Mick Walsh From the cockpit
‘Lindsay’s pace was no fluke and, masterfully controlling the dreaded side-slip, he took a Herculean second’
Ihave been going through some old photographs during lockdown and one grainy image made up of three home-developed prints brought back a wealth of memories from 58 years ago at a sodden Silverstone. The Aston Martin Owners Club organised the prestigious Martini Trophy Meeting and my dad had read that the Napier-railton was entered for a Formule Libre race, so decided to take me. The forecast for that Saturday in July ’63 was grim but with packed lunch, warmest jumpers and waterproofs we headed out early, both looking forward to seeing the mighty Napier and the new Ferrari 250GTO in action.
The weather caused no end of problems and resulted in two tragedies. In practice the Hon John Dawnay (later Viscount Downe) lost his Aston Martin DBR1/300 and spun into the pits, where it smashed into Mark Fielden’s stationary Lotus, fatally injuring the driver. The Lotus cannoned into the Napier, crushing its tail and forcing the titan to run truncated for the weekend.
The five-race event kicked off with a pre-war sports cars contest that featured another of my favourite cars, the bare-metal Alvis 4.3 Special driven by the dapper Tony Charnock, dicing with George Burton’s hot Bentley 3/4½ Litre. To my joy the Alvis pipped the Cricklewood lorry and claimed fastest lap with an impressive 83.89mph. Frustratingly, the marvellous special built by John Harry Green is now in Germany. Charnock was the son of motoring author and poet WH Charnock, writer of Mind over Motor.
The entry was full of hero competitors including the Hon Patrick Lindsay, who finished fourth in his ex-john Cobb Alfa Monza, FYE 7, which he’d driven up from London. Others were a young Peter Giddings in his Frazer Nash and ‘Bill’ Elwell-smith, who was overjoyed to beat the supercharged 8C in his Aston Martin LM10.
As the pre-war sports cars rumbled back into the paddock, ominous dark clouds loomed so we settled in the Woodcote grandstand for the tin-tops. Chris Craft entertained in his twin-cam Ford Anglia 1.6 as he chased Bill Aston’s Jaguar Mk2, TTT 1. After three laps the wipers came on as the rain swept over Silverstone.
The Formula Juniors headed out in appalling conditions, with Aussie ace Frank Gardner dominating in the Ian Walker Team Brabham. Unbeknown to us, the race claimed the meeting’s second driver when John Dunn spun off at Abbey.
Shivering in the exposed grandstand, we eagerly watched the Formule Libre grid gather, an amazingly varied mix of sports cars and single-seaters from vintage Bentleys to a Lotus 18. Highlights included Morin Scott’s exotic Osca V12 and our hero Lindsay in the shortened Railton. The rain pelted like pushrods while my frozen hands tried to steady the Box Brownie to get a shot as the field splashed away. It seemed ages before the leaders reappeared, John Taylor using all his skill out front in the ex-bob Gerard Cooper-ford to save a vicious slide at Woodcote. To our amazement, Lindsay whispered round in second, almost lost in the cockpit of the 24-litre aero-engined beast that had never raced in the wet and only had rear brakes. It seemed that the titan tried to turn sideways every time one of its 2-litre cylinders fired, but the courageous Lindsay coaxed it on at a tremendous pace.
Hillclimb champion Tony Marsh in his BRM was down in 11th, but by lap three he’d slithered up to third. Car control was paramount over power, as Pat Carmichael in his Bugatti Type 37A proved. With the slowest and oldest car on track, he passed many more modern machines including a Jaguar D-type and the Lotus 18.
Lindsay’s pace was no fluke and, masterfully controlling the dreaded side-slip, he lapped most of the field and held off Marsh to take a Herculean second. I’d never been so excited watching a race.
The Martini event was cut from 52 to 30 laps but was an anticlimax after the Formule Libre grid. Mike Parkes dominated in the Maranello Concessionaires 250GTO ‘4399’, lapping the entire field including runner-up Gardner’s Brabham BT5 and Jack Pearce’s Lotus 23B.
Drenched and cold, we left early but knew we’d seen something special after Lindsay’s amazing drive; the cover of Autosport confirmed the moment with a fantastic George Phillips shot of the Napier splashing through Copse. My programme was reduced to pulp but my grainy panoramic shot printed in the attic darkroom vividly recalls that amazing day.