ACC Officials and Marshals had a fabulous Welsh Wonder Touring Assembly last month with The Benjafields Racing Club…based at The Thornton Hall Hotel.
This Closed to Club event was a mix of a Touring Assembly and a Gymkhana testing both navigational, driving ability and non-driving skills such as ping pong ball throwing!
The was organised by ACC Members Sean Bramhall , Kev Haworth and Mike Ashcroft, covering a route from South Wirral to Snowdonia across some fabulous roads and equally fabulous countryside!
Entries were limited to pre-war sports and touring, with close to 30 “W.O” Bentley’s competing along with some very quick Talbots with a combined value of close to £40Million!!
Driving tests started on the Saturday Morning at nearby Thornton Manor, the former home of Lever Brothers (Unilever) founder, Lord Leverhulme, now owned by BDC Member Philip Cowan.
These were a mix of tarmac and loose surface roads timed to less than 5 sec, with the added spectacle of some unusual non-driving tasks thrown in!
Following this was a trip to the Glan-y-Gors Kart Circuit near Bala, for some quicker tests than Thornton, with cars displaying some very strange driving angles around corners including one of two doors opening unexpectedly.
A very nice Hog Roast lunch was provided after the test, which went down very well with all!
A further test was held near Bala after lunch, on the approach road to Casper Gillicks Vintage Restoration workshops with some demonstrations of metal working.
Cars then returned to Thornton Hall for the evening’s Gala Black Tie Dinner.
Sunday morning started with a drive back into North Wales to the Cae Drai 50’s themes Museum near Denbigh followed by a private visit and lunch at Peter Neumark’s fantastic collection of cars including some very rare road and racing Jaguars.
Some great photos from our resident photographer Sammy Dutton:
