{"id":281,"date":"2025-03-05T08:47:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T08:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrsr.co.uk\/?page_id=281"},"modified":"2025-03-10T08:32:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T08:32:26","slug":"john-searby-austin-a40","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hrsr.co.uk\/index.php\/historic-saloon-racing-drivers-stories\/john-searby-austin-a40\/","title":{"rendered":"John Searby"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"John
John Searby’s Austin A40 \u00a9John Searby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Whilst driving a fast A40 road car I read an news article in the club magazine by David Lewis saying he was going to race in a new Historic series – so I joined him and entered my car in the HRSR.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was to be a huge learning curve as I had never raced before. I drove my A40 to Mallory Park for my first race and I was rubbish – but I persevered and kept improving my lap times and gradually added faster race tweeks to the car. By that time it was getting too wild to keep driving on the road so I bought a trailer.<\/em><\/p>\n

The next year (1988) I fitted a smaller but much higher reving engine and entered in class D. Luckily because the class was always fully subcribed my class wins allowed me to score full points and so in my first ‘full’ racing season I won the 1988 championship.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I met loads of lovely people whilst racing in the HRSR, so here are a couple of funny stories.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“We were invited to Le circuit de Croix-en-Ternois in 1989, was an interesting experience. David Lewis wasn`t competing, so he cadged a lift with me. He said he would bring a camping stove, so we could do some cooking; great! We get to the circuit and get parked up and David produces this magnificent stove. Brilliant, my insides are rumbling already! so after looking at the stove for a bit and nothing else happening, David says “Well, where`s the gas then? I brought the stove., I thought you were bringing the gas?” So I say ” How could I do that? I`ve never seen your stove before, how would I know what gas cylinder it needed? What sort of dope brings a stove and no gas??!! So the upshot was that I produced my little gas blowlamp and we managed to fry some bacon. Tony Carlow-Bunton and his wife took pity on us and invited us to a meal in their camper van, which was kind of them.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Whilst racing at Mallory Park, I saw Glen Maskell’s Anglia moving in the paddock, but nobody was driving it !! As it got closer I could just see the top of his helmet because the drivers seat legs had punched through the floor. But a welder was produced, floor repaired and all OK to make to grid for the race.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“And finally: I had been having a race long scrap at Castle Combe in 1988 with John Temple in a Cortina GT, and we were passed, and lapped, just before Camp by Phil Wight in an Anglia. Phil then carried on to the finish line and the chequered flag, and was touring round on his slowing down lap when he was rudely assaulted by 2 dopes who were so intent on their own private race that they completely missed the chequered flag! Luckily it dawned on me what had happened and we both slowed down.I can`t remember what Phil said at the time, but it must have been a bit of a surprise!”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Whilst driving a fast A40 road car I read an news article in the club magazine by David Lewis saying he was going to race in a new Historic series – so I joined him and entered my car in the HRSR. It was to be a huge learning curve as I had never raced … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":17,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-281","page","type-page","status-publish"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Searby - HRSR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Searby in his Austin A40 leads Ford Anglia through the chicane\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hrsr.co.uk\/index.php\/historic-saloon-racing-drivers-stories\/john-searby-austin-a40\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Searby - HRSR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Searby in his Austin A40 leads Ford Anglia through the chicane\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hrsr.co.uk\/index.php\/historic-saloon-racing-drivers-stories\/john-searby-austin-a40\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HRSR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/1541484839435006\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-10T08:32:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hrsr.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/austin-a40-john-searby.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1039\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrsr.co.uk\/index.php\/historic-saloon-racing-drivers-stories\/john-searby-austin-a40\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hrsr.co.uk\/index.php\/historic-saloon-racing-drivers-stories\/john-searby-austin-a40\/\",\"name\":\"John Searby - 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