Photos and text by John Sutton

< The Vintage Sports Car Club have been putting on race meetings at Cadwell Park since 1976 so this would be the 30^th anniversary.  The date has now moved to May from August and the weather has moved from warm and dry to cold and wet.  In fact practice was dry and the rain only started at the lunch break although the forecast was wet, cold and windy.  This is a typical VSCC club meeting with a mixture of scratch and handicap races, the change in the weather between practice and the races taxing the handicappers calculations somewhat.

Above:  MG 'R' Type	Above: Line up of Lea Francis cars	Above: Morgan

Cadwell Park is out in the Lincolnshire Wolds and about 170 miles from our base in Greenwich.  

It is a picturesque setting and the track is the hilliest in England.  It is also very narrow and winding over a distance of 2.173 miles.  It was built as a motorcycle racing circuit but has been widely used by motor clubs for this type of event. 

Above: Morgan	Above: GN/JAP Special	Above: Franziss Speial

There were 11 races in all.

The first race was a 6 lapper for Morgan 3 wheelers in two classes, racing and touring modified.  These are the only races where riding mechanics are allowed although they are not as spectacular as the sidecar motorcycle events because the passengers have to stay within the cockpit.  Make no mistake, these cars are quick.  The earlier cars use the “V” twin JAP and Matchless engines with a very distinctive sound and it always seems odd to hear the later cars with their 4 cylinder Ford engines.


Race 2 was for Chain Driven Frazer Nash and GN cars. With no differential these cars are quite a handful and so in these wet conditions they were very skittish.  One of the more exiting new entries was the GN/JAP Grand Prix of Richard Scaldwell with it’s V8 JAP aero engine of 5112 cc.  This car dates from 1908 with a wooden chassis.  Another exciting car was the Franziss Special of Roger Sweet with a 9 litre aero engine!  

Above: The start	Above: Amilcar	Above: Mike Gilbert

The first handicap race was a short but exciting 4 laps.  The poor conditions can be imagined from this shot of the start.  Keith and Terry Pointer were both entered respectively in their Lea-Francis Hyper and Ulster 4 seaters.  Michael Ward was mounted in his Bugatti Type 40 Torpedo 2 seater. Terry McGrath’s Amilcar/Riley led from the start but was overtaken on the last lap to finish third.  

Above: 996 cc MG PB , Riley 12/4

Race 4 was for the Melville and Geoghegan Trophies.  The latter is for cars with an engine capacity up to 1500 cc.  Entries included Peter Plaskitt in his 996 cc supercharged MG PB, Mike Gilbert in his Riley 12/4 and John Gibson with his Singer B3Y Sports which we have featured in our Marques section.

Above: 500 cc cars	Above: Cooper Bristol

The Shuttleworth, Nuffield, Len Thompson Trophies were next.  The entries for these trophies has dwindled over the years and so they have been amalgamated with the Formula 3 cars which are 500 cc cars from the 1950’s.  The grid was dominated by these cars there being 16 starters from 26 entries.  In addition there were two Cooper Bristols driven by Max Frazer and Warwick Banks who has just made a return to racing after many years.

Above: Napier Bentley	Above: TT Sunbeam

Race 7 was 10 laps for the John Holland Trophy.  The always exciting Napier Bentley with 24 litre engine acted as a mobile chicane and must have been a real handful in these slippery conditions.  The 9 litre Franziss Special was out again in close company with the 4.2 litre GN Thunderbug of Mark Walker as were Stuart Harper and Gary Caroline in their Morgan Aeros.  Mrs Sue Darbyshire lost her Morgan Super Aero at the bottom of the Mountain on the second to last lap.  It was also good to see the 1914 TT Sunbeam in action even if it was on the slow side.

Above: Lagonda Rapier	Above: HRG and Austin

 The Spero and Voiturette Trophies were race 8 for a similar number of laps.  This race is always exciting and seriously competitive.  The Spero is for cars up to 1100 cc and the Voiturette for unsuperchaged cars up to 750 cc.  It is also nostalgic for your intrepid reporter because he won the Voiturette Trophy in 1968 (was it really that long ago!).  The anticipated dice between David Fletcher-Jones in his Lagonda Rapier (who has won the Spero 12 times before) and William Mahany in his 1938 HRG Le Mans (who won last year) did not materialize because David made a very poor start.  However William had to contend with Terry Rowing in his supercharged 750 cc MG engined Austin Special.  On the second lap They had a “moment” which resulted in Terry going off.  He was able to restart but from then on there was no catching the HRG to win the race outright and the Spero Trophy.  David Fletcher-Jones made a valiant attempt to catch the HRG but had lost too much time at the start.  The Voiturette was won by Frank Hernandez in his Austin Seven Blau Mouse Special for the 10^th time.  He made a superb start and led the race for the first 4 laps which is quite an achievement for an un-supercharged Austin 7.  Another exciting car to make an appearance was the single seat MG “R” Type of Mark Piercy.  

Above: MG "R" Type	Above: Frank Hernandez

After this excitement your bedraggled reporter decided it was time to retire to the bar!  He only learnt subsequently that Terry McGrath had broken the rear axle on his Amilcar which is fitted with an Austin 7 crownwheel & pinion but by Monday evening we had another in the post to him!  We try to please.     

Above: Alvis Firefly (supercharged)	Above: GN/JAP Grand Prix