Chandy sponsored five different cycle races in 1971 in Morecambe, Edinburgh, Harworth, Herne Bay and Sheffield. We are now the proud owners of a winner's sash and jersey from the Edinburgh race - see here
Chandy sponsorship
Chandy sponsored a number of sometimes obscure sports and sporting events during the 1960s and 1970s. These are the ones we know about:
We know that Chandy sponsored these events held at Elvington airfield near York, where various world land speed record attempts were made with a range of dragsters, cars and motorcycles of different classes. At the 1970 event a new British land speed record of 207.3 mph was set by Tony Densham, driving the "Commuter" dragster, breaking the record that had previously been in place for 43 years.
World Records Weekends 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972
British National Land Yachting Championships 1971 an the Scottish National Land Yachting Championships 1971
These Chandy sponsored events were held on 29th-31st May 1971 at Lytham St Annes and 26-27th June 1971 at Dunbar.
Chandy cycle races
The Scottish National Parachuting Championships 1961 – 1964 and the Scottish International Parachuting Championships 1965, 1966 and 1968
1965 European Moth Class Championships
The Moth Class is a class of sailing dinghy. This Chandy sponsored event took place in Dover.
Chandy also sponsored “Easter Series” Moth Class racing at Lymington that same year as the advert shown here attests (click on the image on the right to see the advert in readable size).
The Eight Clubs 22nd Annual Race Meeting 1971
The above “Chandy Trophy” motor racing event was held on 22nd May 1971 and its official programme, of which we have a copy, includes two pages headed “Chandy where the action is”, which is where a lot of the information on this page comes from.
You can see the pages by clicking on the images in the gallery on the right.
This Chandy sponsored motor racing event was held at the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire on 13th August 1972.
The official programme, of which we have a copy (click to enlarge the front cover image), tells how various teams such as the ‘Alfa Romeo Owners Club’, the ‘Viva Drivers Club’ and the ‘Newbridge Dafs’ competed to see which team could lap the track as many times as possible within 6 hours, in a ‘free relay’ system where cars and drivers could be deployed in any order. A ‘Chandy Trophy’ and a £75 prize went to the overall winning team.
The 750 Motor Club Chandy 6-Hour Relay Race 1972
Other Chandy sponsorship
Other Chandy sponsorship interests apparently included rowing, power boating, canoeing and the Fleet Air Arm field gun crew, pictured here with a giant Chandy bottle.
If you know any more about any of the events Chandy sponsored in the 1960s and early 1970s, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us
© 2014-2024 Lewis Williams
By clicking on the images in the gallery above right, you can see the flyer for the 1969 event and the front covers of the programmes for the 1971 and 72 events. UPDATE DECEMBER 2015: We have now also acquired a collection of rare photos from these events - see here
The Chandy Trophy and the Chandy Bowl were awarded at these events.
For more details of Chandy's sponsorship of skydiving in the 1960s see the dedicated page here.