1960 / 70's Mini Racing Photos

[rich@minispares.com]

Hi mab
Checked your other photos from Donington on photobucket and found my brother and his family on one of them !!, he's the guy on the right of the picture in the light coloured sweater, the little boy holding his hand is his son Rob and the other child, in the pushchair is his other son Ian, both have now won racing championships in their own right, David's wife Jane can just be seen holding the pushchair. The lady between the children is our late Mother, a real family day, brilliant, thanks for posting.
I was there too, probably keeping an eye on the Mini 1000 Challenge car we had got there.

that's a cracking spot!

[mab01uk]

Hi mab
Checked your other photos from Donington on photobucket and found my brother and his family on one of them !!, he's the guy on the right of the picture in the light coloured sweater, the little boy holding his hand is his son Rob and the other child, in the pushchair is his other son Ian, both have now won racing championships in their own right, David's wife Jane can just be seen holding the pushchair. The lady between the children is our late Mother, a real family day, brilliant, thanks for posting.
I was there too, probably keeping an eye on the Mini 1000 Challenge car we had got there.

that's a cracking spot!

Brilliant find for you after all these years...and as has been said by Rich well spotted!
Thanks also for sharing the colour photos of that day.
Martin

[mini63]

Transportation

Transporter.jpg

that is a cracker.....look at the kids all lined up at the window..

Many thanks for sharing the pictures.

[Maguire Mini]

Hi mab
Checked your other photos from Donington on photobucket and found my brother and his family on one of them !!, he's the guy on the right of the picture in the light coloured sweater, the little boy holding his hand is his son Rob and the other child, in the pushchair is his other son Ian, both have now won racing championships in their own right, David's wife Jane can just be seen holding the pushchair. The lady between the children is our late Mother, a real family day, brilliant, thanks for posting.
I was there too, probably keeping an eye on the Mini 1000 Challenge car we had got there.

that's a cracking spot!

Brilliant find for you after all these years...and as has been said by Rich well spotted!
Thanks also for sharing the colour photos of that day.
Martin

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Found another photo from Donington

[mab01uk]

Terry Harmer - (Mini Racer 1966 to '78) his last racing Mini - 1978 Brands Hatch paddock


(Photo: Terry Harmer)
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~terry01/index.html

Some more great photos of Terry Harmer.....








Gp2 Mini


Front of grid - Brands Hatch




Lydden 1974


1974


1975


(Photos: Terry Harmer)
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~terry01/index.html


Silverstone

[Pete]

Great pics Martin, thanks for sharing!

Gary Marlow's very early racing Mini Marcos was sponsored by DJ Bond, anyone know the connection?

[mab01uk]

Maguire space frame Mini-Ford
From the CM Road & Race website.

More photos here:-
http://cmroadandrace.co.uk/how-it-all-began/
Quote:
"We had the car 8 years so you can imagine it was highly modified, and ran the last 2 or 3 seasons with a Ford BDG powering it. Numerous class wins and records, and receiving the West of Scotland and Scottish Sprint Championships in the same season, made this a very successful car. We then decided that we could not go any further with the old girl, and we made the hard decision to sell. (Big mistake). I should have known when I towed it away - the look on Dad's face said it all. Anyway the car went to Japan and we went to a single seater."

[mab01uk]

Does anyone have any extra information or photos they can share here of Martin Davidson racing Minis in the 1960's?
In an effort to keep his racing exploits from his family, he also raced under the name of Harry Martin!

Extract below from the book 'Mini The Racing Story' by John Baggott





Harry Martin, 970 Mini Cooper S, Tom Warburton, Mini Cooper S, at Lodge Corner,
during a round of the British Saloon Car Championship supporting the 1965 Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting:-
https://www.mikehaywardcollection.com/s ... uring-cars


(Photo: Mike Hayward Collection)

[mab01uk]

Couple of nice period photos of Mini racer Simon Ridge in the early days at Brands Hatch (around 1966-67) when he was running his own Free Formula car and before the heady days of sponsorship! He later drove for Automex & D J Bond.
Original Photos: Sunrise International Productions B.S.Kreisky (Archive: Martin Henn)

I recently got back in contact with ex-Free Formula Mini racer Simon Ridge who lives local to me and has some great stories and memories of those days, some of which (along with some more photos), I hope he will be able to share with us soon.
In the meantime here is Simons write up from the excellent book 'Mini: The Racing Story' by John Baggott....and also his part in introducing James Hunt to going motor racing with a Mini !










James Hunt's race Mini

I met up with ex-Mini racer Simon Ridge yesterday (now 74) who gave me a dvd with some great footage of my late brother Steve racing in Miglias at Brands Hatch in 2000 (filmed by his son who is a professional TV cameraman). Also had a long chat with him about the good old days of 1960/70's Mini racing, including the James Hunt story above in more detail......Simon also showed James Hunt how to heel and toe in a Mini going up and down the Ewell by-pass in Surrey between the Organ Inn roundabout (now a crossroads) and Seymours Garden Centre (now a Homebase DIY store). He also said that when James turned up in his mothers Minivan with a leaking radiator to follow Simon to Silverstone for the first time, he had calculated to carry enough bottles of water to stop every 15-20 minutes on the journey there and back, in order to keep it topped up....Simon assured him that there was a water tap at Silverstone for the return trip and he only needed enough water to get him there......

There were so many other great stories about Simon's race successes, incidents and accidents, plus his times with DJ Bond, Automex, Barwells, Langley Motors, Maypole Motors, Paul Butler, Chris Tyrrell, Terry Harmer, Mo Mendham, Jon Mowatt and many more who were well known or were locally famous at the time to my brothers and I as Mini enthusiasts (especially Chris Tyrrell), but I will try to recall some of his memories over the next few days.....for next time I will need to record them just to keep up with his many fascinating recollections of that era and prevent information overload!

Also noticed this recent post from Mike Harte on the Ten-Tenths Motorsport forum relating to James Hunt and his Mini racing days:-
"I had the pleasure of racing against James a few times when he still pedalled tin tops. And he often, for reasons best known to him, raced under an assumed name or the name of the owner of the particular car. A practice that he continued for a number of years.
The most memorable occasion for me was a race at Oulton, where he made a demon start in a Mini a few rows behind me. His problem in those days was that he was convinced that he could win the race or his class before the first corner, and, with his starts, that was sometimes a possibility.
However, on this particular day, nobody, myself included, would allow him to bully his way through, and the result was that he took to (or was forced onto) the grass on the inside. My last sight of him was his car flying through the air with the car on it's side as it hit, roof first, a tree that happened to be firmly planted there.
I also have memories of him clambering out of the back of small vans in the paddocks of circuits, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, when we turned up to sign on early in the morning. There was no doubting his absolute passion for motor racing in those days."
http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost.php ... stcount=34

[foxy52]

yep..great period footage from 1970..tks for posting foxy52

[Pete]

That Hunt racer pictured at the bottom looks much more like an ex Mitchell/Darbyshire car...

[rich@minispares.com]

nice bit of thrupenny bit cab action going on there as well

[Oldskoolbaby]

Heres a couple of my car when Bill McGovern owned and drove it. This was on the 7/6/1965. Mine is the lighter number 114 car. I'm not sure who is in the darker car.

[BigWig]

Heres a couple of my car when Bill McGovern owned and drove it. This was on the 7/6/1965. Mine is the lighter number 114 car. I'm not sure who is in the darker car.

Great shots, do you still own the car?

[Oldskoolbaby]

Heres a couple of my car when Bill McGovern owned and drove it. This was on the 7/6/1965. Mine is the lighter number 114 car. I'm not sure who is in the darker car.

Great shots, do you still own the car?

Yeah I still own it. The car is being restored to its early/mid 70's spec. 970 Arden 8 port, TJ injection etc etc. I was torn between that and how the car looks while in Bill McGoverns hands but went for the later like the pic below.

[ivor badger 2]

Heres a couple of my car when Bill McGovern owned and drove it. This was on the 7/6/1965. Mine is the lighter number 114 car. I'm not sure who is in the darker car.

Great shots, do you still own the car?

Yeah I still own it. The car is being restored to its early/mid 70's spec. 970 Arden 8 port, TJ injection etc etc. I was torn between that and how the car looks while in Bill McGoverns hands but went for the later like the pic below.

Pursued by Sedric Bell. What track is that? Brands full circuit?

[agricola]

That will be Cedric in the MAE downdraft cosworth engined Mini?

[ivor badger 2]

That will be Cedric in the MAE downdraft cosworth engined Mini?

Yes, definitely an MAE. Probably the BOAC sponsored event for which the 1st place was 2 tickets for a holiday in New York. Hence Sedric went to Brands and started from the back of the grid and won the race. He missed official practice owing to being misinformed of the practice time.

[BigWig]

Heres a couple of my car when Bill McGovern owned and drove it. This was on the 7/6/1965. Mine is the lighter number 114 car. I'm not sure who is in the darker car.

Great shots, do you still own the car?

Yeah I still own it. The car is being restored to its early/mid 70's spec. 970 Arden 8 port, TJ injection etc etc. I was torn between that and how the car looks while in Bill McGoverns hands but went for the later like the pic below.

Good choice, look forward to seeing it complete.

[Oldskoolbaby]

That will be Cedric in the MAE downdraft cosworth engined Mini?

Yes, definitely an MAE. Probably the BOAC sponsored event for which the 1st place was 2 tickets for a holiday in New York. Hence Sedric went to Brands and started from the back of the grid and won the race. He missed official practice owing to being misinformed of the practice time.

Great info. I have the results and local news snippet so will see what the result was.