Fifty Years On

The grid for a single seater race at Brands Hatch in 1968.  This was a picture from one of my first ever race meetings.

This year, 2018, marks my fiftieth anniversary of becoming passionate about motorsport.   In February 1968 I bought my first edition of Motor Sport magazine.  Then in May 1968 I went to my first circuit event, the Aston Martin Owners Club St John Horsfall meeting at Silverstone.   From then on I was hooked.  My passion hasn't always been at the same level.  After being very passionate about motor sport at the end of sixties and through the seventies, the combination of Ronnie Peterson's death in September 1978, the advent of the ground effects cars and meeting my first wife meant that my interest waned a little until about 1983.  Again during the Schumacher era and after meeting my second wife, my interest waned from 2003 until 2009.  In 2014 I became totally hooked on motor racing photography and hence this blog.

The grid of a single seater race at Silverstone in May 1968.  This was a picture I took at my first ever race meeting.

What I cannot remember is what ignited my interest in motorsport.  None of my family had even the slightest interest in motor sport.  Funnily enough none of my friends at the time had any great interest in motor sport either.   So what was it that made me a motor racing fan?

I had a friend with whom I played Scalextric but I think my interest in slot cars really developed from

an interest in motor racing rather than the other way round.   From day one I was a Graham Hill fan so so maybe my interest developed from seeing him on television but I am not sure this was so.  Certainly, Graham inspired me to be determined and competitive and this has enabled me to be relatively successful in my life.   Funnily enough in my school class the register used to go ...Etherton, Graham, Hill......

My dad had a colleague, Tom May, who was an Ecurie Ecosse  Jaguar C Type restorer and certainly Tom was the source of many pictures that ended up on my bedroom wall.   I am also sure that it was him who suggested the St John Horsfall meeting as my first meeting.  However, I have no actual recollection of meeting Tom so I am not sure it was him who started the bug off.  Certainly, he later offered to taker me around Brands Hatch in his Jaguar but my mum scotched this idea as too dangerous.

As a young teenager I used to read a lot of biographies.  The ones about mountaineers I particularly remember.  I also read Champion Year by Mike Hawthorn.  Maybe this got me started?

Before I even became a teenager we did have some neighbours who had a couple of boys who were older then me but fans of motor racing.  Apparently I did go and watch televised motor races from Goodwood and elsewhere in the early to mid sixties.  One of the brothers built a Mallock U2 and he took me around the block in this.  However, it was sometime after that the bug bit so I am not sure this is an answer either.

Perhaps, I will never remember!

What I do know is that the first couple of race meetings made a big impression on me.  Seeing Sid Taylor in his big Lola T70 MkIII-Chevrolet especially, but also my first encounter with single seater racing.

The paddock behind the pits at Silverstone in May 1968.

Not very good pictures but remember they are fifty years old and taken with an extremely basic camera.