• . . and forth
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Also involved in racing, but in a different element at a different time, is South London haulier Ralph Hilton, who runs the now-very-large Hilton's Transport Services. He's having a special boat built by Souter of Cowes for the Daily Telegraph-BP round-Britain power boat race. It starts from Southsea on July 26 and covers 1,700 nautical miles.
I was particularly interested to learn from his friend and co-racer Mike Bellamy (of Bellamy's Tyre Depot, Croydon) that the twin engines for the boat are turbocharged Leyland 500 fixed-head diesels, rated for the race at about 200/220 bhp each. Mike has been doing the marine conversion and fitting up the gearboxes and soon.
Ralph Hilton has previously been a closedcircuit boat-racing enthusiast, but his appetite for some off-shore racing was whetted by colleague Bellamy's experience last season. And the pair of them will be giving the new boat a taste of salt water in the Will's race in the Solent in June.