Peter Collins

This is another of the photographs taken by my brother at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July 1956.

It's the late Peter Collins, photographed in the paddock during the Friday practice day. Peter Collins drove one of the four Lancia Ferrari D50s in the race, the others being driven by Juan Fangio, Eugenio Castellotti and Alfonso de Portago. He qualified in fourth position on the grid, but had to retire his car on lap 64 of the 101 lap race, taking over Alfonso de Portago's car to finish in second place behind his team mate Juan Fangio.

Mercedes Benz W125 & W154 at Oulton Park

On 3 April 2012 I showed photographs of the Mercedes Benz W125 that Colin Crabbe took to Oulton Park in 1970 and 1971, and I referred to the fact that in June 1958 Mercedes Benz had taken a W125 and also a W154 to the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park to be driven in demonstration runs by Peter Collins and Tony Brooks. Here are photographs of those cars I took that day returning to the paddock after one of those runs.

The 1937 Mercedes Benz W125

The 1939 Mercedes Benz W154 (sometimes called the W163)

Speedway: Belle Vue Aces v King's Lynn (17 July 1976)

Challenge Match: Peter Collins (red) v Chris Morton (white)

(There should have been a race between Peter Collins and Mal Simmons of Wolves for the Golden Helmet, but presumably Simmons was indisposed)

Alan Wilkinson

Heat 1: Terry Betts

Heat 3: Michael Lee (yellow/black), Ray Bales (white) & Chris Morton (blue)

Heat 5: Terry Betts

Heat 6: Kristian Praestbro (blue), Alan Wilkinson (red), Ian Turner (white) & Pete Smith (yellow/black)

Match result: Belle Vue Aces 47 King's Lynn 31

Speedway: Belle Vue Aces v Cradley (10 July 1976)

Heat 1: Alan Wilkinson

Heat 2: Steve Bastable

Heat 3: Chris Morton (blue) & Arthur Price (yellow/black)

Heat 4: Bruce Cribb (white) & Steve Bastable (yellow/black)

Heat 4: Peter Collins

Match Result: Belle Vue Aces 48 Cradley 30

Speedway: Grand Prix Qualifying Round (3 July 1976) at Belle Vue Stadium

Peter Collins (Belle Vue Aces) before the start of Heat 1

Heat 1: Peter Collins (Belle Vue Aces)

Heat 3: Dave Morton (Hackney Hawks)

Heat 4: Scott Autrey (Exeter Falcons) in white and Doug Wyer (Sheffield Tigers) in blue

Heat 5: Reide Eider (Leicester Lions) in white and Keith White (Hackney Hawks) in blue

Start of Heat 6: Doug Wyer (Sheffield Tigers) in red, Dave Morton (Hackney Hawks) in blue, Russ Hodgson (Belle Vue Aces) in white and Christer Sjosten (Poole Pirates) in yellow/black

Geoff Pusey (Belle Vue Aces)

Alan Wilkinson (Belle Vue Aces) before the start of Heat 7

Heat 7: Chris Morton (Belle Vue Aces) in white and Steve Gresham (Newport Wasps) in yellow/black

Finn Thomsen (Wolverhampton Wolves) before the start of Heat 9

The final placings were:

          1st        Peter Collins (Belle Vue Aces)       14 points

          2nd       Scott Autrey (Exeter Falcons)        13 points

          3rd=      Dave Morton (Hackney Hawks)     12 points

          3rd=      Doug Wyer (Sheffield Tigers)         12 points

Speedway: Belle Vue Aces v Poole (12 June 1976)

Heat 1: Malcolm Simmons (white) & Paul Tyrer (blue)

Heat 2: Kristian Praestbro (blue), Colin Gooddy (yellow/black) & Les Collins (red)

Heat 2: Les Collins

Heat 3: Russ Hodgson (red), Pete Smith (white) & Neil Middleditch (yellow/black)

Heat 3: Russ Hodgson

Heat 4: Peter Collins (red), Christer Sjosten (white) & Colin Gooddy (yellow/black)

Heat 5: Chris Morton (blue) & Malcolm Simmons (white)

Match Result: Belle Vue Aces 43 Poole 35

Friday's Ferrari

I've recently been able to scan into my laptop some of the photographs that my brother and I took at Oulton Park and Aintree, and one meeting at Silverstone, between 1955 and 1962. They were mostly taken on Kodak Brownie 127 cameras but even so the quality of some of them is surprisingly good - others not so much. Here's one of the photographs we took at practice for the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

It shows three of the four Ferrari 801 cars that took part in the race. The middle car, number 14 (chassis no. 0010), was the car driven by Luigi Musso and the car on the left looks to have number 16 (chassis no. 0006), which was Maurice Trintignant's car, taken over by Peter Collins when his car failed half-way through the race. The other two cars were number 10 (chassis no. 0009), driven by Mike Hawthorn, and number 12 (chassis no. 0008) which was Peter Collins' original car.

During the race Stirling Moss in a Vanwall had a comfortable lead part way through the race, but stopped to change cars with Tony Brooks, then in ninth place, because of a persistent misfire. This allowed Jean Behra in a Maserati 250F to take the lead with Mike Hawthorn in the Ferrari in second place. Stirling Moss got up to third place, but still some way behind, when Jean Behra's clutch and flywheel exploded. Mike Hawthorn had the misfortune to run over the debris sustaining a puncture leaving Stirling Moss in the lead which he maintained to the finish - the first win by a British car in a World Championship race. Luigi Musso finished in second place with Mike Hawthorn recovering after his pit stop to finish third and the Maurice Trintignant/Peter Collins Ferrari was fourth. 

The Ferrari 801 was the final development of the Lancia D50 cars handed over to Ferrari at the end of the 1955 season on the demise of Scuderia Lancia. The cars competed in the 1956 season with minor modifications as Lancia-Ferrari D50s but were modified to such an extent for the 1957 season that they were given a new identity as Ferrari 801s.

Speedway: John Player's No. 6 Classic (16 April 1976) at Belle Vue Stadium

Heat 4: Chris Morton (yellow/black), Tommy Jansson (white), Peter Collins (blue) & Jim McMillan (red)

Heat 6: Peter Collins

Heat 8: George Hunter (red) & Tommy Jansson (yellow/black)

Peter Collins, Eric Boocock, Russ Hodgson & Chris Morton

Peter Collins

Heat 12: Chris Morton (red) & Nigel Boocock (yellow/black)

Eric Boocock, Paul Tyrer & Chris Morton

Heat 14: Mitch Graham (yellow/black), Reg Wilson (white) & Kristian Praestbro (red)

Tommy Jansson

Heat 15: Russ Hodgson (white) & Soren Sjosten (yellow/black)

Heat 16: Geoff Pusey (red) & Jim McMillan (yellow/black)

Result: 1st Peter Collins (15 points)
           2nd Doug Wyer (12 points)
           3rd Chris Morton (12 points)
           4th Tommy Jansson (12 points)
There was a run-off for 2nd and 3rd places, finishing as above

Speedway: Belle Vue Aces v Wimbledon (5 July 1975)

Another Gulf Oil British League speedway meeting at Belle Vue and now I had my telephoto lens.

Heat 1: Soren Sjosten (red), Paul Tyrer (blue) & Barry Briggs (white)

Heat 1: Barry Briggs

Heat 2: Reg Luckhurst (yellow/black), Graham Banks (white), Russ Hodgson (blue) & Geoff Pusey (red)

Heat 3: Ed Stangeland (white), Chris Morton (red) & Roger Johns (yellow/black)

Heat 4: Peter Collins (red), Tommy Jansson (white) & Geoff Pusey (blue)

Heat 5: Ed Stangeland (yellow/black), Chris Morton (red) & Alan Wilkinson (blue)

Heat 6: Soren Sjosten 

Match Result: Belle Vue Aces 53 Wimbledon 25