An ERA conundrum
Sir,
That ERA conundrum—David J. S. Rowlands is nearly right; the date of the photograph was early July 1935, and Zu Leiningen did drive R1A and Cook R2A so his order R3A, R1A, R2A and R4A is correct. But in 1935 the British Empire Trophy Race was not run at Donington, it was at Brooklands.
Oddly enough had that photograph been taken a day or two later, it might have easily told an historical lie—because during practice for the BET Mays drove both R3A and R1A, and at one period it was thought that Mays and Leiningen would swap cars (in my film Mays is shown practising R1A). They even repainted the race numbers, but finally they reverted to the original plan. So the photograph taken just before the cars were taken for practice shows the correct line up.
A. F. Rivers Fletcher, Vice-President,
ERA Club.
Kineton.