Obituaries
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We deeply regret to learn of the deaths of four more people who were well-known racing motorists in the old days.
Vic Derrington, full of fun to the end, died on May 1st. He was universally known as the supplier of racing equipment, especially exhaust systems and silencers, from his emporium at Kingston-upon-Thames, where he also pioneered what is nowadays called soup-up, particularly for MG and Fiat cars. An extremely well-known Brooklands figure, Derrington competed there on motorcycles and three wheelers, surviving a nasty crash in 1927 in a 750-c.c. Morgan. He was best known, however, for his Salmson„ a Cozette-blown twin-plug, twin-cam San Sebastian model with finned sump and fabric body, recently acquired by George Hampson, although in later times Derrington, who was game to the last, raced MGs.
Mrs. Elsie “Bill” Wisdom, wife of racing-writer Tommy Wisdom, died unexpectedly, at the age of 68, earlier this year. She was one of the very top lady racing drivers, going from success to success after her very first race, (the entry I believe-a sort of wedding present from Tommy) in a Frazer-Nash at Brooklands. There this slim, slight woman mastered the ex-Froy Leyland-Thomas and lapped even faster, at 126.73 m.p.h., in a fearsome 2-litre Dixon Riley. She also proved her skill and stamina by tackling long-distance races in these cars and, with Joan Richmond, she vanquished all the men in winning the 1932 JCC 1,000 mile race in a Riley 9. In the same year she got her Brooklands 120 m.p.h. badge, for lapping at over 121 m.p.h. in the big Leyland, normally regarded as a brutish man’s machine. She saw her daughter Ann become a noted rally driver.
Alfred Moss, Moss’s fatuous father, or father of the famous Moss, by profession a dentist, with horses and cars for relaxation, succumbed to a long illness at the age of 74. Friendly, keen, interested in all aspects of motor racing, Moss raced at Indianapolis in 1924 and at Brooklands in Crouch and Fronty-Ford cars. His wife ran a special Marendaz Special in trials and we all know what the son and daughter have accomplished.
Mrs. “Bluebelle” Gibbs, the school-mistressly-figure who raced her husband’s Riley and other cars in post-war Club events but went even better on her Norton, died sadly after a fall in her garden. Our condolences go out to her husband Len and all their relatives and friends. — W. B.