The Vintage Racecar/Vintage Roadcar stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show was buzzing all weekend. With three iconic cars, Porsche 917, BMW GTP and the Eagle HF89-Toyota, together with three legends of the track, Le Mans winner Richard Attwood (Friday), five-time Grand Prix winner John Watson (Saturday) and World Championship-winning engineer, technical director and constructor Ross Brawn (Sunday) ensured a good flow of onlookers for the full three days of the event. German artist Uli Ehret was kept busy too, painting two new pieces of work, one featuring the Eagle-Toyota and the other the BMW GTP, but unfortunately had to cut his time short due to the atrocities in France.
Among other visitors to the stand was returnee VR subscriber Dario Franchitti who said, “I used to subscribe to the magazine some years ago, but my busy lifestyle left me little time to read. Now I’m glad to be ‘back on board’.” We also welcomed the 1970 London to Mexico Rally competitors Bronwyn Burrell and Tina Kerridge, who took part in the intrepid event. VR readers will be able to relive the tales of the rally in a future edition of the magazine, together with a profile of their actual Austin Maxi rally car. British Racing Drivers Club Secretary, Gillian Carr, remarked, “The excellent display of cars on the Vintage Racecar stand made my 90-minute wait to access the NEC car park worthwhile – it must rank as one of the best stands of the entire show.”
“The whole weekend was a tremendous success, with many highlights as can be imagined,” said VR European Editor, Mike Jiggle. “Richard Attwood and the Porsche 917 were simply the stars of the show on Friday. Saturday, former Grand Prix winner John Watson, despite feeling a little under the weather, sat for three or four hours chatting to fans, signing autographs and, of course, reacquainting himself with his BMW GTP car. Last, but by no means least, we signed off the show with Ross Brawn, whose career needed no introduction to the many visitors and fans. Readers will be able to learn of how he started the long road to motor racing royalty in a future issue of the magazine.”
“Ultimately, we’ve tried to make the cars and stars accessible to our readers. This show has certainly gone a great way along that road to achieving our goal. Of course, none of this would have been possible with the generous support of the celebrities, the owners of the display cars and Phil Stott Motorsport and Pearsons Engineering for transporting them. On behalf of VR I’d like to offer our sincere thanks, we couldn’t have achieved this without them. It’s some measure of the goodwill Vintage Racecar has built up in the UK and Europe over recent years with those at the forefront of our sport.”
