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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0797.PDF
THE CARDIFF RACES T VO Spitfires, one Mustang and eight Tiger Moths wereamong the entrants in last Friday's London (Panshanger)to Cardiff race. The Mustang, entered by Ron Flockhartbut .- ill incarcerated at Athens awaiting a new Merlin engine. had > be a non-starter. Of the two Spitfires, the Belgian-owned jyfk ' entered and flown by Beverley Snook started but did not finish and the Mk 8, entered by Earl Mountbatten and flown by V H. Bellamy, started, finished, won the event, but did not arri\-- It vas not the fighters' day. Soon after take-off, there wasSnooA with nothing on the ASI, and—a little later—puffs of oiiy smoke ejecting from his exhaust. The longest runwaythat he could think of was Exeter's, and he landed there suc- cess! ally; but when he closed down there was an explosionsomewhere behind the engine and the starboard leading edge was badly damaged. Vivian Bellamy's trouble was a hydraulichose which fractured after the undercarriage retracted. He blew the mainwheels down with emergency air and. to avoidblocking the Rhoose runway, landed for repairs at St Athan. These were completed too late for the next day's races, inwhich, by common consent, he was then allowed to fly a Rapide. And Snook flew a Jackaroo, doing quite well. First three down from Panshanger were Bellamy, as re-counted, Capt G. P. Watson in a very much in-tune Proctor 3, and Ron Paine in the lovely Hawk Speed Six, evocative of somany happy days' racing. Percy Blamire in the world's best Gemini was another old hand well up in the field, and SidAarons scored a class win—and thirteenth overall—in the single-seater Hawk 3. After years of non-infallibility in assessing Tiger Mothspeeds, the handicappers went rather awry in the first of Satur- day afternoon's class races, the de Havilland Tiger Moth Chal-lenge Trophy. Rees had a 22sec walkaway win—quite a substan- tial margin around three laps of an 11-mile circuit. G-ANZZ—the Archbishop—was the fastest Tiger, averaging 117 m.p.h. to the Canon's (G-ANMZ) 115^, but Elton in ZZ only came fourth. Class 2, the Norton Griffiths Challenge Trophy Race, lookedpromising from the start. New blood was provided by Eric Thurston and the blood-red Ercoupe, and Brian lies, back fromservice rocketeering in the North, was again flying the fast M-18. Arrow Active participation came from D. M. Hartas,whose 137 m.p.h. was the big surprise of the afternoon. He finished second to the Hawk 3, 8sec ahead of lies. Competitors in this race could learn something abouttheir performance as pilots by studying the lap times. Those with under a second's variation per lap included Aarons,Francis, Hartas, lies (02sec), Peter Masefield, John Severne and Turley, but others showed variations of 4sec or more. Theroyal Turbulent was slower this year, in spite of twin-choke Weber carburettor, individual inlet manifolding and stiffer"works". Heavy metal (most of it wood) flew in Class 1. the AirLeague Challenge Cup. Practically from take-off, there started two close duels—between Blamire's Gemini and Marker'sastonishingly rapid Falcon, and between Mclntosh ("all-weather Mac") in the Cessna 175 and Spiller in a Proctor, himself hotlytrailed, and then led, by Watson. Nothing (except perhaps Bellamy's vertical turns with a most unsuitable-looking Rapide)could have been more spirited than that race between Blamire and Marker. As each pylon approached they fairly flung them-selves into he-man turns that silhouetted them briefly, one above the other, against the yellow pylon and the azure-bluesky. Blamire squeezed past to pip Marker for second place on the dive in. but neither could catch Watson. "Flight" photographs Heading picture: V. H. Bellamy's Spitfire 8 crosses the line. Portraits of winners, I to r: Bellamy receives the John Morgan Trophy from its donor; G. P. Watson is handed the Air League C"P by Mrs Morgan; S- M. Aarons with the Honon-Griffiths Trophy; ar|d -. £. Elton receiving the DH Tiger Moth irophy. Right: Turbulent don-up by C. P. Francis
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