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[mab01uk]

Saloon Car race newly uploaded to YouTube below, from the 1970's at London's Crystal Palace circuit.....

Crystal Palace saloon car race 03/10/70
The up to 1000cc Saloon car race from Crystal Palace (10 laps) as shown on BBC Grandstand. Commentary by Murray Walker.
Pole - 196- Roger Wiliamson - Ford Anglia - Holbay F3 Engine
197 - Les Nash - Ford Anglia
201 - Simon Ridge - Automex Mini 992cc

Roger Williamson (Anglia) leading Simon Ridge (Automex Mini)

Edited by mab01uk, 17 April 2019 - 07:11 PM.

[mab01uk]

Last year I suggested to MiniWorld editor Karen Drury that she should interview 1960/70's Mini racer Simon Ridge and publish some of his great stories and photos from that era including how he introduced local boy James Hunt to the world of motor racing via Minis. A few weeks later a meeting was arranged and we spent most of a day at my brothers house listening to Simon's stories and asking him questions. Karen has put together an article from the recordings and Part 1 has 8 pages featured in the April 2019 MiniWorld magazine with lots of not seen before great period photos from Simon's Mini racing archive.

Part 2 of the Simon Ridge article on 1960/70's Mini racing is now out in the May issue of MiniWorld magazine. Another 8-pages of great stories, memories and period photos from Simon's Mini racing archive!
(See May 2019 MiniWorld pages 90-97)

 

Couple of nice period photos of Mini racer Simon Ridge in the early days at Brands Hatch (around 1966-67) when he was running his own Free Formula car and before the heady days of sponsorship! He later drove for Automex & D J Bond.
Original Photos: Sunrise International Productions B.S.Kreisky (Archive: Martin Henn)

Edited by mab01uk, 17 April 2019 - 09:37 PM.

[Mini-Hazel-Nut]

Having read this I went straight onto ebay and bought the 2 relevant mags, great stuff. Anyone know of any others?

[mab01uk]

 

Roger Williamson (Anglia) leads Simon Ridge (Mini) - Crystal Palace 3/10/1970

 

[mab01uk]

I sent the photo above to Simon Ridge, below he sent me his memories of the race which unfortunately he did not finish.....

Crystal Palace saloon car race 03/10/70
The up to 1000cc Saloon car race from Crystal Palace (10 laps) as shown on BBC Grandstand. Commentary by Murray Walker.
Pole - 196- Roger Wiliamson - Ford Anglia - Holbay F3 Engine
197 - Les Nash - Ford Anglia
201 - Simon Ridge - Automex Mini 992cc

"I was 0.02 off Roger’s time, Nash at 0.01, and faster than MacDonald by 1 second, who was sitting right behind me in fourth.
Both Anglia’s alongside me had Holbay F3 engines, whilst MacDonald had the ex, Graham Hill F2 engine, which should have been sleeved down to 1000cc, but I wonder !!
I was fastest through the Glade, and loved chucking the car from side to side. However in the race, on the first lap, Roger got ahead, and was slower than me through there.
This bunched up the other two. All three out braked me into the Glade, as I had the Mini Cooper S  7.5" discs, with all three Anglia’s on Cortina discs the size of Dinner plates.
Anyway, I remember heading for the trees “Airborne”, but don’t remember the impact, just the problem of getting out of the car which had folded in half.
The front of the roof was touching my nose, top of steering wheel folded horizontal towards me, car hard against the trees on the right, and passenger door missing.
This left a small triangle of space to crawl through, once I had got onto the floor, and wriggled to the left under the dash, and in front of the gear lever.
The following Thursday in Autosport the then Editor of Autosport whom I was to meet in later years,Simon Taylor reported - “McDonald hit the sleepers at Ramp, and Ridge crashed heavily whilst avoiding him. Simon was lucky to escape from the totally wrecked car”.

I suppose I could say, the rest is history !!!!!"
Simon
 

Press cutting photo below of Simon Ridge's Mini before and after....a lucky escape!!!

 

 

 

[Aly-g]

great reading and video, thanks for great memoirs,

 

Allan

[mab01uk]

More from Simon below on before and after the impact...

"I realised I wasn’t able to steer away from the trees, as I was off the ground.
There then followed in just fractions of seconds - Bugger, this is going to hurt - This is it, I can’t get out of this - Poor Jan, she has only been married to me for a couple of months.
To - Sod it I was supposed to be racing at Lydden the next day, and having seen the entry list it would have been an easy win.
Then take a big breath, slide as far down the seat as I can, wind my neck into my shoulders, and go limp, don’t brace myself.
Crazy that all that went through my brain in just a fraction of a second. Then the Impact that I never remembered, just finding myself in the car on the ground against two trees.
I must have hit my head on one of the trees as I had a piece of tree bark with the colour of the car on it wedged between my helmet and my head - that in the Trophy Cabinet.
The top of my helmet looked as if someone had ground a flat on the top of it, along with several grooves cut in it from the front to the rear, as if they were cut by an angle grinder.
Of course angle grinders hadn’t been invented then, but I have never been able to work out how those grooves happened. The welds had broken, and there was a lot of sharp bits about.
The Aley Roll Cage as you can see in the photo was bent and punched through the floor.
Next time out I had a Full Face Helmet and a full four point roll cage with door bar fitted.
That open face Helmet and my Dunlop race suit, torn with blood stains on it, was bought in the mid 80’s [ I don’t know why I kept them ] by some Japanese enthusiasts in Tokyo - for £1,000 !!!"

 

[Aly-g]

angle grinders were not out then and a pity the Lottery wasn't because Simon would have won the jackpot, very lucky man to have survived that crash, but then he won the jackpot of life with his family.

 

 

Allan