This is a thank you to all my colleagues who made WCR40 happen. The organisation was very much a committee effort and without the work put in by everyone the event could not have happened. The committees of the organising clubs, The Triumph 2000-2500-2.5 Register, Landcrab Owners Club International, Austin Maxi Owners Club, who made a leap of faith in supporting us – without their commitment in the first place we could not have had the financial support available if needed to put on the event.

Alan Crussell (Triumph 2000 Register). The next time I say to him ‘I’ve got a good idea’ I am sure he will duck and run!  It was the support he gave me in the first place that encouraged me to bring the organising Clubs together so that we could make it happen. The back up support since has also been unbelievably invaluable.

Steph Taylor (Triumph 2000 Register and Landcrab Owners Club International). My wife Steph had probably a key place in whether WCR40 was to happen.  All the 20 years of life that we have had together has been involved with organising clubs/associations of clubs and classic car events (NEC, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, ………. and more recently the Coleford Carnival of Transport). When we moved to the Forest of Dean we were going to go into ‘retirement’ – and wind down and only do low key things preferring to just enjoy our cars and our club memberships. When I first came up with the idea of WCR40 we knew it could be more than a low key event and if she had said ‘No’ WCR40 would not have happened.

Ken Green (Landcrab Owners Club International). Ken and I have been great friends for well over a decade because of our common interest and ownership of marathon rally Landcrabs.  When we sorted the jobs to be done by individuals Ken was the obvious candidate for dealing with the cars and competitors.  He put a massive amount of work into it and the presence of over 60 original historic cars (works and private) and a similar number of competitor personalities is testament to his efforts.

Bill Price (in his private, not club, capacity). Bill was an important person in the works BL/BMC rally team organisation in the 60s and 70s.  I was delighted that he agreed to help us with the Team Support, both in finding people and in being available on the day to take the lead in looking after them.

Jason Chinn (Club Triumph). When I first started bringing the clubs together I felt that although there was a significant following for the World Cup Rally within Club Triumph, having two Triumph clubs as organisers may have meant that the other clubs felt dominated.  When we decided that we were going to have an indoor addition to the day covering memorabilia, films and talks Jason with his interest in the event and collection of material was an obvious person to bring on board. He mobilized a lot of support from within Club Triumph.

Sharon and Derek Furnell (Triumph 2000 Register). It was obvious that there was going to be a need for something in the way of souvenirs for the day and Sharon did not hesitate when asked to deal with this. Derek gave valuable help in promoting the event when the club that had promised to do it backed out.

Kevin Warrington (Triumph 2000 Register). We knew that we needed to have a programme for the event …. problem, who would take on the task?  I asked Kevin, instant agreement, and I can do more than say that his truly superb programme says the rest.

Jonathan Lewis (Triumph 2000 Register). When the club that had promised to do promotion backed out after 2 months of inactivity it left us in a dilemma. With just over a week to go to our first real ‘promotional’ activity (the HRCR Rally Day in January) we had no promotional material to give out.  In panic I discussed it with Jonathan who lives near us and he made the point that as this sort of thing was part of his work it would not be a problem. Result ……. one week later the thoroughly professional brochure that did so much to demonstrate that this was a real event and not an amateur sideshow (if I dare make the comment).

Allen Walker (Triumph 2000 Register)  We obviously needed a website.  It was with much trepidation that I approached Allen to do something because I knew he was very busy ….. even just a couple of pages of info.  The superb end result (this site) says it all – highly professional and like Jonathan’s brochure gave WCR40 that ‘professional’ touch.

Mark Pacey and Ernie Jackson (Austin Maxi Owners Club). Mark agreed to look after the trade side of things and the clubs, not helped by the fact that a Ford club had offered to deal with the Ford clubs for him …… but did not!

Patrick Walker (Triumph 2000 Register).  I have not left Patrick until last because he did not do anything – rather because he did so much in the background and using his car as promotion.  You could say he was a key supporter but his role on the committee was much more than that.

On the day we had much support and help from members of the Register including Dave Marshall who provided PA facilities, Land Crab Owners Club, Club Triumph, and Austin Maxi Owners.  To all those our thanks.

Graham Robson did an excellent link job and interviewing inside in his inimitable professional way and enabled Jason’s excellent organisation inside to work so well.

Many thanks to Peter D James Insurance who stepped in and provided us with vital insurance cover for the event.  The cost of this, which they covered, gave invaluable security for us organisers.

A number of companies advertised in the souvenir programme – many thanks to them for their support.

The Heritage Motor Centre and John Bishop gave invaluable help in putting on WCR40.  An event of this nature with its large outside display and inside talks/films/memorabilia was different to anything that had been put on before by an independent group.  It required them to be very flexible in their approach to how we organised things which they did very readily, and gave us much support in many other ways.   This support proved to us that our decision to go to the Heritage Motor Centre was fully justified.

Finally one person who did much in the background and was happy to not have formal recognition was Philip Young (Endurance Rally Association). I have known Philip for as long as I have been associated with historic rally – over 25 years.  He has always had a special interest in the Marathon events (and competed in the 1977 London to Sydney …. in a Magenta kit car…) and was very keen that WCR40 should be a success.  It was he who paid for the four FULL PAGE adverts in Motorsport News and Classic Car Weekly, and supported us in a number of other ways.

TO ALL OF YOU, SO MANY THANKS FOR ENABLING WCR40 TO BE SUCH A MEMORABLE EVENT.

We still have for sale souvenir programmes (£5 including postage), the special fluorescent orange stickers from the event (£1, with 0.40p postage but postage free if purchased with the programme or rally plate), and the Souvenir bonnet/boot rally plate for sale (£9 including postage).  These sales are the principle means of financing the event – if you are interested in any of them please get in touch.

Tagged as: WCR40