Boness Results 080912

I think you could say this year’s revival was a great all round event. However only two 500’s made it to compete up the hill. One was the JP of Douglas Turner and the other was the Bishop-Miller Cooper driven by David (with a sticking plaster on the nose). Both cars competed on the Saturday on a slightly shorter course than before and we woke to a slightly damp morning but fortunately no rain. Both drivers took it fairly steady in their practice runs as under the trees especially it was rather slippery.
After lunch and some glorious noise from the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar and Cooper Bristol doing demo runs the serious business began. Fortunately the track had dried out and so a bit more vigour could be applied. Douglas had two good runs and managed to improve on his time by over a second on his 2nd. David had a good first run up the hill but unfortunately suffered with clutch issues on his second run and had to abort it part way up. He was under strict orders though not to damage the engine as it will be needed for Snetterton so he was maybe going a tad easier than he could have done on the first run. The spoils therefore went to Douglas who got the class win for the JP.

Just to complete the story though, one other 500 made it to Bo’ness after a 61 year absence. To paint the picture so to speak I really wanted to attend this year as they were using the event as a memorial to Ron Flockhart and Bob Mcintyre, both coming from the Joe Potts stable. I’d got my car back from the chassis builders (Jim Taylor at Sheffield) on the 25th August following its chassis rebuild. This gave me 12 days to get the bare metal chassis prepared, painted and assembled to a good enough state to take up. I must thank my wife Carolyn (for understanding and cups of tea), son Jake (for helping only as a six year old can) and also a very big thank you to Bill Tull (for lots of help and advice with the assembly). Bill told me late nights in the garage with a 500 are “quite normal” and that I should get used to it! Anyway after being high on paint fumes and the typical amounts of blood and sweat that seems to be shed on these things we made it to get up to Scotland for the Friday as the organisers had asked. I was to display the car at the top of the hill and having followed the Bishop-Miller family to the event we went through the competitor’s entrance at the bottom of the hill. This meant I at least got to take the JP up the hill on the back of the trailer. We were given a spot just behind the grandstand with rather exclusive company! Ron Flockhart's ERA R4D was next to us on one side and along came the Ecurie Ecosse race transporter with a Cooper Bristol and Ron’s D Type Jaguar. Fantastic company for my little JP and rather fitting when its original owner Ian Sutherland was best friends with Ron (Ron was best man at Ian’s wedding!). It was a fantastic weekend and we were made to feel very welcome by everyone and the car generated a surprising amount of interest even though it is only part finished. I’m really looking forward to taking it back next year and running it up the hill under its own steam this time. Hopefully a few more competitors can be enticed up the hill next year as well as it is a great venue, steeped in history and I am told it is a fun hill to drive (can’t wait). Roll on some more late nights in the garage!