THE BACKWARD ARCHIVE IS BACK(OR IS THAT IN THE FUTURE?!)

This is the first article from me for an even longer time than an archivist would like to remember.  A change of job and other commitments, have kept me very busy.  Hopefully my next article will only take a few months.
Vic Elford's name keeps appearing in the motoring press recently.  At the end of last year, he was featured in Autosport's "Where Are They Now?" article.  Vic has spent the last ten odd years living in Florida, working as a Race Instructor at various tracks.  He also wrote a book called "Porsche High Performance Driving Handbook".
Then in February's Motor Sport, there is a nice colour photo of Quick Vic in a Yardley BRM P160 in the pits at the 1971 German Grand Prix.  It was part of the "I wish I'd Designed…." Article where Mike Pilbeam wished he had designed the Tony Southgate (current Audi/Bentley -depending which colour it is! -Le Mans designer) designed BRM P160.  Motor Sport state Vic was a replacement for the late great Pedro Rodriguez, who had been killed three weeks earlier.  In fact the deal had been done much earlier still, as that year the German Grand Prix was back at the Nurburgring and Vic was known as a "Ring" expert.  He qualified eighteenth, but had a very sick sounding engine for most of the race and finished eleventh after a pit stop to change the coil.  Still, not bad for his first Grand Prix since crashing out of the 1969 German Grand Prix (also at the "Ring") breaking his shoulder.  This would be his last Grand Prix, but Vic always had the Sevenoaks badge on his open face helmet!
The 1969 accident was in the Antique Automobile's McLaren M7B DFV.  It had been a promising season before the accident.  The team ran an old 1967 Cooper T68 Maserati for Vic in the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix, which he brought home seventh.  This became a very significant event as it would be the very last time a Cooper raced a Grand Prix, as mentioned in many of the tributes to the late John Cooper recently.  The team then replaced the Cooper with the McLaren which continued with a good string of results.  On its debut, Vic came tenth at the Dutch GP.  Two weeks later he came fifth at the French GP, after a great drive where in the closing laps, he was catching Bruce McLaren in the works car at four seconds a lap and nearly snatched the fourth place.  Then came the British GP and Vic finished sixth but after this came the German GP and the accident, which wrote off the car but thankfully not Vic!
Vic had made his Grand Prix debut a year earlier in the works Cooper BRM Team, at the 1968 French GP.  He finished a fantastic fourth, beating the works McLarens and BRMs that finished behind him.  He then saw the rest of the season out with the Cooper Team.  His only other point scoring finish was fifth in the Canadian GP.
Graham Gould started a new historic motor sport magazine late last year, called "Historic Motor Racing".  In the second edition, there is a good article on Porsche 917s followed by a driver's impressions and experiences.  Yes, you've guessed it, a self penned article by- Vic Elford, the only driver to drive every model of Porsche917 and a good read it is too!  Graham has known Vic for a long time, having first met him on the 1960 International Scottish Rally, when he was David Seigle-Morris's navigator in a Mini.  The pair scored an excellent sixth overall and second in class on the 1960 RAC Rally in a works Mini.
Graham hopes Vic will be doing more articles for the magazine.  It is a bi-monthly magazine on subscription only at £30 for 6 issues.  Articles in Edition Two, in addition to the Porsche917 one, were the Alfa Romeo 1900 road cars of the fifties, Paul Frere the racing Count Gastone Brilli-Peri
Of the Twenties and the Can-Am days of Dan Gurney.  Also reports of modern historic meetings, books and models.  A highly recommended read.  If you would like to know more, write to Graham at Historic Motor Racing Subscription, HMR Publishing LLC, PO Box 68038, Grand Rapids, Contact Chris Dennis on 0208 467 9933 and he will send you a subscription form.
Talking of Chris Dennis, he was recently telling me of his historic Formula 2 debut at Silverstone last October.  In an HSCC race which included F1 and F5000 cars, Chris finished 22^nd in a 1972 Formula 2 Crosslé 22 fitted with a rally spec 1600 BDA .  He loved every moment of it, getting faster all the time, lapping within three seconds of the regular driver on a freezing cold day.
Very sad to hear the Crystal Palace Sprint is cancelled.  It seems to reflect the anti-car society of today.  At least we have some great memories of the Palace sprints.
I see that Andrew Actman's Marathon Rally co-driver, Robert Ellis has left the VSCC as Competition Secretary and joined Rockingham Circuit as Event's Manager, we wish him the best of luck and from what I have heard, most racing fans and their dogs or ferrets will be at the Coy's meeting.
Finally I hear our former worthy Chairman of many years standing, John Symes, was awarded the annual Ferno Trophy.  This was for his contribution to the promotion of safety within motor sport.   It was given to him at the Watkins Lecture held at the Autosport International Show at the NEC.  As many of you know, John is responsible for the approval of all UK racetracks for safety as one of his many jobs at the MSA.

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