The Motor Racing Spectator

A rare opportunity these days to witness a car meeting at Mallory Park saw The Spectator head to deepest Leicestershire last Sunday. The Vintage Sports Car Club were the organiser's with 11 short-sharp races on the card. After 2 weeks of glorious weather it was a bit of a shock to have a little drizzle during the morning's practice sessions, but thankfully it stayed dry for the rest of the day, albeit overcast. Watching at the exit of Gerards during practice (with a greasy surface) I couldn't help marvel at how most drivers were manhandling, there is no better word for it, their cars. Total commitment was on show by virtually all drivers during the day. The sight of Tony Lees sitting atop his Vauxhall Viper Special, so high up his head in the mist....,hurtling into Gerards, will linger long in the memory! The headline race of the day was for the Bob Gerard Memorial Trophy catering for Pre '61 racing cars and was won by William Nuthall's 1953 Cooper-Bristol with ...

After walking around Donington ten days previously, it was time to head back behind the barriers for a very busy weekend's racing. The BRSCC Midlands centre were in charge for what was billed as the "Caterham Festival". As Caterham's provided 11 out of the 19 races over the weekend, I can see why! Academy, Roadsports, Tracksports, Supersports & Superlight races catered for the different versions of the marque. Variety was provided by the Mazda MX5 Supercup, Northern Formula Ford 1600 and Sports 2000. In all 257 cars were entered for all the races.... For many years now the Caterham (in all it's forms) has been one of the stalwarts of the UK racing scene. Indeed, if you own a Caterham, you could probably race one every weekend as not only is there the package racing this particular weekend but there is the Graduate group of races with BARC and the Classic Sports Car Club run a massively popular Magnificent Sevens series too. Add in various regional Sports/Sa...

Not the usual post on the blog but I ventured to Donington on Thursday 4th July for the first of their "Run in the Park" evenings. This is a brilliant idea which allows runners and walkers ( I walked by the way...) to use the circuit to exercise on. Cyclists are catered for with their own separate evenings. The track was open from 5.30pm to 8.00pm and I managed a lap of the GP circuit and 2 laps of the National circuit,one clockwise and one anti-clockwise.  For the first 10 minutes or so I kept glancing behind me expecting a car to loom into view but after getting my head around the fact that it was two legged horsepower only, I settled into a nice rhythm and managed to clip every apex on all my laps! The steady climb from the Old Hairpin up to Coppice certainly made the heart beat faster and in reverse the Craner Curves are very steep.  I really enjoyed the evening and it was nice to walk away from the usual noise of town and village traffic. Donington can only be appla...