Personally I have a certain affinity with Roger St John Hart as he raced the light weight Aston DB4GT Zagato 2 VEV. My affinity comes from the fact that I was privileged enough to be able to drive the sister car 1 VEV, and also from watching Nick Cussons have a ding dong battle with Mike Salmon at Silverstone in around 1971/72 just prior to Roger buying the car. You will understand what I mean by ding dong when I tell you that neither driver saw the chequered flag and carried on for another couple of racing laps! It was my first experience of watching a Zagato driven hard and it was epic.
Nick Cussons tells me that Roger was one of his best friends for the time that he knew him. Nick first encountered Roger when he rang up and asked if Nick was willing to sell 2 VEV and Nick invited him for Sunday lunch the following weekend. Roger offered Nick a very satisfactory price for the car and collected the car the following weekend. Roger drove in a number of races very creditably but the following year had quite a bad accident in a Cobra, leaving him unable to race the car that year. He very kindly loaned 2 VEV back to Nick to race.
Now the story takes an interesting twist. Nick was on his way home from a race and decided to stop on the motorway to buy something for his son. He ended up buying the book Anatomy of a Racing Car, and when looking through the book he found a recent photo of a Lola T70. The car was pictured with the normal Chevy engine in the back but Nick noticed that this was one of the T70s built to take the Aston engine, which had a much wider V. Nick then rang up the publisher to trace the photographer, who subsequently gave him the owner’s name and phone number. Nick was able to purchase the car and as luck would have it Aston were having a clear out at the same time. Harold Beech asked Nick whether he would like the two magnesium racing V8s plus spare blocks, injection units etc. I think the £500 Nick paid was a little bit of a bargain. Nick used the car for 2 years and it finished its only race ever with the Aston lump in the rear. Roger then purchased the Lola Aston off Nick. Roger owned another DB4GT Zagato 22 XKX, which was also a famous Zagato, having been campaigned by Mike Salmon in its early years. Roger apparently bought this car for £12,500 including spares (makes you weep doesn’t it). He raced this car quite successfully for 5 years whilst Richard Williams slowly rebuilt 2 VEV.
It is down to the generosity of people like Roger St John Hart that we can all enjoy seeing the fabulous Zagatos at events today, and also the Lola T70 Aston. Roger very sadly died early of cancer. 2 VEV is still owned by Roger’s widow Toni and it puts in numerous appearances at various events.
If you are one of the fortunate few to have won the trophy then you must have put in an epic drive at Brands Hatch and are to be congratulated, and when holding the trophy I hope you think about Roger and the great Astons he owned.
In writing this article my thanks must go to Nick Cussons who gave so generously of his time. Sadly after 54 years of AMOC Membership he resigned at the end of last year. I think if anyone was deserving of an Honorary Membership then it would be Nick.