The Brian Hetreed Memorial Trophy was awarded at the Wiscombe Park Hillclimb to the driver judged to have given most outstanding performance on the day driving an Aston Martin. A fitting tribute as Brian made the fastest time of the day there in the final year of his life.
Brian Hetreed was just 35 years old when he was killed in practice for the Nurburgring 1,000km race on 29 May 1964. He died almost instantly when his DP214 Aston chassis number 0195 left the road at Bergwerk corner and rolled down the embankment, tragically leaving his wife Hazel widowed and his daughter without a father. It also left Mike Salmon, an Aston Martin stalwart racer, without a business partner.
Mike Salmon and Brian Hetreed had purchased two DP214s from Aston Martin earlier in the year. John Wyer did the deal and after some sharp haggling from the asking price of £15,000, they were able to buy the cars for £7,000 through their Atherstone Engineering Company. Whilst that was a considerable amount of money in 1964, it was a bargain for two specially built GT race cars that were still extremely competitive. The cars were run under The Hon John Dawnay’s Racing Organisation Team (John Dawnay was later to become Viscount Downe and we are privileged to this day to have Diana, Lady Downe as our President).
Brian’s early racing forays were in 1960 when he acquired DB3S/6 63EMU from Jean Bloxham, as she was then. She later married Brian’s business partner Mike Salmon. He had a good season with 63 EMU before parting with it to acquire a DBR2/2. In this car Roy Salvadori had set the sports car lap record at Silverstone in 1958 with a speed of 96.08mph. DBR2s were known to be tricky cars to run and Brian had a very disheartening season with it.
However, as luck would have it he was able to buy Mike Salmon’s DB4GT Zagato chassis DB4GT/200/R and made the car his own under Salmon’s tuition. He was also fortunate that Aston Martin had prepared the car in the past for Le Mans when in Mike Salmon’s ownership. Whilst at AML the car had an Elektron block installed and DP214 heads as well as an Elektron-cased gearbox, suspension mods, DBR1 brakes and stub axles, among other upgrades.
Mike Salmon received a bill for a mere £250 when he was expecting to pay at least £5,000 for this work. He told John Wyer that he thought a mistake had been made with the billing only to be told, ‘We don’t make mistakes at Aston Martin.’ Well, you can’t argue with that; so Brian ended up with a very well developed Zagato at no doubt a very advantageous price. Despite that, Mike Salmon later commented he wasn’t paid for some time by Brian.
Brian’s time with the Zagato improved his race skills so he felt ready in 1964 to head out into international racing, hence the acquisition of one of the DP214 cars. His season started with the Daytona Continental 2,000km where he was entered with Chris Kerrison. They started well and the pair worked their way up to fifth before slipping back to 17th with a gearbox on the point of seizing. Mike Salmon and Roy Salvadori in the sister car retired.
Brian’s next race was a Formula Libra race at Silverstone, which was a national event as opposed to a club race. He won this outright before going to Wiscombe Hill Climb and setting fastest time.
Both Brian and Mike Salmon’s next international event was in Belgium at the infamous Spa Francorchamps circuit where they were entered in the 500km race. To put the circuit as it was then configured into context, I had a conversation with Brian Redman many years ago who told me he would wake up in a cold sweat the night before a Spa event when racing a Porsche 917 in the early 1970s. So fast was the Spa circuit in those days I would think the 214, like the Porsche 917, would be faster round there than the period Formula One cars (1.5 litre F1 cars in the 214’s day and 3 litre versions in the 917’s time).
Both Brian and Mike failed to finish the race and it was only two weeks later that the Nurburgring ADAC 1,000km Rennen was run. The Nurburgring today is infinitely safer than it was in 1964. Back then there were no armco barriers and what appeared to be six-feet-high pine trees lining the circuit in places were in fact the tips of 100-foot trees. For those critical of Brian crashing on his first practice lap I can attest that it is a hard circuit to learn. It is also an awesome circuit, very fast in parts, and at 14.2 miles long (20.83km) with some 154 corners you might appreciate the difficulty. After Brian’s fatal crash in practice the sister car of Mike Salmon was withdrawn as a mark of respect.
The remains of the car were returned to the U.K. and only the engine was retained with the rest of the car cut up and destroyed, I understand on the wishes of Brian’s widow. Sadly, some years ago some unscrupulous person announced he had found a chassis cross rail marked with the chassis number and claimed to be building up the car. Fortunately he was rumbled.