A healthy turnout of spectators lined the railings and milled around the packed paddock at Goodwood Motor Circuit for this year’s VSCC Autumn Sprint on 22 October.
Blue skies and sunshine always help, of course, but so did the 100-strong entry of cars, divided into 18 classes with competitors ranging from Winston Teague's buzzing 1922/’30 1100cc Wasp Special (above) to Alastair’s Pugh’s elegant Frazer Nash-BMW 328 (below).
Always a draw are the large-capacity 'sit up and beg' Edwardians, such as (top, left to right) John Dennis’ 1907/’16 8.2-litre Berliet-Curtiss, David Biggins’ 1913 chain-driven 7.2-litre Daimler-Mercedes Rennwagen GP and Edward Way's 1911/’18 10-litre aero-engined Austin Hall-Scott.
A multitude of ingenious specials and vee-twin-powered, three-wheeler Morgans also provoked much interest (such as Gary Caroline's 1928 Super Aero, above), as did the ERAs (Paul Richardson in R14B, below) and Bugattis.
The morning was devoted to practice runs, with the afternoon competition comprising two runs for each car to set the fastest single lap from a standing start – often smokey, as shown by Hamish Monro in his 1925 4.2-litre Vauxhall 30-98 (below).
As the sun started to set and the competitors finished their runs, the Fastest Time of the Day of 97.59 secs, a new record, was claimed by James Baxter in his 1934 3.5-litre Frazer Nash single-seater. The 1925/’28 AC/GN Cognac of Tony Lees was Fastest Pre-War Car, at 106.95 secs, while Fastest Vintage was Sue Darbyshire in her 1929 Morgan Super Aero (below).
