2001 MSA London To Brighton Veteran Car Run

On Sunday 4th November 2001, a small band of 7Oaks marshals manned the finish paddock and VIP car parking for the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.  First to arrive after me, was Chris Scudder with the 7Oaks Hospitality unit (aka the Bedford CF Camper).  Chris let us all have use of the SHU and free bacon  sandwiches – thanks Chris!  The last to arrive, due to his luxurious jet-set lifestyle, was Hales Vaughan.  Hales arrived in Brighton on Saturday and stayed in a hotel overnight.  He was late due to the size of his full English breakfast.  The marshals’ marshal then did the work of ten men (well one and a half) for the rest of the day!
Being my first year in charge, Eric Hall kindly showed me the ropes (eg which button to press on the radio)!  The rest of the team were Chris Barron, Peter Piper and David and Christine Balderson.  Many thanks to all of you, we were a little stretched a couple of times, but having a security guard checkpoint made life even easier for us.
The RAC owned 1901 Morz 10HP (Reg 1 RAC) was due to be driven by Prince Michael of Kent, but he had to drop out at the last minute (security risk?).  Simon Taylor took over and he told of having 20 pages of driving instructions, of which 8 just dealt with the gear changing!  It was all worth it as they managed to get to Brighton with little trouble.
Also competing was hillclimb queen Joy Rainey in the Haynes Motor Museum 1900 Clement and Neil Corner in his 1904 Mercedes.  The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust ran a record 18 cars for various directors of Ford, Aston Martin and of course Jaguar Daimler.  All the cars got to the finish (mainly Daimlers and the odd Lanchester) to be greeted by 3 arctic trucks to take them back to Coventry.  Old member, Peter Clarke finished in his 1902 Oldsmobile.  This I think is his fourth or fifth finish in a row.  Sorry to hear that John Symes has broken a limb – leg I think - Get Well Soon, John!  This explained John’s absence from Brighton this year in his MSA role.  Finally I would like to thank Dawn and Ralph for putting in my advert at late notice.  This produced 30% of the marshals for the event. (Glad to be of service, Chris—ED)
Before I go, I saw an interesting article in (deep breath) “Le Mans Series and Sportscar Racer”.  This was a profile on female Venezuelan driver Milka Duna.  She started racing 3 years ago in the Panoz GT Coupe (TVR sized car, with 5 litre Ford V8) Women’s Global GT Challenge.  Last year she was nearly always on the podium and did a bit of GT 2 in a Dodge Viper.  This year she joined Dick Barbour Racing in their second Reynard-Judd V8 LMP675 in the ALMS Sportscar Series. With her co-driver, she has taken 4 class wins, including a seventh overall.
She is not the quickest driver in the team, but is learning fast, with the help of the vastly experienced Dick Barbour and her sportscar ace manager, a chap called Vic Elford!  Having 4 degrees, studying for 3 of them simultaneously, we know that Milka is a quick learner.  A girl with brains and a fast car, I wonder if Vic could give me her number?!
Bumped into the Backward Archive, the other day, who showed me his copy of the December Motorsport magazine.  Inside was a good article on Colin Crabbe’s antique Automobiles Grand Prix team of 1969-70.  In 1969 his driver was ….Vic Elford in the Cooper-Maserati and Mclaren DFV M&A/B.  Crabbe relates that Elford was very good at setting up cars, but I like the story of him entering the Monaco Grand Prix.  Crabbe asked for £1500 starting money for Quick Vic and the Cooper and the Monaco AC agreed.  It was not till they reached Monaco having trailered the Cooper behind a Transit van, that  they discovered their start money was £500 more than anyone else!!
There was also a very good photo of Vic, head on in the McLaren at the Nurburgring, with the Sevenoaks badge just showing on the top of his crash helmet.  It was this race that Vic crashed, avoiding debris from Mario Andretti’s crashing Lotus.  The McLaren was written off and Vic broke his shoulder.  There are two more photos of Vic in December’s Motorsport, one is a top view shot of him in the pits at the Dutch GP in the McLaren, which shows his club badge even better.  The second one is their two-page parting shot feature.  This shows Vic in a Porsche 911, making side-by-side contact with a Cortina GT and the Cortina’s rear window breaking.  This was Vic winning the first televised Rallycross event in 1967.  What a driver and he’s got Milka Duno’s number…..sometimes life doesn’t seem fair!!!!

Chris Dennis

The Acorn : January Edition