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In order they were A F P Fane (Frazer Nash), Bob Ansell (ERA), Robert [Bobby] Sumner (Sumner-JAP), Guy Griffiths (Anzani Nash) - later to become one of motor sport’s best-known photographers - Ian Craig (Bugatti Type 57), Peter Vaughan (Becke Powerplus), Jack Lemon-Burton (Bugatti Type 51), Hugh Hunter (Alta) and David Fry in the Freikaiserwagen.
Next came the Vintage Sports Car Club Prescott event on August 27th, the first in a series of annual meetings that continues to this day; the result of an informal agreement acknowledging the VSCC’s part in the acquisition of the Prescott estate.
The VSCC had run its first speed event three years before in the grounds of the Howard Park Hotel at Aston Clinton. Other courses included Bramshill in Hampshire (later a police training college), Littlestone near New Romney in Kent, Croydon Autodrome driving school and the race course road at Lewes. 1937 saw the Club’s first race meeting at Donington Park, plus a demonstration at the newly-opened circuit at Crystal Palace.
Tom Rolt, by whose imagination and perseverance Prescott was secured, competed in a Bugatti Brescia powered ‘Phoenix Special’ and the story is that he suggested a single run sweepstake class to end the programme. On this extra run the Freikaiserwagen dipped under Abecassis’ hill record - but it could not be ratified as an official record as the event did not have RAC-recognised time keepers.
The first season ended on September 25th with a wet weekend that relented on Sunday as the drizzle and mist cleared and conditions improved. The hill record was not threatened and just five drivers dipped under the 50-second mark. Fastest was Bob Ansell (ERA) on 48.91, then Abecassis (Alta), Fane (Frazer Nash), Lord Avebury (Alta), and J Palethorpe (Frazer Nash). The first season was very successful. Prescott was established on the British motor sport map, and plans were already being put forward for a full season in the summer of 1939.
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