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Mini Cooper Racing 1 |
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'MMmm... '- But, In the Beginning...
Over the next few pages I will tell you about my Mini Cooper racing days. The pictures are changed at regular intervals. Follow the Chequered Flags to follow the story... |
 I first became interested in motor sport by going with my 14
year old brother, when I was 9 years old to see Newcastle Diamonds
Speedway Team in action at Brough Park Stadium in Newcastle. In
the days of Ken Le Breton etc. |
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| He also took me to race meetings at Charterhall Circuit,
on the Scottish borders. This is where I first met my great hero,
the late, great, Jim Clark who later became the Formula 1 World Champion
in 1963 and 1965, as well as being British Touring Car Champion (1964)
and winner of the Indianapolis 500 (1965). It was the base of the
Border Reivers Racing Team which raced with Archie Scott-Brown and Roy
Salvadori at Le Mans. A friend of my Dad's, John Hunter also
raced a Jaguar Sports Car, and I loved to go with him to see
that car. So the seeds were already sewn, at an early age.
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| In 1965, we
bought a house at Istead Rise, near Meopham (say meppim!), in Kent,
South East England. We had a new Austin Cooper 998 and the day we moved
in, our new neighbour had also just bought one, and they were both
British Racing Green (well, Almond Green) with white roofs. We
became really good friends. |
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Seeing it advertised, we went to the
Motor Bike Racing at Brands Hatch (A couple of miles from our home),
almost every other weekend. I had been progressively modifying my
Mini, bigger carburetters, planed head, harder brake pads. Once you start modifying, it just seems to grow you know. |
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Then one day we went to a Rochester,
Chatham & District Motor Club event. This Club have Member
Sections for bikes, karts, stock-cars, and CARS. I was smitten at
once, there were whole races for Minis even. (mostly 850's). Not many
Coopers about just then, although there were 1 or 2. But as far as I
could see none of those cars were as fast as MINE!...
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| My Austin Cooper 998 Mk I 1964 (AKR543B) in France. This car was used for my first forays into motor racing and was later used as my Group 2 car for International events where the car had to be fitted out like a road car with full interior trim and only homologated parts could be used. |
| An extra little story... |
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(Talking about 'not many Coopers'. I was flagged down by a
'Police' Daimler SP250 Sportscar at Woolwich Common in London, in
1964, and all they wanted was to have a good look at a Mini Cooper.
They never even mentioned that I was doing around about 1.5 times the
speed limit when I passed them.
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| ...and another... |
I was stopped on another occasion in Woolwich SE London, where my ship docked and they DID stop me for speeding, but when I said that I had been called back because my ship was sinking, they said they had heard about it on their radio. So they gave me a high speed escort to the wharf! It was terrific, racing through the streets, keeping up with a police car at 70mph, through shops etc., with his warnings going. The Engineers had been overhauling the ship's sea valves and didn't realise that the tide had come in. We were lucky not much damage was caused.
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The MINI Web Ring |
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