Here and there, November 1971

• A new special Associate Membership scheme has been announced by the very active Ford Sport Club which will enable non-Ford owners to join in the activities. The initial annual subscription for an associate member will be £2.50. The club has been particularly active in providing cheap travel for its members to race meetings as far away as Mexico and the Ford Sport Day race meetings have been high points of the club racing season. There are plenty of centres for more local activity and details are available from the club at 132, Fleet Street, London, EC4.

• That Rothmans’ 50,000 super-Formule Libre race scheduled for August Bank Holiday next year continues to create major interest in motor racing circles, and promoter John Webb tells us of unprecedented advance bookings. Latest news is that Motor Sport magazine will be adding a contingency bonus to the race with a cash prize for the leader of each of the opening, and no doubt hard-fought, first 10 laps of the race. Other companies will he underwriting subsequent laps.

• Ten prints of the first Senior Service Hillrally film made by the BBC for their Wheelbase programme are now available to motor clubs on a free loan from Sound Services Library, Kingston Road, Merton Park, London, SW19. It covers well the progress of the cross-country four-wheel-drive vehicles which took part in the event in Wales back in March and lasts 15 minutes.

• Also of interest to club secretaries trying to fill their winter programme is a series of talks and film shows being given by A. F. Rivers-Fletcher under the sponsorship of Shell. Each talk and film is an entirely personal presentation and the films are silent with “Rivers” adding the commentary as he sees fit for the occasion. Rivers has a wealth of stories to tell ranging from riding with Malcolm Campbell in the JCC Grand Prix at Brooklands as a boy through an apprenticeship at Bentley to the post-war years, during which time he was associated with many top drivers and was the public relations man for BRM. Just recently he has been connected with the RAC Hill-Climb Championship. His films and recollections make a fascinating evening and he can be contacted at The Craddocks, Kineton, Warwicks. (Tel.: Kineton 337.)

• The television companies who seemed so satisfied with Rallycross last season have apparently changed their minds about the new sport’s place on our winter Saturday afternoon’s screen. Nevertheless the Thames Estuary Automobile Club have decided to go ahead with a full season of six events sponsored by Wills Embassy and run at Lydden. Tony Tomassi, who is Competitions Director of TEAC, tells us that as yet the TV dates are not fixed but the first will probably be screened on November 20th with others later in the season. There is no news at present of televising events from the exciting Cadwell Park venue.

• Two schemes to run Stadium motor racing in the London area have both been abandoned after some disastrous meetings where both spectators and competitors alike were very thin on the ground. The plan was to run races for club racing saloons and also midget racing cars on Friday evenings at stock car/greyhound stadiums. But recently both the BRSCC, who organised meetings at Harringay, and Barnard Racing, who were using the Walthamstow Stadium, decided to cancel any further meetings due to the lack of support,

• News comes that Charles Lucas has decided to withdraw his interest from C. Lucas (Engineering) Ltd, the Huntingdon based firm who do a lot of engine work including Formula One re-builds and produce the Titan racing cars. Roy Thomas, who founded the firm originally, and later secured Lucas’s very active backing will continue operating out of the same premises. “The Eng” as it was called ran a very successful racing team at one time with Piers Courage, Jonathan Williams, and Peter Gethin amongst the drivers and later, when Titans were produced, Lucas himself and Roy Pike scored many successes in the cars.

• P & M Racing Preparations have been preparing racing cars near central London for some five years or so now. “M” left to work in Sweden some years back and now we hear that “P” is also no longer with the firm. It is now run by two ex-JW Automotive Engineering employees, John Cook who is general manager and Bill Milligan who is works manager. They are expanding the firm at the premises known as The Arches, Chiswick Park Station, London W4.—A. R. M.