April Club Night

By Kieron Winter

Reg Palmer shared with us some of his stories from his days of circuit racing. Reg started off doing typical club events with Weston-Super-Mare Motor Club. Like our own Arthur Tankins, Weston had a keen photographer who took cine films of the clubs events and Reg had some of his films on video to share with us.

Reg was given the opportunity to have a drive in a Jaguar in Classic racing and this was where some of the stories started. Many of the stories involved Howard Strawford who was Clerk of the Course at Castle Combe and Llandow circuits. One visit Reg received was at Llandow where Reg had qualified his green Jaguar at the front of the grid. As the flag was dropped for the start of the race, the Jaguar had a coming together with a Mini and mayhem ensued. Reg’s race lasted one car length. He was sought out in the Paddock afterwards by Howard who claimed that there were nine damaged cars which all had green paint on them! Another visit from Howard was at Castle Combe when his car managed to drop all its oil on the start line.

It was not trouble all the time and Reg had a great season in a bright yellow Ford Zephyr when he won the BARC Championship. Reg was invited to the end of season awards ceremony where he was seated to a very young and very unknown Mika Hakkinen. Reg finished the evening by showing some videos of him driving at Castle Combe and Pembrey and then a most excellent Classic car race from Lydden Hill, where there was action and overtaking all the way to the last corner on the last lap.

Reg still has several stories to tell, so look out for future snippets in Backfire in the coming months.