USAF Trophy Race

Snetterton, 25 Jul 1953

Notes on the cars:

1. BRM V16 Mk I 'P15' [No 1] (Ken Wharton): Raced by Ray Sommer 1950, Reg Parnell 1950-53, Fangio 1952-53 and Gonzalez 1952. Retired after the 1953 season but retained by Owen Organisation as an exhibition car. Bought by Dan Marguiles for a Greek consortium at Christie's Motorfair auction in October 1981. Subsquently sold to the National Motor Museum Trust. Retained 2007.
2. ERA D Type [R4D] (Ron Flockhart): The sole D-Type, built in 1938 using mechanical parts from R4C and raced by factory drivers Mays and Dobson 1938-39. Sold to Mays when he left the team and raced by him until 1950. Then via Ron Flockhart, Ken Wharton and a chain of other owners into historic racing in 1966. Via further UK and Indian owners to Mac Hulbert in 2001.
3. RRA (Geoff Richardson): Built by Geoff Richardson using mechanical parts of an ex-works Riley raced before the war by Percy Maclure, in a new Richardson-built frame. Raced initially with the engine from the White Riley, and sometimes therefore called the ERA-Riley. Richardson continued to race the car, mainly in small English events, until 1955, replacing the engine with a 2.5 Riley in 1954 and a 2.0 Alta in 1955. The car was then dismantled but reassembled by Keith Knight, still with Alta engine, in 1965. Retained by Knight into this century.
4. Alta IFS [69IS] (Louis Manduca): Alta chassis 69IS was a single-seat Alta with independent suspension all round built for Lady Mary Grosvenor in 1939. It was not completed before the outbreak of war and was later built up post war and raced by Gordon Watson and Robert Cowell. It was rebodied with post-war bodywork and, according to Denis Jenkinson writing in 1987, then disappeared. Ted Walker has identified 69IS as the car driven by The Noble Louis Count Manduca, a member of the Maltese nobility, in 1952 and 1953 but suggestions that it was the car that went to Gib Barrett in Australia do not appear to be correct. In 2006, it was said to be owned by Paul Jaye.
5. ERA B Type [R12B] (Jimmy Somervail): Built by White Mouse Stable in 1939 on a new factory B-Type chassis and using the mechanical parts from R12C. Raced by Bira 1946-47 as 'Hanuman II' then to David Hampshire and David Murray for 1949 and 1950. Through a chain of mainly Scottish owners and then to Sam Tingle in Rhodesia in 1957. Then via Allan Gillespie back to Britain for Bill Morris in 1962. Campaigned by Morris up to 1998 then to David Wenman in 1999. Retained 2007.
6. ERA A Type [R1A] (Alastair Birrell): The original 1934 prototype, this car was driven by Mays, Cook, Seaman and others before the war. Later to John Heath (HW Motors) 1946, Reg Parnell's team 1947, David Hampshire 1948-51 and then to Alistair Birrell and Ron Flockhart in Scotland in 1952. Into historic racing when it was owned by Sandy Murray from 1959 to 1982 and frequently raced by Tony Merrick. Then through a further chain of owners until acquired by Dean Butler in 2005.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.