This is a repost of one from my old website, as an example - new Posts to follow shortly .............
Silverstone for Finals day – conjures up memories of F3, Touring Cars, FF1600 and others, all with great racing. But that was for the cars that were current at that time. Now fast forward from those distant memories and you see a much changed Silverstone hosting the final rounds of several of the HSCC’s Championships. The Circuit may have changed, but the quality of racing on view yesterday was of the highest order and warmed my ‘racing’ heart on a cold and grey day.
Most of the championships had been decided at the previous round, but that didn’t detract from the number or quality of the entry for most categories (only the Derek Bell Trophy race being a bit thin on numbers and even that served up a cracker of a race).
New to racing at the end of last year, Richard Mitchell clinched the Historic FF1600 title at Brands and could afford to ‘just race’ at Silverstone. The battle for 2nd was to be decided and went right down to the end with James Buckton and Robert Wainwright tied on points ahead of this round. Ben Mitchell and Simon Toyne topped the two qualifying sessions, thus sharing the front row for the main race, with Ben Tusting and Mark Draghicescu on row 2. Only the top 6 in each session went straight to that main race, with the rest of the entry contesting a Qualification race first. That race really didn’t get going – a first lap incident at Copse brought out the red flags and the restart only lasted until lap 3, when a multiple car accident at Brooklands blocked the track and produced another red flag. The result was declared as at the end of lap 2, with Ross Drybrough the winner ahead of Chris Sharples and Will Nuttall. The Championship race also suffered a red flag situation, this time on lap 4 just as it was shaping up to be a belter. Thankfully the drivers involved in the race-stopping incident were all OK.
The restarted race was shortened to just 10mins and produced a fantastic race. Ben Mitchell grabbed the lead away from the start, but Neil Fowler passed him at Maggots and led at the end of the opening lap from Ben, Richard Mitchell, Max Bartell and Callum Grant. The front two eased a little way clear as the next bunch squabbled for position and at the end of lap 4 (they would eventually squeeze in10 laps) Ben retook the lead at Brooklands, only for Neil to regain the place on the following lap. Now the duo were swapping places all round the track, showing each other the utmost respect as they allowed just enough ‘racing room’. This was wheel to wheel racing at its’ best and was decided at the flag by just three thousandths of a second in Ben’s favour. Ben summed it up afterwards by saying “It was the first time I've raced with Neil, and it proved to be very close and very fair, as it should be”. He went on to add that “It's always great to get out in the Merlyn, I enjoyed the race a lot. This Historic Formula Ford championship is a superb series which I can't recommend enough”. The battle for 3rd went to Richard by an even smaller margin – just one thousandth clear of Callum – while Max spun out of this dice at Brooklands on lap 7, recovering to 10th by the end. Robert Wainwright held the upper hand over James Buckton throughout the race, securing 2nd in the championship as the duo completed the top 6 in the race.
The Historic Road Sports followed the qualification race, with the first three rows of the grid showing a strange symmetry of Lotus Elan S1 and Morgan Plus 8 alongside each other. Peter Shaw led away from pole in his Elan, with newly crowned Champion Kevin Kivlochan slotting into 2nd in his Morgan followed by Roger Waite’s Elan and Robin Pearce’s Morgan. A couple of laps behind the safety car kept the field closely packed and, a couple of laps after the green flag was shown Robin moved ahead of Roger for 3rd. Lap 11 saw Kevin grab the lead from Peter at Becketts while the duo were in slower traffic and it looked like the Champion might add to his tally of wins, particularly when Peter’s attempt at retaking the lead at Copse a couple of laps later saw him drift wide on the exit and Kevin reclaim the lead. On the penultimate lap though, Peter got a better run out of Becketts and nosed ahead under braking for Brooklands and through the final lap he eased clear to take the win ahead of Kevin and Robin. Roger finished 4th, well clear of Frazer Gibney’s Elan and Robbie Feilden’s Morgan. Class victories went to Peter and Kevin, plus John Shaw’s Porsche 911 and Dick Coffey’s Turner Mk1.
A large grid of Historic Formula Junior cars made a great sight and produced some more excellent racing, though the battles were behind the leader as Sam Wilson raced his Lotus 20/22 clear of the field once he passed the faster starting Andrew Hibberd’s Lotus 22 into Brooklands on the opening lap. Andrew was then embroiled in a race long dice with Cameron Jackson’s Brabham BT2, during which they swapped places many times before Andrew made it his on the last lap. Andrew Wilkinson secured class victory with 4th overall in his Lynx T3, just ahead of Will Mitcham’s Mallock U2 – Will also claiming a class win. There were close, place swapping battles all the way down the field and a lot of beautiful cars on view – with front and rear engined cars on track – long may they continue.
The Historic Touring Cars also provided a great race for those watching, despite Peter Hallford leading most of the way in his Ford Mustang. He passed the fast-starting Tim Davies’ Cortina down the Wellington Straight on the opening lap and held off Tim’s advances all the way to the flag. Mark Jones’ Cortina was their most likely challenger, but he retired at Becketts on lap 2 and that left the front two to pull well clear. John Avill took a lonely 3rd in his Cortina ahead of two more of the Fords in the hands of John Spiers and Mark Martin, with Neil Merry completing the top 6 in his Alfa Romeo Giuliana Sprint. The real excitement was a race long battle for 7th that involved 5 Minis and a Hillman Imp. Roger Godfrey eventually emerged at the front of this titanic battle, with Nick Paddy and Jon Milicevic next up ahead of newly crowned Champion Simon Benoy’s Imp and the other Minis of Andy Harrison and Tim Harber. This sextet put on a marvelous show, with much place-changing, running side-by-side through corners and tyre smoking antics – thanks for the entertainment guys.
The final round of the Classic F3 Championship took place immediately after the FF1600 main race, meaning a quick leap from FF1600 Merlyn into F3 Chevron B34 for championship leader Max Bartell. He started the race from 4th on the grid, several places ahead of Paul Dibden’s Argo JM6 and 14 points clear of Paul – therefore safe in the knowledge he really only needed to keep Paul within sight to claim the title. Ian Jacobs qualified on pole with his Ralt RT3 and raced to victory, though Richard Trott gave chase in his Chevron B43 and was just under 2secs adrift at the flag. Tony Hancock came through to claim 3rd in his Lola T670 after passing Keith White’s Ralt RT1 on lap 8, while Max ran in a safe 5th until Paul caught him late on and slipped past at Copse on the last lap – Max’s 6th more than enough to clinch the Championship. After the race Max commented that he was “Obviously very happy to be crowned champion of the British Classic F3 championship”. He then added “A huge thank you to Mike Catlow who built the car and supported us at all meetings. Car has been fantastic, very reliable throughout. Knowing that all I needed in the final round was to finish in the points, I took it fairly easy. I got overtaken at the start by Hancock and could see Dibden catching and eventually he was up the inside of me into Copse and so I left the door open. My main focus of the race was to avoid contact or trouble. Thankfully previous results through the season meant I had the luxury of taking it easy at Silverstone”.
Racing with the F3’s were the URS FF2000 competitors and the Classic Racing Cars, with Marc Mercer claiming URS honours in 7th overall with his Van Diemen RF82. The CRC class saw Andy Jarvis’ Palliser take the win ahead of Benn Simm’s Elfin.
The Guards Trophy was another championship yet to be decided, with Michael Hibberd leading the points - but only 3 clear of Mike Gardiner. George Tizzard qualified his Lenham Spider on pole and went on to secure a fine victory, before being presented with his trophy by his very proud Father. The wonderful sight of 3 Chevron B8’s and a B6 all together was to last the whole race as James Schryver’s B8 took 2nd ahead of Michael Schryver’s B6 and the other two B8’s driven by Mark Colman and Charles Allison – less than 1sec covering the four cars at the flag. Michael Hibberd had Mike Gardiner’s TVR Griffith in his sight early on, but a 3rd lap spin dropped the Lotus 23B down to 22nd and, despite recovering to 15th, that was enough to hand the crown to Mike who finished a safe 7th overall.
The Derek Bell Trophy competitors took to the track in gathering gloom, but put on another tremendous race as the quality continued. Neil Glover’s unique Chevron B37 F5000 thundered into the lead at the start, with Frank Lyons’ similarly powered Gurney Eagle slotting into 2nd. Richard Evans ran wide on the opening lap and gave himself a bit of ground to make up in his pursuit of the F5000’s in his Formula Atlantic March79B. The gap from Richard to the leader was over 5secs by lap 4, but on the next lap he passed Frank and set off after Neil. Richard brought the gap down quickly and was just over half a second behind as they completed lap 8. Thereafter it was a game of ‘cat and mouse’ as the Chevron’s power allowed it to pull clear on the straights, while Richard had the edge around the corners. He led at the end of lap 9 and went on to claim a fine victory by half a second from Neil. Frank took 3rd, with Andrew Hibberd gaining fast as he got used to his father’s F2 Brabham BT38.
The final race at the end of a wonderful afternoon of racing was for the 70’s Road Sports – probably just as well, because they needed their headlights by then. Newly crowned Champion Jim Dean qualified on pole in his Lotus Europa, with Charles Barter lining up alongside in his Datsun 240Z and row two occupied by William Jenkins’BMW 3.0CSL and Stephen Cooke’s Lotus 7 S4. Jim and Charles disputed the lead for the first half of the race, before William nipped ahead of Charles and took the fight to the Lotus. He nosed ahead at Luffield on the last lap, but Jim was able to regain the lead on the run to the flag in yet another close finish.