Chandy World Speed Records Weekends photos and ephemera
From 1969 until 1972 The Chandy Bottling Company were the sponsors of the World Speed Records Weekends held annually at Elvington Airfield near York. At these events various world land speed record attempts were made with a range of dragsters, cars and motorcycles of different classes.
The cache of photos and other ephemera from the World Speed Record Weekends now housed at The Chandy Museum comprises in full:
- A stapled 3-page list of competitors from the 1970 event headed ‘Incorporated Sprint Organization World Speed Records Weekend R.A.F. Elvington near York 3/4 October sponsored by The Chandy Bottling Company’. It may be that this was all there was by way of a programme for the 1970 event
- A copy of the 1972 World Speed Records Weekend programme, being a 20-page booklet with a cover price of 15 pence
- Thirty-nine 8”x5” black and white photos taken at the events
- Twenty-nine 10”x8” black and white photos taken at the events
- A contact print with an additional thirteen black and white images from the events
The gallery below on this page concentrates on those images which show evidence of the Chandy sponsorship of the events - click on any of the images to see them full size, then use the left/right arrows to scroll through all the images in the gallery. However, if there is an appetite for it from site visitors, we could in time expand this page to include more of the photos that don’t include evidence of Chandy sponsorship, but do show more of the remarkable vehicles and competitors from these events.
It can be seen from the photos that Chandy produced stickers with the word ‘Chandy’ that were applied to vehicles, a chequerboard and, in one case, the back of someone’s jacket. There are also some Chandy banners that can be seen in the background of some of the photos, reading ‘Cheers for Chandy’ and including an image of a Chandy bottle and glass and the Chandy lion, as well as there being an apparently massive banner reading ‘Chandy the Choice of Champions’.
With a huge debt of thanks owed to Mark Johnson for getting in touch with us and enabling us to acquire the items in question, The Chandy Museum is now the proud home to a large collection of photos and a couple of other items of ephemera from the World Speed Record Weekends.
We can’t be sure exactly which year each of the photos dates from, but our best guess is that most of them are from the 1972 event, and thanks to the 1972 programme we do know a bit about that year’s event schedule. The Chandy Speed Trophy was to be awarded to the fastest competitor, along with Chandy King of Speed and Chandy Queen of Speed trophies awarded ‘for the most meritorious performance’ respectively by a man and by a woman. However, as the programme apparently lists only one female competitor, it may be that Miss Irene Scargill in her Starmaker cyclecar was a shoo-in for the Chandy Queen of Speed trophy. (But, of course, let us know, if you know differently.)
© 2014-2024 Lewis Williams
If you can tell us any more about the World Speed Record Weekends, or help us obtain a copy of the 1971 programme or 1969 flyer which we know existed but don’t have (see here), please do contact us.