Club Items

It now seems certain that the R.A.C. will introduce a limit on the number of competitions on the public highway which each Club may hold. The proposal is that each Club may hold four road events, of which not more than two can be Restricted. This ruling will commence in January, 1960, and applies only to events which rely on their results being obtained by timing on the road. Treasure hunts and gymkhanas are not affected at present. In addition the R.A.C. are requesting Clubs to withdraw as many of their proposed 1959 rallies as possible, either by cancellation or by co-promotion with other Clubs.

Some of the larger Clubs are obviously going to suffer from this ruling as many run up to 30 events every year. The result of the new ruling will mean more co-promotions, with the consequent larger fields. The question seems to be whether the public will be more annoyed by one rally a month with 200 competitors or four rallies a month with 50 competitors.

The news will probably be welcomed by some of the smaller Clubs who cannot obtain many entries for their events. They will now be able to co-promote and mix with members from other Clubs, although the novice drivers and navigators will be thrown into Restricted competitions earlier than normal.

*

The 7th Acropolis Rally was won by W. Levy driving an Auto Union 1000. This model also filled third and fifth places. In second place was H. Walter in a Porsche Carrera, while an Alfa-Romeo driven by A. Nichos finished in fourth position. Gunnar Andersson, last year’s Rally Champion, was sixth in a Volvo.

A fine performance was put up by Annie Soisbault in a works Triumph TR3A by winning the ladies’ class and finishing ninth overall in the rally. The next British car was the M.G.-A of Canaroglu, who finished 20th.

*

The recently formed Berkeley Sports Car Club is rapidly expanding and would welcome inquiries from all Berkeley owners, from the early 328-c.c. models, to the latest B.105. The Club President is the Berkeley designer Lawrence Bond and Vice-President is rally driver Ian Mantle. At the moment the Club does not run its own competitive events but invitations are accepted for other meetings and several Berkeleys have taken part in race meetings of the 250 M.R.C. at Aldershot. The Secretary is Mr. T. W. Gillard, 14, Woodford House, Snaresbrook, London, E.18.

*

The 29th Liege-Rome-Liege Rally will be run this year from September 2nd to 6th. This event, the Marathon of the Route, is one of the most difficult of European rallies and once again is one of the events counting towards the European Touring Championship. The most significant change in the regulations is that Touring and Grand Touring cars will now be segregated into separate classes instead of being lumped together as in previous years. Although in previous years Grand Touring cars have been faster they have also been more fragile, giving the Touring cars an almost equal chance, but now they are more reliable the organisers have decided to make two classes. Full regulations are available from the Royal Motor Union, 38, Boulevard de la Sauveniere, Liege.