Take the Family

I took this photograph on The Avenue, the straight between Old Hall Corner and Cascades during the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1974.

I usually went to race meetings on my own which gave me freedom to wander round the paddock or to outflung corners of the circuit to take photographs without taking the risk of boring the rest of my family who don't share my enthusiasm for the sport. Other people obviously had no problems with taking all the family along. The nearest of the red cars here is David Fletcher-Jones in his 1934/5 1,086cc Lagonda Rapier while the car just disappearing from the shot seems to be Colin Warrington's 1931/4 Appleton Special, a Maserati 8C chassis with a supercharged 1½ litre Riley engine.

1929 Bentley Napier

I took this photograph at Old Hall Corner on the first lap of the Richard Seaman Memorial Vintage Trophy race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1974.

Leading is Peter Morley in the 1929 Bentley Napier, a vehicle that he and David Llewellyn created in 1968 using a 24 litre Napier Sea Lion engine which has a 'W' configuration - two banks of four cylinders in a 'V' with a third upright bank between them. The car was originally built on a Sunbeam chassis but after an accident was rebuilt using the chassis of a 1929 8 litre Bentley. The nose of the car was later altered to resemble that of the Napier Railton. The car behind it is Ron Footitt's Cognac Special, a 1925 AC/GN constructed in 1925 using the chassis of a GN Cyclecar and an 1,991cc AC engine.

1954 Maserati 250F

I took this photograph during the Allcomers Scratch Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1974.

It's Ray Fielding in his 1954 Maserati 250F, originally a 1952 A6GCM serial number 2038 with a 6-cylinder 1,987cc engine that was a works car in 1952 and acquired the following season by Swiss driver Baron Emanuel (better known as 'Toulo') de Graffenried. Early in 1954 the car was given a 6-cylinder 2,490cc Maserati 250F engine and a new identity as chassis 2503. Toulo de Graffenried raced the car in 1954 before selling it to Australian Reg Hunt who took it 'down under' and raced it in Australia and New Zealand before selling it to Kevin Neal when he acquired Maserati 250F chassis 2516. In 1965 2038/2503 went to the UK and was campaigned by Colin Crabbe and Dan Marguiles, then to Ray Fielding before ending up in a private Swiss collection.