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My brother just sent me this while looking for pictures of our racer. It says on the back 1959 silverstone? apparently taken by my dad.

when minis first came out they had celeberty races with 10 or 12 top line drivers. in the usa it was called operation 850. they ran the races during big pro events so they had a lot of people to witness the mayhem.

I suspect your photo is wrongly captioned. The 59 British GP was at Aintree and before the Mini was announced. There was a celebrity Mini race at the 60 GP at Silverstone for the F1 drivers entered in the race. The arrangement among the drivers (unofficial btwl), was that all the drivers would start in reverse. They all sat on the grid wondering if everyone else would do as arranged. they all did btw.

Dad is sure it was Silverstone perhaps he got the date wrong. anyway its a great picture!

good afternoon MM. is your shop located at the track? jw

minimans wrote:Dad is sure it was Silverstone perhaps he got the date wrong. anyway its a great picture!

Looks like Silverstone, doesn't look much like Aintree.

There was also a race for journalists @ Goodwood in September 1960.

minimans wrote:Dad is sure it was Silverstone perhaps he got the date wrong. anyway its a great picture!

A memory of Sonoma but not a Mini!

jay weinstein wrote:good afternoon MM. is your shop located at the track? jw

Yes it is.................Sears point anyway

That photo looks like Goodwood, I'll post some more later.

The hay bales made me think it was Goodwood.

jay weinstein wrote:when minis first came out they had celeberty races with 10 or 12 top line drivers. in the usa it was called operation 850. they ran the races during big pro events so they had a lot of people to witness the mayhem.

The series was expanded to Operation '850 Plus' promoting the MGB as I remember. Moss was signed up for the races and overturned one of the Minis at one race but couldn't compete at all of the events due to injuries sustained after his crash at Goodwood. He did return after a spell of recovery but was demoted to flag waiving duties. Some footage here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNU5_iZH7A

I wrote about these races in the MCR mag last year.

ivor badger 2 wrote: There was a celebrity Mini race at the 60 GP at Silverstone for the F1 drivers entered in the race. The arrangement among the drivers (unofficial btwl), was that all the drivers would start in reverse. They all sat on the grid wondering if everyone else would do as arranged. they all did btw.

This was a later non GP support race, I think in early '62. Some of the cars were Supers :

Pete,

Can I pinch a copy of the colour shot of the grid please? Nice shot of XOC 233 in both the top two photos.

Bill

Feel free Bill. Graham Hill was in the prototype and also in that Super above.

What exactly is the story on XOC 233, as it appears to have a van front panel and seems to be the only basic mini?

Pete wrote:That photo looks like Goodwood, I'll post some more later.

Looking at the weather, it may well be a different day at Goodwood.

ivor badger 2 wrote:What exactly is the story on XOC 233, as it appears to have a van front panel and seems to be the only basic mini?

I belive its one of the prototype cars that were used for testing, I'm sure Bill will let us all know

It is (We believe) the 2nd 1958 Prototype built (so 4th in total after the two Austin A35 fronted pair and one other).

I'm just finishing 14 months of research and writing, it'll all be published soon (ish)

It certainly had a colourful and busy life for 3 years. The date of that race is very important to the story though.

Feel free Bill. Graham Hill was in the prototype and also in that Super above

thanks Pete