Boxing Day Brands Hatch

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The Annual Boxing Day Brands Hatch Race Meeting, organised by the B.R. & S.C.C., offered a programme of six races, including a 20-lap event for single-seater racing cars competing for the Silver City Trophy. The first race of the day was one of the two finals for the John Davy Trophy and catered for the larger G.T. machines. Throughout most of the race the battle for supremacy was between Ken Baker’s E-type Jaguar and Dickie Stoop’s 2-litre Porsche Carrera, with Baker having to fight off Stoop at every bend. However, both drivers overdid things and J. W. Dean, driving his E-type consistently, had first place offered to him on a plate. Second place went to Baker, with Stoop just managing to retain fourth place from Gordon Spice’s Lawrence-tune Morgan. The saloon car race constituted the final of the Slip Molyslip Trophy, which had already been won by John Young with his brother Mike assured of second place. Initially Alan Peer’s 1,650-c.c. Ford Anglia led the field but was eventually overtaken by Alan Mann’s 1,600-c.c. Ford Cortina, which gradually pulled away to a comfortable win.

The Long John Trophy for Vintage and Historic Racing and Sports cars saw a run-away win for John Horton’s post-war A-type Connaught from Peter Waller’s pre-war E.R.A. R9B and Bill Morris’ ex-Bira E.R.A. R12B, the latter being based on the wreck of the Prince Bira E.R.A. Hanuman and known as Hanuman II. As every finisher in this race is given a free issue of Long John Scotch Whisky it was hardly surprising that R. E. Salvage went to the extreme of hacking the tail off his A-type Connaught after it had been clouted severely, in order to finish. Perhaps he needed it after driving in his shirt sleeves! Dan Margulies followed up his long series of non-starts and retirements set up with his Maserati (now in the hands of Lord Donne) by becoming one of the first retirements with his newly acquired A-type Connaught.

Tony Hegbourne put up a brilliant performance to win the Silver City Trophy race by leading from the third lap to the finish in Godfrey Lambert’s 1 1/2-litre Cooper-Ford. For much of the race Hegbourne was running on three cylinders but despite an initial challenge by Ian Ruby’s Formula Junior Cooper-Ford nobody could make any impression on Hegbourne, and at the finish he had nearly 50 sec. in hand from John Mastin’s 1 1/2-litre Lotus-Ford. Raby’s early challenge ended when he overdid things as he left Druids and had to take to the grass, rejoining the race well off the leader board. Raby did not give up easily and gradually pulled back some of the lost places until his engine finally packed up a few laps from the finish. Third place went to Melvyn Long’s Formula Junior Lotus-Ford.

The last race of the Guards Trophy saw Jim Morley’s Lola-Climax finishing in third place to assure himself of the 1963 Guards Trophy. Outright winner was Roy Pierpoint’s 2-litre Attila-Climax from Peter Gethin’s 1,098-c.c. Lotus 23. Mike Beckwith drove the works Elva-Porsche which appeared with an old hack Porsche RS 1700 engine using the vertical type of cooling fan and giving about 15 b.h.p. less than production versions using the later horizontal fan engine, but suffered from locking brakes and after holding an initial third place he dropped back to finish in a steady fifth place behind Terry Bone’s Lotus 23. The last race of the day for small capacity G.T. cars counted towards the John Davy Trophy and saw a win for Charles Hodgson’s Elan after Kostas Pateras (Lotus Elan) and Norman Surtees (Lotus Elite) had both spun their chances of victory away. – E. L. W.