National return for Pom
The 59th running of the VSCC’s Pomeroy Trophy took place on a damp but drying Silverstone National circuit, the first running was in 1952.
After a morning of driving/handling tests all competitors took part in the high speed trial to determine who would triumph and win the Pomeroy Trophy, devised by Harry Bowler to see if the mathematical analysis of pre-war racing cars made by Laurence Pomeroy Junior could be applied to more modern machinery as well, the formula came from Pomeroy’s thesis ‘The Grand Prix Car 1906-1939 and was derived from results in the hands of the like of Nazzaro and Nuvolari.
The Pom is designed to determine the best all round touring car from any era, this year the oldest car was a 1904 Rochet-Schneider Series 2500 and the newest an Audi RS6 from 2009 a span of 105 years, an entry of 94 cars was reduced by one even before the first test began when the Datsun 240Z of Martin Greaves suffered an engine fire whilst in the queue for the handling trial.
This year the Frazer-Nash saloon of multiple Pom winner Patrick Blakeney-Edwards is the provisional victor narrowly ahead of Fredrick Wakeman also in a Frazer-Nash previously raced by Blakeney-Edwards. Third was the more modern machine of Jason Kennedy driving a 1996 Fiat Coupe, who in the third speed trial competed against such exotica as Gavin Henderson’s 1965 Ford GT40 (only a week before had burst its gearbox casing at Goodwood) and Gareth Williams in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
Every year oddball entries abound, one was a Ford Dorchester Limo (stretched Granada) was saved from a scrapyard by Andy Cawley, and VSCC’S Steve Allen borrowed a 1948 Tatra V8 T87…. More….