West Coast British Racing

ASTON MARTIN Memories

Thank you for dropping in. Why Aston's? Well, a number of my family members once worked for Aston Martin when it was located in Feltham, Middlesex, (England) in the 1950's.

Doreen Sherwood, my mother, joined Aston's as a secretary in 1949 and would later became secretary to racing team manager John Wyer. While there, Doreen learned to drive a car, but not any car, but a DB3S race car... and her instructor? None other than Roy Parnell! Looking through John Wyer's AM racing reports from the 50's you'll find "DS" at the bottom of the pages. We have these reports too! Doreen's two brother's also worked at Astons.

After the war... Richard Green went back to his job as a draftsman at the Patent Office, which was short lived, in exchange for a racing career. He was soon employed by Marcus Chambers, and later would join WADE Engineering, taking care of customers using their Superchargers on GP cars, such as Dennis Poore's Alfa and a brace of ERAs. Richard joined Aston Martin in 1952 and became part of the racing department. Richard was clearly the lucky one of the group, as he traveled all over Europe with the race team, driving the transporter or the cars themselves to/from the tracks. At the races he helped keep the cars going throughout the race, be it LeMans, Monza or the Isle of Man. While there, Richard worked on some now very historic cars, such as; the DB2's, the DB3's, DB3S', DP-cars, the F1 cars and a number of prototypes. For the 1955 season Richard joined the MG team.

When my parents moved to California in 1956 (February 5th for Richard & April for Doreen), Richard would need a "sponsor" to enter the USA, Ken Miles was that sponsor. Richard went to work for Tony Paravono as the Shop (racing) Foreman, taking care of his Ferrari's. Later he'd take care of Joe Lubin's Aston's, among others. In April '58 Richard & Doreen would move to Northern California where Richard took the position of "Resident Engineer" for Aston Martin (NA), then based in San Lorenzo. I grew up in Aston's... having come home for the first time in a MkIII Notchback. I made many a trip in the back of Aston's to/from Los Angeles. The MkIII on the front page was Richard's last company car in 1959/60, #AM300/3/1661. My first race was the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix in 1958 (& 59), we went so Richard could help the works car sent to these events. (note: In 1960 A-M closed their California office, hence Richard joined the Rover Motor Company of NA Ltd., based in South San Francisco).

When I was still a little guy, Richard restored a 1932 1-1/2 Litre LeMans Aston... which, as my mother claims, "you'd think it was Michael's, as he was the only one allowed to ride in it!" So true too! In 1964 we took 2nd a Peacock Gap Concourse first time out, followed by Best of Day at Cal State Hayward Concourse. The saddest day of my life was when I was told they'd sold it. Maybe one day I'll buy it back! In the early 1970's we found and purchased a MkIII from a used car lot in Oakland, California. Upon opening the bonnet we found it to be AM300/3/1661, the last company car dad had at Aston's. It's since been restored, and to this day we still own it. It's most recent outing being to Laguna Seca Historic Car Races in 2005.

For those who have asked; YES!, I wanted to drive F1 cars, and sportscars, but the opportunity was never there. I had hoped to drive the British Leyland sponsored Group-44 Jag XJR5 at one point, but BL pulled their plug at the wrong time. And, YES, I did send my resume to Pro-Drive regarding the DB9 in October 2005! For my racing career, click on the motorcycle at the bottom.

I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. Michael Green