You were there

Wing Commander MHT Cooke was a lifelong motor racing enthusiast and a devotee of this magazine. He died recently at the age of 92, but his sons have sent us some interesting photos he took over his years in the paddock. A skilled pilot and expert mechanic, trained at de Havilland where he worked on the DH88 Comet racers, he owned and raced a series of Lagondas. He took photographs at a wide range of meetings, including Brooklands, Shelsley and Crystal Palace; we have chosen a very atmospheric shot of Austin Dobson in the Brooklands paddock with one of the supercharged 750cc Austins, as well as Charles Goodacre behind the wheel of another of the diminutive 750cc racers which performed so far above their weight. Observant readers will notice that the Mercedes W125 Dick Seaman is driving has no race numbers; that’s because he is demonstrating it at Crystal Palace in 1937, which on that narrow track must have been a fearsome sight. Cooke took his sons Terence and Antony to the 1952 Goodwood Easter meeting when Mike Hawthorn was the star, instantly giving them a love of racing which still persists