Dad and I joined the Silverstone Club , it was a place to meet marshals and drivers after a race meeting . You were never in a hurry to leave because the car parks would be jammed . Those years prepared me for my time with the HSCC , seeing many of the Historic cars when they first appeared as new .
The schedule was normally eight 10- lap races in the day , including Clubmans , two races for Special Saloon cars , a race for single-seaters , marque sports cars , sports racing-cars and always ending with a Formula Libre race , the highlight of the day . Those were super races and it was from these that many of my early racing heroes came .
Over those Silverstone years I got to witness some great races , great cars and truly great drivers . There are many single-seaters that hold a special place in my memory , but throughout my childhood and the later years it has always been the sports cars that have captured my imagination .
So where did my HSCC links first start ? I did go to and photograph at one of the club ’ s first race meetings at Donington . But the HSCC championships I had been watching without realising some years earlier . Reading through the Club ’ s history , I think the old JCB and later Lloyds and Scottish races were HSCC Championship rounds . Dad and I used to love watching those races . Dad had a particular love of ERA , dating back to the 1950s when the Grand Prix drivers met in the Green Man and he met , and was bought a drink by , Prince Bira .
In the 1970s the BRDC took over the Bank Holiday race meeting slots as well as the season opening and closing races . Slipping into their programme of races were some of the historic classes , most notably the Atlantic Computer Historic Sports Car races . As mentioned I had enjoyed sports car racing over the years , events like the Martini Trophy , and the Atlantic Computer championship recaptured those times .
The 1980s were when Lynn and I became a couple and she too picked up the racing addiction . We briefly flirted with motor sport photography as freelancers , but there are a number of very good photographers and at the time it was a costly experiment when looking to establish your own home together . But those years did introduce us to a number of people including Brenda Catley the Donington Park chief marshal
A Sports car grid taken from the Silverstone grandstands
A honeymoon photo !
The late Denis Welch in his ‘ magic ’ Merlyn ( photo Charlie Wooding )
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