6 replies to this topic

[fuzzi]

Good Morning All

I've spent a pleasant hour or so going through the threads relating to CAPA racing and I can't find the Christian name of Aldridge - one of the four founders of CAPA. I have also read through BACkfire - Pete Stowe's book.

From what I've found they were: Dick CAESAR, ADRIAN Butler, Bobby PRICE and ALDRIDGE (one one occasion written Aldrich). None of the authorities I have checked so far seem to give his first name, does anyone know?

It seems a shame not to give him a full credit along with the others.

Edited by fuzzi, 11 January 2011 - 10:02.

[Tim Murray]

He seems to have been very little known. In an article he wrote on CAPA (published in the Chain Gang Gazette no 67, Dec 1981) Tony ('Doc') Taylor described Aldridge as 'a grey eminence whom I hardly knew; he did not do very much except help to get the thing off the ground in the first place'.

Edited by Tim Murray, 11 January 2011 - 14:20.

[Sharman]

I'll ask Bill what he knows about him, at least it would be a contemporary view. takes time because he has no email and I have to write and await reply.

[wenoopy]

I'll ask Bill what he knows about him, at least it would be a contemporary view. takes time because he has no email and I have to write and await reply.

A "Private Owner" H.Aldridge. placed 3rd in the Essex MC's Essex Junior Long Handicap at Brooklands on 9 April 1925 in a Standard Sports Alvis . Could he be the "grey eminence" of CAPA? Found by Googling 'Aldridge Brooklands', I think.

[jdtreelines]

I'll ask Bill what he knows about him, at least it would be a contemporary view. takes time because he has no email and I have to write and await reply.

It seems that even Bill didn't know his Christian name. Aldridge gets four mentions in Boddy's Brooklands history, all from 1925 and all simply as "Aldridge".

From the report of the 1925 Whitsun meeting -

"New entries comprised ... Aldridge's Super Sports 12/50 Alvis ... ... Benjafield took the Private Competitors' Handicap with ease, his dark blue Salmson lapping at 85.72 mph to win at 77.33 mph from Aldridge's 86 mph Alvis and Malcolm's 'limit' ex-Gordon England ABC." (pp 167-8 Revised Edition 2001)

And from the 1925 BARC Autumn Meeting -

"The very first race, a 75mph Short Handicap, made history, for sweeping up the Finishing Straight on the run-in, Purdy's 12/50 'duck's back' Alvis and Turner, in Newman's orange 2-litre Austro-Daimler, were seen to be exceedingly close and they were level as they shot beneath the flags - a dead-heat. ... The Austro-Daimler had overtaken two other Alvis cars, driven by Aldridge and Jackson, on the nearside and had then swung over to draw level with Purdy on the other side. Aldridge was third after a lap of 85.13mph."(p 178 Revised Edition 2001)

[Tim Murray]

I suspect that the 'Bill' referred to by Sharman is former CAPA racer Bill de Selincourt, not the great WB.

[David McKinney]

I suspect that the 'Bill' referred to by Sharman is former CAPA racer Bill de Selincourt, not the great WB.

...or Bill Aldridge