Gauld at the VSCC Opener

Also it is the 80th anniversary of the ERA, that icon of English racing cars which will also be celebrated at Donington later in the year.

Laurels for Mark Gillies and ERA R3A.

Talking of ERAs, there were no fewer than ten of them racing at Silverstone, which made a grand sight and the winner of the Patrick Lindsay Trophy for ERA cars was UK journalist but now U.S. resident Mark Gillies driving the third ERA ever built, R3A, and the first 2 liter car. It was surprisingly entered for the 1935 German Grand Prix for the German driver Ernst von Delius. He had just become a factory driver for Auto Union, but with four other Auto Unions in the race he was released to drive for Raymond Mays’ ERA team. But he had a huge accident in practice placing the ERA in the trees and out of the race. Raymond Mays, meanwhile, entered and ran a new 2 liter car, R4B but he retired in the race.

The superb ex-Prince Bira R5B that was raced by the Lindsay family for fifty years and now owned and raced by Charles McCabe.

Today the car is owned by Dick Skipworth who had previously owned the car before selling it to American Ron Smith. He recently bought it back from Smith’s widow Mary. The Hon. Patrick Lindsay’s son Ludovic was there to see his father’s old car “Remus” ( R5B) that had been raced by Siamese Prince Bira and is now owned by Charles McCabe. I cannot think of another marque that could command an exclusive race with ten race cars, each about 80 years old.

Barry Cannell with the beautifully prepared Lola Mk3 in Dibley blue.

In one of the garages I came across an interesting early Lola, the ninth of eleven Mark 3 Formula Juniors. Owned and raced today by Barry Cannell, it carries chassis number BRJ-38 and was unique in that its original owner was Hugh Dibley, best known as a BOAC pilot back in the 1960s. In 1961 the new Grand Prix formula was for 1.5 liter cars. Towards the end of the 1960 season Hugh contacted the Ford engine tuners, Holbay, to build a longer-stroke version of the Ford Junior engine to raise it from 1,000 to 1500 ccs. Instant F1 car! It was finished in time for the Lewis-Evans Trophy race at Brands Hatch where Dibley put it on the second row of the grid. Mind you all the leading Formula 1 team cars were don their way to the USA for the US Grand Prix, so the opposition was not too great. In the race Dibley got up to fourth place before the wheel bearings wore out and he had to retire, but it was a great effort.

Ernie de Vos in action with the Lola Mk3 in the 1960s somewhere in the USA. See comments below for more information.

Dibley then sold the car to Dutch/Canadian Ernie de Vos who won the East Coast Formula Junior Championship in 1962 with it. The car returned in bits to the UK in the late 1970s and now Barry is racing it in its original Scuderia light blue colors. Barry is also Chairman of the HGPCA (Historic Grand Prix Cars Association).

Mention of Hugh Dibley reminds me of a story he told at a dinner I organized in Edinburgh, twenty one years ago on the 25th anniversary of Jim Clark’s death. Not long after Jim won the 1965 Indianapolis 500, he decided he wanted a new aeroplane to replace his ex-Jack Brabham single=engined Piper Comanche. He contacted Piper and ordered a new Twin-Comanche, complete with long range tanks so that he could fly the Atlantic with it. Sometime later Piper told him the plane would be ready to pick up at a certain date. When Jim bumped into Hugh at a race meeting, he suggested that Hugh should go over with him to Vero Beach in Florida, collect it and both fly it back together.

Hugh Dibley, left, with Jim Clark giving Jackie Stewart some advice at Brands Hatch. Stewart retired and Dibley won the race.

All seemed fine but then Hugh had some BOAC flying to do, and Jim had a race to attend to, so Clark asked Piper to get a pilot to fly the plane from Florida over to England.

It took off and totally disappeared and was never heard of again. Now if Jim and Hugh had been flying it at the time, would have made a helluva front page story at the time!

The John Coombs Cooper Monaco looking too good to be true...