Marvellous motor sport 50s style

Although getting on a bit, I still enjoy both contemporary and classic motorsport. So, the letter from Mike Lorimer in the 8 November edition about our long-standing ability to close roads over here really resonated.

I was at all the 1950s Tourist Trophy races for sports cars at Dundrod, with all the aces – Fangio, Ascari, Moss, Hawthorn and more – driving. As Mike noted, there was no race due to poor entries in 1952, but the last was in 1955 and not, as he writes, 1954.

Then there was a second meeting earlier in the year in that long distant past, which sometimes featured Grand Prix cars. The highlight was in 1951, when reigning World Champion, Giuseppe Farina, won in his works Alfa Romeo.

Craigantlet is also mentioned in Mike’s letter – a round of the British Hillclimb Championship on public roads, right on the edge of Belfast. The top guys like multiple BHC Champions, Scott Moran and Trevor Wills can drive! And what a lovely pic in The Way We

Were of the saloon race at Oulton Park in 1955. Stirling Moss reminds us of a time when the aces competed in all sorts of cars in all types of races. From his sprint to the little Standard for the start, as ever reminding us that the maestro always gave his all, whatever he raced. Denis Bell, Castlereagh, Belfast