On November 6^th 2005, a wet Sunday morning saw a group of brave Sevenoaks members assembled on Maderia Drive, Brighton. This was to help with marshalling of the finish area of the 2005 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. My grateful thanks to my fellow marshals for turning out Diane Franks, Hales Vaughan, Len Calver, Roy Dawson, Chris Scudder, Karen and Martin Stevens, and Viv and Andy Elcomb.

At 7.15am the front of the 443 starters left Hyde Park for the 60-mile drive to Brighton. The first finisher was Ian Moore in his 1899 Panhard-Levassor, which had finished third in the 1899 Tour de France race. Ian reached Brighton by 10.30am by not stopping at Crawley. As the morning progressed we had a small stream of finishers, but that turned into a flood of finishers in the afternoon, with 369 finishers’ medals being handed out.

One of the finishers in the early afternoon was Gordon Franks who was a passenger for Pete Johnson (of Wolfe Garage) in his Panhard Levassor. Another club member completing as a passenger was Charles Armstrong Wilson, who was riding in a Darracq.

After many years of organising the Brighton finish crew, I am standing down this year, so if you fancy seeing a glimpse of the birth of the motor car, give me or any of the committee, a ring to find out what is involved.