The spirit of Pre-War Prescott. Colin McLachlan and his 1934 MG PA. Pre-War Prescott 2018 (Phil Jones)
Entries are now OPEN for Pre-War Prescott 2019! Normally, this does not happen until October of November, but I have already had so many enquiries that I have updated this website and generated the Entry Page.
There are a number of small changes to the entry arrangements for next year, most of which resulted from lessons learned this year:
- The entry fee has increased from £45 to £50, but this is not a real price increase, because the additional £5 will buy you a £5 ticket in the raffle to be drawn on the day. 100% of the funds raised from the raffle will be donated to the RAF Charitable Trust, Pre-War Prescott’s designated charity. There will be a number of significant prizes, of which more in the coming months, but I can tell you that the first one to be organized is a scenic or aerobatic (your choice) flight in a Tiger Moth with our good friends at Finest Hour Warbirds (https://www.finesthourexperiences.co.uk/flight-experiences/). If you have any ideas or suggestions for additional prizes, or have something interesting to offer, please get in touch. This year, we donated £400 to the RAF CT, funds which were raised from the lunchtime auction. With tickets being offered as part of the entry package, and around 200 entries, we should be able to make a much more significant donation next year.
- The £30 per car spectator fee is great value if you have a car full of people, but not such good value if you are coming alone. So this year, we are switching to charging per spectator rather than per car. There will be no car parking fee, but occupants will be ticketed at £10 per ticket, excluding twelves and under. I think this will be a much fairer system for everyone.
I think those are the main changes to the entry arrangements, but there will be other minor adjustments to the day to ensure things flow smoothly. In particular, we will be re-organizing the queueing arrangements for the hill. This year, with a heavy demand for the hill, we had three queues merging in to one for most of the day and the queue coming down from the top of the Paddock took an inordinate time to reach the gate. This will be resolved for next year.
The other change to be aware of is that we have been encouraged my many parties to restrict the event to pre-war cars only. We will retire the ‘course cars’ and we will also cease bending the rules to allow some post-war cars to enter. With the increasing popularity of the event, I hope that owners of post-war MGs, Alvises, etc. will understand. Of course, owners of such cars would be very welcome to join us and spectate.
I hope that the above changes will help next year because Pre-War Prescott 2019 is already shaping up to be a tremendous event. Several one-make clubs, new to Pre-War Prescott, have already declared that they are planning to gather with us and other regularly attending clubs are planning to expand their ‘footprint’, including the Dutch MG Group which is planning another ‘raid’ on us next year, and have twelve cars lined up already. So it is going to be another tremendous MMM MG turnout.
One club has booked a large lunchtime cavalcade up the hill, but right now, at the request of the club, my lips are sealed! The Riley Roadster Register, who gathered in the Orchard this year to mark the 70th Anniversary of their cars is planning to join us again, and this time I think they will be joined by the early post-war Riley RM saloons. There is plenty of space for post-war clubs to gather in the Orchard if they so wish. Just let me know so that I can arrange parking accordingly.
Camping arrangements remain unchanged. Camping is available in the Prescott for £5 per night, payable on the day directly to the Bugatti Owners’ Club office in the Paddock.
Recently I heard from Colin McLachlan a few weeks ago. Colin drove down with his friend Barbara from Fife in his MG for Pre-War Prescott. He said that he was disappointed that so few participants dress appropriately for the occasion, as he believes that it would add so much to the atmosphere. I agree. He has very generously offered a large engraved pewter quaich as a perpetual prize, and will add several miniature versions to be used as prizes to be retained by the winners of a ‘best dressed’ award for PWP 2019. I have accepted Colin’s extremely generous offer. We will be gathering the hopefuls on the start line in the lunch break for judging and photos. Thanks Colin!
In other Pre-War Prescott news, I have already submitted our request for air support to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. These requests must be received by the Flight at RAF Conningsby by the end of September. For the first time, in 2018, our bid was unsuccessful. This was because the Flight was so stretched this year with the RAF 100 celebrations. Fingers crossed for next year!
And more good news. The date for the VSCC race meeting at Cadwell Park has been for Saturday 27th July next year, so there will be no clash with this event next year. Good news for the MMM racers!
Stop by here for further event news as planning unfolds.