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The 2017 Ponthir Classic - The Organiser's View

Area Rep | Published on 9/15/2017

Ponthir Music & Car Festival 2017 (by Andy Webber)

The sun shone for the first time in 3 years as we prepared for the Ponthir Car Festival – I was very hopeful of a good turnout following the last 2 years of rain with only the stalwarts from the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club (JEC) & Usk Valley Classic Car Club (UVCCC) making a great effort to attend.

Following a week of hectic preparations involving Colin, Scott & Nigel Wilcox and the chaps from the sports club, I was ready.  Last minute preparations were further helped by the JEC’s Nev Padfield who rocked up in his motorhome on Saturday afternoon to help map out the field and keep watch overnight!

On the day, the sun was out & the grass was dry as Nigel & the JEC gang arrived super early to help me – so early in fact that I’d gone home to change and pick up the Aston!  The JEC gazebo was erected and the Jags arrived to fill the JEC area – 36 cars in total!!  The UVCCC also attended in force with 25 cars completely filling their area – a great effort and with just 2 clubs I smashed last year’s number of cars!

With marshals briefed and walkie-talkie’s in hand we readied ourselves for arrivals – I really didn’t know how many cars to expect or indeed what the field would look like with a large number of cars attending.  Scott & his dad, Derek, played a huge part in directing the classics from the main road down onto the showground and from there John Griffiths and Nigel helped direct and park them up.

An array of classics from Willis Jeeps, to limited edition Camaros and Morris Minor vans started to arrive alongside clubs.  It really was great to see the diversity and great quality of the classics arriving with Morgan, Triumph, Lotus and Porsche all well represented.  As well as established classics, we welcomed modern rarities like a one-of-a-kind supercharged Aston Martin GT8 and a ‘James Bond’ Edition DB9 GT owned by my good friends from the Aston Martin Owners club in the South West.  Thanks to Paul & Jan Gerring, Matt Maneely (V8 Vantage) and Andrew & Gillian Fawkes for bringing these fabulous cars over the bridge to see us!  As well as Phil & Lex John (DB7 Vantage Volante) who must have come the furthest for this event – Oxford!

The GT8 was joined by Tony Wallen’s 1969 Lotus race car and Colin’s XJ220 in my ‘showstoppers’ area – I’m hopefully going to grow this area in future years so watch this space!

The TVR club arrived in force with over 20 TVR’s in attendance with members from the SWCCC and MG club also making the trip. 

The sun was baking, the music played and the crowds flooded-in with around 2,000 visitors there on the day, leading to record breaking gate receipts and helping the club support community sports teams from age 6+ for another year.

In all we had 126 cars attend and I reckon we can easily fit 250 going forward.  A huge thanks to all the people named in this article, but not least the marshals who, without their help, I couldn’t have organised the event.  Scott Morgan and Nigel Wilcox have attended pre-event meetings in Ponthir, handed out my event flyers throughout the year, and also helped promote in club newsletters.  A further thanks to all those from the Usk Club who attended and made an awesome display – I think this was officially the best turnout at a show the UVCCC has ever had!  Thanks all!!