Truth, Tall Stories & Lies.

[bauble]

A thread dedicated to interesting memories, a few possibly embellished tales, and even fantasies.

I kick off with a minor claim to fame. Many years ago Doug Marr restored a 1930's Maserati, and raced it at VSCC Meeting at Silverstone. I managed to get a few decent shots, this before I became a 'Photographer'. I sent copies to Doug, and I got a nicer reply. Shortly after Dennis Jenkinson wrote a piece in the Motor Sport, recounting the history of that model Maserati.

One day I got a telephone call from friend Eric, telling me that he was sure one of my pictures was in the latest copy of the magazine. I said it was not possible, as only he and Doug Marr had copies. Well he was adamant, so I rushed out and bought a copy, and sure enough there was the picture. Later in the year I spoke to Dennis at another meeting, and said it was a nice article and good to see my picture in it. He was most apologetic about not crediting me, as he had asked Doug if he had any photos of his restored model, and so had my picture to publish. I told him no problem, I was chuffed to bits to see my picture in the Motor Sport.
Sadly we were the only four who new whose picture it was. I could have been even more famous than I am now.

[Mike Harte]

On the subject of photos, and I have no clue who took this one and I believe that I may have written about this on here previously, but the following picture was taken of me signing my autograph in the paddock at Brands for a very keen young person.

It turns out that the young chap was and still is Andy Kitson who went on to become pretty well known in motor racing circles. He has recently told me that he just asked any and all drivers just in case they were or would become famous. Unfortunately, I wasn't and never became so.

My almost claim to fame.

[midgetman]

Photo missing???

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[Gerard C]

Did you read the thread title? Till the end…

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

On the subject of photos, and I have no clue who took this one and I believe that I may have written about this on here previously, but the following picture was taken of me signing my autograph in the paddock at Brands for a very keen young person.

It turns out that the young chap was and still is Andy Kitson who went on to become pretty well known in motor racing circles. He has recently told me that he just asked any and all drivers just in case they were or would become famous. Unfortunately, I wasn't and never became so.

My almost claim to fame.

Brain fade; here it is (sorry, for reasons best known to the 10/10ths gremlin, you need to click on it to get it the right way up):

[midgetman]

Is the autograph dying and being replaced by the selfie?

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[Tel 911S]

I started doing European rallies in the 1980s .One of the early ones was the Tulip Rally in Holland . The last stage was around an industrial estate in the town where it was based , and there were tens of thousands of spectators there .
Been going well all day so I gave it the big one . Throwing it sideways into the corners , [ not the quickest but fairly easy in an Escort RS2000 ,] and seemed to please the spectators .
Afterwards there was a picture in a motoring magazine saying " This is what the people like to see ".
I realised that a lot of the rallies had huge crowds of spectators and often live TV coverage , and I found that the organisers were keen on that sort of thing , so they would often give me very good deals , start money etc , to do their events .

After several years , I was talking to some Belgian motor club people who told me that I actually had a Fan Club of enthusiasts who used to go to watch me on the different rallies . Had not realised this but had noticed that some people would wave and I would try wave back if I had a spare hand .

So you do sometimes find that things are going on that you had not noticed .

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Tel 911S

I started doing European rallies in the 1980s .One of the early ones was the Tulip Rally in Holland . The last stage was around an industrial estate in the town where it was based , and there were tens of thousands of spectators there .
Been going well all day so I gave it the big one . Throwing it sideways into the corners , [ not the quickest but fairly easy in an Escort RS2000 ,] and seemed to please the spectators .
Afterwards there was a picture in a motoring magazine saying " This is what the people like to see ".
I realised that a lot of the rallies had huge crowds of spectators and often live TV coverage , and I found that the organisers were keen on that sort of thing , so they would often give me very good deals , start money etc , to do their events .

After several years , I was talking to some Belgian motor club people who told me that I actually had a Fan Club of enthusiasts who used to go to watch me on the different rallies . Had not realised this but had noticed that some people would wave and I would try wave back if I had a spare hand .

So you do sometimes find that things are going on that you had not noticed .

And I thought I was famous, great story, Tel, under which part of the thread title does it fit (only kidding)

Bob

[flatlandsman]

I actually prefer watching rallying in Europe, not in person I will admit, but the variety and stages in Belgium and Holland me interest me more than anything other than forest stuff in the UK, I am not even that keen on Irish stuff! I think the Belgian class system works very well

But the crowds back in the 80's and 90's at rallies like Condroz, Boucles de Spa, Ypres and some of the French rallies, you would see almost foobtall size crowds going 150 deep up a cliffside etc, for a basically national rally, it was staggering, even in the early 00's you would have immense crowds going to French rallies to see Jeannot, Bugalski, Panizzi etc, some of the footage on YT is staggering.

[Tel 911S]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

I actually prefer watching rallying in Europe, not in person I will admit, but the variety and stages in Belgium and Holland me interest me more than anything other than forest stuff in the UK, I am not even that keen on Irish stuff! I think the Belgian class system works very well

But the crowds back in the 80's and 90's at rallies like Condroz, Boucles de Spa, Ypres and some of the French rallies, you would see almost foobtall size crowds going 150 deep up a cliffside etc, for a basically national rally, it was staggering, even in the early 00's you would have immense crowds going to French rallies to see Jeannot, Bugalski, Panizzi etc, some of the footage on YT is staggering.

In the 80s and 90s I did Condroz , Spa , Ypres , Flanders , Haspengouw and several others many times .Ypres was the biggest and often got hundreds of thousands of spectators .
One thing I remember in the signing on office for Ypres , I was getting my few Hundred pounds starting money ,talking to Jimmy McRea , who was getting many £Thousands for his son Colin . But he was world champion at one time .

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Tel 911S

In the 80s and 90s I did Condroz , Spa , Ypres , Flanders , Haspengouw and several others many times .Ypres was the biggest and often got hundreds of thousands of spectators .
One thing I remember in the signing on office for Ypres , I was getting my few Hundred pounds starting money ,talking to Jimmy McRea , who was getting many £Thousands for his son Colin . But he was world champion at one time .

Another "claim" to fame, if it counts; my son's father in law was at one time a co-driver to Jimmy and the McrRae family.

[Mike Harte]

Throughout my younger life, living and working in the Hampstead area of North London, I was fortunate to meet quite a few people in the entertainment business.

I cannot now remember how or where it happened, but I became friendly with Peter Cook of Pete and Dud fame. Why I don't know now, but Peter then invited me to a couple/few informal editor meetings for the Private Eye magazine that took place in, if my memory is correct, Willie Rushton's flat, also in Hampstead. And there I then met Willie and, at least once, Petter Sellers, all three being involved in Private Eye. In fact, Peter Cook was a big financial donor to the magazine.

Then through Peter Cook, I was introduced to Dud; they had a bit of a love/hate relationship, and this was exacerbated when they had a few drinks. Sometimes it was really handbags at dawn stuff, and once I had to get between the two of them during the interval at a concert that Moore was giving at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm because they were being very silly.

When being filmed, they both liked nothing better than to try to get the other one to corpse; it was more devilment than anything else, to claim blagging rights, I suppose.

[bauble]

While 'working'(un-paid) for the local Radio Station, I was waiting to interview Barrichello who had won the GP. TV got prime spot, but I was first in the Radio queue.When Barrichello turned to me, a mob of Brazilian journalists arrived, and instantly jumped in, asking question after question in Spanish. I stood there impatiently, but on-and-on they went. eventually they fell silent, so I asked Barrichello for his reaction to wining the race, but immediately the other lot started up again. Whereupon Barichello looked at me said in a contemptuous voice, "Do you mind, I am talking to my friends".
Disliked the git ever since.
Schumacher was in contrast, polite and showed a sense of humour. Top Man.

[morninggents]

From a motorsport perspective my only claim to fame occurred when I went to the Oulton Park Gold Cup F1 meeting sometime in the mid-1960s. I went to the toilet in the paddock for a pee and some moments later became conscious of people standing on each side of me. After I moved back to wash my hands I recognised one was Jack Brabham and the other was Denny Hulme.
Does this count, Bob?

Many years later in around 2011/2012 or so again at Oulton Park for the much diminished Gold Cup meeting waiting to go out for the historic saloons there was a shunt in the previous race on the start/finish straight. I was watching the marshals do their work when a voice at the side of me said 'ooh, that looks nasty'. I turned to see it was Rowan Atkinson and we chatted for a few minutes. Nice guy and he kept a very low profile at the race meetings as did Mark Knopfler and Chris Rea.

[Mike Harte]

From a motorsport aspect, in the mid 60s, some friends and I went to Crystal Palace for a biggish meeting. Whilst watching the sports racers practising, one driven by Stirling Moss crashed and overturned right opposite us. As no marshals were nearby, some of us jumped over the wicket fence - no high barbed wire topped fences back then - and managed to extricate him. Luckily he hadn't been strapped in, and he was thrown under the "dashboard", and he was just a bit bruised and bashed about.

He invited us to join him in the paddock later and a couple of us did so where he thanked us profusely, and then invited us to visit him one evening at his home in Mayfair. We took him up on his kind offer a little while later, and he took us along to the Steering Wheel Club where he arranged for us to have honorary membership. We went a few times after, and always rang on his door to find out if he wanted to join us.

He was a truly great guy.

[NaBUru38]

Nando Parrado, a survivor of the 1972 Andes miracle, wasted no time and went to the 1973 Argentine Grand Prix as a spectator. He was quickly recognized and the public announcer mentioned his name. Jackie Stewart asked for him, and there he met his idol and became close friends.

[bauble]

Mike Harte
"Whilst watching the sports racers practising, one driven by Stirling Moss crashed and overturned right opposite us. As no marshals were nearby, some of us jumped over the wicket fence - no high barbed wire topped fences back then"

Mike me and three friends had a similar incident at a Clubby Silverstone in 1954, however, there was no famous driver, and no reward. It was very wet, and a Ford (Anglia?) spun, and on wet grass and was only going one place, the safety bank at Becketts, where we were watching from. (No marshal, on the outside of the track)) Naturally the car headed straight for us, triggering a hasty retreat. As with your incident there no marshals around, only on the inside, and as the race was still going on it was down to us, all teenagers. The car was upside down, and we looked inside to see if the drivers OK, but there was no driver! Suddenly he appeared behind us, having crawled out through the dislodged rear window, muttering about trying "To pass the Peerless". Then I noticed that the battery was lying on the grass at the rear of the car (often there to even weight), and petrol was pouring out of filler cap. I thought there must be fire risk, so wrenched the battery free from the earth lead and carried it to the banking.At this point marshal arrived and us lads retired to safety. Later in the meeting my right thigh started to itch badly, and as I scratched it my jeans disintegrated, obviously my heroic deed had spilt acid on my leg. As I was working for Sellotapes at the time I had a roll of electrical tape in my Bonk Bag (we had cycled to the circuit from North London), so made a extempore repair. When racing finished we rode to Brackley to a 'Men and Boys Outfitters' where I enquired if they had any Jeans. "Oh yes sir" the proprietor replied,"We have our Teddy Boys in Brackley"

So, Mike no happy ending,just the cost of new pair of Jeans.
Life is so unfair

[Tel 911S]

Well , if we are onto crashes , I was doing a Rally in Germany . I think it was the Neiderheim . In those days a lot of the German rallies did not allow practice / pacenoting .
Coming round a corner on a mountain , in the woods , the road tightened up quite dramatically . So I slid off down the bank .
But there was a load of spectators there who lifted / helped me back onto the stage and I could carry on .

They did mention that they were there because the corner often had cars come off there , and it was called WALTER ROHRL,s corner because he went off there .

So , does that count as a bit of fame .

[midgetman]

Blimey you've all had such interesting lives. Mine is pretty mundane in comparison. I've never met anyone famous or featured in any selfies or even been asked for my autograph.

Oh I did once go to Buckingham Palace and met the DofE but was prevented from getting close to the Queen by a man with a big bulge in his jacket pocket.

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[Mike Harte]

Max, sometimes it is just circumstances that throws you together; not by design or because you are something special. Spending my time around Hampstead in my youth just meant that I used to just"bump" in to so many well known people, and if I still lived around there now, it would be no different.

For example, I and my last partner used to enjoy going up there on a Saturday evening and do a sort of pub crawl ending up in a little restaurant at the bottom of the hill that had live dining type music. On one occasion on a very warm summer evening, we, as usual, started at the pub were I used to work. It was packed inside and the only two seats left outside were at a table occupied by a youngish couple who were gazing in to each others' eyes. Having asked whether they would mind if we also sat at the table and they said yes, we sat down and left them to their own devices, so to speak.

After we had finished our drinks, we bade them goodbye, the only other word we had exchanged the whole time, and we proceeded to our next pub. On the way, I asked my partner if she knew who she had been sitting with, to which she said no. I then explained that it Melanie Chisholm, Sporty Spice, which hadn't surprised me because, at that time, she had an adjoining apartment with Emma Bunton in a building almost opposite.

These things just happen to me; I don't know why, but they do. Another situation, back in 1971, my then girlfriend, shortly after my wife, worked at New Musical Express and she always had tickets to musical events taking place. Once we went to the restaurant at the top of the BT Tower were a big do was happening with multiple groups and individuals were in attendance. On the way up, it just happened that we shared the lift with Paul McCartney and Ringo Star. No big deal; Ringo and Lulu actually lived, in separate houses I should add, a few doors down from us at one time.

So these things just kept happening without any attempt by me for them to do so. And it's certainly not because I move in exalted circles

[Tel 911S]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Max, sometimes it is just circumstances that throws you together; not by design or because you are something special. Spending my time around Hampstead in my youth just meant that I used to just"bump" in to so many well known people, and if I still lived around there now, it would be no different.

For example, I and my last partner used to enjoy going up there on a Saturday evening and do a sort of pub crawl ending up in a little restaurant at the bottom of the hill that had live dining type music. On one occasion on a very warm summer evening, we, as usual, started at the pub were I used to work. It was packed inside and the only two seats left outside were at a table occupied by a youngish couple who were gazing in to each others' eyes. Having asked whether they would mind if we also sat at the table and they said yes, we sat down and left them to their own devices, so to speak.

After we had finished our drinks, we bade them goodbye, the only other word we had exchanged the whole time, and we proceeded to our next pub. On the way, I asked my partner if she knew who she had been sitting with, to which she said no. I then explained that it Melanie Chisholm, Sporty Spice, which hadn't surprised me because, at that time, she had an adjoining apartment with Emma Bunton in a building almost opposite.

These things just happen to me; I don't know why, but they do. Another situation, back in 1971, my then girlfriend, shortly after my wife, worked at New Musical Express and she always had tickets to musical events taking place. Once we went to the restaurant at the top of the BT Tower were a big do was happening with multiple groups and individuals were in attendance. On the way up, it just happened that we shared the lift with Paul McCartney and Ringo Star. No big deal; Ringo and Lulu actually lived, in separate houses I should add, a few doors down from us at one time.

So these things just kept happening without any attempt by me for them to do so. And it's certainly not because I move in exalted circles

Yes , it can be strange how you see some people and not recognise them at the time .
Although one time I was in a lift in a building in the West End , [ this one fits in the tall story category ,] and there was Jon Pertwee .Couldn,t miss him as he was about 6ft 3 inches tall , and dressed in his long overcoat .

[bauble]

When working in London, near Leather Lane, I was about to enter the local newsagents, when Lionel Blair came out, he smiled as I stepped aside. He was a big star at the time. I wasn't.

[Mike Harte]

Talking about meeting people, a rather sad and petty albeit slightly amusing anecdote from when I was in my early 40s. I was still, but just, a member of my local Round Table, whilst my wife was Chairlady of our associated Ladies Circle which is for the wives/female partners of Round Table members.

For a couple of years, both clubs had been raising funds for local residential project of a national charity, funds which enabled the unit to be built. Both my wife and I were invited to attend the grand opening which was to be conducted by the patron of the charity, HRH Princess Anne. For us, and others attending, we all had to undergo security vetting prior to the event, which my wife and I did.

However, when we arrived, the headmistress of the attached school was there but he husband had been forbidden to attend. Apparently, the security service that had vetted us had found that her husband had a sticker on his car that said something along the lines of "Wales for the Welsh"; pretty innocuous, yet he was considered to be a subversive and a potential danger for Her Royal Highness.

We all survived the afternoon safely, thankfully.

[flatlandsman]

With regards to claims to fame, I sis the Silverstone rallysprint twice in a 6R4 with Warren Philliskirk, that's about it, but it's about as good as it got!


Did a few pace car laps of Donington, got to meet some very good engineers and motorsport related people.

And I might add also some truly horrible people! lol

[bauble]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

With regards to claims to fame, I sis the Silverstone rallysprint twice in a 6R4 with Warren Philliskirk, that's about it, but it's about as good as it got!


Did a few pace car laps of Donington, got to meet some very good engineers and motorsport related people.

And I might add also some truly horrible people! lol

Awesome!!!