Mini star injured

Matters of moment

Veteran driver taken to hospital
Mini star injured

Racing veteran John Rhodes is recovering at home after being injured in a Heritage GT Car Challenge race at Brands Hatch in September. The 79-year old was inadvertently clipped by another car and pitched heavily into the barriers on Bottom Straight.

Rhodes was taken to hospital overnight, having sustained a cracked vertebrae as well as some blurred vision. He was having his first race in the Mini Cooper S of Irish racer Conor O’Brien when the accident happened on the opening lap of the race.

“I shouldn’t really be racing these days, I should be in the garden,” said Rhodes at the start of the season. But the chance to race a Mini Cooper again tempted him back, 36 years after his last full season of racing.

Rhodes won four consecutive 1300cc titles in the British Touring Car Championship from 1965-68. He also won the 1968 European Touring Car crown. It remains to be seen if he will race again.

New Historic GP series for 2007

A new historic race series covering six decades of grand prix racing opens with a festival meeting at Donington Park on Bank Holiday weekend, May 5-7,2007. The GP Euro Series will feature races for 1920s to 1970s GP cars and post-war sports cars. Organiser Grand Prix Events says that this is the first in a series of historic motor sport weekends, and will include a display paddock with unrivalled car access, air displays and a funfair.

GPE is the new group formed by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association and the Masters Series, together with private bank Arbuthnot Latham, to promote historic racing meets. GPE Chairman Christopher Tate said, “while there are several wonderful classic race meetings in the UK, none focuses so heavily on the drivers and teams behind these great cars, or combines the sport with the family entertainment which is vital to bring the crowds”. For more details see: www.themastersseries.com or www.hgpca.net

Seventies revival honours Roger Clark

The Lancia Stratos of Steve Perez is among the attractions on the Roger Albert Clark Rally in November. Run in memory of one of Britain’s best-known rally drivers, the historic event recalls the RAC Rallies of the 1970s. As in period, the event starts from Harrogate, with three full days on stages in Yorkshire, Scotland and Kielder.Visit: www.rogeralbertclarkrally.co.uk

Alterations will bring F1 back to Spa

Belgium’s Spa circuit will undergo revisions in time for its return to the Formula 1 calendar in September 2007. The remodelling work comprises changes to the Bus Stop chicane, scene of many overtaking manoeuvres and crashes in the past, in addition to a new pits complex