1955 Maserati 300S

This was one of the competitors in the Bonhams  Drum Brake Sports Cars  Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.

It's the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith, chassis #3060, and was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The Maserati 300S has a 6-cylinder engine based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a lengthened stroke to bring the capacity up to 2,991cc. The car's first major race was the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour race where it was driven by Cesare Perdisa and Carlos Menditéguy, but Menditéguy crashed and overturned the car during the race. The car was then badly damaged when the trailer retrieving it was hit by a truck. The rebuild wasn't completed till 1957, but on its return to Sebring in 1959 the car was once again badly damaged in Edwin Lawrence's fatal accident during practice. It was rebuilt yet again with a fibreglass body, and later a 3.9 litre Chevrolet V8 engine was installed.  The car was fully restored to its current form in the early 1990s.

1960 Maserati T61

This car competed in the Sir Stirling Moss Trophy for 50s Sportscars race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1960 Maserati T61 of Mark Gillies and has a 4-cylinder inline 2,890cc engine. The T61, and the 1,989cc T60 were generally known as Maserati Birdcage cars because of the intricate tubular space frame chassis. In total 22 of these cars were built by Maserati, but this car is a recreation built by the Crosthwaite & Gardiner engineering company which is indistinguishable from the original cars and has been given the chassis number 2478.

1955 Maserati 300S

This was one of the competitors in the Coys Race for Pre-1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002.

It's the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith, chassis #3060, and was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The Maserati 300S has a 6-cylinder engine based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a lengthened stroke to bring the capacity up to 2,991cc. The car's first major race was the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour race where it was driven by Cesare Perdisa and Carlos Menditéguy, but Menditéguy crashed and overturned the car during the race. The car was then badly damaged when the trailer retrieving it was hit by a truck. The rebuild wasn't completed till 1957, but on its return to Sebring in 1959 the car was once again badly damaged in Edwin Lawrence's fatal accident during practice. It was rebuilt yet again with a fibreglass body, and later a 3.9 litre Chevrolet V8 engine was installed.  The car was fully restored to its current form in the early 1990s. The car number 18 in the background is the 1958 Cooper T45 of Anthony Ditheridge which took part in the HGPCA Pre-1966 Grand Prix Cars race.

1955 Maserati 300S

This was one of the competitors in the Coys Race for Pre-1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002.

It's the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith, chassis #3060, and was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The Maserati 300S has a 6-cylinder engine based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a lengthened stroke to bring the capacity up to 2,991cc. The car's first major race was the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour race where it was driven by Cesare Perdisa and Carlos Menditéguy, but Menditéguy crashed and overturned the car during the race. The car was then badly damaged when the trailer retrieving it was hit by a truck. The rebuild wasn't completed till 1957, but on its return to Sebring in 1959 the car was once again badly damaged in Edwin Lawrence's fatal accident during practice. It was rebuilt yet again with a fibreglass body, and later a 3.9 litre Chevrolet V8 engine was installed.  The car was fully restored to its current form in the early 1990s.

1939 Maserati 4CL

This car competed in a Celebration Maserati Invitation Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Maserati themed SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Rodney Smith, chassis #1564,  and was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The car was designed for Voiturette racing and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,491cc supercharged engine. Nine of the cars were built in 1939, and a further sixteen after the war between 1946 and 1947.

1955 Maserati 300S

This is one of the competitors in the 1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith, chassis #3060, and was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The Maserati 300S has a 6-cylinder engine based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a lengthened stroke to bring the capacity up to 2,991cc. The car's first major race was the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour race where it was driven by Cesare Perdisa and Carlos Menditéguy, but Menditéguy crashed and overturned the car during the race. The car was then badly damaged when the trailer retrieving it was hit by a truck. The rebuild wasn't completed till 1957, but on its return to Sebring in 1959 the car was once again badly damaged in Edwin Lawrence's fatal accident during practice. It was rebuilt yet again with a fibreglass body, and later a 3.9 litre Chevrolet V8 engine was installed.  The car was fully restored to its current form in the early 1990s.

1933 Rileys

I photographed these two cars in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1993.

They're two of the four Rileys entered by Barrie Gillies for the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy race and the programme of the event gave this information:

'Barrie Gillies has two alternative Riley Six entries, either his 1933 Dixon Riley of 1,991 cc or his Treen Riley with tubular chassis of the same capacity, while his son Mark has to choose between  the 1936 Brooke Special Riley of 1,991 cc or the famous supercharged White Riley, forerunner of the ERAs, of 1,488 cc.'

The car on the left is the Dixon Riley, and on the right is the White Riley.

1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars

This is a photograph I took at McLeans Corner during the 1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

Leading is Marshall Bailey in his 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail followed by the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith (#3060) being driven by Mark Gillies. Closely behind Mark Gillies is the 1954 HWM Jaguar of Michael Steele and the car at the rear is the 1958 Lola Mk1 prototype of Richard Wills.

Maserati 4CL

This car competed in the Richard Seaman Historic Trophy race at the VSCC's race meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Rodney Smith that was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The 4CL has a 1,491cc 4-cylinder inline engine with a two-stage supercharger and was designed for the pre-war voiturette class of racing. This car is chassis #1566 and on 7 September 2017 I showed a photograph I'd taken of it at Silverstone in 1996.

ERA R3A

This car competed in the Hawthorn Memorial and Spanish Trophy Race at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's the 2-litre supercharged 1934 ERA R3A of Rodney Smith, and was driven in the race by Mark Gillies.

Here's Mark Gillies during the race going underneath the footbridge at Clay Hill.

On 21 August 2013 I showed photographs of Mark Gillies and R3A at Donington Park in 2008.

ERA

Here's a photograph of a car being made ready to run in the Historic Seaman Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.

It's Duncan Ricketts' 1938 ERA E-Type, GP1, and behind it is the ERA R3A that Mark Gillies drove in the same race. You can read about the ERA cars on the ERA Club website.