1965 Ken Wharton Tests

AUTOSPORT, NOVEMBER 12, 1965, kindly sourced by Joe Duggan

An Ulster Victory

The Ken Wharton TV driving tests Organized by the Hagley & D.L.C.C.

By FRANCIS PENN

Five big tests for six teams, cold but sunny weather, four BBC cameras plus commentator Raymond Baxter, split second timing and superb organisation: that was the line up for the Hagley Club’s Ken Wharton Memorial Team Trophy national driving tests meeting at Chateau Impney, near Droitwich last Saturday.

Teams consisting of one each GT Cars, Sports Cars and Saloon Cars, (the last-named class excluding Minis) were represented by Northern Ireland (the holders), England, Scotland, Wales, Eire and, for 1965, in place of Holland, Belgium were the invited guests. Unfortunately, the visitors, having deranged their number three steed, a Glas, were forced to rely on a borrowed, albeit a works, Imp, the conductor of which had four wheels in the air more often than on the ground!

Positions at the conclusion of test one showed England in front by 0.4 sec. from Northern Ireland, with Eire only another second in arrears in third spot. Already both Scotland and Belgium had incurred penalties!

Test two saw Northern Ireland lead England by 2 secs., while Eire still held third place. Then in the third test both the England and Scottish number ones made incorrect runs — absolutely unforgivable when one realizes that these drivers were representing their countries by test selection, so out went these countries as the penalties incurred were 76 secs.! So this effort put Northern Ireland in front of Eire by 6 secs., with Wales now a good third. Test four and the position remained static, although Northern Ireland’s lead was down to 5 secs.

The position was so close that now was the time to have a go on the last “do—muck or nettles”, in fact. And for Eire, muck! Their number one did it all wrong and dropped 96 secs.; so did the Scottish and Belgian first strings, but they weren’t in the hunt anyway. Northern Ireland sailed home to an easy win to retain the pots for yet another year. Only they, and the Welsh team seemed to realize the first axiom of test driving, ie., do it correctly even if slowly. This was a team event, and Northern Ireland really showed the rest the way home.

RESULTS

1. Northern Ireland—Harold Hagan (M.G.Midget 1098), Ronnie McCartney (Mini-Cooper S 1275) and Robert Woodside (Volkswagen 1300)—814.2;
2. Wales—Allan Rayner (A.-H. Sprite 1098), Claude Twigdon (Mini-Cooper S 1275) and Martyn Thomas (Hillman Imp)—843.8;
3. Eire—George Reed (M.G. Midget 1098), Dermot Carnegie (Mini-Cooper S 1095) and Larry Mooney (Volkswagen 1300)—852.6;
4. England, 866.1;
5. Scotland, 975.4;
6. Belgium, 1,039.3.