THE 75th anniversary of the first-ever round of the British Hillclimb Championship was celebrated in style in Scotland this week.
Exactly 75 years to the day of the first event in the series on May 17, 1947, a dozen classic hillclimb race cars gathered at the famous Bo’ness venue.
Among the machines were several that competed at the track, near Linlithgow, when it was hugely popular before and after World War II.
Tom Richardson’s 1934 Riley MPH is one of only 13 and it raced at the Scottish hillclimb as well as competing in the Monte Carlo Rally.
Scott Goodfellow’s Terrier MkII is another original Bo’ness competitor that lined up alongside George Cooper’s Cooper-MG, which was driven by Stirling Moss.
Also part of the gathering was Kenny Baird’s Fisher Spyder, which raced at Bo’ness as the Fisher GT. Another Fisher present was Malcolm Wishart’s Alfa, which was built in Edinburgh by Jack Fisher.
One of the oldest cars to join the gathering was Douglas Anderson’s 1935 Morgan 4/4, while a trio of Austin 7 Specials were on parade alongside Peter Graham’s Hotchkiss.
Post-war racing cars were also represented by Jim Campbell’s Jaguar C-type and the E-type of Barrie Woods.
Many of these classic racing cars will be competing at the Kenny Allen Memorial Hillclimb this weekend, which is being held at Doune, near Stirling.
More than 70 historic machines are entered and action starts at 8.30am on both Saturday and Sunday. There is also a classic car show on the Sunday, with everything from an Austin A30 to Bentley R-type entered.
It’s the first-ever classic-only hillclimb to be held at Doune – known as The King of the Hills. It has been named in honour of Kenny Allen, who was one of Scotland’s most prolific, talented and successful racing drivers.
