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Motorsport in the South East of England

The South East has always had a rich motorsport history. From Goodwood to Brands Hatch with a plethora a sprints, hill climbs and rallies in between. The Brighton Speed Trials are regarded as one of if not the longest running motorsport event, the first race being held in 1905. Brighton has played host to many a great racing driver over the years including Stirling Moss and John Cooper. Just up the road the Lewes Speed Trials were held between 1925 and 1939 and saw names such as Sydney Allard and Rob Walker racing across the South Downs. Denis Jenkinson saw his first race at Lewes in 1936 and was hooked. The Firle Hill Climb is little known now but saw some fantastic racing in its day. I have assembled a few period photos here from Brands Hatch, Lewes, Brighton and Firle.

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HRDC Launch MGB50 at Goodwood

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the MGB and to honour this Julius Thurgood of the Historic Racing Drivers Club will be running the MGB50 series along side his already successful Touring Greats and Grand Touring Greats race series. Yesterday’s event at the Goodwood Motor Circuit saw no less than four Works MGB’s reunited with past members of BMC’s Special Tuning and Competitions Department. Among them were Bill Price, Basil Wales, Peter Browning, Den Green, Brian Moylan and driver Alec Poole. We also saw the likes of Barry “Sideways” Smith who came along to demonstrate the MGB’s performance around the track. As well as the four MGB’s we had the beautiful green  MGA “LBL 301” of Jon Savage. LBL 301 competed in the 1955 Le Mans 24 hour as well as the Mille Miglia in 1957 before being re-bodied by the MG development team in 1958. It was restored by Bob West who brought it down to Goodwood for Tony Dron to expertly pilot around the Sussex circuit. Dron also got out for a few laps in the works MGB’s which he remarked as being “a little quicker”.