversation.

Technical development to achieve higher performance regardless of past technology, and in some cases regardless of what pass as the present rules, has now taken precedence. In this regard historic racing at its leadinggroup levels is today just the same as any other form of modern-day racing.

Its guilty practitioners will retort that ‘this is what proper racing is all about”.

Well, yeah, but historic racing used to comprise a community pretty much united by the notion of being an affordable sporting category involving a huge variety of cars of character - some fast, some slow, some mighty, some truly pathetic - but every one of true historic pedigree; the way racing used to be. And to a very great extent that meant you did not “bugger about” with a design’s contemporary technology. It didn’t take long before the realisation widely dawned that ‘hysterics’ offered a fun way for enthusiastic amateurs to go motor racing and what’s more - if you were lucky and owned the right kind of car - you could probably sell it for a handy profit even after having worn it out through racing it almost every other weekend.

/ 45

‘As the value of important historic cars has inflated, so generally fewer owners are prepared to risk them in racing.’

So that was the good news. But the values of significant historic cars took off in the late 1980s, stalled and dived through the early ‘90s and since then have flown ever higher. This has promoted at least two really significant changes. Firstly, as the value of important historic cars has inflated, so generally fewer owners are prepared to risk them in racing.

And those who do, commonly seem far more interested in accelerating their car’s market value by being able to advertise huge success which too often results from only two things - firstly by ever-improved lap time capability achieved by out-of-period technical modification and, more simply, by employing a hot-shoe professional driver to pedal the thing. Hot-shoe preparation - often by specialist companies new to the historic world, but finding it an easier (and moneyrich) arena in which to shine than, say, the touring car or minor-formula current-racing world from which they have come - regards updating a car spec to enhance its performance as simply “what you do”. This cheerfully uneducated, happy soulless, mob cannot see that such go-for-broke preparation is by itself a process of obliteration. If they do, then they just don’t care. With achieving everfaster lap times as their prime target, this uncomprehending group’s car modifications will simply erase what really makes a historic car historic in the first place.

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And where the engagement of full-time professional drivers by an ambitious owner is concerned - seeking to enhance his investment’s on-track record through ever-more promotable success - there is a big characterchanging downside too. Any careerbuilding pro driver worth his pay will regard gaining a place on track not just as a satisfying bonus, but as fulfilling his commitment to the owner. “That’s what we do” is a justification I have heard too often in recent years. Where an owner/ driver or true enthusiast familiar with their historic car will have in their DNA at least some preservation reflex - for the car I mean - hired-gun drivers just do not, beyond the normal human trigger when one’s pink body itself seems in sudden jeopardy. A pro seeking to justify his pay will, regardless of car damage, go for a closing gap when he really should not, and won’t back off for safety’s sake... until perhaps the other guy’s amateur status makes it all

Maybe that then is another facet of “The Problem”. Today a pro driver really can build a career within historic racing, because there are numerous great-car owners who really do want a pro to drive for them. And there are numerous preparation outfits that will - for a sizeable bill - make your 1965 this, or 1959 that, several seconds per lap quicker than it has ever managed before. That’s how we see Lotus Cortinas that don’t three-wheel around the turns, whose wheel arches might appear to be in funny places, and with driver-adjustable brake bias etc. Minis that don’t trail front-tyre smoke through every corner, Jaguar E-types dragging their bellies along the road, Cobras with hydraulic lifters and tucked-away engine management ECUs - and maybe 1950s saloons with bodywork to which no magnet will ever stick...

I am, however, reminded of a Group C race, maybe 30 years ago, in which a driver in his final stint had just got the car into a podium place when he was radioed from the pits: “Fantastic,” his crew chief told him, “We’re all pumped,

‘Ever-improved lap time capability achieved by out-of-period technical modification’ too late. And scared-off owner/drivers also leave the sport, for good. I am not painting all pro drivers in historic racing with the same brush - there are those who understand, and who do care, but there are certainly many who have absolutely no concept of this perhaps being a different arena to front-line contemporary racing in which one really can build a career.

really pumped, really, really PUMPED!” - which was really his reminder to pump up the dampers from the illegally low ride-height they had been running to help achieve that result. Today that technology would still be a genuinely illegal, yet genuinely also a historic feature.

But for the racing-minded amateur owner/driver - no matter how capable they might be - an assault by a pro in a spectating owner’s car will leave them at least understandably aggrieved.

There are numerous reasons and considerations why that is not always possible. At least in the Goodwood Revival, in which I am involved, there’s been an attempt to provide the stage

‘Go-for-broke preparation is by itself a process of obliteration.’

Against this background, an increasing number of one-time owner/drivers of proper cars will no longer risk them on track. And an increasing number of onetime owner/drivers (and owners only) of really exotic historic cars will not race them for another reason - because they don’t want to see their long-preserved original-spec treasure being demeaned, blown off by a cut-price special, or a made-last-Tuesday replica of a car that in period would not even have approached the same performance envelope.

There was a brutal example of this at the Revival a few years ago, when a ’Brooklands Riley’ caught and beat a well-driven Alfa Romeo Tipo B Monoposto. When the Riley lunged inside the Alfa into the last corner, the Alfa’s owner/driver simply stepped aside and gave the Riley space to pass. His calculation was simple.

“My car’s genuine and worth millions.

His car is a new-built look-alike standing him in barely five figures. Which of us has more at stake? And all just to win a fridge magnet...”

Obviously it’s the race organisers’ responsibility to filter and sterilise their race entries to prevent such incidents.

on which real cars can compete most adequately in some races, leaving the tricked-up, crowd-pleasing hyperperformance specials to strut their stuff in others.

The real car was never there. To some extent, such deception is entirely justifiable - but it’s another difficulty, another moral maze.

Am I concerned unduly? Should one just go with the flow - regard such change as inevitable? It has certainly been associated with the genre’s eversoaring profile, but what do you think?

Let us know...

‘An increasing number of one-time owner/ drivers of proper cars will no longer risk them on track.’

The development/obliteration approach is more prevalent in the lesser classes than in, say, the Formula 1 categories - where cars are rarer, values higher, the technologies more difficult (and thereby costly) to improve.

And, of course, some major-car owners have indeed stayed in racing by running tacitly unspecified replicas of the real exotics that they also own, and which they keep safe back home. But this can cause tremendous confusion when thousands of enthusiasts see the supposedly ex-superstar Antarctic Grand Prix-winning ‘real car’ badly damaged before their very eyes, yet ‘it’ is subsequently described as being remarkably well-preserved and genuine, and never crashed in historic racing. Well of course, it wasn’t crashed.

Doug Nye is the UK’s leading motor racing historian and has been writing authoritatively about the sport since the 1960s.

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OVER HERE Transatlantic cousins add Brickyard relish and horsepower to historic racing.

Photos: Geraint Owen Collection/Harper Archive.

Words by Andrew Roberts One of the enduring fascinations of historic motor sport is its ability to turn back the clock, allowing us both to participate in and witness great cars returning to the circuits of a glorious past, as well as celebrating the exploits of their legendary drivers. HGPCA cars range from 1930s Brooklands racers to the ultimate F1 cars of the 1.5 litre formula with, it must be admitted, a strong European bias that reflected their contemporary Grand Prix scene, albeit one that long remained disparagingly aloof from the thriving US scene and the classic Offenhauser-powered Indy Roadsters. This was despite the Indy 500 being included in in the FIA World Drivers Championship between 1950 and 1960.

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However, such prejudices have eroded over time, as the continuous history of this pioneering speedway, its cars and drivers has been increasingly acknowledged.

The mould-breaking debut of the rear-engine Cooper and the subsequent pivotal Indy 500 victories of Jim Clark’s Lotus and Graham Hill’s Lola, together with the growing

Crowd plaudits for third time lucky Ray Crawford after his successful qualification for the 1959 Indy 500.

He would post a finishing 23rd in, despite crashing on the 115th lap.

Photo: Harper Archive.

influx of European drivers and latterly the exploits of Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, have not only refocused attention on Indianapolis but also added immeasurably to the ongoing saga of the Brickyard. Now the 1950’s Indy cars of the HGPCA era are viewed in a completely different light and are rightly accorded their place in worldwide single-seater racing history.

Two such significant 1950s cars, both with unique transatlantic and contemporary European history, are regularly campaigned by members, namely those of Stuart Harper/Fred Harper and Geraint Owen. Both are Kurtis Kraft 500 models from the dominant Indy chassis-builder of the time, whose tally of cars totaled around 120 examples, of which some 60 were Roadsters, and five winners of the 500. The genesis of the Kurtis Indy cars was the short-oval midget racecar that the company introduced immediately post-war. This broke new ground in the hugely popular racing category for it eschewed the conventional rail chassis in favour of tube frame construction. It was a massive success, with Kurtis building hundreds of examples that won race after race.

Now the scene was set for the Kurtis Kraft Indy car that would inevitably adopt the same aeronauticalspecification tubular frame concept, with the engine and gearbox mostly offset to the left. There were solid axles, remaining square to the chassis – only on the last few production cars were these offset – together with front and rear torsion bars and state of the art brakes on all wheels. Firestone tyres sat on 7.00x16 inch fronts and 7.00x18 inch rears while transmission was generally a two-speed gearbox

with Halibrand quick-change rear axle. Following the success of the midget racecars, the majority of which had adopted 1.7 litre Offenhauser power units, the long association with the legendary engine supplier was continued for the 500 model.

The soon-to-become traditional Offenhauser Indy engine was the 4.2 litre 4-cylinder twin overhead cams design with a power output of 450bhp, a compression ratio of 14:1 with its methanol fuel delivered by Hilborn injectors. Indeed, such was the longevity of the Offenhauser engine that versions of it were used until the 1990s and it remains competitive in historic racing to this day.

How do these two Indy roadsters respond to the current historic scene?

For a start they have been warmly welcomed and their owner/drivers shades of their Indy past here - have been quick to dispel popular myths

about oval racers, notably that their sheer power makes them difficult to drive, with both the Harpers and Geraint Owen confirming the opposite experience.

What all the Kurtis pilots are in unanimous agreement on is that

Befitting his fighter pilot exploits, an ice-cool Ray Crawford waits in the pits before practice for the 1958 Indy 500.

Photo: Harper Archive.

Ray Crawford being congratulated by his team following his qualification for the 1955 Indy 500.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection.

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era that can again be related to their contemporary European counterparts.

The 1962 Indy 500 saw Jim McElreath qualifying 7th fastest and finishing a superb 6th and being named “Rookie of the Year’ for his exploits.

Photo: Harper Archive.

the cars are massively heavy in race trim. The Geraint Owen car weighs 850 kilos without driver and fuel aboard – 1,000 kilos at the start of a long race – in complete contrast to a lighter and fleeter contemporary Cooper. Designed for rolling starts, the Kurtis cars are less than happy with a conventional grid start and are set up for fast corners, a chicane like Goodwood’s being not to their liking.

Rear tyre wear is a constant problem but plus factors are good grip and huge torque, coupled with seasonlong reliability and general ease of driving. All in all it is a combination that enables us to step back and respect a dramatic and frequently deadly age.

The race history of this 500G is far from unimpressive, not least in the person of its first owner, Ray Crawford.

A WW2 USAF pilot who flew the P38 Lightning in North Africa in 1943, he was awarded both the DFC and Air Medal for his exploits. Post war he was introduced to motorsport, which unsurprisingly he took to as a natural. He contested the 1954 Carrera Panamericana, winning the stock car class and the following year single-handedly drove the 12 Hours of Sebring, taking 13th place. By now an established Kurtis customer, his mount was a Lincoln-Kurtis Kraft.

Ray Crawford made his first appearance at Indy in 1954. He started his 500B in both the 1955 500, where he retired with engine problems and the 1956 500, with another DNF, following an accident.

THE AMERICAN INVADERS 1957 KURTIS KRAFT 500G Stuart and Fred Harper Stuart Harper’s never-to-be-forgotten race exploits in his Vintage Aero Morgan 3-wheeler might seem an unusual preparation for acquiring, developing and successfully racing a significant Indy 500 contender, a role that is now wholeheartedly continued by his son Fred. Uniquely, along with Geraint Owen’s 500C example, we now have two classic Indy Roadsters that perfectly encompass the 1950s

Discussion time at the 1958 Indy 500 as Ray Crawford and crew formulate tactics.

Photo: Harper Archive.

For 1957 he purchased the 500G and in typical oval racing parlance, the car was known as the Meguair Mirror Glaze Special – the sponsor company still trading today with its famed automotive polishes – whose distinctive red and white livery it continues to carry. Disappointingly, the owner/driver failed to qualify for the

While Gasoline Alley is always action-packed, Ray Crawford’s Kurtis crew is forced to wait while the previous car vacates the berth at the 1958 Indy 500.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection.

1957 500, despite a qualifying mark of 139.099mph.

Ray Crawford was one of the US drivers who responded to the invitation to race at the 1957 ‘Monza 500 Miles’ and both he and the car acquitted themselves well, posting a 7th place and a superb 4th the following year. Popularly known as ‘The Flying Grocer’ by virtue of his family’s supermarket chain Crawford was one of the first post-war ownerdrivers at Indianapolis and he selffunded his entire racing career.

He would race in European GPs in 1957/58 and once more in the 500 in 1959 in which he was classified as finishing 23rd, despite being severely injured in a crash.

The car was eventually sold in 1959 to Ollie Prather who was the race engineer for Bill Homeir’s entry for the 500 when it ran as the Go Kart Special. A thrown con rod dashed hopes of qualifying but the following year the car was back for the 500 in the hands of Eddie Russo, finishing in 26th place despite crashing on the 84th lap. Proving that old Indy roadsters seemingly go on forever, the Kurtis acquired a new sponsor for 1961, becoming the Schulz Fueling Equipment Special, with Jimmy Daywalt at the wheel, but without

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success. Everything changed for the 1962 500 when soon-to-be Indy great Jim McElreath qualified the Kurtis 7th fastest and finished 6th and being named Rookie of the Year. For the 1962/63 500s Ralph Liguori took the seat but failed to qualify. However, that was not the end of the Brickyard connections, Jimmy Daywalt running 180mph laps during Firestone tyre testing in 1964.

Against a backdrop of packed grandstands, Fred Agabashian and his crew members are set for the 1954 Indy 500.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection.

Canadian Bill Chapin acquired the car from Ollie Prather, eventually selling it to Brian Classic in the UK, the car passing through various hands before historic specialist John Guyott took it on and made it drivable. Finally with Stuart and Fred Harper it was steadily sorted to

Classic 1954 Brickyard setting for innovative manufacturer Frank Kurtis (centre) overseeing the Merz Engineering Special.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection.

great effect and has since appeared regularly with the VSCC and HGPCA at Silverstone, Oulton Park and Goodwood together with a highly successful Australian outing at Phillip Island. There will surely be more such appearances to celebrate...

fortunate. With its Indy and Monza glory days long in the past, its racing heritage was seemingly forgotten. Then one weekend in the early 1990s everything changed. In the car park of a low-key swap meet lurked an unusual car wearing a sports car body. For grunt, a Buick V8 had been shoehorned under the hood. But there was enough to tell its finders that this was the real deal. There may have been no Offenhauser engine present but much of the rest of the original car had survived and the car was revealed to be the Merz Engineering Special that was always an Indy 500 front-runner, competing at the Brickyard on no fewer than five occasions, with exceptional drivers and finishing record.

Initially it raced in the livery of its first sponsor Merz Engineering the company set up in 1927 by the four-time pioneering Indy 500 competitor and former

1954 KURTIS KRAFT 500C Geraint Owen Some cars are the luckiest of survivors and Geraint Owen’s Kurtis 500C can count itself as one of the most

Far from the Brickyard, Geraint Owen shows the Goodwood crowds the sight and sound of a real-time Indy Roadster as he hustles the Kurtis 500C towards the flag.

Photo: Geraint Owen Collection.

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They entered a car at the Speedway from 1950-1955 and in 1954 Freddie Agabashian took the Kurtis-Kraft 500C, resplendent in its maroon and cream paintwork to a fine 6th place. But the finish revealed the pounding the car had taken at the Brickyard and prior to the 1955 500 race chief mechanic Frankie del Roy incorporated changes, namely additional frame gussets, relocated shock mounts, vents in the car’s tail and an experimental spark plug cooling system. The much-modified car, now in unfamiliar Cadillac Eldorado Metallic Bronze paint, responded well with Walt Faulkner at the wheel posting the 7th fastest qualifying time at 139mph and a fine 5th finish.

The Kurtis changed hands for the 1956 season, its new owners being Fred and Richard Sommer, owners of the Hoyt Machine Co of Indianapolis; the car refinished in an unusual Rose colour and renamed the Hoyt Machine Special. Walt Faulkner was named as the team’s driver for the 500, but sadly perished in qualifying for a USAC race, necessitating Ed Elisan joining.

The team was involved in an alleged sabotage incident but qualified the car for the fourteenth starting position with a speed of 141.380mph. In the race the Kurtis lost its brakes and finished 23rd.

For the 1957 500 Jimmy Reece drove the Kurtis, qualifying at 142.000mph, running well in the 500 until the throttle linkage broke with just 18 laps remaining but he had demonstrated the ability that would see him driving in the 1958 Monza 500, finishing 5th.

As well as paralleling its Indy appearances with the Ray Crawford Kurtis 500, Geraint Owen’s car has a similar backstory with grocery links. In

1959 LeRoy Foutch Junior purchased the car from the Sommer Brothers and entered it for the 500, titled as the Wheeler-Foutch Special, after the eponymous grocery company.

The red and black car was driven by rookie Richard ‘Red’ Amick who posted 143mph in qualifying to start 23rd. On lap 45 he was unlucky to spin into the infield avoiding an accident, the subsequent damage to the cockpit area ending his race, although classified 31st.

Fittingly, the history of this significant car would again be highlighted in Indianapolis celebrations that honoured its exploits in 2007.

Rebuilt to its former glory by famed Indianapolis chassis builder A.J. Watson as his final project before his demise, it was driven, surely as a fitting tribute, on its Brickyard return by its then owner William (Bill) Chatlin of Texas. Now its custodian is Geraint Owen who acquired it in 2013 from the USA. Then an owner of a Kurtis Sports Car he found himself seeking advice from marque expert Don Blenderman and agreed to buy the Indy Car instead! Far from leading a quiet life this side of the Atlantic, the Kurtis Kraft is regularly campaigned in VSCC racing, with the HGPCA and at Goodwood and clearly there are many more outings ahead for this Indy veteran.

THE EUROPEAN ADVENTURE That both the Kurtis cars had achieved significant Indy 500 success should come as no surprise, but they would also cross the Atlantic and add European success to their history in two races that are now sadly little

remembered. Run under the title of the 1957/58 Monza 500 Mile Race or Monzanapolis, that was more popularly known as the ‘Race of Two Worlds’, the concept was to match the cream of European cars and drivers with their American counterparts.

It was the joint brainchild of Giuseppe Bacciagaluppi, President of the Automobile Club of Milan and Chairman of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and Duane Carter, Competition Director of the United States Automobile Club (USAC). The Monza circuit had been rebuilt, most notably the Banking that was now steeper and

more bumpy than before. In keeping with the Indianapolis ethos only the banked circuit would be used, a decision that markedly favoured the American cars and drivers. For 1957 there would be ten entries each from the Old and New Worlds. The race was open to Indianapolis Cars, Grand Prix Cars and Sports Cars.

/ 59

The new Monza track layout that confronted the drivers was a distance of 2.63 miles (4.25kms) with the two straights leading on to the Curva Sud and Curva Nord bankings, both higher and steeper than Indianapolis and designed for speeds of 160mph, although extensive tyre testing by Firestone prior to the race had seen a best lap speed of 170mph in a Kurtis Kraft-Chrysler driven by Pat O’Connor.

Like Indianapolis, the direction was anti-clockwise, in contrast to European circuits.

For the Monza 500 Miles instead of covering the full race distance, the event was split into three heats, the objective being to provide the US entries with the opportunity to work on their cars had the banked circuit taken its inevitable toll.

Popular legend has it that the European GP teams boycotted the race on safety grounds, but if another version is to be believed that may have been one of the first examples of spin. Apparently the Europeans were

Ray Crawford and the Kurtis 500 took full advantage of the Monza Banking, posting a 7th place in 1957 followed by a superb 4th the following year.

Photo: Harper Archive.

full of confidence and expected to blow off the American entries, having already set some fast proving laps.

But seemingly their optimism instantly evaporated when they saw the Firestone lap times, hence the European withdrawal. True or not, what is certain is that the Europeans were clearly concerned about the American set-up and horsepower advantage.

The consequence was a far smaller field than originally envisaged. From the Old World there were three Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-types, two of which had finished first and second at Le Mans the previous week and astonishingly prepared with little more than an oil change after their 24-hour exertions. Two Maseratis were late entries, with one failing to register a qualifying time and that of Jean Behra breaking its axle in practice. Ranged against them were ten Americans, six of them including Ray Crawford choosing the Kurtis chassis.

On his way to a fine 5th place in the second 500 Miles, Jimmy Reece in the Hoyt Machine Special Kurtis leads 1957 winner Jimmy Bryan on the Monza banking.

Photo: Geraint Owen Collection.

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The Indy cars dominated the three heats with the Kuzma-Offenhauser Dean Van Lines Special-mounted

Jimmy Bryan setting the pace taking the flag from Pat O’Connor, Andy Linden and Eddie Sachs with Ray Crawford 7th (all Kurtis KraftOffenhauser) ahead of the three Jaguars. Jimmy Bryan took a double win in heat two while Crawford moved up to 4th. Bryan had to settle for second, behind Ruttman (WatsonOffenhauser), with Crawford 8th in the third heat. Overall, the cigar-chomping Bryan driving a Kuzma-Offenhauser

Very much at home on the Monza banking, Ray Crawford posted two fine finishes in the Race of Two Worlds.

Photo: Harper Archive.

was the winner of the event from Ruttman and Parsons (KuzmaOffenhauser) followed by the three Jaguars and Crawford 7th.

To near universal surprise, 1958 saw the second running of the 500 Miles.

There were now 12 Indy cars, ranged against much stronger European opposition who were taking the American invaders seriously. The Prancing Horse sent cars for Mike Hawthorn, Luigi Musso and Harry Schell; there was a special Maserati - liveried for Eldorado ice cream for Stirling Moss, Jaguar D-types for Masten Gregory and Ivor Bueb, the offset single-seater Lister-Jaguar with ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson design input, for

Jack Fairman. Fangio was also down to drive.

At the first running of the 500 Miles it was the pace of the Indy cars that told and this was to be the pattern in 1958.

Jim Rathmann’s Watson-Offenhauser again dominated the three races, the only European interloper in the leading positions being the Mike Hawthorn/ Phil Hill Ferrari. Bob Veith’s Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser had taken a third place in the first heat but it was the consistency of Ray Crawford that paid off with a strong 4th overall and a similarly impressive performance from Jimmy Reece for 5th, both drivers Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser equipped.

There would be no third ‘Race of Two

Worlds’ in 1959, the Automobile Club of Milan failing to make a profit on the event, coupled with the disinclination of European teams to race on the banked oval track. It must be admitted that in terms of sheer horsepower the European teams were sadly outclassed, although there was a prevailing view that had the races been run to full distance rather than on a heat basis the balance might have shifted in favour of Europe. We can only conjecture….

Many thanks to custodians Stuart and Fred Harper and Geraint Owen for their unstinting assistance in the preparation of this article and archive access.

Special thanks also to Ed McDonough.

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Founder member

Alain de Cadenet ‘Boy’s Own’ racer Words by Mike Jiggle

If you’ve ever been in the presence of Alain de Cadenet and talked motor racing, you’ll be indubitably transfixed by his infectious enthusiasm for the sport. His ebullient character lights up any gathering and his love for the sport is beyond bounds.

I recall talking to him some time ago about racing cars and asking if there was a specific great car he’d driven or would have like to have driven. Pondering for a couple of minutes on what he found as a daftly difficult question to answer, his measured reply came and with great fervour and gusto, ‘I would have loved to have driven, the Mercedes W125. This car would be right up my street. Bags and bags of grunt, skinny little tyres, madly competitive, well in advance of its time aerodynamically, independent suspension, around 630hp.

There would be only one place to drive such a car and that would be around the old Nürburgring of course, in the company of those great drivers of the era Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch, our own Richard Seaman, and guys of that ilk.

Without any doubt they were the golden years of motor racing. The boot polish smell of the fuel, flying out the back, and the sight of Alfred Neubauer leaning into the cockpit, or signalling to you – it was really serious, but a total sport in those days. Yes, Mercedes had more than a commercial interest, but it was still pure sport. I think I`d have really been `at home` racing in the 1930`s.’ As he spoke, his reply was so very compelling, portraying everything in great detail one could almost believe they had been transported back to the days of pre-war motor racing.

Given that reply, one would think Alain de Cadenet had been immersed in the motorsport world since birth, however, that’s not the story. Interestingly, Alain didn’t get into motor racing until he was 21. He’d spend time as a photographer for the pirate radio stations and was part of the ‘60s rock scene. Smarting after losing a girlfriend to a racing

Alain de Cadenet would have loved to race the Mercedes W125 up against Dick Seaman.

Photo: BRDC Archive

driver, he thought, ‘If racing drivers attract stunning, good-looking, young women then I want to become one.’

Confusingly, de Cadenet, son of a French Lieutenant, is British. He was born and raised in the UK attending Framlingham College (formerly Prince Albert College), a leading public school based in rural Suffolk. His moment of

motor racing epiphany came during a time when the UK was undertaking a cultural revolution, for the pleasureseeking young adults of the day. The war years were now a distant memory, National Service for men had been abolished and greater freedoms were enjoyed culminating in the period known as the ‘swinging-sixties’ – a time that is / 63

1967 Boxing Day Brands Hatch De Cadenet turns his AC Ace Zephyr into Clearways.

Photo: Peter Collins

performances and so made the race offer, Piper and Craft repaid that trust and won the race, beating Frank Gardner and Mike de Udy’s Lola T70 by two laps.

De Cadenet himself had his best finish to date in 6th place with team-mate Mike Walton. An end of season win at Silverstone in the BRDC Clubman’s’ Championship put Alain on the top podium position for the first time.

said, ‘if you can remember it, you weren’t part of it.’ For racing drivers of the day, cheating death was the name of the game in what were some of the darkest days of the sport. However, this didn’t dissuade Alain de Cadenet and many others from the sports intoxicating and magnetic charm.

His first ‘novice’ racing experience came with an AC Ace at Brands Hatch in 1966 and he continued learning his craft until he ventured into what was to become a ‘white elephant’ project trying to fit a V8 Martin engine into one of Don Sim’s Diva Valkyr cars, normally powered by a Ford 1500cc engine – it was a complete failure.

His first big race was with a Porsche 904 – the Martini Trophy at Silverstone.

The race was won by Paul Hawkins in a GT40 – de Cadenet finished 15th. The 904 was replaced by a Ferrari Dino 206S with which he campaigned many races in 1969. It was during 1969 that de Cadent had formed a relationship

1967 Silverstone Porsche 904 was Alain’s first ever proper racing car - he raced it here in the British GP support race for Grp 4 sportscars. Photo: Peter Collins

64 /

with wealthy American David Weir, grandson of Weirton Steel Corporation founder Edward T. Weir. He was a bit of a playboy too, very much at home in the company of racing drivers.

They set up a racing team, Ecurie Evergreen – employing Keith Greene as team manager. Mid-season the team acquired a Porsche 908/02 and entered David Piper and Chris Craft in the Vila Real 6hrs. De Cadenet had been impressed by Chris Craft’s racing

For 1970, the next project was to put a Cosworth DFV F1 engine in the back of a Can-Am McLaren M8C. A couple of ex-Alan Mann mechanics completed the work in de Cadenet’s workshop, supervised by Keith Greene, ‘They had done the same thing for the Len Bailey designed F3L racers for Mann. The basic fit and also the design of the unique rear suspension for my car was drawn by Bruce McLaren. I even bought an ancient DFV from McLarens with which Bruce had won the 1968 Belgian GP!’ The car was a dream to drive although ‘not too fast in a straight line.’, recalls Chris Craft. Sadly, 1970, was the year Bruce lost his life.

1969 Brands Hatch - BOAC 500Kms in Ferrari Dino 206S with Tony Beeson.

Photo: Peter Collins

1971 Crystal Palace Chris Craft seen here with John Miles at Crystal Palace impressed de Cadenet and was offered a drive.

Photo: Pete Austin

An, exceptional victory with the car in the sportscar race at Karlskoga, when Craft beat the likes of Lauda and Peterson, was overshadowed by an accident during the saloon car race when 27 people were injured and more tragically 5 more lost their lives. For participator and spectator alike, motorsport was regrettably living up to the warnings around circuits and on the reverse of tickets – Motor Racing is Dangerous’.

Prior to this, De Cadenet’s swansong for his Porsche 908/02 came at the end of May in the Motoring News GT Championship race at Mallory Park where he took victory. He’d also had several outings with David Weir in the GT40 purchased in 1969, racing under the banner of ‘Team Snake Speed’ – chassis 1078, which had been painted dark blue with a central wide orange stripe. Late in the 1970 season, during October, the pair finished 11th and 7th at the 1000kms at Zeltweg and Montlhéry respectively.

still has the invoice from Luigi Chinetti!

David Weir was determined to make a serious debut in the car. Underlining his resolve, he set some of his wayward traits to one side in an endeavour to get race fit for the big race in June. January 1971 saw de Cadenet partnered with

Argentinian, Nestor García Veiga and Luigi Chinetti Jnr in a North American Racing Team Ferrari 312P take a very satisfying class win and a fifth place overall in the Daytona 24hrs.

With some disappointing results following that; in May it was off to the Targa Florio in the Lola T210 – a car purchased for the Ecurie Evergreen stable at the back end of 1970.

Unfortunately, the run of ill fortune was to continue. Alain de Cadenet takes up the story, ‘The front and right-hand wheel on my Lola sportscar broke a stub axle, came through the bodywork and hit me on the head at 180mph. I was knocked out cold. The car landed outside the garden of a house on the long return straight with me slumped over the cockpit and the Lola on fire.

The house owner, an ex-Sicilian soldier who had fought with the Germans against the Russians in WW2, waded into the car and pulled me out. He won a medal and citation from the government for saving my life. This was the only accident I have had at this time and, from that day to this, it’s all been a huge bonus!’

So, to Le Mans. The Team Evergreen Ferrari 512M was to be raced by Chris Craft and David Weir and its outing at the race masterminded and run by Keith Greene. Despite problems with a cracked screen they did very well

1971 was the year the team had decided to take on the challenge of La Sarthe – the Le Mans 24hrs. The team purchased a Ferrari 512M - apparently, de Cadenet

1971 Crystal Palace - Alain de Cadanet takes a fabulous Ferrari 250 GTO through North Tower.

Photot Peter Collins

/ 65

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finishing a very credible fourth place overall. Alain had joined Hughes de Fierlant in the Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 512M. An encouraging 7th placing on Sunday morning was thwarted when the transmission failed and that was the end of their race. July saw another win for Ecurie Evergreen and Craft in the Can-Am M8E at the Norisring. Tragically, the victory was overshadowed by an appalling accident that claimed the life of the likeable racing genius, Pedro Rodriguez.

Newspaper headlines announcing 1971 Le Mans The Ferrari 512M chassis 1030 that Alain drove at. Here torrential rain allowed Willie Green to win Interserie in same car.

Photo: Peter Collins

The brilliant F1 and sportscar driver Pedro Rodriguez was sadly killed at the 1971 Norisring.

Photo: Maureen Magee

Rodriguez’ accident were followed by editorial stating he’d been killed in a ‘minor’ motor race – strangely this became the impetus that pushed de Cadenet into Formula One. If he was only successful in ‘minor’ races he needed to get in with the ‘big boys’ and go Grand Prix racing. After some negotiating with Ron Tauranac a Brabham BT33 was purchased. Whilst Alain would dearly have loved to have driven the car, his wife had other ideas and so Chris Craft took to the track in the Ecurie Evergreen F1 Brabham BT33.

His debut race was the Oulton Park Gold Cup where he finished 5th. Team manager, Keith Greene and de Cadenet himself were delighted. However, the real test was the two North American GPs at Mosport, Canada and Watkins Glen, USA. The engine blew in practice for the Canadian GP and an errant tyre damaged the car in the USGP. It was a bridge too far for de Cadenet. They say, ‘to make a small fortune in motor racing, start with a big one’ – especially in Formula One. I recall talking to Alain about his next move, ‘I took on the Brabham BT33 from Sir Jack when he retired. I had met this young guy at Brabham named Gordon Murray and I wanted to know if it would

Jack Brabham in the Brabham BT33.

Photo: Pete Austin

be possible to design a two-seater sportscar version of the Brabham BT33.

I wanted to go prototype racing, but, in their wisdom, Ferrari would not let private entrants race the 312PB – they thought it too difficult to race, and too difficult to maintain. So, in my wisdom, I commissioned Gordon to design something which looked a bit like a 312PB, but with a Cosworth/Hewland package in the back. The easy way in motor racing is to buy something and go and race it, it`s all done for you. The difficult thing is to `do it yourself` and I wanted the challenge - I`ve always been `up for it` and thrived on challenges. / 67

Gordon Murray at work with the Brabham team Photo: Maureen Magee

1976 Le Mans car - Lola T380 De Cadenet.

Photo: Pete Austin

The first De Cadenet seen here at Le Mans Classic.

Photo: Peter Collins

68 /

Graham Hill and Bernie Ecclestone.

Photo: Maureen Magee

If they say `it can`t be done` I would like to think one could try to do it, because, I believe, that`s what we`re all supposed to do with our very short time on the planet – trying to make a contribution.

Sometimes in this world you make your own luck, who’d have thought Gordon

Murray would become the motor racing creative genius he has.’ Alain’s dogged determination to put his own car on the grid at Le Mans took full advantage of Murray’s attributes. Working for Brabham by day, he spent his spare time designing the first De Cadenet LM. Alain enthuses, ‘I think it was obvious to me that Gordon Murray was a bloody genius from the get-go. His job on that first prototype was amazing. We just made what he drew. It all fitted together perfectly and came out of its box for its first race at Le Mans. 212mph on 390bhp down the Mulsanne immediately!

Murray was always going to make a big contribution sooner or later. Bernard E soon saw to that of course.’

Powered by a Ford DFV, the car was painted in the Duckhams Oil corporate livery of yellow and blue. At Le Mans, Chris Craft was in 4th with just a couple of hours left on the clock. Tragedy had already struck in the race with

the sad loss of Jo Bonnier, whilst the racing continued there was no party spirit. The great irony was that Bonnier campaigned tirelessly for greater circuit safety.

As for Chris Craft and the De Cadenet team, things took a turn for the worse when the heavens opened and the car was on slicks. Losing control, Craft hit the barrier, but was able to continue and finish 12th. Not a bad place for a ‘homemade’ car. Better was to come with the second De Cadenet, this time based on a Lola. In the background to all this racing, a certain Bernie Ecclestone had been suggesting that Alain de Cadenet should run Graham Hill’s new Embassy Hill team.

I found this gem of a story while researching about the great fabricator, Mo Gomm. Graham Hill, who rented space in Mo’s premises, Gomm Metal Developments Ltd., Manor Way, Old Woking, Surrey, was known to many

The second De Cadenet at Le Mans Classic. Photo: Peter Collins

/ 69

As for the car, it still makes appearances today at historic events like the Classic Endurance Racing series.’

1979 Brands Hatch - Alain De Cadenet and Francois Migault - De Cadenet Lola LM. Photo: Pete Austin

Of course, to prove Monza wasn’t a fluke, Desiré and Alain won again at the

inside racing to have two sides to his personality. Whilst he could be very nice to a TV crew, working alongside him could be very difficult and stressful when in a work environment – it would certainly take a strong character to make it work. It seems things got strained after the car failed to perform at a number of races and the relationship was over.

Meanwhile there was a somewhat roller-coaster period with the new car – some good races, some particularly poor. Nevertheless, the do or die character shone through the De Cadenet team for the 1980 race at Monza. Alain explains, ‘When we won our first World Championship race, it was the first time a `home-made` car had ever won – something I`m really proud of. It was a hard slog, but very rewarding, and delightful to do so in the company of Desiré Wilson – such an amazing lady. She is a remarkable racing driver who just happens to be a woman. In her life, I think she has made a major contribution for women `stepping up to the plate` in motor racing, which inherently is a man`s world.

70 /

I’d always been of the opinion that Desiré Wilson was one of the most under-rated drivers of all time, I’m sure Alain de Cadenet would concur.

He gave her an opportunity no-one else seemed to want to. She was so delighted he gave her the drive as she explained when I spoke to her, ‘Winning the 1980 World Endurance Races with Alain De Cadenet in the Lola LM Ford at Silverstone and Monza, against the best drivers and cars in the world, were experiences I will never forget. At Monza in particular, on my final lap in the lead the spectators were literally hanging over the safety fences cheering me on. On the podium too, the reception we received from the Italian fans was simply awesome.’

1980 Silverstone 6 Hours winners Alain de Cadenet and Desire Wilson Photo Peter Collins

1980 Brands 1000Kms with Desire Wilson Photo: Peter Collins

1981 The De Cadenet is painted in the red and white Belga colours in deference to the Martin Brothers sponsors.

Photo: BRDC Archive

Silverstone 6hrs. Le Mans was very different, due to very inclement weather, somehow, Desiré Wilson’s time wasn’t picked up by the time-keepers and so she was excluded from the race, leaving de Cadenet partnered with François

Jo Gartner’s fatal accident at Le Mans in 1986 was a clear message to de Cadenet that perhaps his racing career was over Photo: Maureen Magee

Migault. Still, they finished a very commendable 7th place after having issues with an engine misfire.

In 1981 the car ran under the red and white Belga colours, courtesy of sponsorship from Belgian brothers,

Philippe and Jean-Michel Martin.

The Martin boys were aggressive drivers who continually over revved the engine until it expired. It was the year Alain last ran his own car at Le Mans. He continued racing there until 1986 – another tragic race claiming a life – this time the young Austrian driver, Jo Gartner. His Kremer Racing Porsche 962 crashed into the barriers at some 160mph following a mechanical failure. This was in the early hours of Sunday morning. The accident carnage was intensified when the car burst into flames. There was no chance of survival. Alain de Cadenet drove past the horrific scene. At the completion of his stint, de Cadenet knew he’d completed his last competitive lap of the Le Mans 24hrs. It was a sorrowful end to his racing career, but with every low there’s a high and there had been many highpoints along the road.

I feel, describing Alain de Cadenet as a typical ‘Boy’s Own’ racer sums him up pretty well. As a racer, manager and constructor, his gritty and indomitable character is similar to that of racing heroes described by authors in comic

1980 Le Mans Le Man timekeepers missed Desire Wilson’s timed lap - with no time she was replaced with Francois Migault Photo: Mike Jiggle Archive

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1979 - 2019 Anniversary

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succeed and a fervent belief in your own ambition, you may just as well stay at home. Not only has the person survived, but the De Cadenet cars have stood the test of time too with examples now seen at historic race meetings across the globe.

Today, Alain, a life-member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, retains that same love, desire and passion for great racing

Alain De Cadenet at wheel of the Bamford GTO Goodwood Revival. Photo: Peter Collins

books of a bygone era. It has seen him take on challenges that would simply be a pipe dream of many – especially in today’s world. One could say he had financial backing all the way – maybe,

maybe not. Whatever, while money helps, without an untiring desire to compete, a complete disregard to prevailing circumstances – favourable or not, a strong mental attitude to

If not on track then A de C chairs the Credit Suisse forum at Goodwood Revival left to right Derek Bell Jochen Mass Gordon Murray and Alain de Cadenet. Photo: Roger Dixon

Alain de Cadenet aboard a 1956 Ferrari Lancia D50 at the Goodwood Revival Photo: Mike Jiggle

and sports cars as he’s had throughout his years of competition. He’s a regular at events such as the Goodwood Revival, both on and off track – if he’s not racing, he’s talking about it. One important race, held 40 years ago at Monte Carlo, was that which saw the founding of the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association. In the midst of all the luminary cars and drivers attending was founding member, Alain de Cadenet, who drove Guy Moll’s Alfa-Romeo P3 that won the 1934 Monaco GP entered by none other than Enzo Ferrari. He’s been involved with the association from that day to this. His unwavering commitment holds firm to the fundamental ethos of the HGPCA - the dedication to keeping alive the spectacle of the Grand Prix racing cars in action. He’s truly lived the dream, which he now shares with every enthusiast via his vocal anecdotes, written words, his racing and his work with historic motoring and motor racing bodies. / 73

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2019 Race Calendar

Membership & Merchandise

HGPCA Test Day Silverstone

Life Member

Friday 12 April Silverstone National Circuit, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN

A Life Member is a founding Member or a Member recognised by the Board as having made a special contribution. Life Members are entitled to all the privileges of Membership, entitled to stand for election to the Board, be invited to drive in Association events, and vote at general meetings.

VSCC Formula Vintage Saturday 13 - Sunday 14 April Silverstone National Circuit, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN

Donington Historic Festival Friday 3 - Sunday 5 May Donington

Full Member A Full Member is the owner of an eligible Grand Prix car, entitled to all the privileges of membership, entitled to stand for election to the Board, be invited to drive in Association events, and vote at general meetings.

HGPCA race overalls are provided as part of the joining fee.

Pau Historic Grand Prix

Ordinary Member

Friday 24 - Sunday 26 May France

Rioja Ramble

An Ordinary Member is entitled to all privileges of membership, entitled to stand for election to the Board, entitled to drive in Association events but not entitled to vote at general meetings. HGPCA race overalls are provided as part of the joining fee.

Friday 31 May - Sunday 9 June Northern Spain

Associate Member

Legends of Brands Hatch Superprix Saturday 29 - Sunday 30 June Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit. UK

Silverstone Classic

An Associate Member is entitled to receive all privileges of Membership as above, except the right to stand for election to the Board, to vote at general meetings or drive in Association events.

Honorary Member

Friday 26 - Sunday 28 July Silverstone National Circuit, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN

An Honorary Member is a person who is designated by the board for a specific period, allowed to drive in Association events, but not entitled to stand for election to the Board or to vote at general meetings.

47.AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix

Membership Secretary

Friday 9 - Sunday 11 August Nurburgring, Germany

Zandvoort Historic Grand Prix Friday 6 - Sunday 8 September The Netherlands

Spa Six Hours, Spa-Francorchamps Friday 27 - Sunday 29 September Belgium

Estoril Classic, Portugal Friday 11 - Sunday 13 October Portugal 80 / 2019 CALENDAR / MEMBERSHIP / MERCHANDISE

Stella Jackson Historic Grand Prix Cars Association PE.B21.2 Parkhall Business Centre 40 Martell Road, London, SE21 8EN Telephone…: +44(0)20 7785 7204 Email: contact@hgpca.net www.hgpca.com

Merchandise HGPCA Yearbook - £5 Baseball Cap – navy - £12.50 Oxford cloth shirt – available in pale blue or white, long or short sleeved - £35 Polo shirt – available in navy, olive green or burgundy - £24 HGPCA race overalls – only available to members – price on application.

All prices include VAT at current rate but exclude postage and packing. Please email contact@hgpca.net if you would like to place an order.

Sywell Calendar of Events 2019 12th May Early Edition VW 20th - 23rd June British Aerobatic Champs

5th - 6th July Vauxhall Bedford Opel Assocation 26th - 28th July Atomic Festival

For further information contact Sywell Aerodrome on 01604 801620 www.sywellaerodrome.co.uk

30th - 31st August 1st September Light Aircraft Association Rally

21st - 22nd September Sywell Classic Pistons & Props

14th September Young Aviators Day

are Grace Spitfire Days most

From early April to late Sept there Wed & Thurs throughout the summer season.