All the world's a stage...

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

Current page

157

Current page

158

Current page

159

Current page

160

Current page

161

Current page

162

Current page

163

Current page

164

Current page

165

Current page

166

Current page

167

Current page

168

Current page

169

Current page

170

Current page

171

Current page

172

Current page

173

Current page

174

Current page

175

Current page

176

Current page

177

Current page

178

Current page

179

Current page

180

Current page

181

Current page

182

Current page

183

Current page

184

Current page

185

Current page

186

Current page

187

Current page

188

Current page

189

Current page

190

Current page

191

Current page

192

Current page

193

Current page

194

Current page

195

…in February, at least. Things that caught the eye while the sport was mostly still dozing

 

Blame the ‘Beast from the East’, Storm Emma and their consequent snowdrifts. This month’s column should have featured the Tour of Cheshire, a historic road rally ripe with Opel Kadetts, Lancia Fulvias and suchlike (plus a Nissan Cherry), but March’s Siberian dawn put paid to that. It wasn’t so much the state of the route, more that crews – and marshals – were in some cases unable to get beyond their front gates to attend. Plan B was to add the Donington Stage Rally to the mix, but that also fell victim to the weather. In February, fortunately, temperatures reached a relatively balmy zero…

 

STONELEIGH PARK

Before Motor Sport had any involvement with the event, I would attend Race Retro because it was a useful social hub and reminded me of old-school industry shows – for instance those staged in London during the early Eighties, when small stands featured endlessly diverse machinery and were populated mostly by enthusiasts (with the occasional salesman thrown in). Stoneleigh Park recreates that ambience. Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre might be more efficient, as befitting a venue attached to both an international airport and a mainline railway station, but it can’t match Stoneleigh for soul. Nor does it come close.

And then there’s Race Retro’s live rally stage, an object lesson in how to take an unpromising slab of flat asphalt and transform it into a theatre of vibrant endeavour, something I’d never previously had the opportunity to watch. The breadth of the entry helped – everything from Renault 5 Turbos to a Range Rover Evoque via a current Ford Fiesta R5, but so did the event’s nature. It wasn’t competitive, but many of the passengers were prize winners and drivers wanted to give them a day worth remembering. There was scope for cars to stretch their legs – and for humans to demonstrate their hand-to-eye co-ordination. Some flicked sideways at every opportunity, because they could, while others were a paragon of precision and sustained momentum.

Alister McRae was engagingly spectacular in late brother Colin’s old Subaru Legacy and double world champion Miki Biasion drove both Lancia Fulvia and Ford Sapphire Cosworth, though it took him a while to get going in the latter. “At first I didn’t realise it was right-hand drive,” he said, “so I got in through the wrong door.”

 

SNETTERTON

A fulsome apology to any Beckenham residents who might be reading this. It was me who fractured the crepuscular silence at about 5am on February 18, as I cleared a deep frost from my screen ahead of a trip to Norfolk. Blame my desperation to get to Snetterton and tuck in to a paddock café breakfast.

What followed was an uplifting journey along almost deserted roads, the sun turning mist-dappled fields a spectacular shade of orange as it rose somewhere above Holland (approximately). The temptation to stop and take a few photos was strong, but apparently you’re not allowed to park on the M11… Suppressing any such urges, I pottered ever eastwards and passed a pleasing assembly of van-drawn trailers – a classic motor sport cocktail that’s alive and well if you attend the right sort of event. And the Snetterton Stage Rally is one such.

The Keatsian landscape rather contrasted with the competitive reality, a racing circuit adapted for purpose by sprinkling unsightly marker cones hither and thither. The aforementioned breakfast had to be eaten quite briskly, for the paddock access roads formed part of the route and it was important to avoid entrapment for the sake of being able to move around the site. Of all circuits in the UK, Snetterton is most in need of a footbridge across its pit straight.

This stretch of East Anglia can feel a little bleak in June, so the chances of it being anything other than Arctic in February were nil. But it was evidence of the sport taking another small step away from hibernation – enough to create at least a hint of a nice, warm feeling (except, perhaps, for the microlight pilot who circled the venue a couple of times as cars lined up to take the start of the opening stage – it was bloody freezing where I was standing, so I dread to think what it was like up there).

The event attracted a decent crowd and 83 crews, a significant proportion – as ever – in ‘modern’ Mk2 Ford Escorts. There were some pleasing exceptions, though, not least a Vauxhall Chevette and – appropriately, as the whole thing was organised by the Anglia Motor Sport Club – a Ford 105E.

During the previous round of the MSVR Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship, at Brands Hatch, the Escorts had been able to keep pace with more potent machinery as the twistier stages allowed their inherent agility to compensate for any lack of top-end power. With longer straights that reflect its airfield roots, Snetterton theoretically suited more recent machinery – and Chris West/Keith Hounslow (who collectively sound a bit like a tube station) duly took victory in their Peugeot 306 Maxi… albeit only five seconds clear of intermittent leaders Ian Woodhouse/Jason Leaf, first of the 14 Escort crews that followed. John Stone’s swift 2.5-litre Fiesta (below left ran in the top three until its retirement after the fourth of eight stages (the third had to be abandoned, after one Escort spontaneously combusted), while the lone Anglia of John and Laura Cooledge made it to the finish in 51st position overall, 19th in class.

Anything with such distinctively sculpted C-pillars surely makes the world a better place.

 

FOOTNOTE

The image above appears not because it is a particularly good photograph (it isn’t), nor because it illustrates the grassy magnificence of Oulton Park’s bygone paddock (it does), but to underline the way that perceptions have changed.

I have lately heard several people question whether the new Masters Endurance Legends series, for cars active between 1995 and 2012, has any place on a historic racing programme, but such timelines are nothing new.

On March 8 1975, there was a historic sports car race (clue: somewhere in Cheshire) featuring two Ford GT40s, less than six years after the model’s most recent Le Mans win, and one Lola T70 (examples of which had finished first and second in the 1969 Daytona 24 Hours). I don’t recall anyone questioning the validity of their presence: it was just nice to see such cars being used in such humble surroundings. The modern equivalent would be somebody bringing an Audi R18 e-tron quattro to an early-season clubbie.

The shot here was taken slightly later, in August 1977, and shows the JC Bamford-owned Ford GT40 driven by Willie Green. A scan of the ’75 programme entry apart, it’s the best period evidence I have available. Two years beforehand, my father wouldn’t have trusted me with his hand-me-down Pentax Spotmatic…

Images: Simon Arron, Lyndon McNeil