Dudley Sterry and Dick Peachey had laid out a series of tests on the remaining section of the Members banking. These were of the “special test” variety, involving reversing and wiggle, woggling on the historic concrete.
Competition started with an assault on The Test Hill, albeit with dire warnings of a severe penalty of wheels were sent “a-spinning” in the process. Digging into my first edition of Boddy I see that “on November 24th, R. G. J. Nash persuaded his Frazer-Nash “The Terror” to break the Test Hill record, setting it at 32.44 mph. It was estimated that Nash’s car, which used twin rear tyres, breasted the hill at some 50mph, and certainly, it was air-bourne for about 30 ft after reaching the summit, a truly hair-raising experience in view of the many trees. Nash’s time of 7.45 seconds has never been beaten.” Unfortunately, the MCC were to be killjoys, making competitors come to a stop at liner B at the top! So, the 1932 record remained safe. The fastest time in 2002 was set by John Lees who ascended in fifteen seconds, followed by Richard Nixon who “bombed” his 250cc Can Am up in 19.1 seconds. The fastest car was Duncan Welch in 25.3, illustrating that it was the power to weight ratio that was all-important.
John Lees on his 1961 Triumph Twin, who was consistently fastest on all the tests, dominated the Solo competition. Richard Nixon on his Can-Am Bombardier was doing well and fighting for second place with John Young’s very noisy 1938 Triumph when he incurred a maximum on the last test of round two to drop him out of the awards.
There were only three starters in Class B for Sidecars and three-wheelers, and only had two finishers, when Terry Wright retired his delightful 1926 Morgan Standard after the first round leaving Arthur Walton with an easy victory.
The car classes were well supported and competition was quite fierce, with only a handful actually trying to win the regularity award! Adrian Tucker-Peake was the easy winner in the Closed Car class, in his Peugeot 205 Gti, a combination of driver skill and a well set-up car giving him an early lead which he was not to lose all day. Bryan Bradbeer set some early fast times in his Skoda before a drive shaft popped out. He managed to get it back in and continue but it happened again later in the day and he had to retire. Peter Thompson and Alan Bellamy both went well, but had to give best to Adrian’s more nimble FWD machine. I should mention that Adrian’s uncle “Tucker” actually competed on the Outer Circuit on a motorcycle before the war.
Class D for Open Cars was a real battle between Mike Pearson (Dellow Replica), Duncan Welch (Austin Healey SS) and Keith Pettit (AH Sprite). It was Duncan who took the early lead, diving down and back up the muddy slope on the first test 0.1 seconds ahead of Mike. Onto the Members banking for test two and Duncan was fastest as well, but then on the third test Duncan dropped a massive ten seconds, letting Mike into a lead he was not to relinquish all day. Simon and Matt Robson started well before incurring a huge penalty on test four during the first round, which put them completely out of contention.
Bill Bennett was the easy winner in the pre-141 class driving his 1933 MG J2. The overall regularity winner came from this class. Neil Bray setting an overall regularity difference of 5.2 according to a formula, which I don’t understand, but I do know that Neil was more surprised than anyone to win this award! Primrose ran like a pig all the morning, breaking down with monotonous “regularity” on the way down and popping and banging all the morning. Mike Pearson lent Neil his spare at lunchtime after which Primrose behaved impeccably for the rest of the day.
Unfortunately John Aley had been feeling un-well and went home early, so the awards were presented by Alan Foster and Jonathan Toulmin to round off an enchanting day.
| Mike Fowler | 1997 KTM EGS/E | Regularity Award for Motorcycles |
| Don Friend | 1994 Enfield Bullet | Regularity Class A |
| John Lees | 1961 Triumph TR6 | FTD Motorcycles |
| John Young | 1938 Triumph T70 | FTD Class A |
| Steve Hancock/Tim Stoffel | 1938 Ariel VB | Regularity Class B |
| Arthur Walton/TBA | 1949 Ariel VH | FTD Class B |
| Peter Chantler/Geoff Pickett | 1965 Hillman Imp | Regularity Class C |
| Adrian & Liz Tucker-Peake | 1985 Peugeot 205 GTi | FTD Class C |
| Hilary Foster/Charlotte Blight | 1973 Morgan +8 | Regularity Class D |
| Mike Pearson/Arnold Lane | 1954 Dellow Replica Mk2 | FTD Cars |
| Duncan & Eleanor Welch | 1960 Austin Healey SS | FTD Class D |
| Bill & Liz Bennett | 1933 MG J2 | FTD Class E |
| Neil Bray/Dave Nash | 1936 Ford Primrose | Regularity Award for Cars |
| Stephen & Madeleine Dear | 1927 Wolseley 16/45 | Regularity Class E |
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