Miscellany, January 1998

Two recent VSCC events have been the recognisably tough Lakeland Trial on November 5 and the Eastern Rally on November 1/2. Premier Awards in the Lakeland event went to Andrew Hall (Frazer Nash) in Class 1 and to James Diffey (30/98 Vauxhall) in Class 2. Tony Jones (30/98 Vauxhall) took the award for coming the longest distance by road in a competing car. Only one First Class Award was won in the Eastern Rally, by John Potter/Brian Hughes (1927 Alvis).

Reg Nice has won this year’s Bert Hadley Memorial Cup, an event organised by the Pre-War A7 Club and involving 12 rounds at different circuits. Reg used his well-known Ulster A7 and scored 76.78 points, against David Brown, last year’s winner with 70.32 points, using the Broadley-Austin. Third place went to Gary Clare in his 1934 A7 Special, with 70.00 points

Penrite Oil’s 1997 award, for the person making a significant effort to further the cause of historic vehicles, has been awarded deservedly to Michael Ware, Curator of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, for his tireless work over many years, culminating in the establishment of the period garage there. The Award Panel consisted of seven well-known personalities including Gavin Conway of Classic & Sports CarMotor Sport a ‘Lifetime Achiever’, as recognition of his long career in automobile publishing.

There was so much to see and so much happening at the Earl of March’s Goodwood Festival of Speed last summer that, in spite of the rain, some gatherings of cars or people may have passed unnoticed by those not involved. One such reunion was that of those Austin 7 enthusiasts who used Goodwood circuit to try to break or establish long-distance records. That was in 1977 and 1978, the target to set a Class-H 100-mile record with a modified Ulster Austin 7. This was never attained but many other records were broken or set. The Duke of Richmond flagged the car off on the first attempt, SCH Davis on its second try. The car was driven by Chris Gould, Vince Leek and others, with Stirling Moss taking first stint on the 1978 run. The car then had a Reliant crankshaft, Newman camshaft, Cambridge head and a Zenith carburettor and was on Avon tyres. To commemorate these runs some of the drivers, the pit-crews and Ben Cook, who timed the run, assembled in Worthing during the Goodwood Festival period to see videos of both attempts and other memorabilia of the several attempts, and to welcome the news that it will reopen in all its glory and tradition next September.

In las month’s Motor Sport the Armstrong-Siddeley of Capt D E B K Shipwright won its race in 1921, not 1926, and Barry Clarke won the Harry Bowler Trophy in the VSCC Welsh Trial.