1966 Boxing Day British Eagle Trophy Race Brands Hatch

[OGLE]

Was Anyone at this race ? Does anyone have any pictures particularly of the start or grid ?? Or better still pictures of car number 125.

Any reports or article references ????

Any info at all would be greatly recieved

cHEERS pAUL oGLE (Fletcher Ogle GT).

[John Turner]

Paul, I was there and am looking at the programme right now. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures and, of course, it is all a long time ago to remember much. However, I have a feeling that this race actually saw the race debut of the racing version of the Lotus Europa, known as the 47 (although not identified as such in the programme which simply refers to Lotus-Ford GTs) and if recollection also serves me they finished first and third. The debut of a new Lotus would, unfortunately have overshadowed everything else; it's certainly all I can remember about the meeting. You will know, of course that the Fletcher GT was entered by G R Baird and driven by John Handley who was pretty well known. I'll see if I can find Autosport for that meeting which might provide more info.

Reference to Peter Filby's book 'Specialist Sports Cars' published in 1974, elicits the information that the Fletcher GT was born out of the Ogle Mini. Apparently Paul Fletcher purchased the Ogle moulds in winter of 1966 so he must have prepared the race car extremely quickly particularly since alterations to both front and rear were made. According to the book the first completed Fletcher appeared at the 1967 Racibng Car Show and the first racer built after that, but that cannot be right can it, if it appeared at this race meeting at the end of December 1966. Oh well, I guess you probably know all this and I haven't helped much, but I'll see if I can do a bit more research!

[OGLE]

John

Cheers for the reply its interesting that you were their !!

The Fletcher did enter several events that I have found as early as August 66 so as you say some of the reference books did get slightly confused. Every contact is helping me. Some pictures would be amasing. Did anyone actually film these events back then ?? How would I find out ??

Cheers Paul

[RAP]

I was at the Boxing Day meeting. From the mark up I made in my Programme the Fletcher GT qualified 8th on the outside of row 3 and, per my lap chart, finished 5th on the road but the second placed car, Jackie Oliver's Lotus 47, was penalised 60 sec so, with a lap time of c60 secs I guess the Fletcher was classified 4th overall and in 1150-1600 class behind John Miles (Lotus 47), Willie Green (G12) and Keith Burnand (Elan).
Hope this helps
Richard

[John Turner]

Nice one RAP! How could I possibly have forgotten that one of my heroes, Willie Green, came second! I should have recorded the results in my programme.

Ogle, I suspect your search for film will be fruitless (although I would love to be proved wrong). This was long before the days of camcorders although a very few were using cine cameras but most of us couldn't afford those then. Good luck!

[minijem]

I've just come across this thread after getting a copy of the programme. Unfortunately no results have been marked up. In particular I wanted to know how the Jem, Marcos and other Mini kitcars fared. This is the first reference I've seen to a Minnow racing. I'm trying to collect photos of as many Mini variants as possible excluding production cars for the Mini Marcos web site.

Rich

[RAP]

The results for this race, based on my lap chart were-
1 John Miles Lotus 47 1st 1600
2 Willie Green G12
3 Keith Burnand Elan
4 John Handley Fletcher GT
5 Alan Baillie Elan
6 John Bloomfield Diva 1st 1300
7 Ian Alexander Diva 2nd 1300
8 Jack Oliver Lotus 47 (inc 60" penalty)
9 Don Marriott Elan
10 P Anslow Mini Marcos 3rd 1300
11 John Green Camber BMC 4th 1300
12 Renato Bertorelli Lotus XIGT 4th 1300
13 J Brown Elan
14 R Surguy G4
15 D Tullett Lotus 7 GT 5th 1300 (NOT XIGT as in prog)
Retired
Alan Harvey Elan
R Henderson Minnow GT (when 17th)
R Monk Tuner BMC
The Lepp/Gethin Chevron qualified 3rd but non started.
114, 116, 123, 139 were not on grid -presumed dna.

Hope this helps
RAP

[simon drabble]

Originally Posted by RAP

The results for this race, based on my lap chart were-
1 John Miles Lotus 47 1st 1600
2 Willie Green G12
3 Keith Burnand Elan
4 John Handley Fletcher GT
5 Alan Baillie Elan
6 John Bloomfield Diva 1st 1300
7 Ian Alexander Diva 2nd 1300
8 Jack Oliver Lotus 47 (inc 60" penalty)
9 Don Marriott Elan
10 P Anslow Mini Marcos 3rd 1300
11 John Green Camber BMC 4th 1300
12 Renato Bertorelli Lotus XIGT 4th 1300
13 J Brown Elan
14 R Surguy G4
15 D Tullett Lotus 7 GT 5th 1300 (NOT XIGT as in prog)
Retired
Alan Harvey Elan
R Henderson Minnow GT (when 17th)
R Monk Tuner BMC
The Lepp/Gethin Chevron qualified 3rd but non started.
114, 116, 123, 139 were not on grid -presumed dna.

Hope this helps
RAP

information like that and John Turner's makes this forum such interesting reading, fascinating as I always though the 47 never won anything
Would the Chevron be a B6 - I think that they ran with twincams before the B8's moved onto BMW engines...