TAKEN FROM MOTOR SPORT JANUARY 1958

A popular winter motor-racing entertainment is the BRSCC Festival of Speed and Sport, which took place last year on November 22nd. It is astonishing, even startling, proof of the popularity of motor racing that two large London cinemas were filled to capacity for this non-stop two-hour midnight film show, while other cinemas in other parts of the country drew similar crowds. Only in Dublin did enthusiasm lag behind.

The evening chosen by Ken Gregory for the BRSCC Show was that on which the British Racing Mechanics’ Dinner/Dance took place at the Criterion. This had the support of almost every racing mechanic in the land, their ladies, the motor press and such drivers as Roy Salvadori, Duncan Hamilton, Jack Fairman, John Cooper and others. Many went on to the Film Show, which explained the presence in London’s West End of a large number of fast and exciting motor cars!

The show opened with the Club films of racing at Brands Hatch, then Crystal Palace and Mallory Park. These were followed by a long colour film advertising the various Shell and BP oil refineries, and a good Shell film by Random Film Productions, of Moss’ Vanwall winning the GP d’Europe at Aintree, most of the incidents of this dramatic race being captured, although the cameras were absent as Lewis-Evans made his effective jury-rig of the Vanwall’s throttle-linkage.

This film concluded with a brief résumé of Stirling’s racing career, beginning with his Cooper 500 races. Incidentally, the drivers were seen getting into the Austin-Healeys for the publicity parade prior to the Aintree race and it was interesting to see Fangio kick forward the seat back to attain his ‘perch’, the world champion bored with the whole affair, whereas Musso was puzzled as to what was to take place, while Moss and Hawthorn were quite happy and Schell loved every minute of it!

The big film of the morning (the show did not conclude until 2am) was the Shell colour presentation of the 1957 Le Mans race won by Esso-consuming Ecurie Ecosse Jaguars and Lotus. This was taken by a French film unit and was stunt filming, with the cars doing 200mph most of the time and far too much time spent on scenes outside the race and far too little devoted to the victorious Jaguar and Lotus cars. It wasn’t a patch on that excellent Shell Film Unit presentation of the 1952 Le Mans race, which effectively but without over-dramatisation depicts the sad retirement of Levegh. Another film dealt, in brilliant technicolour, with the 245mph record runs at Utah by the MG record car. We noticed that Moss was wearing an MG rosette on his overalls during the time and we felt sorry for Phil Hill, who went nearly as quickly as Stirling in testing the car and who could undoubtedly have taken these records.

The programme included two cartoons, one of them dealing with the remarkable transformation of Mr. Walker when he becomes Mr. Wheeler the motorist and concluded with a serious, large, gentleman named Richard Dimbleby occupying most of the screen to preach road safety to us, illustrating his points with childish cartoons and verses and two horrid accident-’stills.’ Perhaps we can be spared this, and the advertising, at next year’s show. The originator of these happy nocturnal film shows, the BARC, stages its own programme at the Curzon Cinema and in the provinces next month. Perhaps that one will include the well-spoken-of Castrol film of the Monaco G.P. in the showings. — W. B.