Gallery: Little vs. large in the Sopwith Cup
Oh, how we love to see it: little versus large going head to head in the Sopwith Cup, our battle at 79th Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport for ‘50s saloon car supremacy. The sheer variety of footprints on the grid is borderline comical. You could fit an entire Austin A35 inside a Jaguar Mk7, or that Volkswagen Beetle in the back of the Cadillac Coupe.
The quirky little Nash Metropolitan of Charles Rainford lined up front alongside James Colburn in his Standard Vanguard Six and Rowan Atkinson in his Jaguar MkVII. Behind was a mix of Jags, Morris Minors, Austin A35s and MGs, making for a top-tier mixture of big and small.
Atkinson had a great start to the race pushing up to second but that Nash and Standard Vanguard quickly picked up the pace. As the leaders pulled off ahead that left Atkinson to drive by himself for a nice clean race in the big Jag that he knows so well. He worked his Jag more effectively than Tom Harris, who had a spin in his MkVII. Colburn was absolutely on fire, pushing through backmarkers and extending a convincing lead over Rainford in the Nash, whose pace slowed come the five-minute mark for the end of the race. What was suspected to be a gear problem with the Nash meant Atkinson fell only just shy of a lunging distance for second.
Gallery
Sopwith Cup
79MM
Members Meeting
