On this day in Motor Racing's past

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#916

Post by MonteCristo »

Bottom post of the previous page:

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RIP Greg Moore. 19 years today.
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#917

Post by Manfred Cubenoggin »

I watched the race on live TV. Even before the car came crashing to a stop, I figured poor Greg to be a goner.

Such a loss. RIP.
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#918

Post by Antonov »

Mika Hakkinen claimed his first title 20 years ago.
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#919

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

November 3rd 1968

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On this day Graham Hill won the Mexican Grand Prix at age 39, in his Gold Leaf Lotus 49B Cosworth, and with it confirmed his second World Championship.

Hill won the race having started on the second row of the grid, leading all but half a dozen laps. He finished well over a minute ahead of 2nd placed Bruce McLaren. Held just two weeks after the Mexico Olympics the race brought a sad year to an end, one that saw many drivers being killed.

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From the Fastlane youtube archive.


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#920

Post by Antonov »

November 4th 2012

Kimi Raikkonen wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for Lotus.
The most exciting race held at the venue to date.
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#921

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this day, January 3rd 2019.....

Michael Schumacher turns 50 years old.

His family has released a statement to honour his birthday, and Ferrari have opened an exhibition in his honour at the Ferrari Museum.

Full details here: viewtopic.php?p=352461#p352461

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#922

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

January 4th 1967

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On this day we sadly lost one of the all time great names in land and water speed records...... Donald Campbell lost his life at Coniston Waters whilst trying to take the World Water Record over 300mph. I remember the news of his death..... a hero of mine, I had all the Bluebird die cast models.

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Here is an article published by Motor Sport in 1992 on the 25th anniversary of Donalds death.
Obviously it does not include reference to more recent work to find hid body and wreckage.
At 8.46 on the morning of January 4 1967 Donald Campbell took what became the last great gamble of his life on Coniston Water. Only moments after speeding down the black lake at 297mph, he elected not to refuel, nor to let his wake die down, but to return immediately. At a speed estimated to be well beyond the 300mph average that he sought, his Bluebird turbojet hydroplane left the surface and somersaulted spectacularly to destruction. His body was never found.

Last month, in a simple but moving ceremony by the memorial that now stands to him in the quiet lakeland village, the 25th anniversary of his passing was remembered. Robin Brown, the chairman of the K7 Club named after Bluebird's racing number, laid a wreath on the memorial that is hewn from Coniston slate.

Ever since I first saw film of Campbell's accident, at the age of 14, I developed an obsession with the man and the many myths that surround him, but it still surprises me just how many others have been so similarly affected. Steve Holter, the curator of The Campbell Hall of Speed in Polegate, East Sussex, and of Paul Ffoulkes-Halberd's adjacent Filching Manor Motor Museum wherein lives a mock-up of K7 and Sir Malcolm Campbell's original K3, is but one example. "At the age of seven my father sat me on his knee to watch the television. Not an unusual thing for a father to do, but the date was January 4 1967. I remember it was about 5.45pm and that my Dad had said, 'It is the end of an era, you'll never see the like of this again. The end of an era and a very brave man.' I would have to be honest and say it was not a day that changed my life, nor were the comments of any meaning to me, but the events of January 7 were.

"I remember waking to find my 'rich' aunty Joan's brand new Triumph Herald convertible outside, which was very odd as she always visited us on Fridays after school. That day was a Saturday, but I was soon to find out what was happening. "Last night your father was taken ill, and died,' said my mum. After that I cannot remember a thing. One thing that did occur to me was the last thing I had done with my dad, watching the news from Coniston, and I determined to find out what had so impressed him to make me watch.
When time and money allowed I began reading about Donald M. Campbell, to collect the books written by him, about him, by his family, on his family, about the land speed record and about the water speed record. Books, models, postcards — anything that I could find. I quite clearly remember writing to Ken Norris at Norris Brothers for information: that letter was to end up on Tony James' desk, an event he reminded me about when I eventually met him in the flesh some 17 years later!

"But at the back of all this was the reason I got so hooked on record breaking and especially the Campbells: my father, who introduced me to the subject but was not interested himself. I cannot say I remember my father that well, I cannot claim to have known anything about Donald Campbell when he was alive, but I can say that in the intervening 25 years they have both given me a great deal.

"Maybe my reasons for admiring one man are a bit too personal, but I have been very fortunate to meet and in many cases become friends with the people who were around Donald Campbell when he was alive, and they have told me so much about the man himself, things that have never been published, private things, that I have developed a great admiration for him. And that in many ways has been reflected by the people I have since met who knew my father, and the things they have told me about him."

"I suppose it is a little like knowing someone secondhand, but if these two men had impressed these other people so much to have had a lasting effect, which has been passed on to me in recollection, then I am proud to have known them both in such a way."

Some have spoken as movingly, while others have been more pragmatic. The motorboat historian Kevin Desmond finds the name Campbell rarely leaves him alone. "In 21 years of my writing articles and books about land, air and waterborne motorsport, Donald Campbell and Bluebird have played a mysteriously recurring role. Although I never met 'The Skipper', just by listening to the anecdotal memories of a dozen who had dealings with him - particularly my dear friends Leo and Joan Villa - certainly gave me an objective knowledge of his character, even if lacking in subjective experience.

To me, Donald Campbell was a promiscuous, superstitious. courageous and ingenious go-getter. He knew how to fight back when the odds were stacked against him, although at times he suffered such emotional scars as a domineering father.

As the owner of both a fragment of Bluebird K7's wreckage and two scale models, and of a sizeable collection of the published works of Maurice Maeterlinck (who wrote the theatre play 'The Blue Bird' which so fascinated Sir Malcolm), and having written three books on motorboating history, each of which chronicles Donald's achievements to a greater or lesser degree, I am what might be called a second-generation aficionado. But then so are Ken Warby, the current water record holder, Steve Holter, yourself, Martin Summers, modeller Fred Harris, artist Arthur Benjamins, Speed Record Club founder Robin Richardson and several others bathed in the magnetic 'Bluebird blue' speed haze.

"When, two years ago, Lady Arran and I assembled a team which designed and built a boat which broke the World Electric Water Speed Record, Campbell's persuasive genius in the building of the Bluebird CN7 car was my strategic inspiration for the 50mph An Straciag. I would like to think that, had he been alive today, aged 70, the man who had been on the point of getting heavily involved with the potential of waterjet propulsion, would still have made a very positive input towards our dream of a 100mph superconducting electric hydroplane British, of course!"

My own obsession began shortly after seeing Campbell's accident on television, when I happened upon a copy of Richard Hough's BP Book of the Racing Campbells. I believe it cost me 12/6d, a good week's pocket money. It was instrumental in nurturing my fascination for the land and water speed records. To me Donald Campbell was an intensely loyal, cunning, flamboyant yet ultimately lonely man, abnormally brave. Driven by an inner desire to prove to himself that he was as good as his father had been, yet trapped in Sir Malcolm's long shadow to the point where no matter what he achieved, he would never feel it was enough. What fascinates me most is that he was at times genuinely afraid of what he was doing, and yet he persevered. His successes included not just seven water speed records (more than anyone else), one land record and the unique feat of breaking both in the same year, but a lifetime's triumph over fear, either of a physical nature after his 360mph accident at Bonneville or, to him worse still, of failure.

Such is that fascination that I am now researching the definitive book on Donald Campbell, and would be delighted to hear from any readers who have personal anecdotes they would like to share. I can be contacted at 85 Kingshill Drive, Harrow HA3 8QQ.

To Donald Campbell life was a series of mountains that one had to climb. He spent much of his career atop summits, and was within striking distance of his highest and most challenging when Bluebird flipped. Even today, 25 years on, it is possible to stop in the russet red and vivid green beauty that surrounds Coniston, and be touched by an atmosphere still redolent of the ghost of a great Englishman who spared nothing as he reached out for the ultimate. -- DJT
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... BY,1W497,1

A BBC doco on Campbell from a year or so ago.


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#923

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

14th January.... a year now since we lost Dan Gurney.

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#924

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

February 15th 1929,

Graham Hill was born, and would have celebrated his 90th Birthday today.

Mexican Grand Prix Decides Graham Hill As World Champion (1968)




1969 Mexican GP Highlights. (Barrie Gill)



1962 Dutch GP

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1962 South African GP.

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1966 Indy 500 (2 images)

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1968 Spanish G
P
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Monaco 1969
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South Africa (Rob Walkers car) South African GP

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Le Mans 1972

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1975British GP Retirement Tribute lap
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#925

Post by Antonov »

exactly 10 years ago, Jenson Button took his second career victory, and gave the first victory to the BrawnGP team on its debut.

And to make it into a fairytale, his teammate made it a 1-2.

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#926

Post by PTRACER »

Antonov wrote: 5 years ago exactly 10 years ago, Jenson Button took his second career victory, and gave the first victory to the BrawnGP team on its debut.

And to make it into a fairytale, his teammate made it a 1-2.

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That was a fairytale story that was. Especially because I put a bet on Button for the win and got £500 back. I still regret not betting on the championship too. By mid-season the rest of the field had caught up with / were surpassing Brawn, IIRC.
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#927

Post by Antonov »

It was very much a story of trying to keep the advantage, and after the summer break, clinging on to the lead with solid performances.
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#928

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this day

29th March 1891

Alfred Neubauer, the first proper team manager, was born. Neubauer (29 March 1891 in Neutitschein – 22 August 1980 in Stuttgart) was the racing manager of the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix team from 1926 to 1955.

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Neubauer's father, Karl Neubauer, was a furniture-maker in Neutitschein, which then was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Karl christened his only son Alfred, but the child quickly became known to family and friends as Friedl.

Neubauer used to repair motor vehicles while he was an officer during his service in the Imperial Austrian army. After the First World War, he joined the Austrian car manufacturer Austro-Daimler, where Ferdinand Porsche appointed him to be chief tester. From 1922 onwards, Neubauer also drove in races, although without any great success. In 1923, when Ferdinand Porsche moved to the Daimler Works at Stuttgart (Daimler-Benz was not founded until 1926), he took Neubauer with him. In 1926, recognizing that he himself was not a great racing driver, Neubauer got an inspiration that let him create the position of racing team manager (Rennleiter). He was the one who thought out pit communication and strategy in the days before team radio.

Racing drivers in those days being isolated from the outside, they often did not know their position in a race. Occasionally a driver would learn that he had won after a race merely by surprise. To overcome this situation, Alfred Neubauer devised a well thought-out system, with flags and boards, to give his drivers more tactical information. When he tried out the system for the first time at the 1926 Solituderennen on 12 September 1926, the chief steward demanded angrily that he leave the track, since his 'antics' were irritating the drivers. To Neubauer's explanation that he was the Rennleiter, the organizer responded: ‘Are you mad? I’m the Rennleiter’.

Gunther Molter, one of Germany's foremost journalists, went to Mexico with Mercedes for the 1952 Carrera Panamericana, and got to know Neubauer very well.
"He was a Falstaff! A great actor who dominated every room he entered. He weighed about 125 kg (275 lbs) and had a huge appetite for life, food and wine. Everywhere he went, within a few days he knew where to get the best food and drink.

"As Team Manager he was a brilliant organiser. I went to Mexico as a journalist, but he made me his assistant, so I spent a lot of time with him. Before we left everybody on the team was given a little book which he had prepared, containing everything we should know about the country: the climate, the food, the diseases, the lot. He organised the whole race, which was over 3000km - not easy.

"He was a charming man, everybody's darling when we went out for a meal. We always had fun because he knew how to enjoy life. He was a brilliant mimic and I know that before the war, after a few brandies, he would give a superb impersonation of Korpsfuhrer Adolf Huhnlein, the Nazi officer in charge of all German motorsport. In the right company (and after a few more brandies) he would then do Hitler, which brought the house down!"
Here is a tribute to him from the Mercedes Benz website.
The invention of the pit strategy.
Without him there would have been no such position as racing manager, no pit strategy and none of the meticulous preparation that went into each race. From 1926 until 1955, Alfred Neubauer was one of the key figures in the Mercedes-Benz's success. He was born on 29 March 1891 in Nový Jičín, near Ostrava, in what is now the Czech Republic. His father was a carpenter and cabinetmaker. As a child, Alfred had developed a passion for the then still relatively new invention of the automobile; it was a passion that he would never lose.

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The team signed on at the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG - Daimler Motor Corporation) in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim on 1 July 1923, where 32-year-old Neubauer became head of the driving and testing department.

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From 1923 on Neubauer worked for the DMG.

In 1912 Neubauer joined Austro-Daimler in Wiener Neustadt to train as an artillery technician. He saw service in the First World War, but retained his links with Austro-Daimler throughout the war years 1914 to 1918, becoming the head of their automobile testing department following the end of the war. In 1922 Neubauer joined a group of fellow-employees leaving Austro-Daimler in the wake of director Ferdinand Porsche.

Neubauer initially drove in races himself.

Even back then, motor racing was Neubauer's life – and he also drove in races himself. In 1924, for instance, he finished 16th in the Targa Florio, a race in which he had already competed in 1922 - back then in the "Sascha" racing car designed by Ferdinand Porsche. But he soon recognized that his forte lay more in organizing than driving. His first invention: a special system of flags and boards to keep drivers on the track properly informed.

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The birth of the “racing manager”.

Neubauer's idea made its debut at a race in 1926 on the Solitude circuit near Stuttgart, and immediately caused a scandal: the (true) manager, or steward, of the race demanded that Neubauer should give up his "antics", as he was annoying the drivers. But Neubauer was undeterred. His obstinacy was rewarded with numerous triumphs, not least the winning of the 1931 Mille Miglia by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz SSKL. This master stroke was actually achieved without full support from the factory, which apparently even spurred Neubauer on all the more.

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The dawn of the Silver Arrows era.

Alfred Neubauer became famous in the years 1934 to 1939 when the first generation of the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows began racing, bringing in their wake success off the production line. His physical size soon became as legendary as the characteristic scream of the compressor engines.

There was never any doubt about who was in charge in the pit lane when Neubauer was around. One of his little quirks was that, each time his team won, he would throw his hat underneath the wheels of the winning car as it crossed the finishing line.

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From 1939 until 1945 Neubauer was responsible for organizing the company's repair workshops before he set to work helping with the reconstruction of 'his' factory as of 1946.

“Don Alfredo” was just one of his nicknames.

Neubauer left absolutely nothing to chance, scribbling down everything of importance in meticulous detail in a series of little black notebooks. The Mercedes team referred to him reverentially as "the fat man" or "Don Alfredo" – but of course only when he wasn't around to hear them! Their respect for the racing manager was too great to do otherwise. The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, however, brought an end to motor racing for the time being.

The Silver Arrows go from strength to strength.

It was not until 1950 that Alfred Neubauer was once again invited to set up a department for motor racing. His meticulous planning first paved the way to success for the Mercedes-Benz sports cars. Wins with the 300 SL racing sports car (W 194) in Le Mans and in the Carrera Panamericana were the highlights of the 1952 season. In 1954 and 1955 Juan Manuel Fangio became Formula 1 World Champion in the W 196 R.

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This success was further enhanced in 1955 by victory in the World Sportscar Championship, including triumph in the Mille Miglia with the 300 SLR (W 196 S), and in the European Touring Car Championship with the 300 SL (W 198 I).


The curtain falls at the end of the season.

The victories of 1955 were overshadowed by the catastrophe that took place in Le Mans. 84 people died when Pierre Levegh's 300 SLR was catapulted, through no fault of his own, into one of the grandstands. Even before this tragedy it had in fact already been decided that Mercedes-Benz as a company would withdraw from motor racing at the end of the 1955 season. Alfred Neubauer learned of this Board of Management decision on the evening of that famous double victory in the Targa Florio.

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The racing cars are mothballed.

At the celebrations to mark the end of the season, the successful Mercedes racing cars were draped in dust sheets – an image with symbolic power. Neubauer, tears in his eyes, is one of those helping. He would go on to work for another seven years, helping to promote the history and tradition of Mercedes-Benz. Even after that, he was always a welcome guest at the museum, for his talent as a raconteur was as legendary as his reputation as an organizer.




“The king among racing managers” died on 21 August 1980 at the age of 89.
https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/merced ... edes-benz/

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Neubauer (in car) at the 1924 Targa Florio


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Italian GP 1954 L-R Hermann Lang, Neubauer, Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herman

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#929

Post by erwin greven »

Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
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#930

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Being a Lauda fan I was never a fan of his per se, but always liked his irreverence. Nowadays I realise how much F1 misses by not having such iconic characters involved these days. Of course his commentary with Murray is possibly the greatest factor in the growth of F1 in the mid/late 80s until his death.

Much missed. :rip: Hope he is enjoying things with Niki up there! :wink:

Thanks @erwin greven for the reminder.

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#931

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

27th July

Woolf Barnato, respected member of the 'Bentley Boys' and three-times-from-three Le Mans winner died on this day in 1948.

From Motorsort:
Bentley's head boy
Though initially caring little for motor sport, Woolf Barnato went on to become a multiple Le Mans winner. Bill Boddy recalls the successes of a respected member of the 'Bentley Boys'

Capt Woolf Barnato, to anyone who remembers the earlier period of motor racing, will always be associated with the wealthy, glamorous 'Bentley Boys' at Le Mans, whose tenacious driving skills and stamina have become legendary. In fact, the handsome, sturdy, dark-haired 'Babe' Barnato had raced cars and boats before that. The son of a millionaire diamond merchant, he had come to these sports quite late. His first association with motors had been confined to an illicit solo drive on his brother's two-cylinder Renault through the crowded streets of Cambridge, which ended up in a shop window, from which the young man, too young to hold a driving licence, used his charm and powers of persuasion to extricate himself without repercussions.

There had been a motorcycle before that, but Barnato had little interest otherwise, until he left Charterhouse and, like his brother, went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Then the war intervened, and he served as a First Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, seeing action on the Ypres Salient in 1915 and afterwards on the Palestine front, from Gaza to the Jordan Valley.

Soon after that his interest in motoring as a sport began. Barnato initially used a 10hp Calthorpe and took a second in class in 1920 at Shelsley Walsh. The Calthorpe Motor Co of Birmingham had made a good name for itself pre-war with the Calthorpe Minor light-car and after the Armistice was doing well with its excellent sporting 10.4hp car. They were bought by several prominent personalities in motor sport circles, and when Barnato discovered a single-seater racing Calthorpe had been built before the war but never used he acquired it for Brooklands racing. The little yellow car won its very first race, at Whitsun 1920, by an enormous margin, at 61.75mph. It was sent back to the factory for further tuning, whereupon it won again, against larger cars, at 69.50mph. Later that year it took a third place, as well as a second and third in speed trials on Westcliffe promenade. Barnato had the bug.

In 1921 the Calthorpe frequently non-started, in spite of having the same size side-valve 1260cc engine as the very slim works racer. Barnato did win with it at Whitsun 1921, but had no result from another of its kind, called the Dorsey-Calthorpe, presumably to distinguish it from his yellow one and the works car.
So he turned to a far larger car, to try to improve things. It was a standard 8-litre six-cylinder T-head Locomobile, with a cream two-seater body and artillery wheels, probably one of the 'gunboat roadsters', which Barnato had brought back from America. However it lapped 3.5mph more slowly than the tiny Calthorpe, which would go round Brookands at 78.92mph, but did finish third in the 100mph Long Handicap at Easter. Barnato also ran a 5.7-litre four-cylinder strawberry-hued Austro-Daimler with an overhead camshaft prodding one inlet and four exhaust valves per cylinder, probably an aged Prince Henry model; it lapped at 83mph, to no avail.

A change was due for 1922, so Barnato acquired Malcolm Campbell's 2.6-litre Talbot and a 4½ litre Talbot said to be the one in which Percy Lambert had been killed in 1913 trying to regain his world one-hour record (but I suspect it merely had the engine from that ill-fated car), and a Hispano-Suiza had given him a class second to a 30/98 Vauxhall at Kop hillclimb.

Both Talbots and a 2-litre Ansaldo were entered for the Easter BARC races, but produced nothing, whereas Campbell's 3.8-litre Talbot had a win. But in May the smaller Talbot scored two second places for Barnato, before winning again. Woolf immediately followed this up with another win in the AnsaIdo, lapping at almost 80mph. But the big Talbot was not up to expectations in these handicap contests.

However, in 1922 Woolf Barnato got his first taste of long-distance racing with the three-car Enfield-Allday team for the JCC 200 Mile race, until his engine seized. The 2.6 Talbot was third at the Royal Brooklands meeting.

The 1923 racing was much better. Barnato had the second of the Wolseley 'Moths', which Capt (later Sir) Alastair Miller had made into very fast little cars. Those who knew these ohc 1261cc Tens as decidedly pedestrian must have been astonished when a lap speed of over 88mph was achieved at Brooklands. In his first race in 'Moth II' Barnato was second, and it then won at Easter, going faster than Miller's 'Moth'. Handicapper `Ebby' had the measure of it by Whitsun, but Barnato scored a second place that summer and a third with an even faster Enfield-Allday, and another third in the Wolseley.

It was surprising Barnato had time for all this, because he was adept at cricket, playing for the village team and keeping wicket for Surrey, was a capable heavyweight amateur boxer, was a first-class shot and swimmer, hunted with the Old Surrey and Burstow, and besides playing tennis, took golf very seriously indeed. Yet at Easter 1924 he was at the Track again, obtaining a third place and then a win in the Wolseley. Later the big Talbot won again and the Wolseley produced another win, three seconds and a third, but a 1H-litre Crouch proved no faster than the latter.

However, Barnato's 8-litre Boulogne Hispano-Suiza, in standard form, gave him 1-1D at the Littlestone speed-trials and a number of Class H records at the Track. Then, in May 1925, he took delivery of a 3-litre Bentley with £400 Jarvis two-seater racing body. It won once that year and was third three times. There was also the 2-litre straight-eight ex-Indianapolis Bugatti, one of five cars which had gone to the USA in 1923 under Count Zborowski's influence for the famous 500-mile race, all but one sustaining serious engine failures. Zborowsld and the jockey George Duller had this car and Barnato now used it to good effect, lapping at over 106mph to give him a first, second and third at Brooklands, where you always had to try to outwit the handicappers. Late in 1925 a 'phone call sent Woolf out to Montlhery to aid John Duff on his successful 24-hour record bid in a 3-litre Bentley.

Living at Ardenrun Hall, his estate near Lingfield, Surrey, the social round continued, with boisterous house parties, when as prizes the girls were given fast rides down the drive (the back drive was half a mile long) in racing Bentleys, driven by Sir Henry Birkin or Barnato. Top cricketers like Percy Fender and Jack Hobbs, and Don Bradman's team, practised at the nets below the house's five terraces. The 12-car garage at Lingfield contained a Rolls-Royce saloon and the sports Hispano-Suiza for fast runs to the south of France, a 3-litre Bentley, a 3-litre Sunbeam and a hack Model T Ford. Barnato considered the Boulogne Hispano-Suiza one of the finest sports cars on the road, and the then-new Bentley Big-Six as the best car yet produced. By November he had two of the latter, a Barker sedanca and an H J Mulliner limousine. Outside his town house in Grosvenor Square, the police were accustomed to seeing a line-up of racing Bentleys. After Ardenrun burnt down, the family lived at the 1901 Lutyens mansion overlooking Windsor Park, rebuilt to Baranto's requirements.

Cars apart, Barnato had two Saunders-hulled racing boats, one with a Wolseley engine, the other with a twin-cam Sunbeam power unit. He raced them abroad and won the Duke of York Trophy race on the Thames. The handsome 100mph Jarvis-bodied Bentley scored a first and a second at the Easter 1926 BARC races, but for some reason it was disposed of to Parry Thomas, who had announced he was preparing a Bentley for the 1927 season, before his fatal accident in `Babs' at Pendine. It emerged in 1928 with typical Thomas frontal cowling, driven by Dudley Froy. Meanwhile W Bentley had Barnato as one of his drivers in the abortive 24-hour record attempt at Montlhery in 1926, when the car was crashed before the 17th hour.

This was to institute Barnato as one of the fabled 'Bentley Boys', when he shared a 3-litre with Dr Benjafield in the 1927 Essex Six-hour race at Brooklands, until a rocker arm broke. The same race the following year saw Barnato paired with works driver Frank Clement in a 4H-litre Bentley and beset fastest race lap at 76.57mph over the artificial road course at Brooklands until brakerod stretch retired them. Then came Woolfs first Le Mans, with wealthy Bernard Rubin, in a 4H-litre. He eventually led the battle with a Stutz but then water began to leak from the radiator, and when the top hose pulled away Barnato had to coast where he could with the engine off, but knowing that if it did seize, victory was lost. After the agonising last laps, he won from the Stutz and a couple of Chryslers but never wanted to drive the last spell again.

Barnato now concentrated on the more serious racing, for W Bentley, who regarded him as a very fast and reliable member of the team, who always obeyed orders. It became properly serious in 1929 when he shared the first Speed Six with 'Dr Benjy' in the JCC Double Twelve race at the Track; they were leading when the drive to the dynamo sheared and caused their withdrawal from this sportscar contest. This was retrieved at Le Mans when, with Birkin, the same 6H-litre won Bentley's fourth victory there. Barnato then won the BARC Six-hours, this time with Jack Dunfee in 'Old Number One' Speed Six, at 75.88mph over the 'road' course. Driving with Clement in 1930 in another of the great Speed Six Bentleys, he won the Double Twelve at 86.68mph (2080.64 miles) in spite of rain towards the end. Bentley's fifth victory at Le Mans had Woolf sharing with Cdr Glen Kidston, RN, in 'Old Number One', taking the Rudge Cup for the second time. The Bentley company then gave up racing but Barnato had Walter Hassan build him the single-seater Barnato-Hassan for BARC participation. It was driven by blond barrister Oliver Bertram to a lap speed of 142.6mph. Barnato was happy to retire, having won Le Mans three times, defeating Caracciola and the supercharged 38/250 Mercedes-Benz after a stirring duel on the final occasion.

'Old Number One' received a new H J Mulliner coupe body, having already had numerous body and engine changes and what was virtually a new chassis; Barnato himself wrote during the war that the only part of it left was the radiator in his study, despite which it is considered to have a 'continuous history', although I thought a car's identity rested with its chassis.

Although his racing days had ended, Barnato remained a keen Bentley driver. He owned many examples of the marque, his first 6H an H J Mulliner tourer in 1927. A Wing Commander in the war, he died in 1948.

* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
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