Letters May 2023

I’m sad to report the death of Charles Bridges at the remarkable age of 96. I spoke with him only a week before his death and he was his usual cheerful self. Without Charles’s support, I doubt that I would have had the opportunity to enjoy an amazing motor racing life – with plenty of ups and downs of course!

The three Bridges brothers, Charles the eldest, then David and John, were all heavily involved in motor sport. They were the sons of a remarkable character, Harold Bridges, who started Bridges Transport which at its peak had over 100 vehicles. It went through many changes, but Harold always came out on top. He was awarded the obe and became a Knight of St John.

In 1959 I’d started racing my Morris 1000 Traveller, but it was 1965 before something happened that would change my life. Garage owner and Jaguar enthusiast Gordon Brown had an ex-works/Moss XK120, and asked if I’d like to drive it at a Woodvale Sprint on Easter Monday, along with himself and other friends. I managed to get FTD and Gordon said he knew Charles Bridges, owner of Red Rose Motors, Chester who had just bought the ex-Graham Hill/John Coombs Lightweight Jaguar E-type ‘4 WPD’ – and he’d get me a drive.

Sure enough, the next morning the phone rang and Gordon asked if I could be at Oulton Park at 8am on Thursday. On a beautiful spring morning I met Charles Bridges and Terry Wells, the E-type mechanic who had come from John Coombs with the car. We had a superb season, beaten only once, by Ron Fry in a Ferrari 250 LM. In 1966, another good year in a Lola T70 Mark II led to a Grovewood Award; the rest is history.

Goodbye Charles and thank you. In Vera Lynn’s immortal words: “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when”.

Brian Redman, Florida, US 

Having just read the April 2023 issue which was excellent as always, I would like to echo John Hillier’s comments about WEC not visiting Silverstone for a number of years now. It was always a highlight of the year seeing the LMP1 Audis, Peugeots and others going at it for six hours. I’ve been going since it was a 1000Kms race before the WEC restarted in 2012, and a special bonus was seeing the RAC Tourist Trophy being awarded to the winning crew. We don’t even get the GTWEC visiting for their endurance any more. Is it Silverstone or something else?

However, I am still looking forward to the WEC and seeing how the LMDh and LMH cars converge and race together with a lot more teams in the top class. Perhaps a hark back to the Group C days that I missed as I was too young at the time. Here’s hoping.

Mark Killelay, Gainsborough

Like Chris Mason I too witnessed an Anciens Pilotes demonstration at Silverstone in 1969 (I was 24). I recorded it on 8mm film. I will never forget Tony Brooks bombing down the Hangar Straight and drifting the Vanwall expertly around Stowe. I had never seen the Vanwall raced in period, so this was a real treat.

I also recall the ‘Moss masterclass’ in the Maserati 250F at the 1999 Goodwood Revival; his fingertip control in the extreme wet was remarkable. Who needs a time machine?

John Hostler, Brundall, Norfolk

With all the discussion about retirement ages for drivers and the amazement at Fernando Alonso’s current form, I remember that when I started to follow motor racing back in the 1960s it struck me that most NASCAR and USAC drivers seemed to keep racing far longer than F1 drivers at the time (except Fangio and a few earlier contemporaries), with AJ Foyt running at Indy no fewer than 35 times, in his last one at the age of 58 finishing ninth, having been on the front row the year before.

Richard Petty was 54 when he retired with 200 victories, having been NASCAR champion seven times, a number later equalled by Dale Earnhardt (who was 49 when he was sadly killed while still a top name) and Jimmie Johnson. That number was also matched by Foyt in Indycars, so at the top level maybe seven championships is some sort of limit of chance and luck over the years – though Lewis Hamilton will likely not accept that possibility.

John Dickson, Sevenoaks

I was fascinated by Doug Nye’s excellent article in the February edition regarding the Alberto Ascari artefacts [Ascari’s crown jewels] and the photo of Ascari with his family and son Tonino.

In my school days I was an avid Ascari fan and read every race report in which Ascari featured, written by DSJ in Motor Sport, the magazine which consumed my pocket money once a month! It was difficult to take in his demise. Such a tragedy. His former team-mate Mike Hawthorn, in his book Challenge Me the Race, said he believed Ascari to be “even faster than Fangio”.

Fast forward now to 1961, when I was doing my engineering apprenticeship with Jaguar. I was present at the British Empire Trophy at Silverstone when Ascari’s son, Tonino, with fellow guest of honour Juan Fangio, were paraded round the circuit in a Sunbeam Alpine driven by Jack Brabham. Fangio was in the passenger seat while Tonino, perched on the rear deck of the open car, looked frozen stiff in the airstream on what was a typically inhospitable Silverstone day! Within a week of the Silverstone event Tonino, totally unannounced, arrived at Browns Lane and was enrolled as a Jaguar apprentice.

There I met up with Tonino, albeit briefly. We had a short chat, a very much ‘Italian English’ type of conversation, but perfectly understandable. He seemed rather shy, but very pleasant and polite. I never saw him again, as we apprentices were dispersed throughout the factory and I never knew which department he was assigned to.

How long he remained at Jaguar I could not say, but believe it was only a matter of weeks. None of my colleagues from the period recall him so it looks like I am the only one left who remembers his presence at Browns Lane. Sadly, he passed away in 2008, aged just 66.

Peter Wilson, Kenilworth, Warwickshire

While perusing page 11 of the March issue of Motor Sport [Matters of Moment] a chill moved through me to my very core as I read the last sentence. Quote: “F1 is working because of marketing, not necessarily because of the sport.”

If this is the case, then the reasons that I became infatuated with the sport nearly 50 years ago no longer apply.

Bryan Caldwell, Vancouver, Canada

Following your excellent article on the pre-war Isle of Man TT [Early Man, April], I came across two caricatures of Stanley Woods and Harold Daniell in Motor-Cycling Personalities Past and Present, a book published in 1957 by Shell-Mex and BP Ltd of drawings by ‘Sallon’. Ralph Sallon was mainly a political caricaturist who was a regular contributor to the Daily Mirror. Shell also published a companion volume Motor-Racing Drivers Past and Present.

Cartoonist Ralph Sallon’s depictions of riders Harold Daniell, left, and Stanley Woods from a 1957 publication 

Michael Cookson, audlem, cheshire

I am beginning to think we will never get back to the competitive racing which we enjoyed so much from the 1950s to the ’80s – what we now have is closer to glorified slot racing cars with a human strapped aboard.

This is not to diminish the extraordinary technology in the cars, nor the exceptionally skilful drivers, but all of this exceptionalism and sophistication has not delivered the nail-biting competitive racing we saw in the past, and as a life-long Formula 1 fan this depresses me. The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix was quite boring, with few on-track challenges, on a circuit which offers terrible perspectives to the TV viewer. I am beginning to feel as though I am deluding myself by studiously recording all 22 race dates and then sitting in front of the telly to watch them.

If there is a bright spot in all of this, it’s the pre-show with Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz, and the various members of the Sky News team. They are such an astute bunch of observers – they make the GP itself almost an afterthought. Compared with the current historic racing scene, modern Formula 1 has become quite tedious.

Stephen Burnett, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Further to your Is the truth out there? article [Books, March] I thought you might be interested to see another photograph of Old No1. In 1958/59 my late father, also Joe Ward, owned this car. My photo illustrates him collecting it from a paint shop in Sutterton near Boston, in British Racing Green. I remember him taking me to school in it; only seven miles thankfully because I sat on it rather than in it and there were merely cutouts rather than doors. The provenance of the car itself was controversial, even then.

 Joe Ward, Boston, Lincolnshire

Since Zak Brown became CEO of McLaren Racing in 2018, it has contested more than 100 grands prix. From those there have been seven podiums and one win. We all know the driver who scored that win was sacked at the end of 2022 and his tenure at McLaren has possibly destroyed his career.

The comparison between Brown and Mattia Binotto is revealing [whose departure from Ferrari Mark Hughes covered in the February issue]. During Binotto’s tenure at Ferrari as principal (a harder job) from 2019-22, Ferrari contested 82 grands prix. There were 40 podiums and seven wins. If I was on the McLaren Racing board, I’d be on the phone to Binotto, and show Brown the door.

Andrew Lynch, NSW, Australia

Contact us

Write to Motor Sport, 18-20 Rosemont Road, London, NW3 6NE
e-mail, [email protected]