14 replies to this topic

[Barry Boor]

They say you learn something new every day. I learn many somethings most days but this story really stopped me in my tracks, so to speak.

In 1956 the works Aston Martin team invited some 'young hopefuls' to come to Silverstone and try out for the team. THe car used was a DB3.S and the hopefuls included David Boshier-Jones, Noel Cunningham-Reid and chap named Mark Lund.

According to Cunningham-Reid, he was standing with Mark Lund's wife while Mark was driving. He does not state at which corner they were standing but Lund's lap times were getting slower while his handling of the car was becoming more and more ragged.

He had been signalled to stop but lost control at the very corner where the aforementioned were standing, the car somersaulted and he was thrown out and killed instantly; landing practically at his own wife's feet.

Now why do I bring up this sad event? Well, according to Anthony Pritchard in his Aston Martin - Racing History book, this tragedy was, and here I quote Pritchard "....hushed up, the accident was not reported in the press and no obituary was published in the motoring magazines."

I find this all very strange.....

[jcbc3]

Wasn't Wyer team manager at that time?
If so, wouldn't he have mentioned it in 'The certain sound'?

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
He does not state at which corner they were standing but Lund's lap times were getting slower while his handling of the car was becoming more and more ragged.

Abbey, it says here...

http://www.motorspor...hp?db=ct&n=2271

[Barry Boor]

I suspected Abbey because the team was not operating from the main pits and I recall other tests beginning from the outside of the straight between Abbey and Woodcote.

Even the Motorsport Memorial description is quite sketchy.

[Vitesse2]

That MM entry looks to be based on the cited report from The Times of Sep 27th, which is just 12 lines long. The issue of October 2nd carried a brief death notice, which gave his address as Codmore Hill, Pulborough.

It might be coincidence, but it seems there is still a Codmore Hill Garage in Pulborough, owned by a company called Arun Ltd.

http://www.arunltd.com/

[Barry Boor]

The fact that John Wyer never mentions this tragedy in The Certain Sound tends to tie in with the quote from Anthony Pritchard that I inserted into post #1.

I am still wondering why they took that action - or rather played it down so totally. It wasn't as if a driver being killed was anything out of the ordinary in those dangerous times.

[jcbc3]

yeah - I just browsed 'The certain sound', and the accident (or test for that matter) isn't mentioned. I find it a bit odd, since it is obviously written from his diary notes, and someone being killed in one of your cars would deserve a mention in your diary one should think.

[Simon Taylor]

My sadly departed friend Chris Nixon, who was on good terms with several people inside the Feltham operation in the 1950s, told me about this incident. But I don't think it's mentioned in his fine two-volume work "Racing with the David Brown Aston Martins".

In a quick trawl of my bound volumes of Autosport, the only references I can find to C.M. (Mark) Lund - as opposed to E.W.K. (Ted) Lund, the well-known MG driver from Lancashire - are finishing third in a 500cc Formula 3 heat at Crystal Palace in his Cooper on July 11th 1953, and finishing fourth at Brands Hatch on June 19th 1955 in a 1200cc sports car race in the RWG, a neat little cycle-winged special which was previously raced by its builder, Roy Watling-Greenwood. Maybe a closer look at club race programmes of the period will reveal more.

None of which explains why he was granted an Aston Martin test. Was he a friend or a relative of David Brown, one wonders, or were there other strings he was able to pull? If there was a family connection with DB, that might explain why it was so hushed up.

[ensign14]

First thought with hushing something like this up is "insurance"...be it Aston Martin's, the track's, or Lund's own, perhaps not covering a test...

[Simon Taylor]

Just found this in Peter Garnier's "The Sport" column in The Autocar issue dated October 5th 1956:

"It is with very great regret that I record on these pages the death of C.M. Lund while trying out a DB3S Aston Martin at Silverstone last Wednesday week. Mark was very definitely one of the up-and-coming drivers, and many people felt that he would have gone onto a great future - as his trial drive for Aston Martins indicated. He leaves a widow and a young child, to whom The Autocar offers its sincerest sympathy."

That young child would now be in his or her 50s.

[rbm]

I'm not certain but thought C.M. Lund was Charles Mark, if so he features in a few 500 races with some results from 1954

5/9/54 Brands Hatch 1st J.A.P Race
18/9/54 Crystal Palace 1st J.A.P Race
10/10/54 Brands Hatch 1st heat 1 yuletide trophy
29/5/55 Brands Hatch 3rd consolation final.

most of my own records have only 1st,2nd,3rd listed and the 500race.org results are also not full for this period.

[Eric Dunsdon]

Mark Lund was indeed a driver of considerable promise and was certainly a man to watch in 500cc Formula 3 despite only having a JAP powered Cooper which I recall Graham Hill also driving at Brands Hatch on at least one occasion. Lund also drove Mike Anthony's Lotus Mk10 to victory in the unlimited sports car race at the 1955 Boxing Day Brands meeting with Archie Scott-Brown finishing second in a C Type Jaguar.

[KJJ]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
according to Anthony Pritchard in his Aston Martin - Racing History book, this tragedy was, and here I quote Pritchard "....hushed up, the accident was not reported in the press and no obituary was published in the motoring magazines."

I find this all very strange.....

Is it so strange though? It was reported in the press, albeit just a couple of lines and there was an obituary of sorts in Autocar. Surely this was par for the course in the 1950s ..... plenty of drivers were killed with only a passing reference, at most, in the national or motoring press, others died without any mention at all.

[HiRich]

Well this fills a hole in my notes. I can reinforce that in 500s he was being marked out as one to watch.

His 500 debut appears to have been at Brands, 6th April 1953, and ran until 9th October 1955 (skipping the Boxing Day meeting, presumably to drive the C-Type Eric mentions), broadly sticking to Brands Hatch & Crystal Palace. I believe he may have run a Cooper Mk V. On the 4th September 1955, Graham Hill co-drove the car - for those spoddish enough to have freeze-framed the recent documentary (i.e. me), this would appear to be the white car in which NGH is seen in close-up.

[Doug Nye]

I don't think there should be any particular mystery attached to this sad event's lack of contemporary fuss, as KJJ has pointed out.

Mike Anthony - still very active and working on cars today - has just told me how he had enjoyed a successful season with a Lotus 10 with upright Bristol engine, and decided to replace it with a Lotus 11, into which he inveigled a Bristol engine lying on its side. He encountered all kinds of problems with it (predictably), but he owned the car 50:50 with Mark Lund. Mark won a race with it (or perhaps as pointed out above with the conventional Lotus-Bristol Mk 10) on a day when it behaved - Mike thinks at Brands Hatch - and that led to Mark Lund's invitation to test for Aston Martin. It all went horribly wrong as he rolled at Abbey and was killed.

Mike doesn't recall any particular mystery or intrigue about the incident.

Mark Lund was a well-to-do young man who did indeed run Codmore Garage in Pulborough, and it was in the company's workshop that their Bristol-engined Lotus 11 had been assembled and prepared. As has been said already, the incident was indeed reported at the time - it was not particularly 'hushed up' - and so far as press obituaries are concerned he was at that time regarded as "just another' unlucky young clubman driver...

While on this unfortunate subject, Mike Anthony had also been co-driver with Michael Keen in the 1955 Goodwood Nine-Hours when Keen crashed their Bob Chase-entered rear-engined Cooper-Bristol at Fordwater, and lost his life.

DCN