Motor racing on ice had been a popular spectator sport in Scandinavia since 1931, when the first Swedish Winter Grand Prix was run on the frozen Lake Rämen. Among the entrants that year was German ace Rudolf Caracciola, but he was unable to master the surface as expertly as the Finnish drivers. For the following year’s event a crowd of 60,000 turned up. Lake Vallentuna, north of Stockholm, became a regular venue of ice races from 1934 and it was there, 13 years later, that Reg Parnell and the ERA team swept all before them in the first post-war Swedish Winter Grand Prix.
Manufactured between 1935 and 1939, the ERAs (it stood for English Racing Automobiles) raced with some distinction either side of the war even though only 17 were ever made. Three fell into the hands of Reg Parnell, George Abecassis and Leslie Brooke, who took them to Sweden for the Grand Prix at Rommehed on 9 February 1947. The race turned into an ERA walkover because their chief rivals – the French – were stranded miles away on a ship stuck fast in ice. So it was decided to rerun the event 13 days later on Lake Vallentuna, by which time the French challenge was expected to materialise. Indeed it did, led by Raymond Sommer, but he proved no match for the wily Parnell.
Between the two races Parnell had to arrange for spare parts to be sent over from England after his engine had blown. He also had the idea of fitting twin rear wheels to the ERA to improve its road-holding on the ice of Lake Vallentuna. As a frequent competitor in hill climbs, he owned a set of extra-long hubs to facilitate the fitting of twin wheels, but unfortunately they were at home in England, and he was in Sweden. So he phoned his nephew and instructed him to get the hubs and a spare set of wheels to London Airport and over to Gothenburg that night. When Parnell fitted them to the ERA, Sommer immediately objected but the Englishman had checked the rules beforehand and had found that there was nothing to preclude twin rear wheels.
The race began in temperatures of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit, most of the drivers wearing RAF flying jackets to keep out the cold. A 3½ mile (5.6km) circuit had been snowploughed across the lake, the surface of which was sheet ice. Since nobody was permitted to use studded tyres, the organisers had spread fine gravel over the entire course and then sprayed it with water to give it a texture like sandpaper. This certainly improved the grip, but it was Parnell’s extra rear wheels which really made the difference. No car could match the road-holding of his ERA and he skated to victory at an average speed of 68⅙mph (109.7km/h) – a triumph of British ingenuity.