The "Motor Sport" Brooklands Memorial Trophy

As stated last month, the Motor Sport Brooklands Memorial Trophy contest will be decided this year at the four V.S.C.C. race meetings, two at Silverstone, one at OuIton Park and one at Castle Combe. In last Month’s statement we said that every race would count but it has since been decided that only those in which drivers of vintage and p.v.t. cars take place will qualify, so that the cars in which points will be earned will all be of a type which could have competed in races at Brooklands. The rules have deliberately been kept simple. They specify that the Trophy and prize money £75 for first place, £50 for second, £25 for third, (divided in the event of ties) can be competed for by any driver of a vintage or p.v.t. car eligible for these V.S.C.C. races, that a driver may score with different cars but that only two races at any meeting will score, the two races giving the highest points being counted, which obviates unfair scoring by drivers who might make more frequent appearances on the starting grid than others.

Points will be scored by the driver, not by the entrant, at the rate of 18 for a first place, 13 for a Second, and eight for a third, subject to at least eight starters. I think this is a very suitable means of commemorating the defunct Brooklands Motor Course, where similar cars, and in some cases the same cars, as those racing at V.S.C.C. meetings were seen, driven, usually by amateurs, and where, after 1929, some races took place over the Mountain circuit (and later over the Campbell road course) which incorporated corners, so that the Silverstone Club circuit and the road circuits at OuIton Park and Castle Combe have some affinity. Unless my arithmetic is at fault, had the Motor Sport Trophy been contested thus last season, instead of at B.A.R.C. Goodwood Members’ Meetings, from which cars of over 3-litres, unless they are saloons, are now barred, the winner, very comfortably, would have been Hutchings’ 328 B.M.W., with second place a tie between Peters’ S.S.100 and St. John’s Type 35B GP. Bugatti, which, I think it will be agreed, would have had a very reasonable Brooklands flavour. Certainly 328 B.M.W.s were frequently seen on the Track at Weybridge, following S.C.H. Davis’ 102.2 miles in the hour run in 1937, emulated by Mrs. Thomas, who covered 102.1 miles in 60 minutes in 1939 round the outer circuit, while Grand Prix Bugattis were habitual performers on the age-scarred cement. And if an S.S.100 seems out of place, do not forget that Tommy Wisdom lapped in one of these cars at 103.02 m.p.h. during the B.A.R.C. Autumn Meeting of 1937. So it will be interesting to see how it works out this year.

I am disappointed that printing schedules prevent a report of the first 1966 V.S.C.C. race meeting, at which Trophy points were scored, from appearing in this issue, but the position will be published in the next issue, due to appear on June 3rd.—W.B.

V.-E.-V. Miscellany.
S.C.H. Davis, who now rides his wife’s Honda motorcycle, recently referred to “the old crock’s race to Brighton”—oh, Sammy! Sir William Lyons has turned down the request of the Daimler & Lanchester O.C. Club for official recognition, which is required for R.A.C. affiliation, on the grounds that with the exception of a National Rally at Beaulieu in 1965 its events have been poorly supported and “there is some doubt as to whether the Club can ever be established on a successful basis”—yet the membership is approx. 250 and a Monthly 16-page magazine is published! A member of the Jowett C.C.has acquired a 1932 Jowett Blackbird Long-7, which passed it’s M.o.T. test without trouble. The V.C.C. of N.Z. is restoring a circa-1917 Renault truck for use as a Club vehicle. Vauxhall Motors Ltd. have issued a neat little booklet about their veteran, vintage and historic vehicles but it is a pity that the 1922 T.T. Vauxhall is described as having a 30/98 chassis, and Ropner’s 30/98 “Silver Arrow” captioned as 1913 when it first appeared at Brooklands in 1924. However, there are some excellent pictures, especially of 14/40 and later Vauxhalls. The Wolseley Register has revived and lists members’ cars from 1900 to 1939, including 41 vintage models existing here and abroad. Hon. Se., R.S. Burrows, 17, Hills Avenue, Cambridge. The current issue of the Frazer Nash C.C. Gazette is an enlarged number, with much Anzani engine data. A 12/5o Alvis tourer has crept into “Dr. Finlay’s Casebook” on B.B.C. TV recently, but what was the disc-wheeled vintage tourer in the background ?