Spectacular but...
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THOSE of us who were involved in the competition from its beginning in Coventry in 1953 made up with enthusiasm what we lacked in experience. Tests were timed, which produced spectacular but risky performances. I remember running for my life from a six-wheeler as it slid with all wheels locked across the parade ground at Portsmouth.
Timing was also unfair because there was no allowance for loaded vehicles. Despite outstanding driving,. a Charrington man in a fully laden eight-wheeled oil tanker at Pompey came nowhare in competition with less skilful drivers of empty vehicles.
I heard afterwards that Raymond Baxter, the radio and television reporter, who was very interested in the competition in the early days, was so incensed by this injustice that he gave the driver £10 out of his own pocket.