Vintage Car Festival Cadwell Park

19 June 2021

Last weekend the PistonClick team went along to the Vintage Car Festival at Cadwell Park to photograph cars racing under the banner of the Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC).

The VSCC has been in existence for as long as the cars that were racing on Saturday. Formed in 1934, the club is an outlet for the members to enjoy their pre-war vehicles not just on the track but at hill climbs and trials to name a few.

As Cadwell is most definitely a race circuit we were in for a track based vintage race car treat that you just don’t get to see every weekend.

The range of cars racing was staggering, from pre 1935 Grand Prix Alfa Romeos and Bugattis to the Cream Cracker MGs, Ford Piglet and Triumph Tiggers.

Ok I made the last name up but they are names that don’t come up very often on event timetables so it's well worth your time to attend this event.

The morning session was practice, which we used to acquaint ourselves with the vintage metal roaring past. With ten races in the afternoon, the last event being the all comers scratch starting at 17:45, we had plenty of time to soak up the action and grab a few snaps.

Up first in race one were 27 standard and modified pre-war sports cars competing for the Geoghegan Trophy awarded to the first under 1500cc Vintage car.

Jonathan Sharp started on pole but had dropped down to third by the end of the first lap. All was not lost as Sharp in his Riley fought back, taking second then first on lap four which he held until the end of the race.

Number 97 Simon Blakeney-Edwards was second and #16 Marcus Black in the Talbot Lago T23.

There were a few offs in this race and others during the day, nothing serious except loss of position, and pride.

However, it did set the scene for the rest of the races and with a gap of 0.02 of a seconds between first and second in the first event we knew there was going to be some good racing.

Up for grabs in race two were the VSCC club Shuttleworth and Nuffield Trophies for vintage and pre-1961 race cars.

The age range of the cars racing was from a pair of 1925 Bugatti’s to more modern #9 1959 GEMINI MK2 from the Formula Junior racing class driven by Graham Barron number 9.

Mark Gilles in car two was first, he led from pole to the chequered flag, with #7 Frederick Harper in the Kurtis Indy-Roadster coming through from row four to take second.

John Ure in the burgundy Cooper Bristol T24/2 was having a great battle with James Baxter in car 68 for second place until lap 5 when he went off at Park and retired from  the race. 

For race three we headed off to Charlies to watch the Pre-War MG race. With most of Cadwell under the Covid - 19 restrictions a you can't get that close to the action except for the Mountain area so long focal length lens is required here.

#123 Harry Painter in an MG PA was first and deservedly so as he was the only one in the race to do a sub 2 min lap. #89 Charles Goddard came in second and #81 Rodger Tushingham third.

So far, we had seen some great looking and sounding cars out on track, but for me the main event was yet to come. The Pre-1935 Grand Prix Cars featuring 10 Bugattis. This is something you don’t see that often unless you are at Goodwood, which we will be soon, if Boris allows it!

There were loads of interesting cars racing, Tim Dutton's black and red Bugatti T51 stood out. According to the race announcer the large gathering of race Bugattis at this meeting was down to the sterling work by Tim.

However, it was Christopher Mann's Alfa Romeo Monza that caught my eye. We had already seen him pushing the performance envelope in an earlier race and I was intrigued by the French Racing livery on his Alfa.

This is a homage to French racing driver Hellé Nice. She had a colorful racing career in the Pre-World War two years taking part in numerous minor Grand Prix and mixing with the rich and famous, tragically she died penniless and forgotten as a female Grand Prix racer in 1983 aged 83.   

Alex Ames in the Bugatti T35C started on pole and lead from the start, winning the Pre-1935 Grand Prix race by a good margin.

Edward Williams was second in his Frazer Nash TT Rep and Duncan Pittaway taking the last podium step in another T35.

The racing continued with some fantastic looking cars being driven hard using every inch of their very skinny tyres. In racing, power to weight is king, however, being period correct is also a thing and the cars were presented as they should be.

The picnic / tool box on the cars was great to see and the lack of seatbelts was slightly concerning but is also a period correct thing!

We concluded our look at the Vintage Car Festival 2021 at Cadwell Park at the run up to and the bottom of the mountain, a great location for spectating and taking the odd snap.

It was also where there was a display of vintage cars, which sort of made up for not being able to walk round the paddock like we could pre-CV19 day. 

Hopefully we can get back to the normal next year as this is an event I will be looking out for in 2022, and look forward to the next visit of the Vintage Sports-Car Club to the Lincolnshire Wolds. 

Thanks to Rob from RPW Photography and David Gowshall for the images and help with this report. You can see more of Davids work by following the links below.

DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography