Letters from readers, February 2004

Sir,

As a great admirer of Simon Taylor’s sense of history, I am somewhat surprised that in Modern Times, January 2004, he perpetuates the myth that “sponsorship as we know it first appeared in the 1968 Tasman Series” with Gold Leaf Team Lotus. Not so; nor, as often claimed by many, was Team Lotus the first Formula One outfit to race in a sponsor’s corporate colours with the Spanish at Jararna on May 12 that year cited as the event.

Both honours belong to then-Rhodesians John Love and Sam Tingle, who ran their Brabhams in the colours of, and were entered by, Team Gunston after the local tobacco brand in the South African Grand Prix held at Kyalami on January 1, 1968. The former qualified 17th to Sam’s 22nd, so John, technically, became the first-ever starter in commercial colours of an FIA-sanctioned event.

Colin Chapman returned to London after supervising Jim Clark’s ‘plain’ Lotus 49 to victory in that South African GP – the Scots last Fl win, as it turned out – before flying to South Island, New Zealand for the January 20 Tasman race. Had he possibly (probably?) gleaned the tobacco livery concept from Gunston, then put a rapid proposal to Gold Leaf? This might account for the Lotus cars receiving their corporate colours only after his arrival in Christchurch.

Either way, Love, Tingle, Gunston and Kyalami, and not Chapman, Gold Leaf Team Lotus and Christchurch, were first with sponsorship as we know it in Fl.

Talking about myths, 1968, Lotus, and Spanish Grands Prix, should not Jackie Stewart’s win at Jarama in 1970 with Ken Tyrrell’s customer March 701 rank as the last privateer win over Jo Siffert’s 1968 British victory with Rob Walker’s Lotus?

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Dieter Rencken, London

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Duff information

Sir,

In the November issue of Motor Sport the article by Bill Boddy titled ‘Over the Edge in a Benz’ provides a presentation of my father which is completely false. The comments ‘Duff was a Bentley driver” and “Duff recovered and won for Bentley in 1924” suggest that he was just one of the drivers employed by W Bentley.

In fact, he owned his own car and was a great individual champion driver. He won not only at Le Mans, but in races all over Europe and also at Brooklands, where he broke the Double-Twelve record, driving two sets of 12 hours on successive days without a co-driver, said to be the greatest feat of endurance ever witnessed at Brooklands. He broke the 24-hour and many other world records. His car was exhibited at Selfridges and now stands at the Motor Museum at Le Mans.

When my father first entered his Bentley for the Le Mans race in 1923, not just WO, but many of the top drivers of the day told him that the car was not suitable. If it had not been for his initiative there never would have been a Bentley racing team at Le Mans, where the reputation of the marque was established.

After all, who would enter his own Bentley for the race against the advice of Mr Bentley himself? Please give my father the recognition he deserves.

I do not know much about the Benz accident, except that my father only drove the car because he had promised to do so, in spite of grave misgivings about the brakes, which failed when he left the finishing straight and went up the banking.

Charles Duff, London, NW6

You must be a very new reader of Motor Sport! I have given your father praise for all the accomplishments you mention many times. Years ago I drove up to Newmarket to interview him and we spoke of his Le Mans performances in 1923 and 1924, but he had more or less forgotten his Iwo big Fiats. The Benz episode is given a long separate chapter in my book Brooklands Giants. I can do no more to give your father the recognition you and I both know he deserves without repeating countless articles and book references I have already written — WB.

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Boarder patrol

Sir,

Close inspection of the Parting Shot of the Huddersfield MC Trial in the December issue of Motor Sport reveals an interesting detail. Towards the top of the climb there is an individual on the hill, in cloth cap and tweed jacket, who appears to be riding a skateboard!

Is this the first photographic record of the skateboarding phenomenon? Have we all been hoodwinked because this transatlantic sport clearly (or more accurately, blurredly) has its historical roots in Huddersfield?

Jasper Gilder, Hemel Hempstead, Herts

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Throw in the Javelin

Sir,

If Bill Boddy had chosen to extend his fascinating insight into Spa endurance races by just one more year (to 1949), he might have commented on the fine result of an unlikely contender, the 1.5-litre Jowett Javelin, in its first major competitive outing.

Piloted by Anthony Hume and Tom Wisdom, the car was driven to the circuit from the factory’s home in Bradford, West Yorkshire. A second Javelin towed experimental manager Horace Grimley’s camping-trailer full of spares!

The race car ran faultlessly for the 24 hours of the event, covering 1572 miles at an average speed of 65.5mph, not only winning the 2-litre Touring class but also exceeding the best of the 4-litre Touring class.

ERA’s Leslie Johnson (in a 2.5-litre Aston Martin) was reported to have been greatly impressed by the Jowett’s performance, which may have played a part in his company’s involvement with the creation of the tubular chassis for the Javelin-based JowettJupiter sports model later that year Johnson brought in Dr Eberan von Eberhorst to design the chassis, which provides a tidy link to another feature in your December issue — the fabulous Auto Union D-Type.

How small and entwined the world of motorsport can be!

Geoff McAuley, York