Description
Author: Neil Hanson, Hardbound, 282 Pages, ISBN: 9781907945366
1st Edition, 2015
- This book tells the story of the Isle of Man's car races from 1904 to 1953 - from the pioneering Gordon Bennett trials of 1904 and 1905, racing continued with the "other" TT - for cars - between 1905 and 1922
- the "Round the Houses" races in Douglas and Onchan in the thirties and seven post-war British Empire Trophy Races.
On behalf of the Mylchreests Group, and indeed the Mylchreest family I am delighted to provide the sponsorship for Neil Hanson's book entitled "Isle of Man Car Races 1904 - 1953", and to have been given the opportunity to write this short foreword. I am only sorry that my late father Brian Mylchreest did not quite live to see the fruits of Neil Hanson's work, although he had talked to Neil about the book during its gestation.
Those who know Neil Hanson will agree that anything he puts his mind to will be executed in a thorough and professional way and most of all you will know that every single detail will have been thought through carefully and the end product will be as
accurate as it's possible to be. Neil's passion for cars and motor racing, and especially when related to his native We of Man, is legendary.
The Mylchreest association with motor cars, motor sport and of course through the Mylchreests dealerships, selling; and repairing cars is, I think, synonymous with the Isle of Man. In the pioneering days of motoring my grand father and his brother set up the first "Mylchreest" garage, in Athol Street, Douglas, and this was to be the start of the family's involvement in all things motoring. We like to think that we were the pioneers of the Manx motor trade really! We have represented and continue to represent many of the leading car manufacturers, including such famous names as Riley, Rover, Wolseley, Austin, Morris, Triumph, Daimler, Jaguar, MG, Vauxhall, Land Rover, Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Some of these are of course just memories now!
My family's connection with Manx motor racing, in both two and four wheeled guises probably goes back to the very beginning of the sport. We have been providing and driving the official course cars for almost all of the motor sport events ever held on the Isle of Man! We have wonderful family photographs of my grandfather opening the roads in the twenties, in his own Bentley and a Crossley, and of my father, in Nancy Mitchell's "works" Mille Miglia MGA, leaping over Ballaugh Bridge in the mid-fifties. This is a tradition that is still proudly in place today, with both me and my son James, the third & fourth generations of the Mylchreest family, still driving the official cars for TT and Manx Grand Prix.
My late father was himself passionate about Manx history, and especially Manx motoring history. As you read through this book you will see a number of photographs from his large "collection", and he would have been delighted that Neil has chosen them to be featured in this wonderful book. Of course my father had been involved himself as an Official for the British Empire Trophy Races, he was the Clerk of the Course's official driver, and this involved driving the Clerk of the Course out to incidents on the course — during the races themselves! I can recall him telling me that at times that job was almost as exciting as the actual racing, it certainly was for him!
David Mylchreest March 2015
