Beschreibung:

Motor Car Racing. An archive relating to racing car driver Joan Chetwynd (The Honourable Mrs Chetwynd) (1898-1979), including letters, newspaper cuttings, Christmas card from Malcolm Campbell with facsimile signature and photographs of Blue Bird, six Brooklands Racing Car Driver Christmas cards dated 1931-35, newspaper cuttings from Le Mans 1931/32, black and white motoring photographs, RAC Rally & Coachworks Competition brochure, The British Driver Double Twelve 1921 armband and other related items all relating the motoring career of Lady Chetwynd (Quantity: an archive) Joan Chetwynd (1898-1979) née Joan Gilbert Casson was a British driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. She was introduced to motorsport shortly after her marriage in 1928 to her second husband Adam Duncan Chetwynd, 9th Viscount Chetwynd of Bearhaven (1904-65). Her early outings were in circuit racing and she was both a regular at Brooklands and Le Mans. She used the nom de course The Honourable Mrs Chetwynd. The earliest records of Joan's racing career appear in 1929, when she set a new twelve-hour Class F speed record at Brooklands, driving a 1500cc Lea-Francis, with an average speed of 82.98 mph. In 1931 Joan was involved in "The Brooklands Society Ladies' Private Handicap", a handicap race for female drivers at the Weybridge circuit, organised by the novelist Barbara Cartland. It was not a genuine race but comprised a series of scenes and amateur driving stunts performed for the benefit of a camera crew. Joan, the only experienced Brooklands racer in the group was scheduled to finish second. The motoring press discovered there was an experienced racing driver present and as a consequence, the participants were lambasted by journalists. Joan defended herself in a letter to The Motor, which stated that she had agreed to take part in a film about motor racing on an anonymous basis. She proceeded to condemn the poor driving standards of the other drivers present in a scathing manner. In 1932 Joan won the Women's Automobile Sports Association Ladies' Handicap at the Guys Gala Meeting, Brooklands, but after 1932, she appears to have concentrated predominately on rallying, achieving considerable success. During the Second World War, she served in the WAAF and didn’t return to competitive motorsport after the war. See lot 5