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 There
was a scarcity of some of the more potent cars, this was no doubt due
to the Nurburgring meeting taking place this weekend. However, the Masons
had turned up en-famille and brought along the sole 250F along with the
Bugatti T35B, the T51 "Birdcage" Maserati, Aston International
and Aston Ulster.
There were a good number of E.R.A.s competing and the damp track conditions
made for good spectating.
Another interesting car out on the day was Robin Lodge's D50 Lancia which
came out a couple of years ago and is being used now to good effect (top
picture)
The days racing was very varied in content. The smaller capacity vintage/
P.V.T., vehicles may not blast their way round the circuit in quite the
same way as the Historic Racing and heavier machinery but they are in
their own right well worth watching. If one knows the drivers and capabilities
of particular cars, then the skill in pulling as much performance out
of a car as possible to beat the opposition can be just as fascinating.
This especially can be said for the handicap races. Some very hairy moments
occur when the faster cars have to navigate through the slower field.
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 The
second race of the day, the 12 lap scratch race for the Hawthorn
International Trophy was marred by an incident in which Julian Bronson
found himself bundled off the circuit with quite a bit of damage
to the bodywork of his Lister Costin. This was the result of two
separate collisions that did not appear to be really necessary.
He was, however, able to continue to finish in second place What
a pity that drivers whose skills are well recognised and should
be admired have to resort to Banger Racing tactics.
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 Charles
Dean went very well indeed in the T51 Bugatti to win from Tim Llewellyn
in race 4., a 10 lap scratch race. Nick Mason in the T35 Bugatti
hung on to 3rd place for much of the race but lost out in the closing
laps to Gary Caroline in his Morgan Super Aero. A fast exciting
race this with very close racing throughout the field.
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 Race
6 brought the E.R.A.s out to do battle with post-war machinery. They did
however hold their own. John Ure in R9B giving Nick Mason in the 250F
a run for his money and finishing 2 seconds ahead. Charles Dean in the
T51 managed to finish 3rd. One very interesting car in the field was John
Guyatt's Kurtis Indianapolis, resplendent in it's Brickyard livery. Always
interesting to see new cars appear. This might well have been a close
relative one of the cars brought over for the"Race Of Two Worlds"
at Monza in 1958. It was originally meant to attract Grand Prix Cars to
compete against the "Indy" cars, but few Formula One teams were
at all interested and it was left to the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse team to
defend European pride. They did that very well, finishing 4th, 5th and
6th in cars that had travelled directly from Le Mans having run the full
24 hours. The cars were given a routine clean up , checked, found to be
in good shape and raced.
 The
Invitation Cooper race was fast and furious, the drivers demonstrated
very well why these cars are considered great. A worthy winner was Rod
Jolley in the T51 1958 car, Frank Sytner was close on his heels in 2nd
place in a T53 1960 car belonging to John Coombs and John Harper was 4
seconds behind in 3rd place in another T51. A good spectacle to mark this
very special meeting.
The latter part of the meeting was dry, much to the relief of drivers
who had had a very interesting time in earlier races.
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