The B.R.S.C.C. Festival Of Speed And Sport

The Festival of Speed and Sport organised by the British Racing and Sports Car Club, in aid of the British Motor Racing Relief Fund, was billed for November 30th but, in fact, took place on December 1st last year, as it commenced just after midnight, at the Odeon, Leicester Square.

Practically everyone who matters in British motor sport and who was in this country seemed to be present, and many other sporting celebrities had been invited, including Peter Twiss, Nevill Duke, Pat Smythe, Col. Llewellyn, Roger Bannister, Stanley Matthews, Sir Stanley Rous, Alan and Eric Bedser, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir. Gordon Richards, Lester Piggott, Jack Solomons, Freddie Mills, Don Cockell, Barry Cotton, Reg. Harris, Mrs. Topham, etc. Ken Gregory, the B.R.S.C.C. Secretary, somehow found time to greet his guests, many of whose ladies were in beautiful evening dresses in the cinema foyer.

After cocktails to soft music at the Tavistock Banqueting Rooms as guests of the B.P. International Racing Service, the visitors were presented at the Odeon with the first of the evening’s films, covering a splendid selection of 1956 B.R.S.C.C. race meetings at Brands Hatch, Goodwood, Mallory Park, Silverstone, Crystal Palace and Oulton Park. Recollections of a wet summer were much in evidence and one “phenomenal avoidance” at Brands Hatch was seen to perfection! A composite 1956 British Movietone Newsreel brought in the Grand National at Aintree, golf, cricket, endurance horseracing, sailing, athletics, football, horse-jumping, etc., besides some good impressions of the Monte Carlo Rally and Don Campbell making one of his brave attacks on the World’s water speed record. Peter Twist stole this film, however, in a brief interview—exceedingly mild and modest, his eyes nevertheless give a clue to nerves under full control that go with the temperament essential for success in the world of speed. He won well-deserved laughter when, in reply to a question about training, he replied that, apart from the fact that he does not drink to excess and isn’t a smoker, he is really just as normal as other human beings!

Light relief was provided by eight minutes of “Motor Mania,” an R.K.O. Radio Pictures’ cartoon, after which the 160-minute non-stop performance continued with the splendid Shell-Mex and B.P. film of the 1955 Dundrod T.T. It was clear from this how the Mercedes-Benz handled that much better than Hawthorn’s lone Jaguar, and an excellent idea of how this race ran out was obtained, although perhaps we might have been spared the two scenes or blazing cars, which cost the drivers their lives.

An edited version of the final reel of the J. Arthur Rank film “Checkpoint,” of impossible motor-racing situations in glorious technicolour, drew laughs from the knowledgeable audience, which reached their peak when the hero casually enquired how he was doing in the Mille Miglia, to be told he was “one minute behind Fangio”! But we were glad to have seen this, because we will now be spared the expense of watching the rest of Betty Box’s improbable film when it is released for public consumption.

A short Shell film of the 1956 R.A.C. Rally was interesting to those who took part in this event, but the grand finale was provided by B.P.s “Formula 1,” which runs for 50 minutes and covers the big G.P. races of 1956, starting in the Argentine and concluding dramatically at Monza. The individual, exciting and informative “shots” are too many to detail but you should persuade your club to borrow this excellent film. We were just a trifle disappointed that the R.H.R. cameras missed the full story of the sensational “Moss-Shunt” and Castellotti’s furious spin at Monza, but we had been delighted to see how well British Movietone had caught the dramatic “mechanical failure” of the Queen Mother’s horse in the Grand National! But it was exceedingly nice to see again Schell’s Vanwall worrying the Ferrari team at Reims.

Ron Flockhart, in national kilted evening dress, with a charming partner, was a welcome guest at this three-hour festival of “speed on celluloid,” and, on the screen, Peter Collins seemed to capture the loudest applause.–W. B.