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The on-track photos are a desaster because on modern tracks the spectators are so far away from the track and behind fences so that taking photos is no fun any more....

On the far left is Ian Barrow from Essex, then registrar of the MCR for non-Cooper-Minis, and owner of a 1960 Mini 850 to rally-specs.

On the way back from Silverstone I made a stop at Lydden Hill:

Later that year I was a marshal at the Rally Cologne-Ahrweiler:

1995 started as usual with the Techno Classica Show at Essen Exhibition Centre. Usually the Mini Club of Düsseldorf had a stand there and they had reserved a space for this year's event but on short notice they could not fill the space so one of the competition drivers who normally drove at the CCR in Zolder was asked if we could not place our cars there. After a few phone calls we had three racing Minis for display. Because it was such a short time we could not do much. I suggested some sort of pit/paddock situation. The fake brick wall for a pit was inspired by the Donington pit I had seen in '84.
It was great fun and the organisers had a prize for the best club stands on the show. Obviously the judges liked ours and we made the 3rd place unexpectedly and got a cup that we donated the Mini Club Düsseldorf.

Motor Heritage was on the show to built a TR6 from scratch within a few days. In the centre you can see Tony Dron who addressed the public to what was going on.

Brian Witty had a stand there, here talking to Mark Adderley, a former officer of the British Rhine Army, now resident in Mönchengladbach and a member of the Düsseldorf Mini Club.
Here Brian in conversation with Keith Dodd, on the left Jason King, member of the staff at Minispares.

Some great photographs here, thanks for sharing!

Thank you Pete. I hope I do not bore too many peoply with my recollections and pics.

Now, what to show next?

Well, at the end of the previous year it transpired that HARC would put up the hurdles for their events so that it was virtually impossible for us to drive there. Classic Club Race was now only once a year and the registration fee had already gone up along with the rent of the track. Someone told us that it was possible to drive in Belgium as a foreigner with a Belgian racing license but only in hillclimbs. Now, I had anyway a weak spot for hillclimbing (course de cote in French) having done some events in the past @ home. That sounded alright for me. But we had to become a member of an RACB (Royale Automobile Club Belgique) ackowledged local Club and that was the Trooz Motor Action in the province of Liège. We were 3 or 4 drivers who applied for a license and the club helped us with all the administration. One of the member's wife was from the German speaking minority of eastern Belgium, so she could translate everything.The Belgian Motorsport Authorities are devided by the languages they speak there. There ist the Flamish autority VAS and the French speaking called ASAF (Automobile Sportive Association Francophone). Flandres is virtually flat, so the Wallonie is more south with the hilly Ardennes region. There is a relatively small German speaking community in the east of the country of several hundred thousands people but concerning motorsports they count to the ASAF.

I only will show few photos of this era because Minis were not that many in this sort of competition. Main opposition in our class up to 1000cc came from the back engined cars of NSU TTS, Simca 1000 and occasionally an Imp. These cars had an advantage over the Minis because of the standing start and the load transfer on the back wheels when accelerating. Nevertheless I enjoyed driving there as the attitude of the Belgians towards motorsport is completely different to the Germans where you alwas have the impression you have to justify yourself for what you are doing as leisure activitiy.
The Mini of Jacques Delise who drove in the standard category
Again Michel Simon whom I knew meanwhile from the CCR

When you look into the background you can see a car on two wheels. Yes, there was an own championship for driving the hills on two wheels, called 4sur2!
The track by the way is Francorchamps. We had a hillclimb the wrong way uphill from Stavelot corner to Malmedy on one day and a sprint downhill the other day. At that time the road including the track was public road between the town of Stavelot and the village of Francorchamps and the road from Francorchamps to Stavelot via Malmedy. You could then rent the closed part of the new track separately. Didi from Aix-la-Chapelle Jacques Delise again
Jacques working on a Mini of a competitor; he was such a nice guy and unfortunately later had a fatal accident while driving his lorry.

1995 saw the International Mini Meeting in Sweden at the fairground High Chaparal. Very close was the former Swedish Grand Prix course of Anderstorp. I do not know if it was coincidence that there was a race meeting that weekend where there were two races for different kind of race categories of Minis. One was the Scandinavian Seaways long distance race series with participants from Denmark, Norway, Finland and of course Sweden. There was a driver change with refilling by jerrycans und funnels. Like in ancient times and unimaginable over here.