Over the weekend of the 24th/25th August, Oulton Park celebrated its 50th anniversary with a star-studded Gold Cup meeting. The event attracted a host of top names to the Cheshire circuit including Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Jack Brabham, Derek Bell and Roy Salvadori. The Oulton Park Gold Cup Meeting featured 14 races for historic cars over the Sunday and Monday.

Unfortunately only two Maseratis took part. In the Bonhams sponsored Drum Braked Sports Cars 10 lap race Mark Gillies in a Tipo 300S won in a time of 21min 21.37secs at an average speed of 75.63 mph.

In the BRDC Historic Sports Car race over 11 laps, Martin Stretton in a Tipo 61 'Birdcage' was challenging for the lead, havind already set the fastest lap (1 min 56.73secs at an average speed of 83.01mph), before being forced to retire after a coming together with Nick Linney's Lister Jaguar.

28/8/2003

"Dear Enrico,

I was at Oulton for the Gold Cup Meeting last Sunday and Monday. It used to be a really big thing and although Moss, Brabham, Stewart, Salvadori and Derek Bell were present - the latter gave a 5 lap demo of the Le Mans Bentley (awesome!) and Sir Jackie did the same with the first Tyrell, the Maserati entry was very poor. Moss won in 1954 and 1955 witha 250F, but 2003 saw just two entries.

Mark Gillies won in the 300S after lying a good second for most pf the race to John Clark's Cooper. Clark had a problem right at the end of the race and retired, letting the 300S in.

On Monday Alan Minshaw's Birdcage was driven in the usual spirited manner by Martin Stretton and he was lying a close second to Nick Linney's Lister Jaguar 3.8 and he got to close, the slight coming together resulting in the Birdcage's retirement.

I enclose some prints, which may appear in the Newsletter too.

Best regards,

Henny."

IMPORTANT NOTICE

I would like to thank Henny Cate and the many other contributors who have unselfishly send in their photographs for us all to enjoy. It's these enthusiasts who have helped make 'Enrico's Maserati Pages' what it is today! I can't be everywhere, but together we can. Thank you all!