Motor racing history.

Charterhall 1958. Researching revisions to Dove Publishing’s book on Jim Clark, I came across the race programme with his Border Reivers’ entry in the Aston Martin DBR1 (pictured below). It’s at number 14. At number 16 is the Ecurie Ecosse Cooper Monaco and at 27 Barry Filer’s Marcos GT, both to be driven by a mysterious A.N.Other. This was an unsubtle subterfuge for Jackie Stewart to conceal the early stages of his motor racing career. Apprehensive following the injuries Jackie’s brother, Jimmy, sustained at Le Mans in 1954 driving a works Aston Martin their mother forbade racing. Jimmy also inverted a D-type Jaguar at the Nürburgring but his talent was so outstanding that Lofty England wanted him to co-drive with Mike Hawthorn at Le Mans in 1955. In deference to his nervous mother Jimmy turned it down. He would probably have been every bit as good as Jackie, although in retrospect it might have been just as well not to drive at Le Mans in 1955. It was the Hawthorn-Macklin misunderstanding that set off the chain of event that led to the worst accident ever in motor racing. Pictured by me at the hairpin before the Charterhall straight, Jimmy Stewart on left, Graham Birrell also racing at Charterhall, Gordon Hunter Glasgow motor trade entrepreneur, and Jackie in a trendy hat.