Lodging a correction

Sir,

I have usually found Motor Sport (which I have been reading since 1926!) to be the most accurate motoring paper, but there is a slight error in the excellent and nostalgic article on the 1949 Jersey races, which stated that the first Gransden Lodge races took place in 1947.

In fact the date was June 15, 1946, a year earlier, and it was the first race in England since the war. I remember it well as I was there, and won my very first motor race. At the time I was a director of Raymond Mays’ racing and tuning company and was proud to have Mays and his chief mechanic Ken Richardson standing beside my car on the starting line to encourage me.

I still have the programme which shows that among the competitors were Parnell (Maserati), Gerard (ERA), Whitehead (ERA), Abecassis (Bugatti and Alta) and Roy Salvadori (R-type MG). Probably Roy and I are the only drivers there that day who are still around.

Highlight of the day was the last race which featured the five fastest race winners (not me!) who started in a row five abreast! That does not happen today…

Tony Crook, Coombe, Surrey