[Colin McKay]

From the article by Harold Koster:

It was here that a most exciting duel took place between Rob Beck in the Jaguar/Ford/Egal and Roger Mac in his lightweight. Although Rob was in the unlimited class Roger had turned in a time during practice of 43.6 which is only 0.02 of a second outside the record for the course held by Tony Griffiths driving his BRM.

Unfortunately Roger failed to beat Rob, Rob returning from start to finish in BTD of 44.5 secs. The fact that Rob achieved BTD cancelled him from the unlimited class win and this went to that most likeable fellow Geoff Richardson with a time of 47.4 seconds beating the Cooper-Jaguar of H Chamberlain whose time was 50.1.

During the dice between Roger and Rob, I asked Rob if, irrespective of who BTD went to, would he lend Roger his car to see what time he was able to achieve driving the 7,000cc Galaxy/Jag. With enormous magnanimity Rob agreed to do so thus pinpointing the second highlight of the day and a great climax to the meeting. Therefore after Roger had completed his third run (failing to beat Rob's time of 44.05 seconds by 0.04 of a second), it was announced that Rob Beck was lending his car to Roger Mac to see if he could beat BTD driving the same car. It caused great excitement in the paddock among the participants and spectators.

After a few leading questions as to rev. maximums etc., Roger went to the line for his first practice run. He literally danced up the straight as he overcame adhesion with too much power and returned a time of 45.8. Not too bad considering he had never driven the potent weapon before. However a moan went up from the crowd when the time was announced and a grin appeared on Rob's face as he remembered Roger's elephant dance up the straight. On his second and official run, it was announced as he passed the finish line , by Albert Shaw, Clerk of the Course, "Rob, you'd better sell your car to Roger - he's done 44.01".

The other highlight referred to was an earlier run off between a standard E-type and Stingray whose owner was smarting from comments in "a monthly motor sports magazine" that the Stingray did not compare well to the Jag. The eventual outcome was in the Jag's favour by a margin of 2 secs, but the interesting bit is the comment by the Stingray owner when he first issued the challenge - "You may have trouble locating an 'honest' E-type". Plus ça change