A glittering array of both trophies and motorsport stars, including Sir Stirling and Lady Moss, set the tone of the annual Motor Racing Legends Awards Dinner at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall on Wednesday 25th January 2012.

As it also happened to be Burns Night, Duncan Wiltshire of Motor Racing Legends made special mention of the many Scottish visitors among the 208 dinner guests, when he took to the rostrum to announce the trophy winners.

Since the awards are not given purely on the basis of race results, but depend partly on such criteria as presentation and racing in the ‘right spirit’, no one knew until the night who the winners would be. Hence there was much excitement as they were announced in the following order:

2011 Motor Racing Legends Pre-War Sports Car Series

Awards presented by Erin Baker, Head of Motoring for the Telegraph Group:

  • Vintage Class 1 (up to 3000cc): Charles Gillett, Tom Walker and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards in their Frazer Nash Super Sports
  • Vintage Class 2 (over 3000cc): Clive Morley, Stuart Morley and Duncan Wiltshire in their Bentley 3/4½ 
  • Post-Vintage Class 1 (up to 2000cc):  David Ozanne in his Aston Martin 2 Litre Speed Model
  • Post-Vintage Class 2 (over 2000cc): Alex Ames in his Alta Sport
  • Winner of the 2011 Pre-War Sports Car Trophy: Alex Ames

2011 JD Classics Challenge

Trophy presented by Derek Hood of JD Classics:

  • Overall winners: Chris Conoley and Allen Tice in their BMW CSL Batmobile

2011 Stirling Moss Trophy

Awards presented by Sir Stirling:

  • Class 1 (Drum-braked up to 2000cc): Chris and Ollie Phillips in their Lola Mk 1
  • Class 2 (Drum-braked over 2000cc): Adam, Joe and Rachel Singer in their Kurtis 500S
  • Class 3 (Disc-braked up to 1100cc): Jaques Naveau and David Axisa in their Lotus 11
  • Class 4 (Disc-braked up to 1500cc): Phil Champion in his Lotus 11 – with Martin Stretton, Sam Stretton and Chris Chilcott
  • Class 5 (Disc-braked up to 2000cc): Ewan McIntyre in his Lotus 15
  • Class 6 (Disc-braked over 2000cc): Jon Minshaw and Martin Stretton in their Lister Jaguar
  • Overall winners: Jon Minshaw and Martin Stretton in their Lister Jaguar

2011 Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy

Awards presented by Ben Cussons of the Royal Automobile Club:

  • Class 1 (Drum-braked up to 1500cc): Richard Hodson in his Lotus VI
  • Class 2 (Drum-braked up to 2000cc): Stephen Bond in his Lister Bristol
  • Class 3 (Drum-braked up to 3000cc): Martin Melling, Rick Hall and Rob Hall in their Aston Martin DB3
  • Class 3a (Disc-braked up to 3000cc): Martyn Corfield and Jeremy Welch in their Austin-Healey 100
  • Class 4 (Drum-braked over 3000cc): Barry Wood, Tony Wood and Barry Cannell in their RGS Atalanta
  • Class 4a (Disc-braked over 3000cc): Carlos Monteverde and Gary Pearson in their Jaguar D-type
  • Overall winners: Barry Wood, Tony Wood and Barry Cannell in their RGS Atalanta

2011 Father & Son Trophy

Awarded to pairings of close family members co-driving at Motor Racing Legends events, whether fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, uncles and nephews, and so on, the 2011 winners are Gabriel and Dion Kremer

2011 Motor Racing Legends Trophy

In recognition of any great achievement or commitment or special action, that isn’t covered by any of the other awards, but which nonetheless represents something extraordinary.

In announcing the winner, Duncan Wiltshire commented that, in early summer 2011, the recipient had “a very nasty accident indeed and is lucky not to have left us permanently – not through any sort of racing accident, but through a road accident while out testing. Despite serious chest and rib injuries (much worse than he let on), he only missed the Dijon round of the Woodcote Trophy. He re-appeared at Silverstone, clearly still far from fixed, but went out to win his class by the narrowest of margins.”

The Dijon race was the only round of the Woodcote Trophy this competitor has missed since the series’ inception in 2006. For such commitment, the 2011 Motor Racing Legends Trophy went to Mike Thorne.

Images above:

  1. Car no. 70: the Lotus 17 of Gabriel and Dion Kremer
  2. Car no. 133: the Lister Jaguar of Jon Minshaw and Martin Stretton
  3. Car no. 23: the Wood/Cannell RGS Atalanta

© Eric Sawyer