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Motorsport at the Palace


Wolseley Hornet

Wolseley Hornet

 

London, 27 – 28 August, 2017

For the 2017 edition of Motorsport at the Palace, there was a change of date from the late May Bank Holiday weekend to the Sunday and Monday of the August Bank Holiday weekend. The sprint event over a 740 metre long course, utilising part of the old racing circuit in Crystal Palace Park in South East London, attracted a wide variety of machinery to the grassy paddock close to the lake. The gathering is organised by the Sevenoaks & District Motor Club, who have the Footman James insurance company as the title sponsor, together with the support of the London Borough of Bromley, who own the park, which makes this popular grass roots event able to happen.

The paying public get access to all areas, including the competitor paddock, where one could get close to the cars and competitors, who always seemed willing to chat about their machinery, and allow children to sit in them for a souvenir photo. Across the course the old terraces of the original Crystal Palace not only provided a historic backdrop to the event, but also featured the main vendor area, refreshment outlets and a live music marquee, whilst providing spectators with a good overview of parts of the course.

Competing vehicles were arranged in a number of classes relative to type and age, and featured an eclectic array of machinery, some of which competed on both days and others only on one or the other. The earliest competitor was a 1906 Bianchi 28/40hp, with a quintet of ‘30s cars, comprising of a pair of Wolseley Hornets, a Wolesley Aerees Special, Austin 7 Ulster and a Riley Sprite. Then there were classic sports saloons like a Lotus Cortina and Sunbeam Talbot Lotus, rally Escorts, and sports cars like a Jaguar E-Type, Porsche 911, and “all popping and banging” modern swift saloons like the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru Impreza, which are great crowd pleasers. One might even go so far to say that it was an international event, as there was a pair of regular competitors from Germany, Joerg and Gerd Griepe with an Audi RS3 and a RS6.

There was virtually constant track activity over the two days, which kept things interesting for the spectators, with two practice runs and three timed runs per day for each group. In addition these were interspersed with driving test demonstrations through a series of cones laid out on part of the course. The fastest time of the day on the Monday was taken by Andy Greenen in his Empire Evo 2, with a time of 31.30secs, which set a new course record by 0.29sec over that held by Gary Thomas in a Force PT.

It would appear that the change of date from early to late in the season had an adverse effect on not only the number of competitors, but also on the car club displays, as both appeared to be down in numbers, and it also meant that the attractive rhododendron bushes weren’t in bloom! That said, predominantly bright and fine weather attracted a good crowd for what is a family friendly day of good entertainment for all ages, with the peripheral attractions aimed mainly at the younger generation.  

Keith Bluemel         
09/2017