OBITUARIES

OBITUARIES

Cyril Paul

THE WELL-KNOWN pre-war racing driver Cyril Paul has died at the age of 81. He was educated at Highgate School and after serving an apprenticeship in automobile engineering took to motor racing, as well as running a tuning a shop in Finchley in later times, after which he joined the Brooklands Motor Co, which had premises in the Euston Road. An unflappable driver, Paul’s racing successes began with him setting a new Shelsley Walsh record in a Beardmore in 1924, in 50.5 sec. He drove in the Ulster TT, in which he took fourth, and second in his class, with a 19/100 Austro-Daimlcr in 1928, was in the FWD straight-eight Alvis team in 1929, and won the lye-litre class for Alvin in the 1930 race, at 69.61 mph. At Brooklands, where Paul had driven Wellstecd’s Morris-Oxford, he partnered Cobb in the 4-litre V12 Sunbeam that finished third in the 1929 BRDC 500 Mile Race and drove the Speed Six Bentley in which he and Jack Dunfce won that race in 1930, at 118.39 mph. Paul netted another third place in this race with Philip Turner in a Riley in 1933, after having co-driven the

second place Riley the year before, thereby confirming his preference for long-distance races. Paul was a friend of Freddie Dixon’s, sharing his Rileys, and he was also seen in ERAs, in one of which he was third in the 1936 IoM Light Car Race behind Seaman and “Bira”, after bringing a Riley home third in the 1934 Mannin Moor. Cyril Paul also had a go at Le Mans, in an Aston Martin in 1928 and an Alvis in 1929; returning to Le Mans in 1934 he and Dixon were third in a Riley at 69.6 mph. An interview with Paul appears in MOTOR SPORT for August 1971.

C. A. N. May

WE REGRET to learn that C. A. N. (Austen) May has died aged 74. He will be well remembered for his many motoring books, including the first Shelsley Walsh History, and his enthusiastic trials driving with MG cars from 1934 to the war. After the war he continued with a Ford V8 Special, before taking to races and sprints from 1949-1963 with the cx-Stirling Moss Cooper-JAI’ 500 and later with a Lotus 7, an SJ Lotus 18 and an F3 Cooper. He was educated at Bromsgrovc School and his business was tyre distribution. Our sympathy goes out to his wife Joan and his two sons. — W.B.