FINANCIAL TIMING

FINANCIAL TIMING

SIR,

Mr Samengo-Turner wrote an interesting letter about the Bowmaker and Yeoman Credit Racing teams and the origins of the 1962 Lola F 1 car. I am not sure, however, if Ken Gregory would go along with his claim that this ‘was the same team that had come fourth in the world championship in 1960’.

I willingly accept Yeoman Credit introduced the modern concept of outside sponsorship into Fl, but where did the idea originate? Back in 1959, Ivor Bueb tried to qualify an ex-BRP Cooper F2 car for the Monaco GP on behalf of the United Racing Stable. This team had been formed by Col Ronnie Hoare (of Maranello Concessionaires fame) and Bob Gibson-Jarvie, the son of the chairman of United Dominions Trust According to a contemporary Autosport report, the car soon ‘became known as the Cooper-Never-Never’ among the in-crowd. Bueb was a regular driver for BRP in F2 that season but was killed before the sponsorship deal with Yeoman Credit was announced in September. The new team’s first race was the Oulton Park Gold Cup at the end of that month, and in the same issue as its report of this event, Autosport carried a brief news item: ‘The United Racing Team [sic], sponsored by Col Ronnie Hoare and Bob Gibson-Jarvie, is a purely private venture and has nothing whatsoever to do with the United Dominions Trust’

Of course, the Samengo-Turner family’s claim to have been the first to realise the potential of Fl sponsorship to an outside firm is justifiable. But, as racing enthusiasts, they must have known about the URS team formed just a few months earlier — even if UDT apparently did not want to — so surely it might have been an inspiration.

A case of credit where credit is due? JAM, youRs ETC, DAVID COLE, RUTLAND, LEICESTERSHIRE you