About the author

Stephen Lovegrove was born just a hundred yards away from Great Auclum and from an early age he remembers the sights and sound of racing cars. Every year, until Great Auclum closed, Stephen would keep watch of the brightly coloured projectiles and was utterly enthralled. Those hazy days of noisy machines and their drivers left an indelible mark on him. He has been researching and writing for many years and now the book is written, he is looking for assistance to get the book into print.

Stephen has collected a wealth of images and memorabilia including a full set of results and programmes. This information coupled with interviews with drivers, officials and the Gardiner family have enabled an in-dept history of Great Auclum to be written – not merely a set of statistics. There are chapters dealing with the pre-war events and the organisers, there is a portrait of the owner of Great Auclum – Neil W Gardiner. All the post-war meetings were organised by the Hants and Berks Motor Club and there are pen portraits of some of the officials and the club itself.

Stephen has joined forces with Adam Ferrington and Adam Wragg to work on his book. They previously collaborated on the late Tony Merrick’s book ‘A Life Restoring & Racing Historic Cars’. Ferrington is an acknowledged expert on ERAs and Maseratis and is writing a second book about the Italian marque. Wragg has written a 324 page tribute to his father Alan Wragg’s Austin Seven single seaters. Also involved are Duncan Rabliati and Richard Page who have written the British Hillclimb Championship books, known as the ’black books’. Marcus Pye and Ian Wagstaff have also contributed, Marcus and Ian had their first experience of racing cars Great Auclum.

BHP Publishing will publish the book. BHP is run by two motor racing enthusiasts, Darren Banks and Kevin Guthrie – both of whom are published authors in their own right – they are passionate about the sport and producing high quality books.

You can pre-order your copy of the book by placing a £10 deposit on BHP’s website: https://www.bhp-publishing.co.uk