“I had raced special saloons (Ford Anglia Lotus twincam and Ford Escort FVC) with my brother, Chris, from 1966 until 1977 when we ran out of money with having young families to support. About 10 years later I noticed in the motoring press that the HRSR saloons were at Cadwell Park so I trotted along to watch. The sight of Glen’s red Anglia chasing Bob Sherring’s red Galaxie up the mountain and trying both sides to get past in to Hall Bends (he never quite made it) got my juices going and I found an advert for a Lotus Cortina for sale near Northampton. It was only a rolling shell and had bubble arches usually found on Mk 1 Escorts but the price was good and a deal was struck. A business contact with an 1860cc Lotus engine lying idle was borrowed and after some bodywork to replace the wings for standard items and the project was ready by mid-1989. The next race on the HRSR schedule (in those days run by the BRSCC) was fairly local …. not! It was at Lydden Hill which is only about 275 miles from Harrogate where I lived but nothing ventured, nothing gained so my brother and I loaded the car and set off south in the very early hours calling at a motorsport suppliers just east of the QE2 bridge to buy a race suit and helmet before continuing on to Lydden.”
“Although the engine had been started and was running OK the car had not been driven until driving to the assembly area for practice and I didn’t know if the car had 4 working gears and a reverse until that moment. Luckily it did. Practice was an eye opener as I hadn’t raced for 12 years and had never raced on the road based A008R Yokohamas we were all using then. Practice went well except for the seat collapsing and the gear lever knob coming off, both easy fixes, and so did the race though I was well down the order (though not last). The car ran well but obviously needed a lot of work on the set-up. The race lasted just under 9 minutes. No double headers in those days. We loaded up and drove back home – 550 mile round trip for less than 9 minutes of fun but it was well worth it. So started a 35 year association with our wonderful racing club.
Photo is from Snetterton a couple of races after Lydden Hill. Followed here by John Searby in the A40, Bob Bullen in the Anglia number 28, Trevor Ladd in the Anglia behind the A40 and Peter Price in the other A40.”