Superb photo by the way......I was in attendance!

Sterling

614,5&6D were the 66 cars. Can't tell from my pathetic long distance photo but there is a Ford photo from that race Graham Robson has used in books/articles that shows the Clark car clearly.

I haven't finished researching 1966 yet, but #85 was used by Whitmore at the GP support race at Brands only, in fact it is the only #85 works Cortina I can find in 1966.

"Ford in Touring Car Racing" by Graham Robson, page 66, provides the definitive answer. It is one of the photos I supplied for the book, showing Sir John Whitmore, Mk 1 Cortina,85, and Sir Gawaine Baillie, Falcon, 94. Two knights of the realm together in a modern version of jousting !

Peter Darley
Jim Clark - Life at Team Lotus.

Feeling in a nit-picking mood, I would like to point out that neither Whimore nor Baillie was a knight of the realm.
Both were/are baronets

Feeling in a nit-picking mood, I would like to point out that there is a "t" in Whitmore.

Two more Tim Blackburn photos. Brands Hatch, South Bank, but no record of which meeting - can you help, Frank?

Jackie Oliver and Frank Gardner.

Motor Show 200 October 22 1967

Just look at the Falcon burning rubber!!! I would have been standing just up from the Motor bridge, so I could see the complete entry and exit onto the straight.......superb photos!!!!


October was a great month, autumn colours and fantastic cars at Brands

Thanks for identifying the meeting, Peter.

It must have been a great event for so late in the season - Formula 2, Formula 3 and BSCC.

The legendary 'Doc' Merfield Ford Cortina. No details of which event - looks like Silverstone to me.

Tim Blackburn photograph

Another photo from Tim Blackburn. Mini Cooper driven the only way that John Rhodes knew. South Bank, Brands.

I've missed this one... but the answer already given matches my records!

1968? (Mk1 shell used in 67 and Britax colours in 69?)(and Rhodes and Handley in Abingdon cars for 69)

The only #12 Cooper-Cooper I can find (but I haven't got all entry lists from the 60's) would mean that this could be Steve Neal, 1968 GP support race at Brands. He might have copied Rhodes' driving style then

Correction: As only John Rhodes and Steve Neal knew! I'm sure you will be right, Frank. My assumption that it was Rhodes. Sadly for me Tim has not provided me with much detail for many of his shots. Thanks for the details.

I can smell those "tortured" Dunlops burning.....sheer bliss!

Superb photos, amazing memories, I attended most of these meetings.


Sterling

If they'd tortured them a little less they might have been better placed at the ends of races by then, not just at the beginning. It was one thing to go up against stretched/stressed 1200 Superspeed Anglias but by 1968 the Broadspeed 1300 GT Xflow Escorts were already a different ball game and the writing was clearly on the wall. Quite what Peter Browing then expected by entering a full Abingdon works team the next year is something I never understood.

Agreed, I never thought that Browning had the vision or skills of Stuart Turner or Marcus Browning. As for Rhodes and co, it was not as fast agreed, in fact you could see the Minis get slower during the race, but it was a blast to watch! To hear the whine of those transverse gearboxes........almost as good as the Floyd in full flow!

We'll get there eventually. I see I missed the N out of Browning and Sterling49 obviously meant Marcus CHAMBERS.
(Browning himself does equally badly in the edition I have of "The Works Minis", by recording being beaten to the 67 championship by a "1900"cc Fitzpatrick Anglia, which seems a bit of a stretch from 997...).
I checked it to confirm Steve Neal was in the second 68 BSCC car (Handley and Poole with British Vita 1000cc cars in Europe). 69 BSCC was Rhodes & Handley at Abingdon and Neal & Spice at Cooper.
Reading between the lines, the decision to go racing in 69 may have been about which drivers had a contract and which (expensive) Scandanavian rally drivers could be released.
Turner was a good judge of when to abandon ship (and later, with the RS1700T and the sports car, when to abandon programmes that would not win).
Marcus Chambers introduction to Rootes involved being made to run 4.2 Tigers at Le Mans against 4.7 Cobras....

We knew what we meant, even if the rest of TNF didn't!!!!


Sterling

Would anyone happen to know what number Terry Sanger's Falcon carried for the August 68 Oulton Park Gold Cup?

There is a brief glimpse of it in this race on the 'Classic Saloon Car Racing 60's style' video, but not clear enough to make out the number. The other Falcons were nos 83, another 89.

90 white/blue.

I can do a scan of the race entry if you wish

Roger Lund.

Roger, if you would be so kind to post it here (or cc me) then I'll add it to my site - for future referencce.

Thank you, and yes please, I'd love to see the race entry.

Maybe you'd know the answers to these other questions that are giving me some head scratching;

I've got a couple of photos of the Alan Mann Falcon driven by Frank Gardner in 1967, wearing number 50 and battling with the number 53 DR Mustang driven by Jackie Oliver at Silverstone. I've been trying to figure out exactly which Silverstone race this was, as there seem to be 3 or 4 possibilities.

At the March 68 Brands Hatch ROC meeting there was a purple Falcon with lime green side flashes and matching lime green wheels, number 104. I know that it was bought by Martin Birrane shortly after and later painted mustard and black, but I'm not certain who owned and drove it at the ROC in March.
Looking at the Euro Touring website it seems it would have to be the Falcon entered by David Brook and driven by Alan Stubbs, but I'd love to know for sure.

I've seen a Falcon listed in 1967 results on the Euro Touring website and in an entry list for the August 67 Lombank BSCC race, entered by Robert Ashcroft Racing LTD and driven by Peter Gethin. This one is a complete mystery to me. Does it ring any bells?

Ok I said a couple of questions, but I meant three ,

Thanks
Iain

Herewith 1968 Gold Cup meeting cover and saloon entry.

Roger Lund.

Thank you Roger.

Looking at the video, the 'A.N.Other' in Roger's programme was the second bigger engined Alan Mann Racing Escort of Graham Hill. He started from the front row next to team mate Frank Gardner and Charles Lucas in Paddy McNally's Porsche 911. The big Falcons started way back as practice was wet.

According to Autosport, the Robert Ashcroft Racing LTD Falcon driven by Peter Gethin was the ex-­Richard Bond Ford Falcon.

http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...scrstpaljf6.png]

I've been posting images in the wrong place, apologies to you all. Thanks Alan Cox

Here's Melvyn Adams and Jon Mowatt at Crystal Palace 29/5/72. Quite a capacity crowd.

http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mdrinkbhatchty1.png]

Mike Drinkwater at Brands 19/3/72. Further to a previous thread, I never did find out much about Mike. I'm told he had a Jag garage under the arches at Herne Hill and lived at Sanderstead South Croydon.

Anyone else shed any light on his CV?

Oops-a-daisy! Old Hall, Oulton Park August 1972. Does anyone recognise any of these contenders?

That was an interesting place in 1967 - 2 Afro-Caribbean guys there supplied me with a replacement shell when I wrote off my first Mini Cooper at Brands.

That's an understatement When I was a fresh faced trainee salesman, I had some interesting times in that locality Railton Road and the Frontline Off Licence seem to ring a bell.

In reply to the id of the red Sunbeam Rapier photo. 1st of all it is a Series II as can be seen by the standard side stripe which goes over the body waist chrome rather then under as Series III and IIIA do. The reason I mention this part is because the famous YWK 1,2,3,4 and 5 plated Rapiers were the new Series III models. Back to the red Rapier, 1958 saw the great Peter Harper partnered by 'Doc' Deane driving a Red Series II Rapier VRW 269 in the 1958 RAC rally which covered 1800 miles and was in freezing conditions. The course covered Prescott Hillclimb, the ranges of Epynt and tests and racing at Lydstep, Oulton Park, Aintree, Blackpool, Tow Top, Ulpha, Charterhall, Otterburn, Croft, Sherburn-in-Elmet, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Snetterton, Mallory, Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Hastings. Oh and they won outright as well. Sadly a lot of those circuit names have passed into history. Oh to have a video of that event.
This car was driven by Tommy Sopwith in the Monte Carlo and saw a lot of rallys before being used only as a circuit car with great success.

The Falcons in the other photos were known as Falcon Sprints and came out as both straight 6s and V8s. Ist used I think on the 1964 Monte Carlo before turning to circuit racing. I am happy to be corrected. My forte is Rootes built cars particularly Sunbeams both pre Rootes and right to the end in 1981.
Lovely to look at all those cars of my youth. I was in UK in 1961 for a year and again in 1967 for a year and have fond memories.

In one of the contributions someone mentioned the Oz V8s. No resemblance to a road going Ford or Holden under the skin. Very expensive things and would not go the distance in a 24hour race. The racing has also been spoilt by the Aussie penchant for street circuits.
I long for the days of racing cars off the showroom floor with no changes allowed except tyres, sparkplugs and shockers and classes. In the sixties at Bathurst to see Minis, Vauxhall Vivas and Cresta Triumph Heralds, Imps, Minxs, Hunters mixing with Cortinas, Escorts, Falcons, Mercedes storming down Conrod Straight and three wheeling through the Big Dipper.

I am new on here so i hope you will forgive my contribution. I congratulate you all on the items I have read. Photos were great.

While I have a Pug 307 Touring for my shopping car, my everyday hack is a 1968 Sunbeam Imp Sport with a lot of tuning and over 600,000 miles on the clock. I also have a 1961 Sunbeam Rapier IIIA, bought new in UK, a 1952 Sunbeam Talbot IIA and a 1968 Sunbeam Rapier Fastback for the wife. bye for now. Darcy

Welcome, imp. No need to forgrive your contribution, it's all good stuff, and great to have another enthusiast for sixties saloon car racing. Do you have any photos to add?

Time for a few more saloons, and their drivers, from the 1970s


Win Percy's Hermetite Dolomite leads Dave Brodie/Capri, and Andy Rouse/Carrier Properties Capri


VW Golf exponent Richard Lloyd, and Mini ace, Richard Longman

The entry list that Frank De Jong displayed (on p2 of this thread) brought back some some great memories of when I was a lowly trade technician supporting the series....and one name in particular caught my eye. He wasn't one of the superstars, but he loved the racing, was friendly and polite with the trade guys and was a nice guy to boot....we always cheered him on!

In the races, he was pretty much near the back, usually well lapped at the end, but kept his car in great condition so always finished. He was a consistent driver, lap times hardly varied, and if you saw him out on the circuit, you could see he had track 'manners': he would wave his hands to following drivers to indicate that they should pass him to the left or right. So when one day, at Brands on the 'long' circuit, he suddenly dropped off the lap chart, we wondered what had happened....he was well over a minute late when he appeared slowly in the pits, and had to be helped from his car.

Back in the Paddock, a little group of us went to see what had gone wrong, and found him surrounded by various drivers in a state of some agitation. It seemed that he had been flat along Pilgrim's and, becoming a little bored, had been poking his right index finger through the holes in the steering wheel spokes to pass the time.....and become stuck. With Hawthorn's fast approaching and needing to change gear, he had also seen Frank Gardner or someone steaming up behind....and had been forced to wave Frank past whilst changing down, more or less losing it on the brakes, and having to opposite lock - all with his index finger stuck in the wheel! The next several corners were taken this way, variously steering with his index finger whilst weaving around, and with sundry fast guys taking evasive action, until he could reach the pits and get his mechanic to free him.

He had a new steering wheel for the next race - without holes!

Chris Meek had purchased Norman's BDA/Hewland Escort it actually used 2 FT transmissions, one was mounted in a normal position to offer changeable ratios (albeit a pain to do....) and the other functioned as the differential with independent rear suspension.

We had "Princess Ita" on the side as a "sponsor", and at most events several very nice young ladies would arrive and a rumour would be spread that one could be her!

We had some tremendous battles with Nick Whiting and Gerry Marshall and others, but generally at the northern meets like Rufforth and Croft Chris would streak away from the rest.

Brian

Brian you can find Chris' Escort and many other cars from up north on this brilliant website:
http://www.racing70s.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/...o/firstpage.htm

Welcome Darcy...you have some nice toys tp play with Did a Cresta ever run at Bathurst?? Phillip Island, yes, the 500 won by Roxburgh...but Bathurst??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/7258230.stm

Brands Hatch as part of the BTCC 50th Year Celebrations are looking to recreate the BTCC " Shoot -out " of 1958 between Jack Sears and Tommy Sopwith.

Brands are asking for help from anyone who was there on the day?

Kind regards

Phil

Obviously I have covered the entire build up to the shoot-out and how it came about in my Jack Sears biography which should be in the shops by now as I was told by Rod Grainger at Veloce it would be out in Mid-February. However, to re-create it you will need to get two identical Riley 1.5's

Yes - '63 a Velox was driven by David Mckay and Greg Cusack but DNF, and in 1964 another driven by Ralph Sach and Max Brunninghausen but also DNF.
see
http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/bathurst_1963.htm

Having scanned another batch of Eddie Whitham's great photos, here is a rare colour shot of "Doc" Merfield's Cortina, leading what looks like a Simca. Old Hall Corner, Oulton, some time in the mid-sixties.

Gee Alan, great photo, now remembering this beauty really does make me feel old! Elegant cooling ducts and nice wheelarch work!!! That really was a thunder saloon

Renault Gordini , following Cortina.

Thanks Seldo! so a Cresta never made it to Bathurst...pity as I admired their space-age flowing lines.