Bank Holiday Racing at Brands Hatch (August 5th)

Brands Hatch with a slight difference. For on this occasion the accent was on variety with slightly unusual races to augment the normal sports and Formula II events.

One of the utmost interesting spectacles was the production sports car race. The sight of seeing ordinary cars on the race track never seems to lose its appeal and sure enough excitement was to come. Lotus Fords predominated on this occasion and a furious dice went on between Ian Walker in his well-known yellow coloured model and G. H. Williamson in a green one. These two succeeded in coming in first and second respectively but following them came Beckaert in the XK120 Jaguar which he always drives magnificently and Jennings in Ken Rudd’s A.C. Ace-Bristol lying fourth. The fact that the Lotus models were able to beat the larger-engined sports-cars just shows what a little enterprise and a Ford engine can do for a chap!

A new event, the Petit Prix for Berkeleys was won by Goddard-Watts who whirred round the ten laps in fine style making a most entertaining show of things. Likewise the Vintage and Veteran car race attracted cheers and waves from the crowd as Fitzpatrick’s huge Metallurgique diced with Pinkerton’s Fiat and Sir Francis Samuelson’s TT Sunbeam which is a regular participant at Brands Hatch on these occasions. B. M. Clarke in his beautiful 1913 Talbot won the event.

Another fine sporting event was the 1,500-c.c. Championship. Here Archie Scott-Brown made great strides with the Elva-Butterworth and was in first place for most of the race but had to retire on the last lap with a broken valve so allowing Colin Chapman to pass the chequered flag first in spite of spinning off at paddock bend on the first lap. Archie again brought our (out) more heavy metal in the Kingsdown Trophy, this being the Lister-Jaguar with a 3½-litre engine appearing for the first time at Brands Hatch and which came home ahead of all others with a new sports-car record into the bargain.

F Ill enthusiasts saw Jim Russell take first place once again: Jack Brabham had a very hard fight indeed to cope with George Wicken in the Rochester Trophy Part II although in Part 1 Salvadori and Taylor had an awkward contretemps resulting in a Brabham win again.

A further exciting game of “Happy Family” motoring was the Heinkel Trophy race for saloons. Here John Webb carried straight on at the bottom of Druids and headed for the starter’s box at quite a rate of knots before anyone realised that his steering arm had snapped. Peter Gammon in a Ballemy Ford Popular raced along with the Abarth Fiat for a while until the latter dropped back a little, Adler in an A90 Austin diced for a time with Sears in a 105 model but with Grace in the Pathfinder Riley hot on the 105’s heels as the race drew to a close. This was almost a photo-finish but Sears just kept enough lead for a comfortable win. — I.G.

1,100-c.c. Sports Car Race: 

Heat 1: C. Allison (Lotus-Climax) 75.65 m.p.h.

Heat 2:  G. Hill (Lotus-Climax) 70.28 m.p.h.

Final: C. Allison (Lotus-Climax) 70.92 m.p.h.

Lewis-Evans Trophy Race (500-c.c. Cars): K. Livingstone (Cooper-Norton) 66.69 m.p.h.

Rochester Trophy Race (Formula II): J. Brabham (Cooper-Climax) 71.95 m.p.h.

Petit Prix: J. T. Goddard-Watts (Berkeley) 55.25 m.p.h.

Veteran and Edwardian Race: B. M. Clarke (Talbot) 48.39 m.p.h.

Production Sports Car Race: I. Walker (Lotus-Ford) 67.67 m.p.h.

Heinkel Trophy Race: J. G. Sears (Austin A105) 59.79 m.p.h.

B.R.S.C.C. 1,500 Championship:  A. C. B. Chapman (Lotus-Climax) 68.66 m.p.h.

Formula III Race: J. Russell (Cooper-Norton) 70.64 m.p.h.

Kingsdown Trophy Race: W. H. Scott-Brown (Lister-Jaguar) 71.79 m.p.h.

Rochester Trophy Race: Part 2: J. Brabham (Cooper-Climax)  72.25 m.p.h.

Fribourg Hill-Climb

Continuing the European mountain hill-climb championship the 12-kilometre dice to the top of the Schauinsland mountain in the Black Forest of Germany, was held on July 28th for cars of up to 2-litres. Interest was enlivened by the appearance of Hans Herrmann in a works Borgward 1,500 sports, but it suffered from fuel injection maladies and did not give its full power. The ex-A.W.E. driver Edgar Barth continued his good driving by beating Maglioli. The Swiss driver Munaron drove the experimental Le Mans Porsche 718.

Results:

1st: E. Barth (Porsche 1,500RS) 16 min. 57.8 sec. 84.89 k.p.h.

2nd: U. Maglioli (Porsche 1,500RS) 17 min. 04.0 sec.

3rd: H. Herrman (Borgward 1.500RS) 17 min. 24.5 sec.

4th: G. Munaron (Porsche 718) 18 min. 20.5 sec.

5th: A. Tedesci (Maserati 200S) 18 min. 25.0 sec.

6th: P. Monteverdi (Ferrari TRC) 18 min. 39.0 sec.