Welcome to Targa Rallies

Welcome to Targa Rallies  by Nigel Raeburn.

First published September 2017.

This article should first appear just prior to Knutsford’s first ever Targa rally.  This format of rallying seems to be taking off just now, a couple of years after the MSA first included it in the Blue Book.  I recently helped Baz Green in his role as CoC in a very small way with paperwork-checking and proof-reading for the 116 Car Club Targa (116 Targa Tracks) which just ran in north Wales to great acclaim and with a splendid entry.  Targas really could be the way forward for a more affordable alternative to stage rallies while also appealing to night road rally competitors and even  autotesters.  There is no connection with the targa timing system which used on road rallies in the 60s and 70s until it was out-lawed.

So what is a Targa rally? It is a road rally, normally in daylight, so for road-legal cars – with the main competition on private land with special tests (like on historic road rallies where they have been part of the event format for years) limited to timing set at an average of 30 mph – but they are driven flat out – it is the organiser’s task to set a course such that the 30 mph average is not exceeded.  Depending on the venue it may be necessary to include circling cones, stop astrides, stop in boxes etc to keep the speeds down, but it can still be a lot of fun and require skills from both crew members.  The road sections are usually just transport sections to get from venue to venue, although I think regularity sections can be included – but not many events are doing this.

The MSA Blue Book says:

7.1.9. Targa Rally. A schedule timed rally where the principal competition comprises the competitor’s performance on Specials Tests.

What sort of venues are used for the special tests?  Anything from race circuits to farm tracks via old airfields.  The 116 event used Glan-Y-Gors kart circuit (on the A5) as its base and for two long tests on the circuit – and some of its other tests were at farm venues and especially wind farms, plus a bit of forestry.  The test route is given to competitors in the form of diagrams, usually with a written text as well, but basically the navigator will be reading out instructions from a ‘test diagram’.  To read this well is a significant skill, needing clarity and accuracy as well as good timing as the instructions are called out to the driver.  Most tests will be too long for the driver to learn and remember them.

Historics are able to enter the new Targa events.  Indeed the one-day Three Castles Trophy held in June (Baz Green was also Clerk of the Course for this) was a targa rally run purely for historic cars and was very well received.  The Knutsford Targa has a class for Historics.

I hope for a good future for Targas – I think there is a real need for something like this as special stage rallying becomes less and less viable for safety and economic reasons.  The PR burden on organisers is not high and provided the venues can be found and at a reasonable cost the economics should be very viable.  Good organisers will pick test layouts to keep safety in mind and speeds (and any spectators) under control – that is my one concern as one bad accident could bring this new form of rallying to an end – bear in mind crash helmets and other safety requirements from stage rallies are not required – these are road rallies.

 

1961 RAC Rally – from the Programme

1961 RAC RALLY – from the Programme – by Nigel Raeburn.

First published August 2017.

Official Programme

I have in front of me the Official Programme from the 1961 RAC Rally – price one shilling and sixpence.  The photo on the cover is of a Sebring Sprite driven by Pat Moss.  It has about 40 pages.

The rally started in Blackpool and finished in Brighton, and was held in November.  It started on Monday evening in Blackpool and had an overnight halt at Inverness on Tuesday night.  It returned to England and Scarborough, before going on via Oulton Park to Wales.  Epynt and Prescott were visited before arriving in Brighton on Friday afternoon.  So only one proper overnight halt in five days – they believed rallying should be an endurance test then!  In total over 2200 miles.

The programme is notable for its formal style (e.g. personnel listed with their initials not first names) and the sheer number of advertisements from major companies mostly connected to the motor industry like Lucas, Lombank, Ferodo and Don, Girling, Rootes, Ford, BMC, National, Shell, Mobil and Regent petrol, Dunlop, Castrol and others confirms the event’s importance.  Many of the adverts quote previous rally success using their products.  There are messages of welcome from the Chairman of the RAC, the Mayor of Blackpool, the Provost of Inverness and from Jack Kemsley, Chairman of the Organising Committee.  Also there’s one from Billy Butlin welcoming competitors and officials to the Ocean Hotel – ‘Butlin Holiday Hotel’ – at Saltdean, Brighton where everyone was invited to stay at the finish.  Jack Brabham was recommending both the Sunbeam Alpine and Girling disc brakes.

The programme includes an entry list, which runs to number 169.  As initials are used rather than first names it is easy to miss competitors who became famous later – but number 1 was Erik Carlsson with a very young John Brown in a SAAB, number 2 the Morley brothers in a Healey and number 3 Hans Walter and John Sprinzel in a Porsche.  Next up was Pat Moss, then I’ll pick out some notables – Paddy Hopkirk in a Sunbeam (Rapier I’d guess), racing driver Paul Hawkins with Vic Elford co-driving in a Healey, Peter Proctor, a very young Adrian Boyd, Roy Fidler co-driving for Mike Sutcliffe, a certain Don Barrow with Reg McBride in a Ford (presumably an Anglia), John Hopwood co-driving for J Ray, Derek Astle (father of David) in an MG, Raymond Baxter with Willy Cave in a Humber, Ken Piper (of Messerschmitt Tiger fame – this time in a DKW), Bill Bengry in a VW and Eric Jackson in a Ford of course.  That covers the first 50 seeds.

Later in the list I can pick out others with local connections to the NW or other claims to fame.  Phil Simister (one-time Ford dealer in Macclesfield) at 55, John Handley at 66, Sir Peter Moon (remember from the news how his wife cut up his clothes!) at 74, Andrew Cowan at 99 in a Sunbeam, Rosemary Smith at 127, Roger Clark in a Renault at 130 (yes, I’m pretty sure that’s him) and Jimmy Bullough with Tommy Warburton (of the bread family) at 144.  Apologies to anyone I’ve missed or got wrong!

There were Manufacturer’s teams from Austin-Healey, Sunbeam, Morris, Ford Zephyr, Skoda, NSU, MG, Ford Anglia and Vauxhall.

Timing used printing clocks and there is an advert from the supplier the National Time Recorder Company explaining how 50 such clocks are used through the event.  Separately the special stages were timed by Longines ‘punch-clocks’ and they have an advert also.  It was estimated over 2000 people are involved in the running of the rally and a cost of £8000 (seems cheap by today’s standards but a typical salary then was around £1000 pa.  A one day club road rally like the Tour of Cheshire today has a bigger budget than £8000).

For the record, I’ve checked the overall results – 1st Carlsson / Brown, 2nd Pat Moss / Ann Wisdom, 3rd Peter Harper / Ian Hall and 4th Paddy Hopkirk / Jack Scott.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey back in time with the aid of the 1961 programme.  I think that year I had just got my first Mini and went to watch the final tests on the seafront at Brighton – but memories are quite hazy!

PHOTO – of the cover of the programme.

A Dash of the Irish

First published July 2017.

“A Dash of the Irish” by Nigel Raeburn.

Circuit of Ireland 1966 with Chris Baker-Duly. The triangular sticker/permit on the windscreen was needed to cross the border in those days.

I recently re-watched, courtesy of YouTube, a 30 minute film of the 1971 Circuit of Ireland Rally – called “A Dash of the Irish”.  It’s well worth a watch, to remind us of what a great event the Circuit was in those days.  It was more than a great rally but part of the culture of Ireland, especially for the youth.  It was a sort of rite of passage for the late teenagers and early 20s to spend a few days following the rally at Easter all over Ireland (north and south), enjoying the spectating and especially the partying.  This film demonstrates this, covering both the rallying and partying, particularly in Killarney where the rally had a two night stop, with the ‘Sunday run’ on the very scenic Ring of Kerry in between.

The rally started at Ballymena in the north (at the Gallaher cigarette factory as I recall) on the Friday evening, and ran through the night and Saturday to arrive at Killarney late in the afternoon.  Then came the Sunday run, including famous roads like Moll’s Gap and the hairpins of the Tim Healey Pass, as well as stages on some tiny lanes along the beautiful Kerry coast.  The film has some fine action shots – much the better for coming from the pre pace-notes era where cars were driven in a more sideways style and the roads were often dusty and slippery, making braking hard to judge (see the film!).  On the Monday the rally set off to complete its clockwise circuit of Ireland through Donegal overnight to finish on Tuesday morning at Larne.

The film features Paddy Hopkirk driving an Escort camera car over the stages, and giving a commentary on what he could remember from the days when he won the Circuit several times and interviewing some of the leading drivers.  It also includes some not very ‘PC’ comments on some of the partying on film – all good fun in those days but sadly frowned on today!

So it was a tough rally – over three days and two nights on the road, mostly tarmac with no pace-notes and very poor maps – mostly it was driven on sight.  The pace was frenetic as even the road timing was often quite tight.  Real non-stop action.  In my memory the weather was usually good, as spring and sunshine was arriving, which helped lift the whole atmosphere of the event.

I did the Circuit four times, and finished twice.  The first time was 1966 with my university friend Chris Baker-Duly in a Cooper S.  We had to retire about 3/4 of the way through when the front suspension collapsed.  With no service crew (and indeed we did not know anyone in Ireland!) we had to leave the car at the road-side, hitch-hike across the border into Enniskillen, find an overnight hotel and next morning we were at the BMC dealer to buy the necessary parts to repair the car.  We then hitched back to the car (fortunately it was undamaged and nothing had been stolen overnight) and repaired it at the road-side to allow us to limp back to the rally finish in Larne and join in the evening prize-giving party.  Quite an adventure.

My next Circuit was in 1969 with Will Sparrow in his first rally Mini 397EOE (silver with blue roof).  We had a pretty good run and finished 12th overall – not bad as we were still on the learning curve.  I remember one major panic on the last night when we somehow managed to take a wrong turning, in the dark, between a stage arrival control and the stage start control – and found ourselves on the live stage without having got a start time!  There must have been an arrow missing or we did not see it – we were not the only crew to do this.  What to do?  We finished the stage and then decided to return on the public roads to the start again, and do it properly.  Luckily we did not get penalised for visiting two controls (arrival and finish) twice!  However, the time spent doing this detour added up and we were now well behind our scheduled time and close to OTL – so for the next hour or two we drove as if on a Motoring News road rally – i.e. nearly flat out on the public roads – to get back to more or less on time.

That 1969 event was notable for the emergence of one of Ireland’s rallying legends, Billy Coleman, along with his co-driver in the early days, Dan O’Sullivan.  His Escort was a very prime example of a ‘tatty Escort’.  Registered TIU250, it was ragged round the edges and in a nearly khaki shade of dull green.  But could he drive it!  Seeded number 115 (not far way from us so we saw a bit of him) he was soon running in the top four (behind Clark, Hopkirk and Boyd).  At Killarney Billy was re-seeded as he was going so well.  It didn’t last and he went off into a bog but he certainly made an impact on the event and set his career as a top driver off in fine style.

Billy’s service arrangements were interesting – with due respect his service crew looked like a bunch of country yokels!  There must have been no fuel gauge as a dipstick roughly fashioned from a tree branch was used to ‘dip’ the fuel tank as required!  It was hard to believe he was running 4th overall.

Will and I came back in 1971, now in his much more highly developed red Mini, WNX700H.  We gained a good result, 4th overall behind three Escorts driven by Adrian Boyd (who had first won in 1960 in a frog-eye Sprite), Chris Sclater and Billy Coleman, and ahead of hot-rod and rallycross star Barry Lee (I was always impressed by how well he went on rallies, given that he did so few).  A very respectable result for us.  We had one notable problem during the rally that year, when the rear sub-frame started breaking up.  Peter Scott (who writes in Old Stager and is still a very active rallyist) came to our rescue – he seemed to know someone in every Irish village and appointed himself our service manager (with our agreement and thanks!) and arranged for us to stop at a garage with a ramp and welding gear at frequent intervals, enough to keep us going.  Otherwise our service crew consisted solely of Will’s wife and a friend – neither of them mechanics!  Another example of how rallying has changed.

In 1972, still in ‘WNX’ I think, we were not so successful, having to retire at the breakfast halt at Blessington on the Saturday morning with a transmission breakage.  That was my last ‘Circuit’ although Will did a number of others in Vauxhalls and probably the Mopar Avenger he drove in 1977 with some good results.  It took up too much time away from work for me to do any more!

With such wonderful roads, it’s a real shame that the means to run a WRC rally in Ireland cannot be found.  It would make a great event – but we were lucky enough to enjoy it when it was.

Farewell to two Mini Legends

First published June 2017.

FAREWELL TO TWO MINI LEGENDS – by Nigel Raeburn.

As a long-time Mini enthusiast I was saddened to learn of the recent death of two of the early and very successful Mini competitors, both at the age of 79.

SIR JOHN WHITMORE was a fascinating character, coming from a privileged background but spending a number of years living a very simple life in the States in an alternative community.  In later years he became a notable business coaching expert and author, especially with the highly regarded GROW model (for a while he had a business column in the Daily Telegraph).  His motor sport successes started in 1961 when he won the British Saloon Car Championship (BTCC of today) in a second-hand 850 Mini bought for £400.  A Don Moore engine gave the car enough performance to win the Championship – and I think those early days of saloon car racing were the best years when drivers drove with skill and minimal bodywork contact compared with the ‘hooligan’ approach today.  He was clearly a very talented driver and he won the 1965 European Touring Car Championship in an Alan Mann Lotus-Cortina.  He raced at Le Mans with Jim Clark in a Lotus Elite and drove many varied cars, including the works Ford GT40s in major sports car races with famous drivers of the era.  He even did some rallying, doing the RAC and Monte.  He seemed to have a knack of getting to know and become friends with many notable people of the day – as well as Jim Clark his friends included Steve McQueen, Jo Bonnier, Christabel Carlisle and Jackie Stewart.  It was a dangerous era and Sir John retired from racing in 1966, having sadly seen too many of his contemporaries lose their lives in racing accidents.

In the rallying world, TIMO MAKINEN was one of the original ‘flying Finns’ (along with Rauno Aaltonen).  His early successes were in Healey 3000s and Minis, and there are many photos in the archives of him in spectacular action.  Later in his career he drove works Escorts among other makes.  He won the RAC Rally three times, the 1000 Lakes three times and the Finnish Rally Championship three times.  He earned one of the Mini’s great wins in 1965 on the Monte.  Away from rallying he won at ice racing and saloon car racing in Finland.  He was also very successful in powerboat racing, winning the Round Britain Powerboat Race in 1969.  His most frequent co-driver was Paul Easter, who is still active in VSCC events today.  Of course our Area’s Don Barrow also competed with Timo (in 1964, works Healey, Spa-Sofia-Liege and RAC rallies as well as various recces) and has written of his experiences on his website – we must get Don to give us a talk on rallying with Timo one day.  On some of Timo’s last rallies his co-driver was Jean Todt.  My own connection is that I did a number of road rallies in two ex-works Minis (JMO969D and ORX77F) both of which had been driven by Timo.

So we have sadly lost two of the key drivers who helped create the legend of the Mini as a race and rally car.

Navigator or Co-Driver?

First published May 2017.

NAVIGATOR or CO-DRIVER?   by Nigel Raeburn.

Rallyists have become rather lax over the years in the use of the terms Navigator and Co-Driver.  At one time it was simpler – a navigator only did navigation and read maps and never drove on the rally whereas a co-driver may also be called upon the drive for at least part of a rally – a true sharing of driver duties with the main driver.  Usually this meant that road rallies needed a navigator as they were rarely long enough to need shared driving duties, and special stage rallies, in the earlier years when they tended to be longer – say over 200 miles, needed two drivers to safely complete the route.  This also meant the prime driver had preferably to have at least a little grasp of navigation!

Today it is not so simple – and indeed the co-driver (the term usually used on all stage rallies, small and large) rarely does any driving at all!  Even the longer stage rallies (like WRC rounds such as Wales Rally GB) have so many rest or service halts, and limited hours of running, that I would be surprised if any of the WRC co-drivers drive during the rally even on the road sections.  In earlier years some of the major rallies (RAC, Welsh – even more so the Gulf) ran through two (or even more) successive nights with no lengthy rest halts so some sharing of driver duties made total sense.  Some of the longer historic rallies running today do still require the navigator/co-driver to do some driving – indeed Le Jog had (has?) compulsory driver-change sections – although I’ve always wondered how that would ever be checked by the organisers (there were no ID photos for example) – but many comply and the spirit of the issue lives on.

I have some lasting memories of some of the driving stints I did on rallies in the 60s and 70s – as the co-driver.  Some were quite challenging.  I especially remember an RAC or Scottish in the Martin Group Firenza (it was probably 1973).  We were just leaving a service point in rural Scotland when Will Sparrow decided he needed a snooze and asked me to drive the next road section.  I had never driven this particular car before, and with 240 bhp it was quite a monster.  As we pulled onto the public road a white Escort competing car drove past ahead of us – and it was Roger Clark at the wheel.  Well, to avoid Will having to navigate, my natural task was to follow the competitor in front!  I must say I was a bit nervous, being new to our car and not used to so much power – and when we came to some twisty bits I kept thinking that if Roger Clark got round a corner I might not necessarily also do so!  I’m pleased to say we made it safely to the next stage.  It was a strategic error by us that I had not even had a short drive in our car before the start.    Incidentally it was unusual for Roger to be driving on a road section as he was renowned for making his co-driver do most of the road driving while he had a nap.

A couple of other memories of real co-driving were from the Welsh International.  On my first international in 1965 with university friend Chris Baker-Duly in his Mini-Cooper, on the second night (after two nights on the road and no proper stops) shared driving was practised by most crews on the road sections – but in our case Chris was developing ‘flu as the rally progressed and towards the end of the second night he was not fit to drive at all – but we wanted to finish – so I actually drove several forest stages in the dark as well as much of the road sections.  Then in 1970 when Will and I managed to win the Welsh I remember having to drive through the south Wales valleys to the finish at Barry and being very conscious of the responsibility – we were in the lead and I had to stay on the road and not damage the car in any way.

Even away from actual rallies my connections led to some interesting driving experiences.  I had to demonstrate the Martin Group Firenza at Croft rallycross circuit in Will’s absence – and in front of a big crowd during an interval in the main rallycross meeting (and on the Martin Group’s home patch) I was expected to put on a good show!  I also got to have a good drive in our Mexico round the Long Marston rallycross circuit at a press day organised by Mike Stephens and his Thor Hammer company – our main sponsor at the time.  I had some good sideways laps keeping up with some proper rally drivers!  I also got to spin Will’s father’s Porsche (no damage)!

We used to quite enjoy the drives back from Motoring News rallies in the late 60s and early 70s in Will’s Minis.  On Sunday mornings the Welsh roads back to Warwickshire were very quiet so some swift motoring ensued – it helped keep you awake was our excuse – and often I was driving our rally car as Will’s wife (then) Sue was usually in support in her Sprite and Will would come home with her – so our two car convoy made good progress.  On one occasion we were in convoy with Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams in an Opel Manta (I think maybe we were in the Mexico) because a competition developed between Barrie and Will as to who could get most sideways through a series of open bends – I think it was a draw!

Another post-rally driving experience was in 1969 after Peter McDowell and I had to retire from the RAC in his Escort towards the end (in Dyfnant) with, I think, gearbox problems.  We ended up spending the night with a relative of Peter’s in Llandrindod Wells, and the next day we set off for London in our service car (a Cortina Estate I think) towing the rally car.  I drew the short straw and was to drive the rally car, while Peter drove the tow car.  Firstly I had no heating as we could not run the engine, and secondly, and rather more critical, we only had a very short tow rope – probably about 2 feet between the cars!  This might be OK at low speeds but we had a long way to go and Peter got more and more confident and we were hitting 70mph or more.  It was certainly a good test of my concentration and reactions!  I don’t think the cars ever made contact which was pretty good.

Le Jog is possibly an exception to the rule as you need both a navigator and a co-driver to deal with the plotting and sometimes devious route and timing as well as the long periods without rest on the road sections.  Thus I got to drive some interesting vehicles – Mike Tomlin’s 1930s Alvis (centre throttle and difficult gear change) and Phil Surtees’ zillion bhp Rover V8 P5B.   I remember on the event we were so tired towards the end that Phil and I ended up swapping seats every 10 minutes.  Le Jog has been made easier since those times!  By contrast Andy Nash’s Sunbeam Tiger was, once underway and the steering lightened up, not that different to drive to my MG Midget, so I quickly felt at home.  In many ways Le Jog was like the first internationals I did in the 60s.

So the increased specialisation of rallying has taken away the need for some of the skills both of the crew needed in the past – drivers had to be able to do some navigation, and navigators or co-drivers needed to be able to drive.  I think it’s a shame!

The Voice of Motorsport

First published April 2017.

 

The Voice of Motorsport – by Nigel Raeburn.

 

There are only two candidates for this title of ‘The Voice of Motorsport’, in my book, and they are Raymond Baxter and Murray Walker.  I have distant connections to both – and Raymond Baxter even had an influence on my working life unconnected to motorsport.

Both Murray and Raymond had the ability in their commentaries to inject enthusiasm and interest into the most tedious activities – such as a processional race.  Their styles were quite different (Murray with his huge excitement and infectious passion for motorsport and Raymond with his clarity, knowledge and engagement with the participants) – but the result for followers, listeners and viewers was the same – an enhanced experience in following the sport.

My connection with Murray Walker was distant – we both went to the same school (Highgate) in north London although of course he was some years ahead of me.  His father Graham (a well-known motor-cyclist and commentator in his day) also went to Highgate.  I still have a hand-written letter from Murray from a time when I tried to use our connection to get him to come as guest speaker to our Knutsford &DMC Dinner Dance – he was not able to come however!  Interestingly Highgate School still has motor-racing connections – one of my favourite commentators James Allen (he has a good F1 website too) is a parent and he organised an evening ‘chat show’ at the school with himself, Murray and Christian Horner, a Highgate resident, a year or two ago which must have been a good evening – a shame I could not get to it.

I recently re-read Raymond Baxter’s autobiography ‘Tales of My Time’  written in collaboration with Tony Dron, racing driver and journalist.  Raymond was born in 1922 and died in 2006, just a year or so after the book was published.  The majority of the book covers Raymond’s life during WW2 as a young RAF fighter pilot, flying Spitfires.  What a dramatic, dangerous and exciting life that was – so much packed into a few years.  For many people that would have been more than enough adventure for their lifetime, but Raymond of course went on to another full life of broadcasting, boating and motorsport.

A relatively small part of the autobiography covers motorsport, but Raymond was a works driver and co-driver for BMC and Rootes and rallied with many famous team-mates such as Rauno Aaltonen, Timo Makinen, Paddy Hopkirk and Peter Harper.  He took part in many Monte Carlo, Alpine, Tulip and RAC Rallies, often broadcasting as he took part.  I can remember as a schoolboy listening to Raymond’s reports each evening from some of these rallies – certainly a factor in cultivating interest in the sport for many of my era.  Similarly with motor-racing with reports from Grand Prix and Le Mans.  I am honoured to be a member of the invitation-only Ecurie Cod Fillet rally club, and Raymond was also a proud member and used to come to the re-union dinners.

He is credited with helping to start the sport of rallycross by arranging a special TV show, but I especially remember the ‘Autopoints’ which appeared on TV – a sort of orienteering in a variety of vehicles held on heathland near Aldershot.  It was a team competition between the London Motor Club and the Army and vehicles ranged from twin-engined Mini-Moke to large Army trucks via trials cars.  Crews could chose their route between checkpoints to suit their vehicles – fast and level or steep, rough and short.  Raymond persuaded some GP drivers like Graham Hill and John Surtees to take part and It made great TV – someone should try to revive it!

 

In the boating world, Raymond shared my interest in canal boating and owned a trailered small canal boat, but more importantly in his later years he became a leading supporter and organiser of the ‘Little Ships of Dunkirk’ where voyages of surviving boats from the Dunkirk landings made cross-Channel journeys to commemorate that notable event from WW2.  He owned one of the boats “L’Orage” which he had restored.

Raymond was most famous however for his broadcasting, at which he was a master.  His knowledge, clarity, eloquence, homework and research shone through whether it was motorsport, a technical topic or a major State occasion.  From his time in the RAF he learned so much about ranks, uniforms, titles, jargon etc which he was able to use to great effect in his broadcasts especially of State occasions.  His ability to explain technical concepts clearly was used to great effect in his presentation of “Tomorrow’s World” for which he is perhaps best remembered.  His willingness to get involved with ‘hands-on’ participation in experiments and the like added to his appeal.

How he was missed when the Queen’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant took place in 2012.  The pathetic BBC broadcast on the day totally failed to capture the spirit the event should have generated.  Raymond with his knowledge of boats, the military, ceremonial protocols etc would have been the perfect commentator – and he would have done his homework beforehand which he would have shared with the audience.

So what was the connection with my working life?  In the early 1980s I was working (for a few years of my 33 with IBM) on IBM’s pioneering computer-controlled private telephone exchange (the 3750 and its small brother the 1750).  Computer control of telephone extensions was a new concept and a major investment by businesses, but it was a successful product for us.  As part of our marketing campaign we had a tractor and trailer unit built which contained a demonstration suite with a working set of telephone extensions which could be used for a very interactive demonstration to groups of maybe 20 or so potential customers.  The trailer was taken round the country and would be set up in hotel car parks to allow us to run demonstrations to customers in that part of the country.

I was one of the small team of demonstrators, and our normal routine was an interactive demonstration (the audience had to do re-routing, group calls, ‘camp-on’ and other new techniques) lasting one or two hours.  As it happened, our team leader bore some physical resemblance to Raymond Baxter, and also had a natural tendency to the same style of presentation.  It was a well-received style (akin to ‘“Tomorrow’s World”), so we made a conscious decision to try to model all our presentation and demonstration styles on his and Raymond’s.  So if you ever notice any Baxter-like mannerisms in me, you now know why!

Racing my Road Car

Lydden Hill circuit much as I recall it from 1965

My Mini-Cooper which I raced, seen here in an autocross

First published March 2017.

RACING MY ROAD CAR – by Nigel Raeburn.

In the first half of the 1960s it was still quite normal to race your road car – saloons and sports cars.  I was lucky enough to just fit into the end of this era, and had a short ‘career’ as a racing driver in the second half of 1965.  I took part in four races in my 997 Mini Cooper, two at Lydden Hill, one at Snetterton and the last one at the Boxing Day meeting at Mallory Park.

Many club race meetings at that time had a race for up to 1000cc saloons which in practice meant mainly Minis, and these were the races I did.  In the races I did perhaps half the field were in their road cars – mostly driven to the circuit and home afterwards ready to go to work on the Monday – and half in race cars trailered to the meeting.  A year or two later most of the road cars would have disappeared as the sport became more specialised, sadly.

My Mini was reasonably standard.  When I bought it, second hand, previous owner a Lord, it had a superb Downton engine which gave this 997cc car the performance of a 1275S.  Unfortunately however, it was also very worn out, and one night returning to Cambridge after a small rally, cruising at approaching 100mph on the clock, there was a huge explosion and the car filled with smoke.  A con-rod little end had given up the ghost and there were holes in both sides of the engine block.  A replacement engine was sourced by John Aley and he re-built it for me into a slightly modified engine, still 997cc, but not of the quality or performance of the Downton one – maybe close to a 970S – and this was the engine I raced.

Apart from the engine there were a few modifications I can remember – a straight-through exhaust, rev counter, Sprinzel bucket seat, smaller steering wheel, Koni adjustable shock absorbers and Ferodo VG95 brake pads.  It was my everyday car – daily commute, longer regular weekend commutes etc..  Driver preparation for the races was period too – no overalls (collar and tie of course), just a crash helmet and driving gloves.

So how did my races go?  Well, they started well and went downhill from there!  My very first race was at Lydden Hill in Kent which was a very new race circuit in 1965 – I’d never been there before – and after practice I was on the front row of the grid, 3rd fastest overall!  Jim Clark look out!  There were a few factors which made this possible – mainly that practice was in the wet and I was using road tyres – Pirelli Cinturatos – which worked very well in the wet.  I and my Mini-enthusiast friends had decided that Cinturatos were the only Mini road tyres which could withstand the rigours of racing – other makes wore out in 10 laps.  Cinturatos were excellent all-round tyres.  Another reason making my good performance possible was that Lydden suited my car – there were no long straights and it was almost constantly curving.  I’ve not been there recently but from looking at a circuit map and photos of recent rallycross the circuit does not appear to have changed that much over the years.  In the race itself, in the dry by then, I held on and I think finished 4th.  The winner was Dave Morgan who went on to be a top F2 driver in later years.

A few weeks later I had my second race at Lydden – starting mid-field this time after dry practice.  In the race I had a half-spin at what seems to be called Pilgrims now but I kept going and finished the race about 6th as I recall.

My third race was at Snetterton – a circuit I already knew quite well from taking part in quite a few sprints and the CUAC ‘Grand Slalom’ which was like a multi-venue sprint using the different corners in turn for separate sprints.  So I was quite hopeful, but on the day my car developed a slipping clutch which hindered progress considerably.  I recall a fellow competitor advised the use of Coca Cola to try to restore the clutch grip but it did not seem to do much good!  Also the circuit at that time still had the long straight parallel to the A road and placed quite an emphasis on top speed – which my car was not especially good at, particularly with a slipping clutch.  I do remember having to take great arm-fulls of opposite lock through the Esses – the handling needed some work on it really!  I finished quite near the back.

So to Boxing Day at Mallory Park.  I think Brands Hatch had a Boxing Day meeting for some years and Mallory had started to try one too.  Father Christmas was in attendance.  It was an icy cold day, and my friend Tony coming to support me crashed his TR3 en route and arrived with cuts on his head – not a good start!  I think there were still some icy patches on the circuit when my race started.  A lady driver rolled her Mini early on and although she was OK the car caught fire quite dramatically – it was not an encouraging sight to pass a blazing inverted car each lap!  Near the end of the race I recall being passed by Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams as he lapped me on his way to victory – he cut closely across my ‘bows’!  I finished well down the field.  After Lydden these other circuits did not suit my car so well.

After that four race career in 1965 I realised the days of racing a road car were coming to an end, sadly, and stuck to other forms of motorsport like autocross and rallying.  I’m glad I had the chance to do some racing however – in my mind I recall the tension and excitement of the starts as being the most memorable.  I guess today’s youngsters will be karting as their equivalent introduction to racing, although maybe track days can give a little taste of what racing your road car was like.

PHOTOS

My Mini-Cooper which I raced seen here in an autocross.

A map of Lydden Hill circuit much as I remember it from 1965.

 

Memory Lanes … the beginning – Book Review

First published March 2017.

Memory Lanes …. the beginning – Book Review by Nigel Raeburn.

Peter Robinson has published the third and final book in his ‘Memory Lanes’ series – this one covering the years 1961 (when it began) to 1965 of the Motoring News Rally Championship.  The other two books cover 1966 to 1969 (‘…. the early years’) and 1970 to 1973 (‘…. revisited’) respectively.

This latest book runs to 581 pages with hundreds of black and white photos – so it’s a hefty book!  The majority of the text is made up of multi-page reports on each rally run in this period, with summaries of Entry Lists, Results and sometimes route cards and the like.  There are also Appendices and other additions written by Stuart Gray, Don Barrow (in the piece on Ford Anglias) and others, including a resume of when rallying was discussed in Parliament.  Do you remember the ‘Marples must go’ campaign against Ernest Marples when he was a controversial Transport Minister?  Well, as rallyists, we should be thankful to Mr Marples as it was he who allowed road rallying to continue when its very future was threatened in 1961.

It’s interesting to observe how some of the very top works rally drivers took part, and won, in the early years of the MN Championship – even though these were rallies nearly 100% on the public roads.  Winners included Pat Moss, Peter Procter, Vic Elford (who also won one round as a navigator), David Seigle-Morris, Tony Fall, John Sprinzel and Brian Culcheth.  Similarly many top co-drivers started out as navigators on MN events.  Although Anglias, Cortinas and Minis might be the commonest cars in this period, other much rarer makes also did well – such as Sprites, DKW and SAAB.  In 1961 sports cars were still quite popular but by 1965 it was mostly saloons – possibly as rougher roads were used as the years went by.

The very first MN event, the Yorkshire in 1961, seems to have been very advanced for its day with a results system using public phone boxes near almost every control, keeping in touch with the rally HQ, at a hotel in Ilkley which had extra phone lines installed especially.  A tape recorder was used to record the phone conversations as the times were phoned in.  Little snippets of information like this crop up throughout the book, helping to re-create those early days of the sport.

Peter Robinson has again excelled in researching and documenting all this information from so long ago.  The book is available from www.photohistoric.com or www.donbarrow.co.uk .

 

In Praise of Castrol

First published February 2017.

In Praise of Castrol – by Nigel Raeburn.

Back in the 60s, the major sponsors and supporters of motor sport were the car industry ‘suppliers’ like the oil companies, tyre companies, spark plug manufacturers etc.. Think Dunlop, Shell, BP, Esso, Champion. Long before the cigarette and drink companies came along (wasn’t Gold Leaf the first full livery sponsor in F1?) these car industry companies gave a lot of support to events and drivers – I think Stirling Moss was supported by BP for a long time. However, across the whole spectrum of motor sport from the top international events to club events, I think Castrol was perhaps the best and longest-serving sponsor and supporter.

I can recall a wide range of Castrol support – materials for motor clubs (marshal armbands, water-filled cones, signage etc), their sponsorship and organising of inter-Club quizzes, of the Motoring News road rally championship etc. – as well as their sponsorship of teams (eg BMC rally team) and championships at higher levels. They had some good people working for them too – Stuart Turner for a period, and especially Roger Willis who was a really friendly personality who seemed to attend every event (from Internationals to small club events) – sadly he died far too young at just 35. I really got to know Roger when I once gave him a lift back to Lancashire from the Isle of Mull after the rally there.

Of course Castrol are still involved today – supporting the VW rally team to their many successes in the last few years, winning their class at Le Mans with Ford in 2016 – and are now rumoured to be returning to F1 with McLaren. Castrol is now owned by BP. Finally, their lasting influence on motorsport is surely the aroma of Castrol R – wonderfully evocative of motorsport paddocks and rally routes in the 60s.

As I write I have to hand four Castrol publications from the 1960s and early 70s. One is the Castrol Achievements booklet from 1960, and the other three are the three Castrol Rally Manuals, a hardback published at he end of 1971 through to 1974.

The Castrol Achievements booklet was published I think 6 times, after 1956 and from 1960 to 1966. It covered all forms of motorsport – cars, bikes, boats, even planes – in which Castrol was involved and summarised the successes in the previous year. The 1960 one I have has a coloured cover with an evocative painting of a works Austin Healey driven on Liege-Rome-Liege by Pat Moss on the front, and inside is all black and white photos – about 60 pages in all. There is a special feature on the achievements of Pat Moss and Ann Wisdom with photos of them in Healeys, MG TF, Austin A40, MGA, Riley 1.5 and Morris Minor – showing the versatility of drivers and indeed teams like BMC in those days. Many of the major international rallies are covered with their own pages – Tulip, Safari, Alpine etc.. – showing mainly the cars supported by Castrol (especially the BMC and Ford teams).

Then there are pages covering speed records, motor-bikes, Le Mans, hill climbs etc.. There is a photo of my ‘mentor’ John Aley alongside his famous Mini JRA85 – I can remember being driven at an indicated 100 mph on the Stevenage by-pass in this car which was one of the first ever racing Minis. No speed limits at that time! He was photographed after winning a race in France at Montlhery.

The Castrol Rally Manuals were more substantial affairs – hardbacks running to some 130 pages. With coloured covers and all black and white inside they contained a lot of photos and text too. There was a lot of ‘how to’ information as well as reports and profiles of well-known events and competitors. The first two editions were edited by Peter Browning and the third by Mike Greasley – both respected motorsport journalists, and many famous names contributed chapters – Brian Culcheth, Gerry Phillips, John Davenport, Stuart Turner, Martin Holmes etc..

The second Rally Manual has special resonance for me and for Knutsford &DMC – because of the front cover! It is mainly a photo of Roy Fidler and Barrie Hughes in a Withers of Winsford entered Datsun 240Z on the Scottish Rally in 1972 – but in the background (and around the binding partly onto the back cover) and clearly seen are a number of people known in KDMC circles.

I had been competing earlier in the event with Will Sparrow in what was I think the last rally we did in a Mini, but we retired in Dumfriesshire and had returned to the rally HQ in Nairn, and then gone spectating. The line-up of spectators shows (E&OE), L to R, ANO, John Poole (KDMC Chairman in the 70s), ANO, Vicky Lambert (rally driver and of Horsmans of Liverpool Opel dealers), two ANOs, Tony Goulding (one-time Plains CoC and works co-driver), my wife-to-be Margaret, Ian (one of Will’s service crew – sorry I can’t recall his surname), me, another of Will’s service crew, Dave Campion (ex KDMC, MCD and Prodrive), three ANOs and then one of the Samson brothers (twice Scottish Champions in the 70s) and finally another ANO.

Duckhams produced their version of an Achievements book in 1966, but apart from that this sort of publication seems to have disappeared, which is a shame. Duckhams is also now owned by BP, but they don’t seem to market it anymore. Their Q20/50 in the late 60s was a popular innovation as 50 grade was rare and here was a multigrade which could cover the 20/50 band and help reduce oil consumption at high temperatures and still provide the needed lubrication, and it became popular in competition cars and older cars with high oil consumption.

Thanks to Castrol for all they did for the sport – especially at the Club level.

PHOTOS

Cover of Castrol Achievements 1960 – Pat Moss.

Cover of Castrol Rally Manual 2 – 1972.

Personal recollections of the 1970 Welsh International Rally

First published around 2009.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 1970 WELSH, by Nigel Raeburn.

Even after 38 years I can still remember clearly some aspects of that event, the biggest win for Will Sparrow and myself in our rally partnership which lasted over ten years.  We had only started winning at the top level earlier that year with wins on the Motoring News Championship rounds of the Vales and Nutcracker.  These however were road rallies, and our forest special stage experience was really quite limited prior to that 1970 Welsh.  We did do the 1968 RAC, but retired about a third of the way through, but had only done a small mileage of forest stages apart from that.  We had done the Manx and Circuit of Ireland but they were asphalt stages.  All our events up to this stage had been in Minis and we had become one of the top Mini crews.  Of course this was an era when the top amateur drivers did both MN road rallies (some of which included some forest stages too) and the home International stage rallies as a matter of course and there were few club level forest events.  So we were really relatively ‘green’ at forest rallying when we assembled at Cardiff for the start – if I remember correctly it was also the first rally ever where we wore overalls – nice blue ones as was the fashion!  Ahead of us was a pretty well non-stop rally from Friday evening through to Sunday lunchtime, with short meal stops at the Metropole in Llandrindod Wells and also at Bala and Machynlleth before finishing at Barry.  We would be more in our element on the Epynt stages, of which there was significant mileage.

By the half way point it was clear it was a close battle for the lead between ourselves and Chris Sclater/Martin Holmes in their Escort.  I can remember the tension building up as we started the longest stage in Dovey – we started one minute ahead of Chris and Martin and both crews knew the battle was on and were trying their hardest.  At one point the track ran back along the opposite side of a valley and I can remember looking across and seeing Chris and estimating that he was still about a minute behind.  We waited at the finish to time him in – and after that long stage at ten tenths there was only a few seconds in it!  The pressure was on and continued right to the finish.  I remember the long drive through the valleys back to Barry – of course by then we were both very tired and as was normal on such events we had to share the driving on the road sections and I remember really feeling the responsibility as I had to drive those miles knowing we were in the lead and I had to stay on the road and nurse the car home safely!  After breakfast at Barry we went to Llandow for a ‘race stage’ where the co-driver had to vacate the car – I felt the tension and could hardly bear to watch as Will completed his required laps.  It was then back to Barry for the finish where it soon became clear that we had clinched the win.  Such was the impact that I changed my plans to travel home that evening and arranged to stay on in the hotel and spent the evening having dinner with the organising team.

Our win on one of the ‘home internationals’ was followed up by a very successful rest of the year where we ended up winning the RAC Championship and also taking a class win on the RAC Rally (and 11^th overall).  Indirectly this lead to us doing the 1971 RAC with Dealer Team Vauxhall and then an association with Vauxhall for quite a few years.  Our 1970 win was the start of a good record on the Welsh which suited Will’s style on the flowing forest stages plus the tarmac of Epynt.  We continued with the Mini for a while and came 2^nd behind Tony Fall on the 1971 Welsh, and 6^th in 1972 after a ten minute off in Clocaenog.  By 1973 we were in a Martin Group Vauxhall Firenza and unfortunately rolled spectacularly while challenging for the lead in Dovey about half way through.  In 1974 in a Dealer Team Vauxhall Magnum Coupe we won the hotly contested Group One class beating Pentti Airikkala and Russell Brookes.  That was the last Welsh I did, although I think Will did a few more.

Our early success on the 1970 Welsh stages became a blue-print for later years as we stopped doing road events (after winning the Escort Mexico series in 1972) and tackled mainly the RAC Championship stage rallies – winning the RAC Group One title for DTV in 1974 against strong opposition.  I myself was a road rallyist at heart and continued doing road events with other drivers – and after a ten year break tackled numerous historic road rallies right up to the present day – including winning the 1995 Welsh Retro with Geoff Breakell – which some viewed as a successor event to the original Welsh.