The launch of the BRM during the middle years of the last century brought a steady stream of visitors to Bourne as guests of Raymond Mays at his home in Eastgate, a short distance from the workshops where the world championship racing car was developed.

He was renowned for the parties and lavish entertaining at Eastgate House and stars of stage and screen were frequent guests but there were also many personalities from his chosen sport such as Stirling Moss, Prince Bira of Thailand and Graham Hill.

Among them was the Argentinian driver Juan Manuel Fangio who dominated the first decade of Formula One racing with Ferrari and Alfa Romeo until enlisted by Mays in 1952 to drive the BRM. He was already the Grand Prix world champion when he first arrived in the spring of 1952 to give the car a trial run and after a series of laps on the test circuit at the old airfield at Folkingham he signed a contract to drive it in the forthcoming season. "Today I have driven the BRM tuned and in perfect condition”, he said, “and I state without any reserve whatsoever that it is destined without doubt to give proof of its great capabilities."

From then on, he made regular visits, usually driving to Bourne, but on one occasion he had travelled up from London with friends who dropped him at the George Hotel in Stamford from where he telephoned Raymond Mays asking him to send a car.

Apart from his fellmongery and fertiliser business, Mays was at that time also running a large garage known as Raymond Mays and Partners Ltd, dealers in Rover and Bentley, and specialising in high speed tuning, car and motor cycle sales and repairs, and a main showroom with workshops at the rear had just been built on the Spalding Road.
Among those employed there was Raymond Binns, better known by his nickname “Scrim”, a young driver whose job was to deliver Rolls Royce cars to wealthy customers in London. Other tasks included ferrying many of the famous guests who came to Eastgate House and he was often called on to take his employer’s mother, Mrs Annie Mays, out on shopping trips. She also lived at Eastgate House, following the death of her husband, Thomas, in 1934, and acted as her son’s hostess whenever he entertained until she died there in 1973 at the age of 97.

On this occasion, Scrim was asked to pick Fangio up from the George at Stamford and take him back to Eastgate House in one of the company’s Rovers, a journey of some significance as he was to remember in vivid detail for many years afterwards because he said: “I was given strict instructions to ask Fangio if he wanted to drive back himself and he did.” He therefore handed the keys over to Fangio and settled into the passenger seat for what was to be an unforgettable drive back to Bourne.

The distance between the two towns via what is now the A 6121 was around eleven miles and the recommended driving time today is 23 minutes. However, the road fifty years ago was not of the same standard that we now experience although the amount of traffic would have been a great deal less with far fewer vehicles than we see now.

The route also included the notorious Toft Hill, one of the most dangerous stretches in the area, a winding section of the road with a steep incline and sharp double bend which runs from farmland on the uplands to the west of Bourne through the village and out into the open countryside, a distance of about one third of a mile. The hazards of driving this way are acknowledged by those who know the route and the many warning signs, both on the carriageway itself and on the grass verges, because a moment of lost concentration is likely to end in disaster.

Fangio would have been forced to slow down at the river bridge entering Toft and again at the left hand bend on the brow of the hill but then it was full throttle as far as Stamford Hill followed by a clear almost straight run into Bourne.

Nevertheless, the journey time was breath taking because Scrim remembered later: “I knew the road well but it was the first time Fangio had seen it and although the drive was a bit hairy, we got back to Bourne in about nine minutes.” The car therefore completed the distance at an average speed of 73 mph but despite the potential hazards, the journey ended safely and they were soon driving into the yard at Eastgate House. “He was the perfect gentleman”, said Scrim, “and a super ambassador for the sport.”

Fangio established a remarkable reputation during his time on the track, winning five Formula One World Driver's Championships, a record which stood for 46 years until eventually beaten by Michael Schumacher, a feat that has not been repeated since. He was also the only Argentinian driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, a total of four times in his career, and many still consider him to be the greatest driver of all time. Tributes poured in from around the world when he died in 1995 after a long illness, aged 84.

The late Alec Stokes, the BRM’s former chief draughtsman, remembered Fangio during his many visits to Bourne as “a great fellow who mixed well and was liked by the mechanics”.

Former racing mechanic Dick Salmon, now aged 91, also has memories of him as “a wonderful man”. He added: “He loved speed and driving fast was second nature whether on or off the track. Of all the motor racing drivers who came to Bourne, he was certainly one of the most charming and likeable.”

Scrim, who worked at the Mays garage for sixteen years, never forgot that momentous drive. He died in 1999, aged 64, but his family kept a treasured book of cuttings about his life and among them was a newspaper report of that hair-raising nine minute journey from Stamford to Bourne with famous racing ace Fangio at the wheel.

Autographed photograph of Fangio with Raymond Mays at Bourne
in 1952, reproduced courtesy of Dick Salmon.