Friday's Ferrari

These cars are coming through the Craner Curves towards the Old Hairpin during the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

Just going out of the picture is the 1957 Connaught C-Type of Michael Steele and he is being followed by the 1952 Ferrari 625A of Alexander Boswell. The Ferrari, chassis #0482, also competed in two rounds of the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge Series at this meeting. It was originally a 2-litre Formula 2 Ferrari 500 and competed in World Championship races in the 1952 and 1953 seasons when they were run to Formula 2 regulations. When the 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into effect in 1954 a four cylinder inline 2,498cc engine was fitted to the lengthened Ferrari 500 chassis and the car was redesignated a Ferrari 625. Later in 1954 a 2,942cc 4-cylinder inline engine from a Ferrari 735 sports car was installed and the car was raced in Australia by Peter Whitehead. Immediately behind the Ferrari is the 1954 Connaught B-Type of Nick Wigley, chassis #B4, and then the 1952 Cooper Bristol Mk1, later known as the T20, of Neil Davies.

1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars

This is a photograph I took at McLeans Corner during the 1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

Leading is Marshall Bailey in his 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail followed by the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith (#3060) being driven by Mark Gillies. Closely behind Mark Gillies is the 1954 HWM Jaguar of Michael Steele and the car at the rear is the 1958 Lola Mk1 prototype of Richard Wills.

HWM Jaguar

This car competed in the 2¼ hour long Gentlemen Drivers Race for Pre 1966 GT Cars and Pre 1963 Sports Cars at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001.

It's the 1954 HWM Jaguar that was driven in the race by Michael Steele and Julian Bronson. John Abecassis and John Heath had built and raced their Formula 2 HWM cars since 1950 and in 1953 built their first sports car on a Formula 2 chassis. The team remained involved in sports car racing till 1956 when John Heath was killed during that year's Mille Miglia race.