Club Cars win Major National Award

Ian Kellett, right receives his winners trophy from the Classic Cars Account Manager at Lancaster Insurance

At the NEC Classic Motor Show, a Special Award was made for the most interesting car on a Club Stand. In fact on this occasion the judges made a joint award to two cars. Both of them were Standard Vanguards on the stand of the Standard Motor Club. The man responsible was Ian Kellet from IK Racing in Holmfirth, Yorkshire.

The cars were Ian's Phase II Car Transporter which carried on its back Ian's Phase 1 race car, both pictured below during the set-up of the show:

Congratulations to Ian on achieving the top award amongst over 1400 Classics of every marque. A remarkable achievement particularly as the cars were judged against the most glamorous and prestigious of marques (R-R, Ferrari, Jaguar, Maserati, to name only a few.)

My story begins a week earlier. Club stand organiser, Tony Pounder asked me to bring the Flying 12 DHC to the show as a substitute for a car that was no longer available. I willingly agreed and on Thursday set of on the 90 mile trip up the A5 and A45. Being November it was quite cold but there is a certain amount of warmth blown back from the engine. Observers think I am quite mad to keeo the Drophead down, but there is an obvious advantage in terms of visibility and in fact, small showers are blown clear over the top as long as speed is kept up.

Arriving around 2pm there was a slight delay whilst the cars queued to get into the halls. I found that the Vanguard combo had already arrived from Yorkshire and were on the stand in Hall 5, waiting for the other cars and stand decorations to arrive. The decorations were duly supplied by the arrival of Brian Birch and John Lawley and we parked the cars on the stand roughly where they had been planned, but on the plastic sheets that were still covering the carpet, that had been laid earlier by NEC contractors.

Unfortunately, my cheap-price return fare on Virgin Trains mean that I had to leave at 4-00pm so couldn't be present at the final setting up of the stand. Tony and Beatrice arrived after I left, in the race prepared Standard 10, they were staying the whole weekend.

The show was 3 days, Friday Saturday and Sunday and manned by volunteer Club members for the whole period. There was brisk trade on all 3 days and the volunteers were kept busy greeting other members, selling regalia and recruiting new members ( our ranks were swelled by 8 new members over the period.) Monday morning saw me take the return train trip to the NEC to collect the Flyer and I was home by 3.00pm with only the slightest of rainfall.

My thanks go to all the Club volunteers who made the show a resounding success for the Club and for other members for coming along to see us. There is always room for more volunteers so if you want to help your club please make your desires known now.

Finally thanks to Tony and Beatrice and congratulations to Ian Kellet and his fantastic Vanguards! You Club is very lucky to have such enthusiasts!

Below: Some of the Club's helpers on Sunday

Report and Photos by Phil Homer

November 2011