[John Turner]

27 starters; 20 Finishers

In fact, so many cars had entered the Swinging Sixties race that there were a number of reserves which didn't get into that race and they were given a class of their own within this race. They made up 6 of the 27 starters here. This was to the same format as that of the Swinging Sixties, ie 40 minutes with a compulsory pitsop.

Sam Clarke had put his 6 litre V12 Jaguar XJ12 on pole by 1.3 seconds from the 3.9 litre Triumph TR7 V8 of Martyn Adams but the Jaguar man had a poor start and dropped to 3rd or 4th on the first lap with Adams getting away in the lead. Clarke soon picked his way forward though and after 3 laps or so took the lead and started to stretch away. Given what happened towards the end of the race this was all rather perplexing to me. It seemed to be a race of two halves, since whilst Clarke was clearly quicker in the first half of the race, Adams was similarly so in the second half, posting fastest race lap and cutting a very substantial Clarke lead to just 3.67 seconds at the flag. Whether Clarke was in trouble towards the end of the race (with tyres?), at the same time as Adams was getting to grips with the TR7 V8, I don't know, and nor do I know whether the Triumph took longer at its pit stop. We were however, subjected to a fine, but not totally error free, chase for the lead by Adams, as well as Clarke running wide onto the grass out of Coram in his attempts to maintain a gap. I guess a perusal of the lap times might answer these questions!

There were a few battles down the field, not least of which was the unlikely one between the XJ40 of Gail Hill and Chris Boon and the Triumph GT6 of Neil Armstrong. They finished 3 tenths apart with the Jag just getting it. However the GT6 was the first Swinging Sixties car home in an excellent 12th place.

My pic selection is over two posts (we can only post 6 pics per post) and includes at least 3 with Jaguars in, since this actually was 'The Classic & Jaguar Meeting'. They had had their big day the day before, of course. The first pic shows the above-mentioned GT6/XJ40 encounter; then we have a long shot down the Revett Straight on lap 3 (I think!) with Clarke closing on Adams. The third pic shows Chris Adams MG Midget which unfortunately only completed 19 laps and was unclassified, the 18th placed Doyle/Doyle tyre squealing Jaguar XJ6 (91) exiting the Esses in typical style having just been lapped by the 3rd placed Porsche 911 turbo of James and Miles Masarati (any relation to Piers?), the quick and great sounding Mazda RX7 of Giles Groombridge and David Ashford which also didn't finish, and finally, the rare Porsche 914/6 of Jeff Boyes and ? Evans, which finished 19th:-