NEWS

VSCC celebrate Trophy Winners and Marshals at Chateau Impney

Monday 23 March 2015

The Vintage Sports-Car Club enjoyed a jam-packed programme at Chateau Impney near Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, as Members gathered in their hundreds for this year’s Awards Dinner, Annual General Meeting, Marshals’ Forum and Dinner over the weekend.
Friday’s third Annual Awards Dinner proved a wonderful celebration, with many of our 2014 winners in attendance to enjoy the fine 3-course dinner, interspersed with the presentation of the Club’s collection of over 120 historic trophies throughout the evening. As is fast-becoming a tradition, inter-marque rivalry was the theme of the night, with each and every winner – particularly from the Frazer Nash and Riley representatives gathered – cheered loudly and flags were waved. As always, the Club’s most prestigious award, the Lycett Memorial Trophy, was last to be presented, with Simon Blakeney-Edwards a popular winner, following a successful campaign in both his Frazer Nash Super Sports on the race track and his Austin 7 on Trials.

CLICK HERE for a full list of the 2014 Annual Award winners.

The same night saw the official launch of the Club’s new book, “A Portrait of the Vintage Sports-Car Club, 1934-2014”, written by Tom Pellow, who was the Guest of Honour and was interviewed after the dinner by celebrated commentator, Ian Titchmarsh.

The AGM, which took place on Saturday morning, was widely regarded as one of the best in recent memory, with both strong attendance and lively, thought-provoking debate on the current issues facing the Club. Whilst there remain some obvious concerns in the ever-challenging world of Historic motoring, the passion and enthusiasm for the VSCC was clear to see on the day with the vast majority confident in a positive outlook for the future.

This year’s Committee Election was another success story of the weekend with record numbers (almost 15% of the membership) casting their votes for the equally impressive list of 11 candidates. Successful candidates included newcomers Jennifer Lees, Mike Holt and Kevin Lee, with returning incumbents in David Furnell, Julian Ghosh and Dick Patten.

Club Director for Marshalling, Alan Couper introduced a different approach to Saturday afternoon’s Forum this time, with focus falling on safety aspects, with proposed changes by the Motor Sports Association following recent incidents at modern Stage Rally events in Scotland. Much discussion concentrated on spectator and media safety on our Trials events, whilst attendees were also shown an informative film on first response duties of Marshals in motorsport. It was announced that the Club’s upcoming Marshals’ Training programme will centre on these ideas.

Saturday evening’s Marshals’ Dinner proved the perfect conclusion to a busy weekend, with almost 200 of our most loyal volunteers enjoying the annual hearty fare of steak and kidney pudding (suet not pastry!). Following the meal, the Club’s Marshalling trophies were presented with a warm reception for the two winners of the annual aggregate awards, Anne Beckett (David Payne Memorial Trophy for Race/Speed events) and Angela Jones (Don Grose Memorial Trophy for Non-Speed events), as well as the three recipients of the nominated awards: Lucy Bickerstaff, winner of the Dan England Award, the Club’s Young Marshal prize, Anthony Costigan, awarded the Johnny Holmes Memorial Trophy for support of the Club’s sporting activities and Ted Andrews, the De Nevers Hunt Trophy for marshalling.
Vauxhall 30-98 and Trophies on display at VSCC Awards Dinner_VSCC Archive