Frank Aikens |
Frank attended the Prescott practice meeting in April '47 and seems to have played a significant part in the so called "White Hart" meeting, somewhere in Oxfordshire, in May. He enjoyed some success in 1947 with a third at Prescott in May, second at Shelsley in June and third again at Prescott in June. He failed to finish at Gransden Lodge (along with almost everybody) for the first post war motor race in July but achieved a fourth at Prescott in the same month and then second there in September. At some point during the year, Frank substantially changed the bodywork on his car, improving the seating position at the same time.
For 1950, Frank appeared in first production Iota P1 which he fitted with a special Triumph engine, allegedly good for over 50 horsepower. He gave the car it's debut at Easter Goodwood and by lap two the engine was in pieces. Frank's, and Iota's, finest hour came at "Royal" Silverstone in May when, after finishing fourth in his heat, he enjoyed a race-long dice with Moss in the final to win from Stirling and Peter Collins. All three were presented to the Queen. He followed this with a fourth in the heats at Goodwood in May and a DNF in the Commander Yorke 100 miler then a third in Heat 4 of the Daily Telegraph Trophy in August then tenth at Silverstone for the Express meeting. Frank led at Croft in September until suspension failure gave the win to Alan Rogers and that appears to be his last race in the Iota. In June 1950, Frank was awarded a Bar to his AFC. |
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Aikens realised that the Iota would never be the most competitive car so for '51 he switched to a J.B.S, again Triumph powered, which he shared with Allan Moore. With this, Frank took a fourth in his heat at Brands in April, failed to finish in the Daily Express International, then managed twenty-fourth in the Grand Prix in July but it seems his racing was curtailed by RAF commitments and the car passed full time to Allan. At some point Frank was prompted to Group Captain. |
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