7 replies to this topic

[Nick Planas]

Hi Folks

 

Could anyone point me in the direction of an entry list for the two sports car races that supported the British GP in '54 please? I've tried various searches, and scoured the Motorsport Magazine archive but can't find a simple list.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Nick

[Tim Murray]

The results on the WSRP site seem fairly comprehensive:

http://www.wsrp.cz/intgb1954.html#6

[Nick Planas]

Perfect, Tim, thank you so much.

 

Possessing F1 tunnel vision, I hadn't realised this site existed. Now I know...

[Tim Murray]

There’s at least one mistake in those results. The driver of the Clairmonte (DNF in the larger-capacity race) was Clive Clairmonte, not Chris.

[Eric Dunsdon]

I remember watching that race from Copse Corner which was very slippery after resurfacing. Mike Sparken spun off and hit the bank in the Gilby Maserati and had to jump for it when Roy Salvadori's DB3S and David Shales Austin Healey almost joined him. The following months Motor Sport had a sequence of photos of the incident, Nobody hurt luckily but a scary moment for a spectating schoolboy. Karl Kling received a big cheer from the crowd when he also spun his Mercedes during the Grand Prix itself!.

[Tim Murray]

The following months Motor Sport had a sequence of photos of the incident, Nobody hurt luckily but a scary moment for a spectating schoolboy.

Here’s that photo sequence:

https://media.motors...954/full/35.jpg

The photo caption reads:

Roy Salvadori skidded off at Copse Corner, a sharp shower having made the track very treacherous. He quickly reversed, and as he accelerated away M. Sparken in his Maserati rotated and literally chased him. The second picture shows Salvadori anxiously watching the Maserati getting nearer. Salvadori had no sooner got away than Sparken looked up to see an Austin-Healey bearing down on him, so he leaped out and lay down by the side of his car waiting for the crash. He is seen in the third picture raising himself as if to say "Now where's that one gone to?" He soon discovered, as we can see, that the Austin-Healey, driven by D. S. Shale had come to rest behind him after crumpling its front wing and the Maserati's tail. As both drivers rapidly examined the damage the other Austin Healey, No. 24, driven by J. Deeley, came into the corner fast, and began to slide towards the two stationary cars. Shale and Sparken made a hasty jump over the safety barrier as the Austin-Healey bore down upon them, but Deeley somehow had the good fortune to miss the cars, and immediately Shale and Sparken leaped over the straw bales into their cars and roared back into the race.

I love the bit about Sparken choosing to lie down beside his car as Shale’s Healey approached.

[Eric Dunsdon]

Thanks for that Tim. I am one of those blurred spectators wondering why Mike Sparken chose to have a lie down!.

[Roger Clark]

Salvadori did very well to finish second, just two tenths behind Peter Collins. The car he drove was David Brown’s road car, rebodied after the Le Mans disaster.