FEATURE : MO BEVAN AT JIM RUSSELL
Mo ready to go at Snetterton
Training with Jim Russell
Back in the 1980s , Mo Bevan ( wife of Club chairman Roger ) was a student at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers ’ School . During our recent Snetterton event that celebrated Jim Russell , she chatted about her memories of him and taking part in a rather special race .
“ Fast Ford magazine ran a competition for ladies as Jim Russell was trying to get an all-ladies race together . Some husbands thought they ’ d be clever and enter the wives ’ names without asking permission . But I was up for it .
“ So we went to the Jim Russell school at Snetterton for a day and it was all on the skid pan . We learnt to drive a Formula Ford on the skid pan . At the end of it , Jim said : ‘ Would any of you ladies be prepared to come and do a week ’ s driving school ?’ I think it was about a month further ahead and he said it would cost about £ 350 . And I thought , right , and put my name straight down .
“ I went up and did the race intensive course and it was over a whole week . We were learning lapping and overtaking and every day you went on the circuit . Then you went on the skid
pan . They actually flooded the skid pan and we had to wear black bin bags and you had to learn to push through the cones and spin .
“ We all met at the Breckland Lodge at the start and then the course ran intensively for the whole week . John Kirkpatrick and the team were absolutely fabulous and we finished with the race on the Saturday . And that ’ s when I met Dallas Smith for the first time .
“ I think there were about 18 or 20 of us , all female , and it was probably the first ever lady ’ s race . I think I was towards the end of the field but I finished . Jim was fantastic and he hosted a barbecue for us midweek over at his barn . He showed me his stables as I was certainly interested in horses . He was a wonderful man .
“ I never raced again . Roger and I were going to buy a Formula Ford because he didn ’ t have his licence at that point . He said we ’ d buy a Formula Ford and share it . Well , we looked at several cars and in the end he looked at a Formula 3 car and I didn ’ t want to go straight into an F3 car because of the risk of damaging the engine . Roger raced pretty much ever since then and I was quite happy to do the admin and be around enjoying the atmosphere at race meetings .
“ The plan when we retired was to buy a big enough house to store his racing cars and I could have my horse . But Roger thinks they cost too much money . It goes in one end of a horse and comes out the other !”
Lapping sessions on the old Snetterton layout
30