Chevron B8s Committing to Gold Cup Race
There has been a very positive response to the 50th anniversary for the Chevron B8 at the Historic Sports Car Club’s Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting over the 2018 August Bank Holiday weekend.
Now, the Club is putting out a call for period Chevron B8 racers to come along to Oulton Park and join in the celebrations for this iconic sports-racing car. In addition, cars that are not race ready will be on display in the paddock area. The centre-piece of the weekend will be the 40-minute race on Bank Holiday Monday, featuring a compulsory pit-stop and optional driver change.
The Chevron B8 remains one of the most enduringly popular sports-racing car designs and was one of the most successful projects from talented designer and engineer Derek Bennett, the founder of Chevron. Now, for the first time, a dedicated race will be held for the B6s and B8s.
The HSCC is aiming at a grid of more than 20 cars for the race, which will be open to all B8s as well as the earlier B6s. In 1967, Chevron produced around six or seven examples of the model initially called the GT. Later in 1968, the GT was re-named as the B6. More than 40 B8s were built during 1968 as GT or Group 4 cars.
Cars in the UK and from across Europe have been pledged to the race and several cars are being prepared specifically for the event, including the newly-acquired B8 of Westie Mitchell, which drew a lot of interest on the HSCC stand at Race Retro.
Mitchell’s chassis DBE/39 was a rare left-hand drive model for German racer Nikolaus Killenberg for international racing in 1968 and 1969 before he sold it to Dutchman Kees Kwinkelenberg who raced it until 1973 and then parked it in the office of his transport company. Leo Kemmer bought it in 2003 and restored it, racing it once in 2012. However, following his death in 2014, his family finally sold the car late last year and it is now back in the UK for the first time since 1968.
Grahame White, Chief Executive Officer of the HSCC, said: “There has been a lot of interest in the race, including from owners of cars who have not raced them regularly in recent times. We’re getting tremendous support from a group of former Chevron employees from the B8 period and now we want to invite those who raced B8s when the model was new to be part of the celebrations.”
