Throwback Thursday: 1961 Weston Speed Trials

Did you know we used to race cars along the seafront at Weston Super Mare?  Back in the days before speed bumps, we raced some of the fastest cars in the country from a standing start along the seafront.  As reported on this day in 1961 in the Evening Post, the fastest car crossed the line at 140mph, which considering the land speed record was still 300-and-something mph, was quite a spectacle as the cars whizzed past the curtains of the local B&Bs.  That year’s winner was Fred Tuck, who was a Speedway racer, back when Ikea wasn’t flat-packed and we instead raced flat-track.

Such was the interest in the fastest race to the Tropicana, that 15000 people turned out to watch the event.  Just like today’s events, we ran classes for normal road cars – they were all saloons back then as Matra wouldn’t invent the SUV for another 16 years – as well as racing cars.  As long ago as 1961 feels today, there was even a vintage sports car class won by T Williamson in a pre-war Bentley.  We don’t know if he was smoking a pipe at the time.