Story Search Results

Coming Of Age #21

...notice a car kerb crawling behind us; we would purposely stop at every shop and stare in the window for a few minutes so that they had to keep stopping too! On another occasion Kev gave me a lift home on his motorbike late at night and we noticed a car driving behind us.  As we got near to Hoar Cross the car was still a little way behind us and we began to think that it might be following us as you never saw many cars out there late at night!  As we got to the Lodge and the entrance to the Hall we decided to suddenly turn right onto the private road and as we did so Kev switched off his lights hoping that the car wouldn’t see us.  We didn’t have any rea...

RACE TRACK ‘AFTER PARTIES’ #27

...RACE TRACK ‘AFTER PARTIES’ Because my dad used to be a racing driver he was often invited to parties and open days at various racing circuits.  He naturally knew lots of racing people and on this particular occasion he was invited to an Open Day at Donington Park.  Tom Wheatcroft, a local entrepreneur, had bought Donington Park in the 1970s as he owned the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the world at that time.  In 1973 he opened a museum there to house them all and called it the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition.   Donington became the favoured home of the British round of the MotoGP motorcycling championships but he was really hoping to bring F...

Race Day Parties! #25

...My dad used to be a racing driver so he was often invited to parties and open days at various racing circuits. He naturally knew lots of racing people and on this particular occasion he was invited to an Open Day at Donington Park. Tom Wheatcroft, a local entrepreneur, had bought Donington Park in the 1970s as he owned the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the world at that time. In 1973 he opened a museum there to house them all and called it the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition.  This sadly closed in 2018. Donington became the favoured home of the British round of the MotoGP motorcycling championships but he was really hoping to bring Formula 1 racing b...

Eat, Drink & Be Merry #11

...s very ‘careful’ with his money and liked to make as much profit as possible on the things he sold. He would often buy swords then bury them in the garden for a few months to ‘age’ them so he would get more money for them! He was a bit of an Arthur Daley character (hopefully most people abroad will have heard of the ‘Minder’ TV show and will therefore know what I mean!); he would see the potential in something and go for it, although he hating spending money and we lived very frugally for stately home owners! In fact, he bought a suit of armour for my mum’s birthday present once, saying it was better to spend their money on an investment rather tha...

THE TAX MAN COMETH #29

...expensive car for sale and thought they would check it out.  They actually thought it was my mum’s car and it transpired that they were keeping an eye on her.  They didn’t know that my parents were getting a divorce so when they spoke to my dad he quickly informed them of that fact and told them that this was why he was selling his car.  He also told them that she was making loads of money from the banquets; money which he had no access to.     This then led to a few meetings between the tax man and my dad.  Of course, my dad was in his element thinking of more ways to get his revenge on my mum!  What better way than to shop her to the tax people. ...

Like father, like sons #20

...learn the car preparation from scratch but he did win some races and the Donington Park Championship in 1986.  A year later he moved into Formula 3 and scored some points but struggled as he was badly underfunded.  However, he was racing with people like Herbert, Martin Donnelly and Damon Hill, son of Graham Hill who my dad had raced with during his time on the racing circuits – how strange is that!   My dad's first racing car in the 1950s     Gavin in his FF2000   At the end of 1987 he finished racing and went into engineering in Formula 3, then onto Formula Ople working for teams in Norfolk.  Here he ran drivers to British and European...