Giants Toppled
Page 71
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By E. JAMES MILLEN
HOW the mighty are fallen ... ! Certainly they fell at Southend on Sunday, largely in the persons of Ron Read (Alstons Ltd.) and R. Wilton (ShellMex and BP Ltd.). Both had previously won rounds here on three occasions, but this time both came to considerable grief.
True, Alstons' champion (a 'former winner of his class at .Coventry) took second place in Class El, hut hewas outscored on all three tests by his colleague from Alstons, Peter Curtis. Wilton's fall from grace was even more disastroushe could finish only fourth out of five entries in Class F2.
But if the Gods frowned upon these two, they certainly smiled in the direction of Charles Ball. This former Tate and Lyle driver, overall runner-up in this area in 1959 and 1960, scored a resounding success from a ' fun " field in Class E2, incurring only 86 penalty points. Great credit must go to him, as he was given the Regent Oil tanker which he handled so skilfully last Friday--only two days before the event.
Indeed, many spectators and drivers were confidently expeesihg him to he named overall winner, as he recorded the lowest score of the day-and they were none .too happy when this did not happen. The. overall winner at Southend is arrived at on a " class improvement performance" basis, a system that
involves a fair amount of mathematical working out-and is rather too involved to he readily comprehensible to most of those interested. It seems to me that there is much to be said for using a simpler system-such as the " run-off" which is employed in many areas. T think, too, that the same system should be tied in all areas to avoid confusion.
This is in no way intended to detract from the excellent performance given by the official overall winner. G, Barker (Schweppes ltd.. Hendon). He won Class C " by a mile " with only 96 points.
By far the largest field of the day was in Class Here, J. Russell (A, J, Brush Ltd.) scraped home by four points in it tight finish-19 points covering the first six places.
Surprisingly, only two drivers were faultless on the Highway Code questions R. Kirby (Petrofina Ltd.) and L. Thomasen (Shell-Mex).
Not at all a bad day, really, though there seemed rather less atmosphere" here than usual. perhaps because of a smaller field and fewer spectators. And with only 84 competitors taking part I am sure that tests should be completed long before 5.15 p.m. As it was the presentations were not completed until 6.15 p.m.---inconveniently late for those spectators, drivers and officials with some distance to travel home.