Mallory Park (March 8th)
THE B.A.R.C.’s Mallory Park Race Meeting on March 8th had the distinction of being the first British event of the year. The first race was for Formula Three cars and saw the new formula getting off to a good start with a comfortable win by John Taylor in one of the Ken Tyrell B.M.C.-engined Coopers, from John Fenning’s Lotus-B.M.C. and M. Davies’ Lotus-Ford.
The sports-car race, which should really have been called a sports/racing-car event, produced some spirited racing between Rex Willoughby’s 1,098-c.c. front-engined Lola-Climax and M. N. Nunn’s Lotus 23. Willoughby managed to hold the lead for the first six laps but appeared to have more difficulty in lapping the tail-enders in his older Lola and eventually Nunn slipped past to win by a short distance. The saloon-car race was disappointing in the non-appearance of Doc. Merfield’s V8-engined Ford Cortina but, nevertheless, Harry Ratcliffe’s oversized 1,370-c.c. S-type. Cooper kept the spectators entertained by some really fast lapping to win with more than 11 sec. clear of André Baldet’s Moto Baldet Lotus-Cortina and Swanton’s Lotus-Cortina.
A welcome sight was M.R.P. driver Richard Attwood, who drove Nobby Spero’s ex-Horace Gould 250F Maserati for a number of laps to demonstrate what real Grand Prix cars used to do. Attwood really enjoyed the drive and “demonstrated” with some laps in the 58-sec. bracket.
Ten laps appeared to be a little too short for the Formule Libre race, which counted as the first round of the Bob Gerard Formule Libre Trophy, but Bill Bradley’s Monaco-nosed 1,650-c.c. Cooper-Ford and Tony Hegbourne in Geoffrey Lambert’s 1,498-c.c. Cooper-Ford had a real dice in the opening laps to more than make up for the obvious lack of laps. Hegbourne, who will be driving a Formula Two car this year, soon had the whip hand and pulled out a good lead to win from Bradley, with Mike Hailwood’s ex-F.J. 1,650-c.c. Brabham-Ford third after a poor start. The last of the real races before the meeting degenerated into a handicap event was a saloon-car event won by John Fitzpatrick’s 998-c.c. Broadspeed Austin-Mini from a horde of S-type Coopers and ordinary Coopers.—E. L. W. ,