VSCC Cadwell Park

Fatal crash mars popular meeting

The death of Len Thompson cast a heavy shadow over the VSCC’s yearly Cadwell Park meeting. The crash that claimed the life of the Lagonda Rapier racer, and left Riley ace Pete Candy seriously injured, came at the close of what had otherwise been an entertaining day’s racing at the tricky Lincolnshire venue.

Topping the programme was the Shuttleworth and Nuffield trophies race, which fell to Duncan Ricketts in ERA R3A, but only after a tussle with the Cooper-Bristol of Neil Davies. Having led much of the race, Davies only surrendered his advantage in the latter stages and finished little more than a second behind.

In a day of close finishes, Tom Walker (GN Special) beat Richard Scaldwell’s Parker Special by just over a second in the race for GN-based cars. Scaldwell’s car was, in fact, on loan from the Walker family for the occasion. Scaldwell later fended off Julian Majzub, driving Charles Dean’s Bugatti T51, by a similar margin to claim the John Holland and Williams trophies race.

Before the accident, Candy added to his recent Silverstone win by taking the Melville and Geoghegan trophies race in his Riley Falcon Special.