British Sports Car Hall of Fame

By Robert Goldman

A million years ago, seemingly, I was standing by the fence taking photos at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s famous corkscrew. A gentleman strolled up and started to chat. The conversation meandered about, and eventually drifted into the realm of Piper Cubs. Two things I know about the Cub, it was the aircraft in which I flew my first solo, and a guy named Peter Egan once flew one around the US.

The guy standing there was talking about flying a Cub around the US. I hate asking “are you so and so?” It leaves the door open to too many ribs. “Actually, I’m Waldo. You found me!” Better to take another tack. I introduced myself and stuck out my right hand. He said his name was Peter. OK, we’ll call that one confirmed.

There is an understandable rush to record the remembrances of our few remaining WWII vets, but what about the smaller histories? There is within the British hobby what a friend once referred to as niche fame. To be fair, Mr. Egan’s notoriety crosses all lines, but he, like several others, holds a particularly high regard among our niche of little British car lovers.

Enter John Nikas. John has for some time been talking about the generational changes taking place in our hobby, and the fact we need to preserve the history of the players whose involvement and actions helped shape the hobby we enjoy today. John proposed, and has gone on to start, the British Sports Car Hall of Fame. The purpose of the Hall is simple, to honor those who, over a lifetime’s work, have greatly influenced the British car hobby.

As often happens in such instances, an innocent question as to whether we would be willing to host an HoF display, has morphed into a full on induction ceremony as part of Motorfest 2017. And we are thrilled to play host.

The Hall will be independently run. Moss Motors is not picking inductees, and we fully expect to see certain influential business competitors make the grade. As John has stated all along, a key to the first inductee class is to honor those who are still with us.

The Hall’s inaugural class can be reviewed on the web at britishsportscarhall.org, and the induction ceremony will be held on the Friday evening, June 2, before Motorfest on the 3rd. While an impressive number of the inductee class members have indicated they will be present, we can’t guarantee they will all be able to attend. Space is limited, so head over to the Moss website now to make reservations.

In addition to the induction ceremony on Friday, there will be interview and autograph sessions on Saturday as well. Have a look at some of the names and ask yourself, should I take the time to meet some of my British car heroes while I still can? Yes, absolutely yes. These folks know things about your hobby from the perspective having been there and done that. Their memories cannot be replaced.

We’ll likely never again have the opportunity to see this many British car legends in one place at one time. Don’t miss out. And Mr. Egan, if you want to fly in with a Piper Cub, there’s an airport right near by. Frankly, we have enough flat ground out behind the warehouse for you to go ahead and land there. We won’t tell on you. MM