News in Brief, April 2001
Prince Bira’s racing career will be one of the themes of the annual Louis Vuitton Classic to be held at the Hurlingham Club in London on Saturday 2 June. It is planned to reunite his three ERAs (Romulus, Remus and Hanuman) as well as several of his sportscars at the concours d’elegance event.
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Ollon-Villars hillclimb in Switzerland will be recreated with an historic event over the weekend of 15/16 September. More than 160 cars and motorbikes will tackle the 8km hill in the Swiss Alps. The hill was used between 1953-71 as a round of the European championship and the record is held by Francois Cevert in a Tecno, 3min 47sec.
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The X.K Challenge Series of races run by the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club and the Historic Sports Car Club is booming. Up to 50 Jaguar XK120s and XK150s will be racing this season, nearly half of them in the hands of drivers new to the sport.
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The FIA Cup for Thoroughbred GP Cars and the European Historic F2 Trophy will include races at Ireland’s Mondello Park. The weekend of 1/2 September should mark the most significant historic meeting to date at the Co Kildare track.
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John Quenby is retiring as Chief Executive of MSA, the sport’s governing body in the UK. He will be succeeded by Colin Hilton, but will retain a consultancy role until the autumn.
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Disaster struck the Brooklands Museum recently when it was engulfed by two feet of floodwater from the River Wey. Most exhibits were moved to dry ground by the museum staff and helpers, but damage is still estimated as high as 1,1 million. The museum is launching an appeal for repair funds.
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Up to 100 Jaguar E-Types will gather at Donington on 9/10 June to celebrate 40 years of the model. The weekend’s race meeting, organised by AMOC and the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club, will celebrate the E-type on and off the track.
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Can-Am and Group 6 sportscars will return to Thruxton in August for a round of the International Supersports Cup. Not since the early 1970s have cars of this nature competed at the fast Hampshire track.
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The Coys Historic Festival at Rockingham will feature an auction of Jaguar race cars during the three-day meeting over the weekend of 26-28 May.
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Duke Nalon, the long time Indianapolis Novi driver, has died aged 87. The Chicago-born ace never won the great US race, but gained legendary status for his qualifying performances in the big V8 front-wheel-drive cars. He almost won at the Brickyard in 1948, and the track almost claimed him the following year, Duke escaping a huge fireball of an accident. Nalon also raced a Mercedes-Benz W154 in the 1947 ‘500’.