Shaun Lawless in his Nissan 35GTR GT1 (Michael Ward).
Benz World with his ex-Nelson Piquet F1 Benetton, chased by Kevin Mason in his Renault F1-liveried F3000. The on-track action was com- plemented by an exciting demonstration of brutal off-road vehicles from the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship. These are more used to being driven on rough forest and country tracks, but were still able to put on a good show and a turn of speed, both on the tarmac and up the Test Hill. Of special note here was the Land Rover Freelander driven and run by members of the Race to Recovery Team. Set up to help the recovery of wounded servicemen, the team runs cars with specially-modified controls so they can compete on equal terms with other drivers.
More used to small oval tracks, the classic American stock cars looked and sounded great, with many of them running large capacity V8s; always crowd pleasers. Some of these had started life over 80 years ago and have been heavily modified, so showed a good turn of speed. They also attracted a lot of interest when parked after the track session, with many people talking to the owners and taking photographs.
In the Outer Paddock the Vauxhall Owners’ Club MILITARY VEHICLES DAY
staggering array of over 130 vehicles representing decades of service from across the world descended on the Museum on Sunday 20th November for the annual Military Vehicles Day. The main Paddock was reserved for 17 Willys Jeeps to commemorate 75 years of the Jeep brand. Occupying the prime spot in front of the Clubhouse with his late 1950s Jeep from the French Army was Leon Mullett, representing the US 101st Airborne Division. The uniform he was wearing was the actual one seen in the film Band of Brothers, worn by Col Sink played by Dale Dye.
A 10
Classic stock cars
(Katharine Allen).
provided a great line up of cars with a display from the 1970s through to today. Amongst these was a very rare Viva GT, ‘Droop Snoot’, ordinary Firenza models and one of the hairy-chested Monaros. The line-up of Alfa Romeos was also impressive, with cars from the 70s up to date.
Later in the day this eclectic collection of historic and modern vehicles powered up the challenging Test Hill in a celebration of sound and spinning tyres. Owners did their best to impress the large crowd. Mark Stevens in his Autograss Special is always worth watching as this ‘car’, powered by a motorcycle engine, is very short, very light and very quick! Not to be out done, BTM Vice-Chairman Julian Grimwade did one of his exciting demonstration starts, disappearing up the Hill in a cloud of tyre smoke and a wonderful blast of noise in his Frazer Nash Norris Special!
Special thanks should go to the team of Museum marshals who worked hard all day to make sure everyone was in the right place at the right time and helped to keep everyone safe. Without them, this event would not happen. Steve Castle
News
Leon Mullett with his French Army Willys Jeep (Paul Stewart).
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