{"id":460296,"date":"2004-09-01T15:00:16","date_gmt":"2004-09-01T22:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=97854"},"modified":"2024-01-04T22:33:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T22:33:20","slug":"up-the-hill-to-formula-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/up-the-hill-to-formula-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Up the Hill to Formula One"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I guess I have done most types of motorsport at one time or another\u2026trials, sprints, rallies, hill-climbs and races. I won the British Hill-Climb Champion\u00adship three times running in the 1950s, and that was the first time that anyone had achieved that particular feat. That was with an ex-Peter Collins Cooper-JAP Mk.VIII. During that period, I had started to run a Manx-tail Cooper on the race circuits, and then John Cooper got me into one of the first Formula Two Coopers. So, I was doing the hill-climbs and F2 at the same time. Having won the three Championships on the hills, I then began to concentrate on circuit racing, but only part-time. I had some quite good results in F2, in 1957, at Brands Hatch, Montlh\u00e9ry, Mallory Park and at Reims.<\/p>\n

It got to a point where F2 regulations and engine size rules changed, so we put a rollover bar into the car and a starter battery, and we found ourselves able to do Formula One races, but it really began by accident. We didn\u2019t do it by design. I was in a couple of Grand Prix races including the German Grand Prix where they were running a Formula Two section. I finished 4th in F2 at the Ring. I then did quite well that season at Silverstone which was another F1 race with an F2 class, and at Oulton Park. These were all in the Cooper T43.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n