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#1 Barry Boor

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Posted 30 November 2014 - 18:06

Cousin Peter was recently given this:

 

fairwood.jpg

 

I have be charged with job of finding out more about it.

 

The first question being, what year was this event?  Fairwood was first used in 1952 but I don't know how long it operated for.

 

It would be good to know if there were any well-known competitors taking part in the 500cc races.



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#2 Collombin

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Posted 30 November 2014 - 18:17

Is it safe to assume the event was held at the weekend?

24th July was a Saturday in 1954 and a Sunday in 1955.

#3 Alan Cox

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Posted 30 November 2014 - 18:19

It was 1954, Barry as that year the 24th July was a Saturday, and, as we know, most race meetings were run on a Saturday in the UK in those far-off days.

It looks like one of a series of Daily Telegraph-sponsored race meeting posters that the Telagraph has been offering purchasers of the newspaper.at various historic race meetings over the last couple of years. That's where I got mine from. They also did a very nice 1955 British GP one, and one from a Brands 'clubbie'

 

Archie Scott-Brown, Peter Collins and Michael Head featured in the sports car races

 

Brief results on the 500race.org site shows that there were, indeed, some well-known names attending   

Fairwood 24th July 1954 Championship of Wales

Heat 1

1st Ivor Bueb - Cooper Mk VIII, 2nd David Boshier-Jones - Kieft CK52, 3rd Jack Westcott - Kieft CK52, 4th Ken Tyrrell - Cooper Mk VIII

Heat 2

1st Reg Bicknell - Revis, 2nd Stuart Lewis-Evans - Cooper Mk VIII, 3rd Don Parker - Parker-Kieft

Final

1st Don Parker - Parker-Kieft, 2nd Reg Bicknell - Revis, 3rd Stuart Lewis-Evans - Cooper Mk VIII, 4th Ivor Bueb - Cooper Mk VIII

 


Edited by Alan Cox, 30 November 2014 - 18:26.


#4 Barry Boor

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Posted 30 November 2014 - 18:57

Thank you, gentlemen.

Info passed on to Mr. C.

#5 bradbury west

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Posted 30 November 2014 - 19:38

13 minutes.....

Well Done A|an

Roger Lund



#6 Ray Bell

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Posted 01 December 2014 - 12:13

Originally posted by Barry Boor
.....It would be good to know if there were any well-known competitors taking part in the 500cc races.....


You got your wish there, Barry...

However, it is outstanding when you do look at the driver line-up mentioned just in the results and a very brief overview of the Sports Car races. In fact, it would appear that very few top British drivers were not there and so I looked to see where Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn might have been.

Moss was busy at the Caen Grand Prix while Hawthorn was racing a Ferrari at Monsanto.

On top of that, it appears to have been very good racing, almost indicative of the circuit being a slipstreamer's delight.

#7 Roger Clark

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Posted 01 December 2014 - 19:15

Julian Hunt's  Motor Sport Explorer says that the circuit was first used in July 1952, last in July 1954.  The Autosport report of the 1954 event says that it wasn't used in 1953.

 

The F1R lists 31 entrants for the 1954 F3 events, but Autopsort says that there were only eight starters in heat 1 and that "the non-starters' hand lay heavily upon heat 2 and even brought comments from the PA-Wallah".  Sports car races were won by C Chapman (Lotus-MG, upto 1500cc) W A Scott-Brown (Lister-Bristol, up tp 2,500cc) and M W Head (Jaguar, over 2,500cc).  Apparently Chapman and Scott-Brown battled in both the small sports car races (Archie in a Lister-MG in the smallest.) Peter Collins is not listed as a starter in the F3 race, but he drove an Aston Martin saloon in the unlimited sports car race.  Mon Ami Mate says that this was a DB2 entered by Rob Walker.

 

Autosport says that chicanes had been incorporated for 1954 and average speeds for all races were around 70 mph so I'm not sure about it being a slipstream's delight.