The day Jim was here

Wattford Castle is the name of our glorius motorsport venue. Sadly is a bit derelict today and there is a project to get some funds from local investors to rebuild the track and some of the circuit facilities.
In the late twenties, Keinshire used to have an incredible activity while many enthusiasts gathered there to enjoy the heroic atmosphere of the early racing days.
The track was designed by using some of the city streets so they were closed to traffic in meeting weekend days.
During the war, the long straight was used as a RAF testing runway and I remember the heavy Avro Lancasters and the fantastic Spitfires doing short take offs tactics and all kind of ¨secret¨ things just in front of all town people´s eyes!
When the war was over, our circuit came to live again, now receiving new drivers, some of the old ones, but all in all the new and exciting racing machinery of the post war era.
Those were the days of such new improvements in race car technology as disk brakes and rear fitted engines, the first steps of tha amazing careers of many drivers and engineers who were seting the pace of the time to come in the modern Formula One.
In June 18, 1963, Wattford Castle circuit held one of the most memorable singleseaters races that we can remember at Keinshire.
It is very vivid in my mind the very moment when I first saw those incredible shapes, that wonderful pack of streamlined machines with all their color and unfogetable sound.
Jim Clark, at the wheel of the Lotus 25 which was powered by a Coventry Climax engine, qualified on pole. That car was really amazing: after only two laps, Jim was leading with more than six seconds over Jack Brabham and set a difference of more than eight seconds from Innes Ireland, who was running in third position. Jim Clark was pulling away lap after lap, leading with all the long straight as a visual difference from Brabham after the first half of the race.
After forty laps, Clark won easily as much as having set a difference of fifteen seconds over Ireland, who finished in second place. Bruce McLaren qualified in third position.
Everybody in town was excited by that incredible event and shortly before the podium ceremony, most of the town people who was at the race was at the pub cheering happily with stout beer glasses. But the pub tables were full of other lads too, each one holding their beers: the winner himself, Jim Clark, his Team Lotus mate, Graham Hill and their boss, Colin Chapman, and there they were Innes Ireland, Bruce Mc Laren, Jack Brabham, John Surtess, Dan Gurney, Richie Ginther, Tony Maggs, Lorenzo Bandini ( who asked for a red wine glass...), Jo Bonnier, Joseph Siffert, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Chris Amon, Maurice Trintignant, Mike Hailwood, John Love, Bernanrd Collomb, Phil Hill, Masten Gregory, Moisés Solana, Doug Seurrier, Trevor Bloddyk, Mike Spence, Brausch Niemann, Giancarlo Baghetti, Willy Mairesse, Ian Burgess, Pedro Rodríguez, Ian Raby, Lucien Bianchi, Mario de Araújo Cabral, David Prophet, André Pilette, Ernesto Brambilla and most of the mechanics and technicians of the teams that took part in the great race.
Those were the days, a time long gone, when Formula One drivers could share a good time, have a drink and a friendly talk with fans.
Here in this article I added a picture taken from the sports section of The Keinshire Echo, our now, unfortunately, disapeared newspaper. This photo was taken during the friday early morning testing from the inside kerb of the Whittington Abbey corner. It was a foggy day, as you can barely see the cottages in the distance, but Jim didn´t hesitate at all as he was pushing very hard at full throtle, showing clearly how to do it.
In next entries, I would be telling much more about motorsport in our town.

From Ian Street to Keinshire Station

Even our town is a bit small, we have a couple of bus lines which give a friendly and efficient service.

The main line, travelling a north -to -south-axle path, is operated by The Brirish Racing Green Company, a name which proudly reminds our town´s motorsport heritage.

This line, number 59, operates with former London Transport Routemaster buses which were bought back in 1977.

This coach is seen during summer 1996, while an advertising campaign from Keinshire Tourist Authority appeared in its side panels to aim town visitors to take buses for sightseeing.

In 2009 route 59 operators restored many of the buses as part of a refurbishment programme to keep the fleet in original specification. The company fitted new Leyland engines and repainted the coaches retaining BRG and cream livery.

Red brick houses

Here is picture of one of our boroughs, with rows of Victorian period ¨by law¨ working class houses.

Today, this is the most popular relocating point in our town for new families coming from other places around the county.

This is solid, red brick built classic housing, the most ¨modern¨ one in Keinshire, as our town is a Middle Age founded one.

In WWII, even Keinshire was a bit too far for German bombers, we suffered several attacks from the Luftwaffe and we lost many of these beauties during the Blitz.

But the incredible fact is that many of the remaining houses who escaped from the German attacks were insanely close of being demolished by our own politicians, burocrats and real estate speculators.

Yes, we do also have that kind of neighbours around here, it seems the there´s no town small enough to be free of that bunch of bastards who doesn´t hesitate to destroy British Heritage while they earn some thousand pounds in the process.

Fortunately, many young professional people moved recently from other county cities to our town where these houses are a more colorful and sensitive place to live with their families. Even more, the houses are cheaper than the heartless apartments where they used to live before.

It´s glad to see how much they care of their new homes, wich were built for poor working class people in the 19th Century, as they decorate their interiors with a modern taste and set up all kind of details with the upmost technology.

Welcome to Keinshire, the friendly town

Hello, nice to meet you all!

These days, all the civilised world is looking at the events in far distant Africa.

Sorry, but they are not just thinking about new political solutions for poor people there, but watching an almost endless airing of football matches.

I believe it must be a kind of magic dream for so many fans around the globe but for me it´s a bit boring, I really can´t see any passion about that.

Well, let´s talk a bit about Keinshire town.

In fact, this place has always been a very quiet one. A small town upon a streaming river and a pond with ducks. There are some ancient cottages and very few people. And that´s all. Oh, we have the not so distant cliffs and the Channel. Storms coming from far into the sea brings the humid and cool air while strong winds revolves the leaves of elms and rowans.

Our main activity, and it was for hundred of years until the Great War, has been the farming.

As in many other counties of England, by the middle half 19th Century, we had some coal mining and steel production, but endless Labor strikes and young people going to the new bigger cities for better opportinities set our flourishing business back again to sheep and cattle. But we don´t look back in anger, to the present day we still have the best wool sweaters all around England.

We had, and still have, the same esence of all English country towns and we share with them a common trouble: boring.

We tried all: cricket, golf, rugby, football, horse riding, wolf hunting, canoeing, sailing, bicycling, women ( I mean cheating) and beer. No way. There´s no way out of feeling incredible useless as time goes by and the only thing you can do is expecting the sun to go down and think about dinner and then to bed.

Television watching was not a solution either, ITV, Channel Four, Granada, those names only remind me about trying but losing.

I lived in this for everybody else but me lovely place for all my life and still looking for a bloody thing to feel alive.

I was in the War, my friend, I was one of those proud men who could say that helped to free France while being launched over the bloody Normandy waters. I had a rifle in my hand, a steel helmet on my head and two big holes in my boots and fought against those crazy maniacs. Oh, God, those where the days! But they are over, and I barely remember the last day somebody came here to the town to see my face, shake my hand, put some tin medal on my coat and go away as quickly as he can!

Well, but it´s not all about boring and sad things, surely not. Most people is quite interesting here, good mates and funny people to meet with. All in all we are a proud town and have a good and particular history, an icredible one, indeed. That´s why so many tourists come to see us, maybe they are here just to learn if all that theyheard is true or it´s just such a kind of English nonsense.

So wellcome to the bloody place! Let´s go to the local pub, get some stouts and enjoy the tales!