DOWN THE PUB
DAVE NURSEY Official and competitor Age: 68 Lives: Tenbury Wells He’s a Shelsleywalsh fan
“My motorsport story started at Shelsley Walsh with my father when I was three or four years old. In about 1974 they advertised for marshals so I volunteered. I later became chief marshal and was then asked to be clerk of the course for the Jaguar Drivers’ Club, including the Silverstone race meeting.”
He started racing
“Later they asked me to be clerk of the course at Shelsley and now
I’m senior clerk for the Midland Automobile Club. In recent years
I’ve been a club steward at some race meetings. But this year, for the first time ever, I’ve been racing in an MGB in Classsic Sports Car Club two-driver races. We went to Spa recently, which was stunning. I had to do three races in the UK to upgrade my licence to go to Spa.”
He’s been competing on the hills
“A few years ago, Bruce Atkinson suggested I had a couple of drives in his Alfa GTV in sprints and hillclimbs and that was the first ever competitive driving I did. Then Phil Nuthall asked me to share a couple of drives in Crumpet, his Shelsley Special. A year later my brother-in-law John Palmer finished rebuilding his Lotus 7, so we shared that for two seasons.”
There’s av8 MGB coming
“In a foolish moment at the beginning of 2018, Philip Stader offered me the chance to drive his Alfa and we also shared his MG Midget. This year we’re running his Alfa, his Austin A35 and we’ll also share his MGB GT V8. That will be another step up! We’re going to run the V8 MGB at MIRA and Castle Combe.”
Philip Stader makes it possible
“Over the last three seasons I’ve almost done more driving than clerking. On the basis that I may never get another opportunity to drive, I’m taking advantage of the generosity of Philip and David Waterhouse with the MGB. I can’t believe how generous people like Philip and David are.”
He spends time at Shelsley
“I was an independent financial advisor and I’m now semi-retired. I sold my business but was kept on as a consultant, so I do some work but not too much. In the last six or seven months I’ve been helping out at Shelsley and I run the hill when there are driving schools or corporate days.”