Practice at Prescott

Surprisingly few people took the opportunity of using Prescott Hill over the week-end of May 4th and 5th for practising purposes. The hill had just been resurfaced and was in a very slippery state, and those who attended had their work cut out to find much adhesion, especially with partly-worn racing covers. K. W. Bear, with his 3-litre special 4.9 Le Mans car and Type 51, and C. Lambton with a sports Type 37 were the only Bugattisti present who actually diced. Others who ran were Cowell, Abecassis, Heath and Mortimer with Altas, and Ansell, Whitehead and Gerard with E.R.A.s.

On Saturday Louis Giron very unfortunately ran off the road at Orchard hairpin and struck a tree with the ex-T. A. S. O. Mathieson 3-litre Maserati, now owned by F/Lt. Yates. Luckily he wasn’t badly hurt and should be about again before long. Thanks to the Cowell equipe’s travelling workshop the Maserati was towed home.

Whitehead, whose E.R.A. it is rumoured has a Z.F. self-locking differential, made some very good climbs, and Ansell’s getaways were truly inspiring.

Due to the slippery nature of the surface Heath’s 2-litre Sports Alta and Lambton’s Type 37 Bugatti suffered less from wheelspin than anyone, and were among the fastest through the bends. Cowell, with the latest thing in 2-litre Altas, suffered from too much power and too little tread on the back covers, but improved greatly when he borrowed twin rear wheels from Abecassis. K. W. Bear, on his 4-carburetter, 3-litre Bugatti Special drove very smoothly and gave the impression of knowing his way up the hill better than anyone.