16 replies to this topic

[Kvadrat]

Why regular Brands Hatch Boxing Day meetings were moved to December 27 in some years?

 

 

 

 

[Doug Nye]

Nick Syrett - Secretary of the organising BRSCC - once told me it was to allow himself, his officials and his marshals to sober up - never mind the competitors, hic...

 

I'd guess the 1965 one also had something to do with Boxing Day itself having fallen on a Sunday.

 

DCN

[d j fox]

1965 I’ll always remember ...I was a BRSCC marshal at the post at the top of Paddock . In those days the posts were huge concrete blocks fronted by (frozen) straw bales and then a wooden Lucas sign board Early practice I was watching a Lotus 23 spinning at Bottom Bend when a fellow Marshall nudged me. Coming towards us, sideways but facing the wrong way was Tony Dean in his green Lotus 30 He’d lost control under braking and swapped ends...the track was damp/ icy. My first thought was that the car would come over the post, so I stated to run downhill. I was instantly engulfed in frozen straw and then I heard a loud “whomph” next to me. It was the spare wheel! It had crashed through the “bonnet” Dean was OK despite the fact that the passenger side of the car was crushed to the centre. One of our Marshall’s had slight cuts but all otherwise OK . Later Nick Syrett himself came along and gave us all a nice tot of brandy! Later still Dean himself came up and said “ Sorry lads I must have given you a bit of a fright!”

[john aston]

He could at least have offered you a King Edward cigar... 

Edited by john aston, 27 December 2020 - 18:04.

[DogEarred]

I took part in the 1977 event and if I recall correctly, it was very un-Christmassy weather - mild and indeed sunny during the afternoon.


Good call by the BRSCC scheduler...

[Tim Murray]

One of those day/date combinations has to be wrong. Google reveals that in 1976 27th December was a Monday, so did the meeting take place on Monday 27th or Tuesday 28th?

[Vitesse2]

One of those day/date combinations has to be wrong. Google reveals that in 1976 27th December was a Monday, so did the meeting take place on Monday 27th or Tuesday 28th?

Monday 27th. There are brief results in the Daily Telegraph of December 28th. Nick Whiting won the celebrity Ford Escort race (FL shared by Whiting, John Cooper, John Homewood and J Walsh [who he?]); Mike Franey (Porsche Carrera) took the Modsports honours and Gerry Marshall (Firenza) won the Special Saloons race. Someone called F Bayes took the FF race in an Image FF2B, Syd Fox won the FF2000 event in a Palliser and Val Musetti won the FL race in his March 752.

 

As Christmas Day was a Saturday, that of course meant that both the 27th and 28th were Bank Holidays, so maybe there had been some uncertainty about the date of the meeting beforehand? Perhaps those frustrated Puritans of the Lord's Day Observance Society were involved? Technically, the holiday on the 27th was in lieu of Christmas Day and the 28th in lieu of Boxing Day.

[Tim Murray]

I’ve now dug out the MN report. J. Walsh was FF regular Jim, and Frank Bayes was the FF winner. The FF race had been halted after two laps following the accident which claimed the life of Michael Giddings, and restarted later. Roy James the train robber finished fourth.

[DogEarred]

Oh Lord - I remember that - poor chap was t-boned on the Bottom Straight, if I recall.

That would have been my first race meeting.

[john winfield]

I’ve now dug out the MN report. J. Walsh was FF regular Jim, and Frank Bayes was the FF winner. The FF race had been halted after two laps following the accident which claimed the life of Michael Giddings, and restarted later. Roy James the train robber finished fourth.

 

Oh, I would have liked to have seen Jim Walsh at Brands in an Escort. I only ever associate him with masterly Formula Ford drives on the Silverstone club circuit, timing his move to break out of the pack hurtling down towards the Woodcote 'hairpin', usually managing to be first over the line when it mattered.
As you say, F Bayes will have been Frank Bayes in the Image. I think Image FF cars were his outfit weren't they? Based down in Sussex perhaps, but that could be wrong. I might be muddling Image with Fulmar.

[john winfield]

Nick Syrett - Secretary of the organising BRSCC - once told me it was to allow himself, his officials and his marshals to sober up - never mind the competitors, hic...

 

I'd guess the 1965 one also had something to do with Boxing Day itself having fallen on a Sunday.

 

DCN

 

Mallory Park held their 1965 Christmas meeting on the 27th too.  Somehow my brother persuaded our Dad to take us on a mid-winter jaunt from Tring up to Leicestershire. I loved it, and having only ever seen a few races at 'airfield' Silverstone, I could hardly believe how close we were to the cars at Shaw's hairpin. And there was a great big lake in the middle of the circuit!  Racing that day were Derek Bennett, Alan Rollinson, Phil de Banks, Bernard Unett in the Le Mans Tiger, John Rhodes, Dave Matthews, Chris Lambert etc.. A grand day out.

[john winfield]

In 1970, five years on from the 1965 Mallory trip I was looking forward to my first Christmas meeting at Brands. And then the snow came and ruined things! In 1970, December 26th was a Saturday and the 27th a Sunday. I can't recall now which day the meeting was to have been held, but I do remember some dramatic snowy pictures in Motoring News showing why racing in Kent would have been a little 'challenging'.

[Roryswood]

Image FF1600 , not the most stylish FF , were they built at Goodwood ?

[GazChed]

Going back to Image racing cars wasn't Image founded by Alan Langridge ? Frank Bayes was the works driver and was giving the 1976 model ( FF2B ) it's debut that day.

[john winfield]

I don't think the Silverstone management worried too much about 26th or 27th December as they held their winter meetings in April, when snow or freezing rain was guaranteed. Not sure about Snetterton. June?

[GazChed]

To reply to Roryswood, from info gleaned from a thread on Ten Tenths, Image Racing Cars started out in a (presumably former) chicken farm complex based at the old Tangmere airfield before moving to that airfields wartime satellite at Westhampnett airfield (aka Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit) in the Super Shell Building.

[Dick Dastardly]

Late 60s Christmas meetings at Croft were usually rallycross....I remember going to at least 1 [maybe 2, but what I remember from those could have just been from the one event], which would have been '69.....