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motor Racing Days #9

motor RACING DAYS:     Although my blogs are about living at Hoar Cross Hall, I would just like to give a bit of background about my dad’s racing career in the years leading up to moving to the Hall as this will set the scene for later instalments of my story. As mentioned in my first blog my dad used to be a racing driver but he actually started off racing motor cycles in the 1930s.   Because of this he became a despatch rider during the Second World War and spent a lot of time in North Africa.  After the war he started racing motor bikes at nearby Donington Park and he raced there up to the beginning of the 1950s.  After that he moved onto cars and d...

Lest we forget #86

...e owned a motor bike and had been racing it at Donington Park during the 1930s.  He served in North Africa and Al Alamein as did Hugo Meynell.  Who knows - they could have crossed paths during the war, my dad never dreaming for a moment that he would one day own Hugo's house!  After North Africa he moved to Italy and spent a lot of time in Bari and Naples eventually moving up towards Belgium.  He kept diaries of his time during the war and the one I have is from 1944-45 when the war ended and he was finally demobbed in January 1946 and safely home.  It makes fascinating reading of another time when the future was so uncertain, not unlike today with  the wa...

motor RACING DAYS #9

...motor RACING DAYS: Although my blogs are about living at Hoar Cross Hall, I would just like to give a bit of background about my dad’s racing career in the years leading up to moving to the Hall as this will set the scene for later instalments of my story.  As mentioned in my first blog my dad used to be a racing driver but he actually started off racing motor cycles.  He had been a despatch rider in World War 2 in North Africa and after the war ended and he’d recovered from TB he decided to take up racing his bike as a hobby.  As he lived in Derby the nearest track was Donington Park and he raced there at the beginning of the 1950s.  After that he move...

motor Racing Days #9

...small fun motor bike – the only trouble was that it was our last day and we were already in the queue to get out.  Chris told my dad that he would take me for a quick ride round while he was queuing but when we got back my dad had gone as he had to move with the queue and had nowhere to pull up. Realising I’d been left behind Chris told me I’d have to go home with him to Leeds.  Next thing I know we’re being taken in a chauffeur driven car to a small airfield near the track where he kept a light aircraft!  I had no idea he had a plane but climbed aboard and enjoyed a trip to Leeds by air, marvelling at how small everything looked on the ground!  Of...

Lest We Forget #28

...e owned a motor bike and had been racing it at Donington Park during the 1930s.  He served in North Africa and Al Alamein as did Hugo Meynell.  Who knows - they could have crossed paths during the war, my dad never dreaming for a moment that he would one day own Hugo's house!  After North Africa he moved to Italy and spent a lot of time in Bari and Naples eventually moving up towards Belgium.  He kept diaries of his time during the war and the one I have is from 1944-45 when the war ended and he was finally demobbed in January 1946 and safely home.  It makes fascinating reading of another time when the future was so uncertain, not unlike today with  the wa...

RACE TRACK ‘AFTER PARTIES’ #27

...race his motor bike there before the war and he was invited to join in with the historic bike racing – he jumped at the chance of riding a bike again and did really well, at the age of 61! Kev and I went along with my brothers and we all got dressed up in our Sunday best, Kev wearing a jacket and me in a large floppy hat – we looked as if we were going to a wedding not a race meeting!  But dad assured us that we needed to look the part as there was a big party afterwards in a marquee with all the top racing people in attendance – ‘racing royalty’ we called them.  People like Bob Gerrard, who was one of the top racing drivers of the post war era –...