BRAMPTON

Sheila arrived in Brampton at 3 am after a difficult ride through the rain-swept and wind-lashed hills, where she suffered an inconvenient puncture and lost much time. After sleeping for only 90 minutes, she set off at 5.45 am for the next staging post at Barnard Castle, which is 52 miles away – and on the other side of Yad Moss and the North Pennines.
To complete the course within the deadline, Sheila must be back in Loughton by 5.55 am on Friday morning – and she still has 358 miles to ride. We’ll be doing the maths later in the day but Sheila will be very glad to reach the flat fens of Lincolnshire this afternoon where she may be able to put in some speedy sections to make up time lost in the hills of Cumbria and Scotland.
With a little more time on her side, Sheila may have been tempted to make a short detour from the recommended route and visit family graves at St Michael’s Church at Brough. It is also the final resting place of ex-Ferrari motor-racing ace Cliff Allinson.
Allinson raced in Formula One between 1958 and 1961, driving for Lotus and Ferrari. Allinson had a serious accident in Monaco in 1960 when his Ferrari hit some straw bales and Allinson was thrown into the air, sustaining a broken left arm, rib fractures, facial cuts and a concussion. The photograph of the airborne Cliff Allinson has become one of the best-known images of 1960s Grand Prix racing.
Allinson was forced to retire from motor sport in 1961 after another accident, this time whilst driving a Lotus at the Belgian Grand Prix. This time, Allinson broke both knees and fractured his pelvis, walking with a limp for the rest of his life.
In his retirement, Allinson ran a garage in Brough and also drove the local school bus. Sheila is one of an elite group of people who can claim to have been driven to school every day by an ex-Formula One driver.
When she arrives at Barnard Castle, Sheila will have completed 586 miles, with 306 to go.