In memory of Bill Weston

There is an obituary of Bill Weston published in the September issue of the T Register’s email Newsletter, and in the T Register’s news pages in September’s Safety Fast, written by Ron Gammons. James Thacker saw Ron’s article and wrote of his memory of Bill and the influence he had on him whilst he was a teenager. So here’s his memories.

I was very sorry to read in the T Type newsletter pages in this month’s Safety Fast! about the sad passing of Bill Weston.
I remember attending my very first MG Silverstone on 29th May 1965 in my TC HAB 397, chassis no 7124, together with my sister Gill with whom I shared the car. There was a 5 lap scratch race for TC, TD and HRG cars. W.J. (Bill Weston) won that T Type event having a close race just ahead of P. (Pete) Ross and I.D. (Ian) Matheson, all in TCs. These were very impressive full race TCs with cycle wings and unsilenced side exhausts. Others in the race included Paddy Willmer, Ron Gammons, Jim Pielow, Alan Scott, Roy Brading, Ken Cheeseman, P. Hollick, Roy Brading, Harry Whitehouse and others. They really captured my imagination, especially the really quick cars drifting round the old club circuit Woodcote corner with a suitably controlled application of opposite lock balancing the car on the throttle, and with the exhaust noise reverberating off the grandstands. A wonderful spectacle …
As the obituary stated, Bill competed in many other races at MG meetings, and on that day in 1965 he drove with equal enthusiasm and skill in two further 5 lap scratch races (placed 1st in the T Types, and 2nd in T Types and MGA 1500s with drum brakes and other cars); in a 10 lap handicap race (placed 5th); and a 30 minute high speed trial. In my mind he was clearly the driver of the day at the peak of his game and these short races on the old club circuit (lap times about 79 seconds for a T type) were enjoyed by a considerable crowd of spectators in the grandstands and elsewhere aided by an informative and enthusiastic commentator. A long way removed from today’s often long distance events on the GP circuit (lap times around two and a half to three minutes) some of which are just another round of a national championship for MGs and other makes, watched by only a mere small handful of spectators.
Bill Weston’s driving on that day clearly made a great impression on me as an 18 year old and within two years I had bought my cousin’s TF (my sister had since married and moved to Belfast) and I had begun competing in speed events in the first year of the T Register championship in 1967 for two years and then with various Sprites and Midgets from 1969 onwards in circuit racing – and I am now my 50th season of motorsport!
There was photo in Motor Sport Magazine of Bill Weston’ s TC while in the Shelsley paddock at around that time showing two different stick-on registration numbers on each of the TC rear wings. He wrote in to the magazine to say that one number was the TC number and the second one was the tow car number. A perfectly reasonable explanation. He added that the TC
had embarrassed quite a few more modern cars with its speed. I am not surprised.
As far as I can make out, 1965 looks as if it could have been Bill Weston’s last MG Silverstone as his name is missing from the following years together with quite a few of that era including Mattheson, Ross (appeared once more in 1967) etc, as many of this first generation of T racers were perhaps on the cusp of retiring just as the incoming post war baby boomers including Dave Clewley, Gerry Brown, Pete Cresswell, Paul Langdell, Glyn Giusti, Chris Jones, Nick Taylor, Neil Hoskison Keith Beningfield, David Spencer-Sline etc were just starting. Even though I had changed to Sprites/Midgets I always watched the T racing and it peaked in that fantastic race at Silverstone in the mid 70s which was likened in the Autosport report to a Formula Ford championship race with half a dozen cars driven by most of the above people, fighting for the lead for the entire race. I was watching on the inside of Woodcote just feet away from the apex and it is arguably the best motor race I have ever seen especially as I knew all the drivers well.
I attach a photo of our TF at Turnastone garage while my wife, Matty and I were in the Golden Valley in Herefordshire on Saturday evening 27th August 2016; (it is a long story but I sold the car in 1972 and bought it back in bits in 2005). It had been raining hard so it is a very rare photo of the hood being up. The forecourt pumps look as old as the car which was made in 1953. Note the ‘works’ JB number as the car was owned by the MG Car Company from Nov 1953 to July 1954 being a Police Demonstrator car. The Turnastone fuel pumps are still calibrated in gallons so perhaps now we are coming out of the EU the garage may possibly l be permitted to sell fuel in imperial measurements again …

James Thacker