Also on David Wheeler, his SDC sponsorship began at the beginning of the 1979 season. He had looked fairly handy in an FF car at Silverstone, which was all that mattered to Bob & Dave from SDC, as this was where their suite was for entertaining. They loved nothing better than seeing their blue car winning before their prospective clients.

David had been campaigning an ex-Toleman RP21 (still in Toleman colours), then his own RP26. With Trevor van Rooyen back racing Atlantics for Team Gunston at home, SDC needed a driver to back. We met in a pub, the Catworth Fox on the A14 for a Saturday lunchtime pint and Bob & Dave wanted my Dad there ( I tagged along )
as they did not really know too much about racing despite their previous involvement with Trevor. David Wheeler and SDC hit it off straight away, a deal was done on a hand shake (£1000 for the season I think it was!) and later that year David left his job with BOC and joined SDC, later becoming a director. A couple of weeks after that meeting David bought a truck. My dad said he would go and fetch it for him and off we went to Sussex to collect it from a doctor. It was Jonathan Palmer's 'JSM Joinery' brown & white truck, one I had seen many times around the FF paddocks in '78. Soon painted in SDC blue David was ready for the season and I painted the pit board to match. His best win I think was in 1980 in the RP26. A great scrap defeating Walsh, Tom Wood, Dave Scott, etc. That was a great day, it was my 21st too and a very long night spent in the SDC suite!

Thank you very much for all the information about my two photographs which I can now label much more accurately.


If I can once more use your collective knowledge to identify this picture that I have marked as January 1975 in my inadequate filing system.

David

Looks like an Irishman, given the Shamrock (?) on helmet, in a Crossle 25F. Would it be at the Boxing Day Brands meeting late 74?

It's not EJ is it?

Roos was entered for the Canadian series by Ecurie Canada, with sponsorship from Schweppes. He was in Britain to collect his new car for the series so had a one off race with it. Should be chassis 75B-10 but might have been described as a 74B as he took over Norman Dickson's entry and that car was a 712M with 74B bodywork.

Chris

I don't why, but David Kennedy springs to mind. It's the right car, right time but the wrong colour. When he had Group waterworks backing it was black.

It was the start of the Irish Formula Ford invasion to England and it was absolutely brilliant

Remember the old black bus David Kennedy lived in, race car in the back?
Now they have managers, driver coaches, a good salary as part of the sponsorship deal
and probably top class hotel rooms on race weekends or expensive luxury Winnebagos, but
most of them not 1% of the hunger to succeed that guys like Kennedy had!

Remember the bus - hardly modern even in those days!

I also remember when the Super Vees came to Silverstone (including, I think, one K Rosberg). They travelled Europe for the season living off sponsorship and start money. One truck even had a Lathe in the back. They certainly seemed to enjoy what they were doing

Oh and the Crossle might well be EJ!

Ask Diz, he might know!

I think that's the back end of the Kennedy bus to the right, above. Snap taken at Oulton Park in July 1976. I see David around quite a lot - excellent bloke. Conversations about Crosslé 30Fs are not unknown. I think the partially obscured figure by the left-rear wheel is DK's girlfriend (and future wife) Fiona Butterfield, who later raced in the Fabergé Fiesta series for ladies. She used to help him prep the 30F.

1976 was my favourite year for Formula Ford racing in the UK. Huge fields of Crossles, Van Diemens, Hawkes, Lolas and Royales all vying for victory. Most races were so oversubscribed they needed two heats and a final to sort them out. The depth of talent behind the wheels was immense too, David Kennedy, Derek Warwick, Derek Daly, Rick Morris, Bernard Devaney, Mike Blanchet etc etc... The Hawke DL15s were great looking cars too.

The South African invasion too in FF1600 at this time, Rad Dougall, Kenny Gray, Geoff Smailes and Trevor van Rooyen with Rory designing the fantastic 21s & 24s for Royale. Royale's golden period.

Quite correct Mr Arron....



For the Formula Three race we crossed over the track:

Seeing it is the start of the weekend thought a liitle indentification quiz is in order for these two F3 shots:





Kind regards

Phil

Do you remember David's sister Simon? Forget her name, lovely but she could drink and swear with the best of us, I mean them. She did some of the modelling for Grand Prix Racewear catalogues etc, as David was involved with the company wasn't he?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Andrew Kitson
[B]Jim is back on the scene today BTW. Barry Walsh (not sure how related but they are) is team boss of Ultimate Motorsport in the modern day British F3 Championship, Jim has been working for them as a consultant.

QUOTE]Barry is Jim's younger brother who also did some formula ford back in the late 80s early 90s

David

I'm fairly sure it's Frank Hopper, probably taken in 1974. He drove a white 25F and that helmet rings a bell. Eddie Jordan's FF1600 Crosslés were blue, I think.

Cheers,
Simon

Do you remember the picture in MN of EJ flying through the air approaching the Mallory hairpin when he tangled with Kenny Gray's car? Think that was '75. Talking of Mallory and OT, apparantly the trees have all gone on the infield from the esses to the hairpin ( diseased ) and the track has been widened up to the hairpin to help overtaking opportunities. Anyone else heard this?

And indeed the 1980s.....picked out six Clubmans shots and Mr Davies is in four of them:

Trimoco Clubmans Race 17th August 1985 ( Oulton Park)



Through Cascades he is tucked up behind the Mallock Mk23/24 of Mike Lane while Mike Donovan follows....



...however he is through on the following lap

Fast forward to the 20th October of the same year

BRSCC Clubmans Register Race



This time he is trapped between the Vision of Leslie Duncan and the Mallock Mk 24 of Richard Groombridge



But in this race there is no way through !!!!!!! :

Kind regards

Phil

What fantastic detail.



I'd put money on it being Hopper. What happened to him, I wonder?

This might look as though it belongs on a stately homes thread, which it clearly does, but it is utterly relevant here, too. Who will be the first to explain why?

Oulton Park?

The original Crystal Palace, London, S.E.19

Is the #17 Reynard 853 being piloted by Julian Bailey?

I was present for the FF1600 Race of Champions at the BGP. I remember names like Dave Weitzenhof, Basil Mann, Jackson Yonge, Niclas Schonstrom, Jaari Haavisto etc etc. Mr Coyne held them all off iirc but Schonstrom was the best of the foreign contingent, i'm pretty sure he went on to F3 with Swallow Racing.

Fair enough. This is the stately pile that burned down on February 14 1926 (I think), or it might have been 1929. I did once interview a lady who was there on the night, working as a maid - part of a book project that John Webb part-commissioned but then abandoned. She was a regular at the track into the 1980s, as a cleaner, but unfortunately I lost the transcript after the book was canned. I was given this print, however, to show me the building in all its glory. It was located more or less at the site of the current Old Hall corner.

I suspect Mallory Dan, Chris Townsend or Allen Brown might be able to name all the deer

Could one of them be the extremely rapid Irish driver of the 1980s Michael Doe?

Kind Regards

Phil

There is a piece in this week's MN about £250,000 being spent at Mallory before the new season commences, including the widening of the hairpin approach and the proposal to incorporate a rallycross circuit.


Would that have been Hilda Grimsditch, Simon, who, apart from working at the circuit in her later years was also the first female member of the Mid-Cheshire Motor Racing Club in the 1950s?

I often wondered what it looked like. I can remember as a youngster trying to work out where exactly it had been located, but simply couldn't fathom it out as I stumbled around in the undergrowth on the outside of Old Hall Corner.

This is quite a picture Simon. Initially it reminded me of any number of National Trust properties - Clandon Park immediately came to mind for some reason.

Wow.

Oi!

I'm guessing that they all have Hart engines...

If its Frank Hopper he was involved in Sweeney Hopper Racing a few years ago.

Let's have a go!

Dancer, Prancer, Blitzen (Benz), Rudolph (Carricola), Donna, ................

Was Rudolph the driver with the red nose cone?

Kind regards

Phil

Some more FF pictures. Bernard Devaney's works PRS at Silverstone, Bank holiday Monday, August 1978. SDC stickers applied that morning as their F3 driver Trevor van Rooyen was in hospital following a big shunt during the Euro F3 race at Donington on the Saturday. An F3 race was on the Silverstone programme too, however SDC needed a car to cheer on and Bernard won for them, securing a deal until the end of the season. Trevor Carlin was the 'gofer' at PRS as his uncle was team boss!


Current Classic F3 ace Richard Trott with his family sponsored RP24 at the same August meeting.


Tom Wood, a Silverstone specialist raced this Van Diemen during the 1980 season.


A very wet start to the 1984 Silverstone FF season.


Two Champcar aces in their FF days in the UK. Gil de Ferran's works Fulmar Reynard-Auriga and below that Adrian Fernandez' John Village entered van Diemen, Silverstone 1989.




A nostalgic car but at a modern event. The final HSCC meeting of the year, Silverstone 2003. Greg Thornton's Titan in those classic Titan colours.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Simon Arron
[B]

Fair enough. This is the stately pile that burned down on February 14 1926 (I think), or it might have been 1929. I did once interview a lady who was there on the night, working as a maid - part of a book project that John Webb part-commissioned but then abandoned. She was a regular at the track into the 1980s, as a cleaner, but unfortunately I lost the transcript after the book was canned. I was given this print, however, to show me the building in all its glory. It was located more or less at the site of the current Old Hall corner.

Using Google.....you can pull up the headlines for the Illustrated London News for February 20th 1926
(Could have beeen a weekly publication ) which highlights the fact that six people lost their lives in the fire.
The report also goes onto to say that historic art treasures were also destroyed by the fire, which was obviously secondry compared to the loss of life.

Kind regards

Phil

Another of my grainy b&w photgraphs. I used to shoot one roll of colour on the F1 cars and another roll of black and white F1 pictures with perhaps just 2 or 3 exposures used on the support races. With hindsight and if I could have afforded it, I wish now I had shot more of the club and National level racing.

This one is the FFord race at the 1974 International Trophy race.



David

If no-one else apart from Mondiale is going to have a go, I'll stick my neck out. I agree that the top photo shows Julian Bailey in the Dave Price Racing Reynard 853, ahead of Phil Kempe's Ralt. In the bottom photo Joe Foster and Giles Butterfield (??) take avoiding action as Jari Koiranen has a moment in the Magnum 853.

I covered the 1985 F3 season, or part of it, for a now-defunct magazine, and am glad I didn't rely on my memory and have a crack at naming these guys
But is the car in third place in the top picture one of the Saab-powered Ralts?

Not forgetting 1973 Monte winning co-driver Michele Petit - who competed as "Biche" (Doe) to conceal the reasons for her prolonged absences from University.

(As I've still got the programme open on my knee) the Reynard-Saabs were 27 (Sandro Sala) and 28 (Reid). If we agree that the number of the third car is 42 (?), it must be David Hunt in the Cellnet Reynard-VW.

Wow, it wasn't that bad of a transporter! 2nd picture is ME warming up the engine, probably at Brands? I did several races with Tony before taking on the Baty F2 car for Tom Pryce/James Hunt.

Love this thread! Keep it coming, I didn't keep much from that era.

Brian

Ah yes, the Cellnet car
(And I obviously still don't know my Reynards from my Ralts)

All 3 were taken at Silverstone in 1974. I often wonder whether the people in the background will recognise themselves and and add a few comments. It was a great era of racing

Sadly, modern racing is not likely to produce that type of nostalgia. The cars, drivers, teams are totally without character.

I grew up around Lanfranchi, Marshall, Alan Jones/Brian McGuire AIRO, Tiff Needell with his Anglia van and newly won Lotus FF, of course Tony Brise, Tom Pryce to name a few.

Nobody today would do 4 events in 4 days! We ran Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday then Monday, always at different tracks. I remember one time waking up and thinking that I had overslept to drive from London to Mallory, ran out and hauled a$$, when I got onto the M1, I happened tpo recheck my watch and realised I had set out 2 hours TOO early. So I had time for those bacon butties on the way!

Brian

I think this was probably the May Bank Holiday meeting when Mr Arron and I as usual took the train and bike to Oulton, while my father, mother and sister arrived later by car. So creating the one and only time the "Rainford Family"were present together at a Race Meeting.

I cycled home in eager anticipation of their reaction....

Only to be told by my mother

" The noise was far too loud and as for that man in the orange car, why was he going so fast, none of the other driver's were?"

Kind regards

Phil

Brian great to have you here. Yes brilliant days which will never ever come back. Far too sterilized and policed these days, health & safety everywhere with ridiculous demands on the circuits to comply with the ticking of the boxes to get the circuit insurance and the dreaded noise police. Anyway, is that your tool box just in shot to the right of the top picture?

For the benefit of Phil's mum, here's something of a slightly gentler pace than Tony Brise's Modus. Taken at Oulton Park on July 8/9 1977 (when ELP stormed the charts with Fanfare for the Common Man - a theme that still accompanies Altrincham FC onto the pitch 31 years later).


Vast swathes of humanity not pictured as Steve Farthing (Reynard 77SF) sweeps inside Guy Garson (Elden Mk22) during the John Conteh Formula Ford 2000 event.


Dunlop/Autosport neophytes lurk in the assembly area. John Gray (Hawke DL15) is closest to the camera. Dave Hoban (Ray), Brian Holloway (Elden Mk10) and Martin Flitman (Royale RP21) are parked next to him, Bill Shepherd (Tiga) is stationed closest to the gate. Not sure who is parked to Shepherd's left. According to my programme, there were 10 starters in heat one (odd numbers) and 16 in heat two (evens). At that time, the FF1600 lap record on the Fosters circuit stood at 67.0s... shared nine ways (John Bright, Derek Daly, David Kennedy, Rod Bremner, Derek Warwick, Philip Bullman, Rick Morris, Matt Argenti and Kenny Gray).


The FF1600 heats and final took place on Friday, which was practice day for everyone else. That probably explains why the PA system outnumbers spectators as Lawrence Rose (Van Diemen RF76) leads Gordon Coutts (Hawke DL15) through Knickerbrook.

Moving on to Aintree in the summer of 1980 (Lipps Inc - Funkytown, Gary Numan - We Are Glass, Specials - Rat Race etc etc)...

Apologies if I have posted this before, but it's a picture of personal significance: the first thing of mine Motoring News ever published. Gerry Marshall (24) has a dinked front left wing, having just tipped John Myerscough into a spin at Country Corner on lap one. David Yates (30) and Martin Williams (32) are in close proximity. Not sure about the two partially obscured BMWs. One looks like an ex-Manitou car. Think Jim Marsden might be in the other. Anyone any ideas?

Summer of 1985, it is Saturday 17th August and the sun is shining in deepest Cheshire......

A trio of Formula Three drivers all blessed with undoubted talent, however non were destined to spray the winner's champagne at a Grand Prix:

The Reynard 853 Saab of Mauricio Sandro Sala



The Ralt RT30 of Mauricio Gugelmin



The Ralt RT30 of Formula Ford Festival winner Gerrit Van Kouwen ( If my memory is correct both the previously pictured driver's Festval attempts ended inverted in the Kent undergrowth)



Kind regards

Phil

Sandro-Sala ended up embedded in the Paddock hill barriers with Ross Cheever after a massive off in one of the 1983 Semi-finals at the Festival. Typical 'rear wheel rides over front wheel' scenario as one shut the door on the other. Gugelmin had the controversial clash with Julian Bailey in the 1982 final. Gugelmin's Van Diemen ended up 'on' the clearways bank whilst Bailey took the glory in his Lola.

Sala's team mate in the F3 car pictured was Anthony Reid. IIRC it was the first carbon fibre tub F3 car. In the first practice session of the year on Silverstone club on a wet track, Reid had a coming together and rolled it at Woodcote, alarmingly the carbon roll hoop snapped off.

Pity the Saab engine was such a hound really as Reid and Sandro Sala would have been definite front runners given a decent mill.

I have a video of that somewhere.