Pomeroy Trophy

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Pomeroy would probably have smiled. At the eponymous Trophy meeting at Silverstone in late February, there was the expected wide variety of machinery stretching almost from the Boer War to the Gulf War. There were thoroughbreds with pur sang and Cricklewood accents, Le Mans racers, upright tourers, masterpieces from Milan and Maranello. And what proved to be “the best sportscar” after the slalom, braking, acceleration and high-speed tests had been fed into the formula? A Ford Cortina MkIII.

Winner James Diffey is more usually seen trialling an Austin 7, but squirted the Ford neatly through the cones and executed a tyre-smoking drag-racing burn-out before the ss-1/4 mile to make the most of the 2-litre engine’s go. Brake pedal to rear axle distance being one of the formula elements, the Ford had an advantage over everything else, while second-placed Malcolm Gammons had handicapped himself by giving the wrong measurement for his MGB, and lost to Diffey by a knife-edge 0.03 points.

Roger Collings appropriated the Edwardian Trophy in Don Myers’ huge 10850cc Peerless, which he declared a lovely well-behaved car. David Morris (Le Mans rep Frazer Nash) and Bruce Spollon (Alfa Romeo) completed the First-Class Awards, Spollon taking the Densham Trophy. With the first four cars dating from ’70s, ’60s’, ’50s and ’30s, the Pomeroy formula seems to be finely tuned.

Results:

Pomeroy Trophy: J Diffey (Ford Cortina). 1st Class Awards: M Gammons (MGB), D Morris (Frazer Nash). Densham Trophy: B Spollon (Alfa Romeo). Edwardian Trophy: R Collings (Peerless).