For those of a certain age, and as a reminder to the youngsters of a great man, today (3rd December) is the 20th anniversary of Major Arthur Mallock's death.
If anyone hasn't read Arthur's story in the splendid "The Lone Furrow" by Paul Lawrence - you simply must to appreciate how he helped so many of us to afford to go racing. The publisher and Amazon have no copies left so, unless Ebay have some, you'll need to beg, steal, or borrow - it's worth it, I promise.
I was only talking to Bill Longley (half of Dulon Cars) yesterday, and he told me a story about the 750 formula days, he said that when Arthur turned up at scrutineering apparently you had to prove that your handbrake worked (as I guess this is a road cars series) Arthur would position himself on the opposite side of the car to Scrut, point to the handbrake for the Scrut to pull, then place his boots either side of the rear wheel.
I purchased Mk9 Formula Ford Mallock and rang Arthur to tell him. He replied that I could not possibly have done so as they only made three and told me exactly who had them. "I will come round and have a look" he said.
He duly arrived and grunted and snorted in his usual fashion as he examined my latest acquisition."Ah!" he at last exclaimed "we must have built four"!
I have so many recollections of Arthur's wonderful eccentricity, from my first meeting with him at Aintree where he asked me a question, then before I could answer, snorted and walked away - I assume because something had attracted his attention although I did wonder if I was that boring. One story I wish could be found is Caldwell's report of "Buying my first Mallock" where Mrs Mallock popped her head around the door of the living room to ask if either Caldwell or Arthur would like a cup of tea, Arthur said "No", Caldwell said "Yes". Minutes later Mrs M appeared with the tea, which Arthur proceeded to drink!
Look at some of Arthur's first racing exploits where, for example, the rules said the car must have doors, Arthur chopped his doors in half.
I'm one of many who owe Arthur, and his sons, a big "Thank you" for enabling me to go racing without mortgaging the house.
I have 100's of memories of Arthur, obviously, but 2 that spring to mind are;
Arthur announcing we were going skiing, traveling across Europe in our newly acquired Mini Clubman Estate. Sister Carols sitting on mums lap (all the way) and me sitting in the seat from the Mk2 placed in the back. Went into a pub in Germany to ask the way to Davos and all the landlord could do was give us a beer mat which had a map of Germany on it. But we got there...
Secondly, Arthur's initiative just after the war when petrol was rationed according to the capacity of your engine. Arther set to and removed half the pistons!