| 2009 is the seventieth anniversary of a remarkable event in the history of Prescott Speed Hill Climb and the Bugatti Owners’ Club. The meeting held on Sunday, July 30th , 1939 was the first International Meeting to be held at Prescott.
The entry of the French racing driver, Jean Pierre Wimille with the Works’ Bugatti and with Jean Bugatti in attendance, underlined the international status of the event. Wimille, who was the son of a Parisian journalist, had just won the Le Mans 24-hour race for the second time, and was then at the height of his fame as a racing driver. As the programme notes heralded: ‘ It is a grand thing to realize that the Bugatti equipe, including M. Jean Bugatti himself, has come here specially for today’s event, all the way from Molsheim in Alsace, and we wish him a pleasant visit and the best of good luck.’ Both Jean Bugatti and Jean Pierre Wimille were booked in at the Queens Hotel, Cheltenham.
A ‘cordial welcome’ was also extended to Mr. Raymond Mays, ‘holder of the Shelsley Walsh record and too well-known to need any introduction with his 2-litre E.R.A. This is Mr. Mays’ first visit to Prescott and we look forward with confidence to the shattering of our course record.’
Jean Pierre Wimille was in car number 3 in Class 8 (Racing Cars over 2000cc). The Works’ Bugatti being based on a Type 59 chassis with a Type 50B engine of 4700cc. On the other hand, Raymond Mays in the E.R.A. R4D, car number 12, was in Class 7 (Racing Cars 1501 to 2000cc). The E.R.A. having an engine capacity of 1988cc.
Other notable drivers on the day were to be Jack Lemon-Burton, Arthur Baron and Kenneth Bear all in Bugattis, Kenneth Evans in his Alfa Romeo, Bob Ansell with his 1480 cc E.R.A. and Reg Parnell in the B.H.W. (non-starter) and his Challenge(r). Shakspeare was entered in the ‘ Club Car’, being a type 51 Bugatti given to the Club by Ettore Bugatti. Then there was A.F.P. Fane, one-time record holder at Shelsley Walsh, Percy Maclure, H.L. Hadley and C.D. Buckley in the works’ Austins and A.H. Beadle in an Alta.
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