FEATURE : GUARDS TROPHY
Philip at the 2020 Gold Cup
seconds a slower than Charlie ’ s car . I did wonder whether it was the driver and if the lap times were telling me something , but I got in his car and our lap times were very similar . So I thought well , perhaps I ’ ve got to try a bit harder . This last year , we ’ ve spent a lot of time and we ’ ve done everything to it and I ’ ve also got David Methley to help on the set up .
“ It is a huge amount of fun . I mean really , really good fun . We ’ ve been all over Europe with it . It ’ s the most fabulous car to drive in that it has sort of go-kart characteristics . With the BMW 2-litre engine it ’ s okay to run and you ’ re not
“ We think we ’ re getting slower as we get older ”
having to rebuild the thing every other race . So , all in all , I absolutely love it . Brilliant .” Both cars are tended by Steve Mace , who used to work with Methley .
“ Steve set up on his own and we had no hesitation in putting the Marcoses and B8s with him .” Nelson admits that over the last three or four years Allison has been ahead in their private battle but he is determined a revival and redress the balance .
“ As long as I beat Charlie occasionally , I ’ m happy !”
Allison ( 65 ) form Chichester takes up his side of the story . “ The B8 is a fantastic car . Philip and I have raced
Marcoses for years prior to getting these cars . I ’ d always hankered after one and I bought this one in 2002 . We immediately raced it together for many years and then Philip liked it so much he bought one as well . We ’ ve raced together for many years in the Guards Trophy , which has been fantastic .”
Allison ’ s car has a strong history as it won the British Sportscar Championship in 1970 with Trevor Twaites . “ We ’ re quite competitive ,” he admits . “ We think we ’ re getting slower as we get older , like everybody else , I imagine . But we have some good clean racing and we also share a lot of races . We ’ ve known each other since we were 17 in Australia . We ’ ve worked together for 40 years or so !”
The ex-Trevor Twaites B8
24