A ROYAL visit from HRH Prince Andrew yesterday (Tuesday) began the 50th anniversary celebrations of Lola Cars in Huntingdon. The anniversary is due to be marked with a parade through Huntingdon town centre on Sunday of historic racing cars driven by celeb

A ROYAL visit from HRH Prince Andrew yesterday (Tuesday) began the 50th anniversary celebrations of Lola Cars in Huntingdon.

The anniversary is due to be marked with a parade through Huntingdon town centre on Sunday of historic racing cars driven by celebrity racing drivers.

Yesterday the Prince toured the car plant, met staff and saw a pit stop in action.

Among the guests invited for the occasion were Hugh Duberly the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire and pupils from St Peter's School.

The Prince saw the Lola car that came eighth at the Le Mans race in June with driver Stefan Mucke and saw the car go through an Le Mans-style pit stop. He made a complete tour of the factory and saw the wind tunnel and the composites shop where the chassis are made. He also met the two longest serving employees, John Church, assembly manager who has worked for Lola for 38 years and John Bedrikovs, store manager who has clocked up 37 years.

INFORMATION: For details of Lola's golden anniversary celebrations see our centre pages. The parade starts at noon. It will tour the streets of Huntingdon and end in the Market Square at 12.10pm where the townspeople will be able to view the cars.