Anyone recall a racer of this name. A good friend of mine knows his son, who tells him that John Horridge apparently raced in Britain in the 50s or 60s, and that at one point his mechanic was Graham Hill. I know no other details as yet, but wondered if anyone has heard of Mr Horridge, and if so, whether the Graham Hill point is true ?? My friend also knows Warren Booth, who I am well aware of !

The words 'Lister' and 'Bristol' ring a bell in connection with Mr Horridge - will have a look at a couple of sources later

In "Archie and the Listers" Robert Edwards says Horridge did indeed race a Lister-Bristol, as David said, but suffered a broken neck at Snetterton on July 27 1957, "effectively" ending his racing career. He bought another Lister after this, but nothing further in the book.

So, not sure what he did in the 60s.

All I've been able to find is that he shared a Lotus 11 with John Campbell-Jones in the 1959 TT at Goodwood.

Thankx chaps, very helpful as ever !

Now, any memories about the good Warren Booth, who my mate promises to take me to meet soon. As I remember WB was a tiny bloke, small and wiry, maybe Blackburn's answer to 'Little Art' !

A bit more:
•In 1954 Horridge finished 2nd in the 24hr Bol d'Or at Montlhéry, sharing a Riley with Georges Trouis
•He had several class successes with the Lister-Bristol in small British sportscar races in 1956 and 1957
•He and Campbell-Jones won the 1100 class of the 1959 Nürburgring 1000km race in a Lotus

I think John Horridge owned the Lister Bristol later hillclimbed by Josh Randles(JCH 888 ) I purchased this car from Brian Classic many years ago and the log book stated the car was originally described as a Lister Alta.

Horridge, John Walter Stuart Schofield

Born Bury, Lancashire 1 February, 1926

Director of Horridge & Cornwall, calico printers

( Motor Racing Directory 1955/56 )

John

On closer inspection, it seems Horridge may hve raced more than one Lister-Bristol, including the ex-works car VPP9. But I don't think he had JCH888, which was supposedly not raced until Austin Nurse bought it in 1956. Then Gil Baird 1957, Randles 1958 etc

Wasn't this a Riley engined special, called a Jehu?

Pass
I seem to remember the race was well reported in either Autosport or MotorSport, but no time to check at the moment

It was and I did.

It wasn't really called 'a' Jehu - it was named 'Jehu' - in the sense that 'Bluebird' was so-named, or 'Remus', 'Romulus', 'Golden Arrow' etc. Horridge's cars - I have been told - were notoriously scruffily presented and poorly prepared and one works team principal recalled how - at Montlhery, I think - Horridge came storming into the pits, slammed on his brakes and juddered to a stop while both headlights popped out of their mountings to dangle from their wires, having never been screwed-in securely.

DCN

More on John Horridge. The 'Jehu' was a Riley-engined special (BEN 775) with a very ugly alloy bodyshell made by Rochdale Motor Panels of Rochdale. He took the car to the 26th Bol D'Or on 29-30 May 1954 at Montlhery when he and partnet G.Trouis drove steadily to second place. Had they not stopped for extra fuel at the start, they may well have won.

He later raced a Lister-Bristol (DEN 275) fitted with a Rochdale C-type GRP bodyshell during the 1957 season.

Horridge died in 1987 but his company Newford Parts Centre of Abbey Village, near Chorley, Lancs, is still being run by his youngest son Roland.

See the thread on the Lester Riley, funnily enough I had no idea that this thread existed. I know that once upon a time he had an ERA engine in a Morris Oxford. I asked a while ago if anybody knew which engne

Which engine did the Jehu-Riley have? Thinking about my previous posting I wonder if perchance it was a 6 cylinder.

My records show that the Jehu had an MG 1250cc XPAG engine, and the car was based on the running gear of a Jowett Jupiter.

Sorry, I'm speaking rubbish. I've just checked on his family website - Newford Parts Centre - which clearly states the car was based on a 1.5 litre Riley.

Ah yes Paul, but which engine, both 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder were available in !.5 litre form
JF

Dear All

My father, Anthony Taylor was involved with John Horridge’s various cars in the sixties, these are some of his thoughts :

“I got to know John in around 1964 when he asked me to try to get his Lister Bristol running properly for him, the engine had been rebuilt by a firm in Manchester and re-fitted to the car but was showing no oil pressure. At the time I was working with Pete West at Westune and was working on the Lister at John’s in the evenings. I fitted a new oil pump and generally re-commisioned the car, and in return John allowed me to race the car at various Oulton Park and Aintree meetings through until 1966.

My understanding of the situation (from some memories, and looking in the excellent Archie and the Listers, and Anthony Pritchard Sports Racing Car books) was that John originally owned a special bodied Lister Bristol (reg DEN 275 – all Bury reg numbers were EN based), which he raced quite successfully until he wrote it off at Snetterton in July 1957. He then replaced this car with another Lister Bristol, (the car was originally owned by Ormsby Issard-Davies and was fitted with a Lucas body and registered as VPP 9) by the time John bought the car, Lister had fitted a flat iron body and taken off the VPP 9 reg, which they retained. It was this one that he asked me to fix and then race in 64, I suspect he had not raced it himself as the body was unpainted when I first began to work on the car, and I had it painted Burgundy with a silver stripe.

After I had finished racing it, John sold it on to a Rochdale based printer who re-painted it in Blue.

With regards to the Jehu, this car was based on a Jowett Jupiter chassis with a Riley engine and gearbox and was originally raced by John with some sort of Rochdale body and the reg BEN 775. By the time I saw it, it had been fitted with a Healey 100 body tub, a Rochdale fibreglass nose and been re-trimmed, to be used as a road car. I finished off the work and John allowed me to use it as my every day transport for about a year, I eventually returned it to John and never saw it again. One thing I do remember is that it had special wheels (possibly Cooper) with no centres, bolted directly to the edge of the large aluminium finned drums. It also had an old Bugatti steering wheel, on which I broke my wrist when someone turned in on me driving home one evening !

He also had a Morris Oxford fitted with a Riley six cylinder engine, (which I think was the basis of the ERA engine) but I was told it was a Riley motor and not from an ERA.”

Hopefully some of this is helpful in filling in the history of some of the John Horridge owned cars.

Cheers
Rick T

I have no idea if this is the John Horridge link, but my understanding of Graham Hill's early career is:
- Saw the leaflet offering laps of Brands Hatch in a 500 for 5 shillings a lap (the Universal Motor Racing Club). Tried it and was hooked.
- Signed on with the school as a mechanic, on the promise of races in payment, but these never materialised. The Club folded
- Christmas 1953, he met a "fellow in a pub in Paddington" who was interested in starting a motor racing school . He went to work for him on Westerham, Kent. This became the Premier Motor Racing Club, and GH did the same deal of mechanicing in return for races.
- He got one race (Brands Hatch, 19/04/54) in a Cooper. I believe he also got a second drive, this time in a Kieft, when the owner was getting married, but I haven't traced this yet.
- He had cadged a lift home from the Brands Hatch meeting with some fly-by-night called Colin Chapman and ended up helping out, eventually becoming a mechanic. He was still offering his services around as an unpaid mechanic. He does mention picking up such work with Danny Margulies and his C-Type, going on the European Tour through the Summer (I'm guessing he means 1954 still).
- When he married Bette, he took a permanent job with Lotus.

Now one story suggests Premier was Don Parker, but I have my doubts (Don was based in Clapham/Battersea). Perhaps this, or Universal, involved John Horridge?

I believe this person was my father, Leonard Weller as he owned Premier Motor Racing Club and lived in Westerham and Graham Hill drove his Cooper/ Kieft. Have you found out any more information regarding the above?

Very little, I'm afraid. Your father's name hasn't come up in any 500 results I've traced (which is quite a lot). But Hill does refer to a "Mr Weller" so yes, that all fits well.

It still seems that Premier MRC had two cars. The Cooper Mk IV is unknown, but it seems that the Kieft was Don Parker's 1952 chassis - that car is being restored and apparently you can see where the chassis was re-lengthened to take normal-sized people like Graham.
Hill was at least entered for four more races at Brands Hatch - 1st May, 7th June, 4th July and 2nd August. I have results for Hill in the first three of these. But it is worth bearing in mind that programmes were very unreliable. It is not 100% certain which car Hill drove in each race (remember that in 1954 most races at a Brands Hatch meeting were for 500s), and if/who drove - either sharing or using the other car. I have no other drivers for these events.

It may well be at that August Bank Holiday meeting that, depending on which story you believe, either 500 racer Gordon Jones made introductions, or Graham cadged a lift home from Colin Chapman and inveigled himself a job as a Lotus mechanic.

However, for the first Plum Pudding Meeting (27th December), we have a new driver - Ray (possibly Roy) Bayton. Ray would drive the Kieft regularly in 1955, and almost certainly kept the car when Premier MRC folded (running it until 1959). Other drivers in 1955 were:
PJ Bourke
AF Jacks
HI Tawse
All three only raced 500s in 1955 for Premier MRC, and the fact that I only know their initials says much. Do any of these ring any bells?

These were all well known names to Brands Hatch regulars, although thanks to the vague programme notes we were never sure if we were watching Bourke or Jacks!. I remember that Roy Bayton could be something of an ace in the Kieft and H Tawse produced some nice consolation race drives. They were great days!.

Thanks Eric,
If it was tricky from the spectator areas, you can imagine how difficult it is 60 years on.

There were a lot of drivers competing regularly in 500cc races at Brands Hatch back in the '50's many clearly pretty impecunious and running somewhat less than up-to-date machinery.
Most of them would be eliminated from the main event in the heats, and then have their own consolation race, this was usually won by one of the faster drivers who had retired from the heats, but I well remember one such event when it rained heavily and a lot of the 'backmarkers' lead the race in turn, demonstrating that it was lack of money, not ability that normally held them back. A dodgy memory recalls a lime green JBS driven by Trackman as being particularly impressive that day.

Other names that spring to mind are J R S Parker, Donald Wagner and B E Ecclestone. I wonder what happened to them all?

Peter Jopp drove a front engined Emeryson, nothing to do with John Horridge who was usually reported as driving a Jehu Riley in the press.

Racing was never better than 500cc Formula 3 back in the mid fifties, close racing, big grids, drivers you could see, a great sound and Castrol 'R' fumes! Simply Magic.