Letters: Images of racing at Aintree

Like Mike Doodson, I have many fond memories of Aintree [Was it a fix?, August]. My father, who had raced motorbikes on Southport Sands, took me along to Aintree in 1955. He had previously taken me to Oulton Park and Alton Towers (long before Alton Towers became a leisure park there were motor bike races).

On one occasion travelling down the East Lancs Road we were passed by two Maserati 250Fs!

I soon became hooked on motor sport. I joined the marshals club and officiated at Aintree many times. At major meetings Mirabel Topham provided lunch for the marshals on practice day. I remember at one event helping John Bolster pulling out the cable for his microphone – long before the advent of the radio! Attached are a few photographs I have taken over the years, see above and below.

Michael Cookson, Audlem, Cheshire

I always enjoy reading the Letters page and found myself nodding in agreement with Peter Herbert’s notes in the July issue praising the article by my old friend Paul Lawrence on the 70-plus-year-old FF drivers [The Veterans of Formula Ford, June].

As a competitor in racing and hillclimbing since 1972 I agree that it can be a rewarding sport for older competitors. I especially appreciate the friendly rivalry in the hillclimb paddock, where no one gets accused of blocking or forcing you off the track!

Then my attention was caught by the photograph accompanying Peter’s letter –yes, it was one taken by my wife Joy at Loton Park in September 2023 of the ‘Porsche’ class when we were in the paddock next to them. Joy is delighted to be able to add Motor Sport to the journals to have published her work. I have suggested that she should submit some more to you!

I do find so much more to read in Motor Sport than any other monthly, even the one which recently converted from being weekly.

Peter Richings, Coventry, West Midlands

Your excellent track test of the Alan Mann Escort [Mann alive!, July] together with the 60th anniversary for Jim Clark reminded me just how deeply involved Ford were in all types of motor sport during the 1960s and ’70s.

Ford’s peak was 1967, with AJ Foyt winning his third Indianapolis 500, and the Le Mans win for the GT40. Also consider that the Ford Cosworth DFV arrived in F1 in 1967 and Parnelli Jones had his Baja Ford Bronco with its unique front shock.

In Europe we had Escorts, Cortinas and Capris in saloon and touring car racing as well as national and world rallying. And to top it all we had Formula Ford.

I began work in a small Ford dealer in Scotland – Stodarts. As a teenager I saved my farm wages and my first cars were a Mk1 Escort Mexico and Mk2 Lotus Cortina.

Thankfully Ford totally blew away the old elite, snobbish Brooklands mafia – ‘the right crowd and no crowding’. Oh how I hated that! So, Mr Ford, thank you.

Martin Casswell, via email

PS: I am a farmer with no connection with Ford, apart from being a customer, and all-round Motor Sport fan.

I was most interested to read the words from Phil Froude in the Letters pages [July]. Certainly I would be very pleased to acquire the Bond archive following Chris Featherstone’s death, both to add to my Bond Formula Junior records and a memory of many interesting days spent with Chris, and later, the Bond itself.

Chris had raced the Bond in period and then for many years had saved it in crashed state, together with the then-unbuilt-up second car.

When Historic Formula Junior reconstituted itself with stand-alone races in the mid-1990s, I was determined to gather back on track as many of the ‘forgotten’ marques as could be found. This led to Chris’s restoration of his first car and ultimately to return to FJ driving.

Some years later, I had the chance to race the Bond myself, then owned by the late Jon Goddard-Watts, when he kindly provided me with a ‘works’ drive at Brno in the Czech Republic: certainly a front-wheel-drive FJ was different to my usual Alexis, but so was the power of a Ford engine compared with my usual BMC!

Chris was a hugely interesting man: after the Bond FJ, in period, he raced the Martin Slater-built Cheetah FJ, and this is one of the FJ cars still missing. Maybe this is the chance to hear from someone with that lost snippet of information? I’ve attached a photo of Chris at the wheel of the Cheetah in July 1965 at Brands Hatch.

Duncan Rabagliati, wimbledon, london

I stumbled across a letter in your magazine from March 1991 relating to a Railton Terraplane with the number plate ALU 601. I believe this was my grandfather’s car, and I have a photo of it from 1934 in Liverpool. I’d be interested if the current owner would like to contact me for an exchange of any useful information. This is the 1991 letter:

Sir, At Christie’s auction of unrestored motor cars at the Beaulieu Auto-Jumble, I purchased a 1933 Railton Terraplane, perfect in every way, apart from a couple of things; firstly the Perkins P6 diesel engine fitted in 1954 and secondly the substantial garage which fell on it in 1987.

The car, universally slated by the historic Motoring Press, turns out to be one of only three surviving Ranalah-bodied tourers, and prior to the auction was unknown to the Railton Owners Club. I feel sure it is a car which some long-time reader of Motor Sport will know. I am anxious to trace the car’s history.

Reputedly one-owner until 1989 when sold and exported to France, its registration number is ALU 601, a London series. I am not sure, though, whether it is the original, or the car was re-registered in 1954 when the Perkins P6 diesel engine was fitted. The car also has a Wilson pre-selector gearbox, has always had blue upholstery and I think was originally painted black. It was subsequently painted red, maroon and finally green.

If anyone knows of this car’s past history I would like to hear from them; likewise from anyone who has a spare Essex Terraplane 8 engine or 1934 or ’35 Hudson Eight and would like it to go to a good home. 

Nigel Plant, Norwich [sic], Cheshire

Richard foley, via email

I note that Andrew Frankel ranks the Plus Four Morgan among the worst cars he has ever driven [Is Morgan finally in the pink?, August].

A different view from that of his former colleague, the late Gordon Cruickshank, whose road test of the car in November 1988’s Motor Sport [Vintage theory] went into raptures over the Plus Four, referring to it as “a motoring indulgence to savour”.

The term Marmite comes to mind.

Geoff Whyler, via email