Kindly prompted by Cooper F1 and Chevron F3 1000 racer Nigel Bancroft and by the Chevron's owner, Tony Mantle, of Climax Engine Services, Duncan and Mair attended a jolly dinner at the old Brooklands Clubhouse last Saturday night - even though Duncan hardly qualifies on the mechanical front!! They enjoyed the company of Nigel and Gayle, and Peter and Sue Denty, and BT 18 racer John Waggitt, whose wife , Bronwen, is venturing onto the tracks herself with a Lenham P69 sports racer, this year.

Thanks to some exceptional historic and technical knowledge from Peter, the table won the motor racing quiz, set by Neil Trundle (of RonDEL fame). The secret was to know that the answers might have a McLaren connection! Peter carried off a signed copy of Norman Dewis' new Jaguar history - a huge volume -as his just reward. Peter is busy finishing off Brian Mitcham's second ex-Marco Antonucci shark-nosed Wainer, which will probably be for sale, with Brian concentrating on the other Wainer, the ex David Stevenson U2, and the unique rear engined Volpini. Peter will also shortly be assisting Peter Hawkey with the restoration of the ex Andy Bradshaw "Kenya" Lotus 20, as well as getting his own T56 Cooper ready for the occasional race for Jeremy Bouckley, and his Lotus 20 prepared for son James, recently distracted by the birth of a son and heir.

Martin Walford had driven both Mark and Jack Woodhouse down from the North, the latter getting a special mention from the rostrum on winning the "Millers Oils" Front engined Class in FJ last year. Mention was made that Jack's grandfather was once the mechanic for 50s Golden Boy, Grand Prix racer Peter Collins. They have sold on the F3 1000 Spider, seen at Brands Hatch last July, to Chris Drake, for Monaco, while Chris will be doing a full UK and Lurani FJ in the Elva 300 and BT6 and is hoping to do the US HMP Series as well! Andrew Tart and Lynn were still glowing with Bond FJ progress, drive shafts again under careful maintenance, and Bond FJ-2 is complete as a monocoque, and should be on the tracks by the end of the year, meanwhile the Alfa Dana, restored for Jac Nelleman, is now back in Denmark, with Jac hoping to do Spa and Silverstone, at least.

Peter Jackson quite enjoyed being "patron" for David Abbott at the Silverstone finals, but hopes to be back in the cockpit of his T 56 soon, while we bumped into Brian Arculus, with Pat, in the Jackson shed, which was open for the visitors prior to the Dinner. Brian had brought along their preparer, just finishing the Emeryson engine. Still for sale, this is the unique aluminium FJ prototype, but Brian will race it if it does not find a new home. The only FJ on view is John Ferris's Elva DKW 100/34, ex Steve Tonneman, originally imported from Terry Gould of Fort Lauderdale. Earlier in the week, Mike Costin had been corresponding with Duncan, with confirmation of the Cosworth test car history of the John Monson Lotus 20, which Mike had sold to George Palmer, for son Jim, in October 1962, but Mike was there too, so Duncan could thank him personally for his trouble. Great to see Barry Williams, who is always larger than life, but at our level, and he and Gordon Spice both donated copies of their autobiographies to the raffle

A fun evening.

DCPR