Craner Curves, Donington Park

This is a photograph taken at the Craner Curves during the first lap of the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

Leading is Andrew Smith in his 2 litre 1957 Cooper T43 followed by two more Coopers, the 2 litre 1958 T45 of Anthony Ditheridge and the 2 litre 1957 T43 of Tania Pilkington. The two cars behind them are the 3.8 litre 1958 Lister Jaguar Monza of Rod Jolley and Alexander Boswell's 3 litre 1952 Ferrari 625A. Following them is a group consisting of B Type and A Type Connaughts, a Cooper Bristol and another Cooper T45. Bringing up the rear are the 4.2 litre 1957 Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G of Stuart Harper and the 2 litre 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 of David White.

Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G

I took this photograph at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004 where the car took part in the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race.

Shown in the programme of the event as the Kurtis-Indy single seater of John Guyatt, it's a 4.2 litre 1957 Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G and it was driven in the race by Stuart Harper. This car took part in the 1957 Indianapolis 500 race as the Meguiar Mirror Glaze Special, and also took part in the USA v Europe Race of Two Worlds at Monza in 1957 and 1958 driven by Ray Crawford.

On 23 November 2017 I showed another photograph of the car that I had taken at this Donington Park meeting.

Hawthorn Memorial & Spanish Trophies Race 2015

The Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in July 2015 included the Hawthorn Memorial & Spanish Trophies Race for Pre-1961 Racing Cars and here are some of the cars which took part in that race.

This is the start of the race, viewed from near to Lodge Corner, the last corner on the circuit. The green seating you can see on the left of the photograph is the grandstand at Old Hall Corner - the first corner on the circuit.

The remaining photographs were taken at Lodge Corner, and this is the 4.2 litre 1957 Kurtis Indy-Roadster, entered by Stuart Harper and driven by Frederick Harper, that I featured on 1 December 2014.

This is the 2 litre supercharged 1935 ERA R4A of Nicholas Topliss, and on 3 May 2015 I showed a photograph of this car at Oulton Park in 1987 when it was owned by Sir John Venables-Llewelyn.

Another ERA, this time the 1½ litre supercharged 1936 ERA R10B of Paddins Dowling, which I've not featured before, and the ERA Club records its previous ownership as follows:

R10B     

P N Whitehead      1936       to            1952

R D P Wilkinson   1952       to            1957

J A Williamson      1957       to            1976

J E Finn                 1976       to            1980

N B Mason            1980       to            2005

P P Dowling           2005       to            date

Not shown in the programme of the event, but it's the 1,098cc 1959 Formula Junior Gemini Mk2 of Graham Barron.

This is the 1½ litre supercharged 1935 MG Bellevue Special of Thomas Hardman. On 8 October 2015 I showed a photograph of this car (and other MGs) in the paddock at this meeting. Bonhams recorded its history when the car was put up for auction in 2014.

Robert Longdon's 1960 1,098cc Formula Junior Lola Mk2

William Grimshaw's 1,086cc 1959 Formula Junior Moorland Mk2, which I featured with other Formula Junior cars on 26 March 2017.

The 747cc 1932 Austin 7 Special of Christian Pedersen. When I've seen this car previously it was painted green, but now only the bonnet cover remains green.

Matt Ricketts in father Duncan's 1957 Cooper T41. The T41 was Cooper's first step in Formula 2 racing which only two years later led to Jack Brabham winning the World Championship in the 2½ litre Formula 1 Cooper Climax T51. The programme of the event says that Duncan Ricketts' car has an engine capacity of 1,220cc which seems strange as is doesn't fit any racing Formula that I'm familiar with.

Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G

This car contested the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

It's John Guyatt's 1957 Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G, which took part in the Indianapolis 500 race as the Mirror Glaze Special. Stuart Harper drove the 4.2 litre car at Donington Park, and it was shown in the programme of the event as a Kurtis-Indy single seater. 

Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G Indy Roadster

A couple of days ago I showed a photograph of a group of cars in 2004 at the Old Hairpin at Donington Park, one of which was a Kurtis sports car. The name Kurtis to me always conjures up pictures of the front-engined Indianapolis cars of the 1950s and early 60s and today's photographs are of one of these cars driven by Stuart Harper at the VSCC Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's shown in the programme of the event as a 1957 Kurtis Indy-Roadster, but from other photographs on the internet it seems that it should actually be described as the Kurtis Kraft Offenhauser KK500G Schulz Fueling Equipment Special. In fact this site, which lists all Indy Roadsters that are known to exist, says it has a Watson nose and (on two separate lists) shows it as a 1961 and a 1962 car. I'm not an expert on Indianapolis cars, but I must say that looking at photographs of the Indianapolis 500 race it does look more like a 1961 or 62 car than one from 1957, I assume that it's actually a 1957 car with the nose from a 1961/62 Watson.

In this photograph you can see the offset engine with the drive shaft passing to the left of the driver giving a lower car and better handling for the left-hand turns.

You can see here how the driver sits on the right-hand side of the car

Here's Stuart Harper during the Hawthorn Memorial And Spanish Trophies race, on the straight between Clay Hill and Druids Corner.

And here's Stuart Harper a few laps later rounding Lodge Corner