I travelled, with my son Simon, from home to Wiscombe Park on Friday 11th, after tackling the M5 (slow, slow quick, quick, slow) we arrived at Wiscombe Park and after checking in with Dave Pearce, deputy Clerk of the Course, that everything was prepared for the morning, we left to spend the night in Seaton at a local hotel.
Having walked along the Seaton seafront we ended up at a fish and chip restaurant called ‘Frydays’ where we had some excellent fish and chips. Whilst we were there, John Bird, another South-West Centre member, wandered in and joined us at the table. John was booked as one of the two Club Stewards at the event the following morning. After a great night’s sleep, we awoke at 06:00 and had left the hotel by 06:30 and arrived at Wiscombe Park just before 07:00.
We put up one of the Centre Flags in front of the house and went off in search of a bacon roll for breakfast (very delicious it was too). I then went and found Jenny Coxon, who has been a savior by taking on the roles of entry secretary and event secretary to help the club out. I had been told that Jenny was the go-to person for all things Wiscombe and I was most impressed with the way she has handled our situation of not having anyone on the committee experienced enough to take those roles.
Worth Birkill was the chief marshal, and he allocated Simon to the bottom paddock to shepherd the cars down to join the track before the start line, and me to the top paddock to receive the cars after their run and form them into orderly rows so that they could safely proceed back down the hill when the batch (between 27 and 35 cars) had completed their run. We also had two SW centre committee members as hill marshals, Mike Angwin was at Esses 3 and Martyn Lucas at Martini. Once the marshal briefing had finished, the marshals proceeded to their posts to await the first runs. The drivers also had a briefing and then we were ready to send the first cars up the hill for their practice run (one practice run and one timed run before lunch, then two timed runs after lunch.
As we had only one junior driver this year, he went up the hill on his own and then straight back down.
The morning practice runs were comparatively incident free, and we started the first timed run. One or two cars (or drivers) decided that they would misbehave causing red flags and re-runs for the baulked drivers. We started back down the hill for lunch around 12:35, having been told to be back on post at 13:25 ready to run again at 13:40.
All marshals get issued with a free lunch ticket redeemable at the burger van. I had a very nice Cheeseburger with Bacon.
Once I had finished lunch, I had the difficult task, along with Kat Lacy from Meningitis Research (the company Ian worked for) to say a few words about Ian (or Benny as he was known at work) and why we were honoring him at this event. We then had a minute’s silence to remember Ian. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.
Once we were back on our posts, the second timed run started. We had 28 cars in the top paddock and then it went very quiet. We heard on the radio that there had been a serious incident and that the Clerk and his deputies and the stewards were called to investigate. A car had come through the gate and approaching the marshals post at Esses 1, had lost control and hit the protective barrier (built of old railway sleepers) around the marshals’ post and demolished it, ending up with his front resting on the top sleeper. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, two of the marshals had cuts and bruises and were treated by the medical team, the driver was shaken but walking around. Having assessed the damage, the Clerk and MS UK Steward deemed the post un-repairable in the time left and meeting was declared abandoned.
We then were allowed to release the 28 cars that had made it to the top and I followed them down as I would be required to hand out the trophies once the results were declared. To make the results fair, only the first timed run was counted for all competitors (124 in total).
The results are available at this link Wiscombe 2026 Results on the website and Nigel Cole, Wiscombe Park official photographer, has given me permission to display photographs of the MG cars that took part. See the gallery below.
The MG Car Club South West Centre are indebted to the following people, without whom this event would not be able to take place.
Jenny Coxon – Entry and Event Secretary
Jason Hayes – Clerk of Course and his deputies, Jennie Brookes, & Dave Pearce
Rupert Barker and John Bird – Club Stewards
Worth Birkill – Chief Marshal and all of his volunteer marshals
Mervyn Brake – On line entry system
Peter Issacs – CEO Wiscombe Ltd.
As I said in my closing address after the award giving,
See you all again next year.
Jim Lott
