REFLECTIONS ON

“A DAY at the RACES”

(The Club Fun Run on September 8^th 2002)

The following was submitted by Denis Bell following the event and is as much his own memories of the past at the venues visited, as it is about the day itself.

“A DAY at the RACES” was the brain-child of our CompSec. George Clarke and made a leisurely tour of the six road race circuits in Northern Ireland where car racing took place between 1924 and 1955. The only scheduled race at Clady in 1924 was abandoned as the result of a fatal practice accident involving Stanley Pyper, although bikes continued to use the formidable 20-mile course until 1939. The three Co.Down courses at Ards, Bangor and Donaghadee were used pre-1939 with Ballyclare either side of the war in 1937 then 1946/7 and finally Dundrod from 1950-1955. A dozen members and friends met near Templepatrick on a damp Sunday morning to collect the detailed information packs supplied by George, although we tried to reduce the chance of anyone getting lost by travelling in convoy. The first course visited was Ballyclare and a stop at Ballyrobert crossroads just before the Start/Finish. George had included a copy of the lovely famous picture of Reg Pamell in his Maserati unsuccessfully trying to overtake the elegant Prince Bera in the E.R.A. as they raced to the line. Their status then was equivalent to seeing Coulthard against Sato today! (On an Ulster country road’? — I think not). Although the cross-roads have been re-aligned it was possible to pick out some features in the old photo.

As the day progressed, I discovered that four of us had witnessed racing at Dundrod but, as far as I know, no one had seen Ballyclare or anything pre-war. Nobody in the club is that old — are they? (Replies to ClubSec Heaney). I also realised that there is a generation or two who cannot have seen any of these races and maybe do not realise that the giants of our sport once raced on our public roads.

While Ballyclare, Bangor and Donaghadee all featured international drivers, the pinnacle was Ards and Dundrod. Ards hosted the International Tourist Trophy sports car races from 1928 to 1936 with the top drivers of the day racing round the thirteen mile triangle. Back then, the leading factories and drivers would participate in both sports car and single-seater grand prix racing, with the latter confined to Europe. 1929 Ards TT winner Rudi Caracciola. as Mercedes-Benz no.1 driver and European Champion in 1930/5/7 & 8 could be truly considered to be a four times World Champion Consider also 1933, when the why little Italian Tazio Nuvolari raced to victory in an 1100cc supercharged K3 MG. Records and film show him having run all the way from Comber to Dundonald at 115mph in the little sports car, carrying a riding mechanic. You can still drive this, largely unchanged, piece of road but don’t try it today at 115mph.

Living just down the road in Dunmuny I managed to see all but one of the Dundrod race. There were usually two per year with the TT in September and the Ulster Trophy Grand Prix a couple of months earlier. Races for lesser formula or a handicap race

supplemented the latter; in order to make a day of it. The attraction of Dundrod today, as we saw on George’s run, is that the course remains unchanged from the 1950’s, apart from the short by-pass of the Leathemstown bridge and of course the bikes are still using it to this day.

So, some personal memories of Dundrod.

The 500MRCI had started motor racing at Ards airfield in 1951, two years prior to their move to Kirkistown. The

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entry at the airfield events was a motley collection of pre and early post-war saloons, sports cars and specials. I’m not knocking the 500 Club, just trying to put the level of racing at Dundrod in perspective. Imagine our excitement when we heard that the reigning Formula 1 World Champion, Guiseppe Farina, would head the entry for the Ulster Trophy. The stylish Doctor of Economics from Turin brought his full works Alfa Romeo 159 fresh from a win in the Belgian Grand Prix and based himself at the old Green Line Garage just above Finaghy cross-roads. I can still hear the gasps of the crowd at the sight and sound of a state of the art grand prix car, as Farina rocketed down the start/fmish straight at approaching 160mph — around twice the airfield speeds.

The last two TT races in 1954 and 1955 were now counting rounds of the Sports Car World Championship and lasted over seven hours with ALL the world’s best drivers due to the need for two drivers per car because of the race length. For example, the Lancia team in 1954, had for its’ two lead drivers Alberto Assari and Juan-Manuel Fangio, the men who dominated the World Championship in the fifties winning it from 1951 to 1957 between them. Ranged against them were works teams from Aston Martin, Maserati, Jaguar, lead by Stirling Moss and eventual winner Mike Hawthorn in a Ferrari. Well, Hawthorn was first to finish but the Tourist Trophy went to a little 745cc DB-Panhard which had won on handicap (shades of the TSCC speed events!). Like now, the French had influence in the motorsport corridors of power and with no car to contest outright victory, they would push the importance of handicap victories at places like Dundrod and Le Mans.

No such problem in 1955 as the organising UAC awarded the famous old TT prize to the first man home. We marvelled at the entry. Jaguar with just one car shared by Hawthorn and the young Ulsterman Desmond Titterington (cousin of club member Ian) and Aston Martin lead by Peter Collins. The British teams seemed quiet and efficient, a few mechanics and a couple of Morris or Ford support vans. The Jaguar had even been driven to the circuit. (shades of the TSCC ethic we maintain today). The Italian Ferrari and Maserati teams were more colourful and glamorous with drivers names like Eugenio Castellotti and Umberto Maglioli. But the Mercedes-Benz team with their trio of 300SLR’s, unbeaten throughout 1955, was like something from another planet. An army of white-overalled mechanics, two spare cars, powered refuelling rigs and the famous GP lorry in the pits. This was a marvel in itself, a single car transporter capable of 100mph and usually kept back in Stuttgart in case an extra car needed to be rushed to a European venue overnight. Even their warm-up procedure was different where the engineers held the engine at around 2000rpm whilst everyone else seemed to favour the rev-up method. Finally there were their drivers, Fangio and Moss, who were simply the best in the world at that time in Grand Prix and Sports Cars.

From the 10.30 start it was no Mercedes walkover, the Hawthorn/Titterington car was right amongst the silver arrows. I can still see the crowd in the grandstand rising to its’ feet when about mid-distance the local hero took the lead as the Moss car was delayed by body damage from a blown tyre. There was to be no surprise victory however, as Moss in the more sophisticated German car on the wet roads was unbeatable and the Jaguar retired from second place with just a few laps to go. There was a body of opinion at the time that had Jaguar allowed Titterington, with his smooth but deceptively fast driving style, more

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time in the car than the forceful but harder on the car Hawthorn, then they might have got their car to the finish.

At just after 5.30 on that bright September evening 47 years ago, motor racing stopped for good on the public roads of N. Ireland.

A potent mix of three factors came together to bring about what, I suppose, was the inevitable. Fifty cars and a hundred drivers in those last two races with abilities ranging from the grand prix aces at the front to club level amateurs. The speed differential in the cars themselves with lowly TR2’s and MG’s ranged against works projectiles which were faster than the Fl cars of the day because as sports cars the regulations allowed them to have larger capacity engines. Finally there were the unforgiving Ulster banks at the side of the road ready to toss a wayward car back into the path of those following. This is exactly what happened on the second lap in 1955 when two drivers were killed in a fiery seven-car pile-up at the bottom of Deer’s Leap. A third fatality occurred late in the race at Tornagrough and when the RAC met in London afterwards,

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Dundrod was declared unsafe and all the following attempts to resurrect road racing came to nought.

Thanks George for all the research you obviously put into making our tour such an enjoyable reminder of those halcyon days. If you weren’t there but ask George nicely he may provide you with a copy of the excellent information pack handed out on the day. There is a potted history of the races, course maps with the subsequent road changes and best of all some wonderful period photos of the cars in action. My favourite is Hawthorn in the Jaguar chasing Fangio’s Mercedes as they swoop down the Deer’s Leap in 1955.

Thanks to Denis for taking the time to write this piece, he even provided his phone number for anyone who would like to share more of his memories, he’s at 028 9079 5096.

Now that all the paperwork is done for this, it would be easier to repeat this run in the future, if there is demand.

Thanks again to George Clarke.