members’ matters A dead heat
Richard Wheatland’s painting shows the dead heat in the 1907 race. In the original image, Jarrott and Newton can be seen heading to the finish line side by side.
Club Level members who have been renewing since December will have noticed a new style membership card. The front features an image taken from a painting by the artist and Member, Richard Wheatland, and we are grateful that he has allowed us to use it. The painting was commissioned for the Brooklands Society to commemorate the centenary of the track in 2007. It depicts the Byfleet Plate, which was one of the first races held at the circuit on 6 July, 1907 and run over just 10.3 miles. The race ended in a dead heat between Charles Jarrott’s 60hp Lorraine-Dietrich and Frank Newton driving Selwyn Edge’s 45hp Napier. The prize of 450 Sovereigns was shared equally between the two owners. There were six separate races at that meeting: Marcel Renault Memorial Plate, Horsley Plate, Gottlieb Daimler Plate, Byfleet Plate, First Montagu Cup, and Stevenson Plate. The prize money was extraordinary for the time, with over £5000 being offered across the day’s races, where the maximum distance run was just 30.5 miles. Unsurprisingly, it attracted a large and varied entry including Mercedes, Napier, Darracq, Renault, F.I.A.T., Berliet, Itala and many more early
Unique benefits for Brooklands Members
Being a Brooklands Member not only supports the work of the Museum and preservation of the site and collections, it provides many unique benefits. Here is a reminder to help ensure you get the most from your Membership:
• FREE entry into the Museum all year* • Discount on the Concorde Experience • Regular Bulletin Magazine and e-newsletter • Special talks programme, rallies, dinners and social events Don’t forget to visit the Members section of the website at
www.brooklandsmuseum.com for all up to date Members’ information.
*During normal opening hours. May be subject to an extra premium for specific events.
manufacturers. The drivers had to wear coloured jockey’s smocks to identify them as it was thought unseemly to paint numbers on the cars. However, this was quickly abandoned under pressure from AV Ebblewhite, who would soon be the course’s official starter, as it was difficult to identify the drivers, though the committee insisted both smocks and numbers were displayed until 1914. Following the dead heat finish of the Byfleet Plate depicted in this painting, Selwyn Edge issued challenges to be held at Brooklands. This was in response to controversy that his Napier had used an injection of extra oxygen to make the car put on a last-minute spurt to catch Jarrott at the line. Edge said that any car nominated by Jarrott with extra oxygen or not could be beaten by a Napier. Secondly, that a team of half a dozen six-cylinder Napiers could beat any team over 3, 20 and 100 miles. A £1000 stake was put up for each of these challenges later raised to £10,000. Despite the huge prize (around £1million in today’s money), nobody stepped forward to take on the challenge against the Napiers. You can see more of Richard’s work at
www.richardwheatland.com
In Memory of....
Sadly, each issue we do lose some of our Members and we’d like to pass on the condolences of the Brooklands Members, Chairman and Committee to the families of the following who we have been notified have recently passed away. • Mr Paul Hewitt who was a long-standing Member having joined in 1990.
• Mr Gerard Belton who was a Member since 2008.
• Mr Richard Baines from Weybridge who had been a Member since 2014.
• Mr David Ezekiel who had been a Member since 2017.
• Mr John English who was a Volunteer and Member since 2016.
• Mr Victor Bowles who was a Member since 2008.
46 BROOKLANDS BULLETIN | MARCH - APRIL 2020
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