Festive racing

Today reminds me of the Boxing Day sportscar endurance races which used to take place at Roy Hesketh Circuit, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Originally they were named after the great motorcyclist Dickie Dale. With Christmas festivities over it was time to concentrate on motor racing.

There were a series of Three Hour enduros (forming part of a summer series of endurance races throughout South Africa from November to early January) from the mid 1960’s up until the 1973 oil crisis when (if memory serves me right) they were cancelled.

When the Boxing Day races took place the town known as “Sleepy Hollow” awakened and in particular the road from Durban (50 miles of it) was packed with traffic being mainly enthusiasts making their way to Roy Hesketh Circuit for the “THREE HOUR”. The younger and spirited “boy racers” in their modified road cars such as Minis and Anglias and Renaults (who would never venture into a proper motor race) diving through gaps in the traffic and recklessly weaving through it…..The racing cars being towed on trailers….. some of the racing cars taking part in the support races being enthusiastically driven on the road, their racing numbers “blanked out” with thin strips of masking tape (to accord with a law that race numbers not be used on road cars) but still highly visible………….the “thump, thump, thump” of hot cams when they stopped at robots……what drama and sights for us hopeful young hitch-hikers.

Dreams ......Maybe...one day I would race the "Three Hour".....

During this “golden era” we saw the likes of Jochen Mass, Frank Gardner, Mike de Udy, Doug Serrurier, Jackie Pretorius, John Love, Mike Hailwood, Paul Hawkins, Jody Scheckter, Helmut Marko, Brian Redman, David Piper and gentlemen drivers such as Colin Crabbe, Ed Nelson, Malcolm Guthrie and Peter Sutcliffe plus a host of other reasonably competent foreign drivers with “capable” machinery.

Over the years we thrilled to the sights and sounds of Lola T70s, Ford GT40s, Ferrari 330 P4, Colonge Capri, Mirages, Chevron B18, B16, B19, Lola T210, T212, Porsches 910, 906, the local support cast in the evergreen Lotus 23’s, homebuilt specials, GSM Darts (Deltas), outdated but uprate front engined Lola Mk 1’s … Host of saloons – Mini Cooper S, Renault R8 Gordinis, Volvo 122S, Alfas, Mazda Rotaries …

Enormous speed differentials between cars.

The name of the game was VARIETY. Different cars, different shapes, different sounds. Very fast cars, fast cars and not so fast cars.

The mighty Lolas , GT40’s and CanAm Ferraris were not suited to the tight narrow 1.8 mile track but then the likes of Hailwood, Hawkins, Gardner and Love were special people and special drivers and despite the holiday spirit the racing was hard, fair and tense on a track often left somewhat oily by the action from the morning’s support races.

After the “big banger” era (Lola T70 and GT40) the low slung Chevron and Lola brigade took over as the dominant cars, but as I look back fast as they were and well as they were driven they were beginning to all look the same, and as sponsorship and advertising emerged (from 1968?) they even began to get the same colours and lacked the sheer “impact” of those big bangers.

They used to have a Boxing Day meeting at Brands Hatch, basically a clubbie. They once had a Motor Sport cover showing an elva leading the field on a track that was white with de-icing salt.

Can anybody remember more?

I think that Hume Weir (Australia) used to have a Boxing day meeting in the 60s.

I have a memory of none other than Graham Hill driving a big open sports Ferrari at a Boxing Day meeting at Brands.

I may be completely wrong but I feel as though I was there....

Originally posted by Barry Boor
I have a memory of none other than Graham Hill driving a big open sports Ferrari at a Boxing Day meeting at Brands.

I may be completely wrong but I feel as though I was there....

Well, if you went there on Boxing Day 1961, you were, Barry. It was a Scuderia Serenissima 250TR and he won.

That was actually the third and last time NGH raced in a Boxing Day meeting at Brands: he won the Christmas Trophy with Dr Manton's Lotus Eleven in 1957 and a Formule Libre race with a works F2 Lotus 16 in 1958.

At Christmas 1962, he was doing something rather more important in South Africa .....

Boxing Day at Brands Hatch started in 1954. I first went in 55. By the 60s there were Xmas meetings at Mallory,Lydden & Croft.Now just 2 car races at the bike meeting at Mallory tomorrow.

Phew! Thanks for that confirmation, Vit.

Either my Dad took me to Brands or maybe I saw it on the tele.

Boxing Day 1961. The starting flag is waved by Father Christmas, who twelve months later became champion of the world.



D-Type's memory of an Elva on the cover of MOTOR SPORT is actually the same race as Barry's. The Feb '62 cover showed Chris Ashmore's brand-new Mark 6 following Hill's Ferrari.

Originally posted by Catalina Park
I think that Hume Weir (Australia) used to have a Boxing day meeting in the 60s.

It did, it did...



...I've been there.

That was where John Harvey made his road racing debut (1964), Peter Brock won his first race (1967) and where many got their jollies during the quieter season that summer brought.

Phillip Island at one time had an annual New Year's Day meeting. I raced there once... no, twice... and the Vee 'Nationals' were born at that meeting.

Originally posted by Roger Clark
Boxing Day 1961. The starting flag is waved by Father Christmas, who twelve months later became champion of the world.
~

Which begs the question: who else played Father Christmas at Brands? I vaguely recall that Stirling Moss did so one year.