TVRCC AGM 2014

There were 3 finalists for this year’s award and in any other year, any one of the 3 would have run away with the title. Joining Howard in the trio were Nick Halstead and Chris Gilpin. Nick presented an absolutely stunning restoration and upgrade to a 1994 4.0 Chimaera adding a supercharger and with all work, including the respray, being carried out by Nick or his father. Chris took a near basket case 3000M that had been involved in a major frontal impact and with the help of a new chassis and many thousands of hours work, returned it back into the car that it was when it left the factory in 1978. But there can be only one winner, and in a very close contest, by just 2 votes, Howard took the trophy with the balance tipping ever so slightly in his favour because of the nature of the car that he restored, with it being PRW’s own car, and for his perseverance in getting the car released from TVR just 6 days before the company was sold to Nikolai Smolenski when all other prospective purchasers had been flatly turned down. A full report on all three cars will appear in Sprint.

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Also awarded yesterday was the Folkard Cup for the Regional Organiser of the Year. This was awarded to David Welton from Blackpool Region for his unstinting efforts in putting on a varied programme of events for his members and other North West regions throughout the year, but also for his drive and determination to bring TVRs back to Blackpool for his second Back Home Event. 

Owen O’Neill was announced as the winner of the Scott Moncrieff Trophy for 2013. The Scott Moncrieff Trophy was inaugurated by the TVRCC in 1965 in honour of Bunty Scott Moncieff who was a key figure in the early days of TVR. He owned a Rolls Royce dealership in Staffordshire and in 1955 started selling TVRs. Three years later he was invited to join the board of directors in Blackpool and rapidly became intimately involved in the development of the Grantura, especially in motorsport where he and his wife Avril were amongst the first regular competitors in TVR motorsport in their brown Grantura Mk1, nicknamed the “coffee bean”. In 1962, when TVR first appeared at Le Mans, the Scott Moncrieffs drove one of the support cars to the famous La Sarthe circuit.  

Historically this was awarded to the driver who won the most points in a single season of motorsport in a TVR and has some very famous TVR names engraved around its base including Gerry Marshall, Tommy Entwistle, Rob Farmer and Paul Weldon. However, in the mid-1990s, following the rise of interest in all forms of motorsport within the Club, especially the various sprint series in which a very successful driver in one series could regularly win but accumulate far fewer points than a less successful competitor in a rival series that awarded points differently, it was decided by the Committee to change the criteria for the award. It is now awarded to the individual who has made the single greatest contribution to TVR motorsport during the year. 

Owen has made a significant contribution to TVR motorsport for many years. He started his interest in the cars working for one of the main dealerships where as a young lad he was entrusted with washing and valeting the cars. This spread to motorsport where as his business developed, he became a major sponsor of the TVRCC Challenge Cup before entering himself as a competitor in a car hired from his sponsored driver. This continued and soon he was piloting an AJP Tuscan very successfully in the DTEC series, before a major off at Combe destroyed his car. Since then he has turned his attention to historics and now campaigns a Grantura in the classic series such as the Spa Classic. Unfortunately Owen was unable to be with us; we will make arrangements to present the trophy to him.

All other resolutions put forward for the AGM were passed.