Originally Posted by Jesper OH
The second round at Thruxton must have been quite a freekish race, looking at the results. Mike Newman in the 635 beeting Andy Rouse for overall honours, while Rob Kirby won class B first time out with the brand new Alfa 75 V6. Changing weather conditions or the notorious abbrasive surface of the circuit?
I've got a feeling it might have been wet-
Class A:
David Brodie won the final round, but is missing from the point standings – for not being registrated? He does figure as a ”ghost” as Pete Hall and Mike Newman, who finished second and third in class, only received 6 and 4 points for their achiements – and their total points tally match the official BTCC version.
Andy Rouse retiring in a third of the races.
David Sears mixing it nicely with the bunch of Rover V8s at the Brands Hatch GP support race. Sears did race a similar car in the Japanese series at the time for the private SARD team.
Jeff Allam and Jean-Louis Schlesser finished 1-2 at the Brands Hatch GP support race scoring 9 and 6 points, but listed with 10 and 7 respectively – did they share fastest lap or is the point standing slightly off.
Brodie might well have not registered for points-he only appeared a couple of times, and as I remember was running on a very tight budget since the end of official Mitsubishi support- As I remember he ran unsponsored at the GP meeting (I've got a vague memory that the Starion might have carried a slogan supporting British boxer Frank Bruno, in the absence of any sponsorship- I think Bruno fought Tim Witherspoon for the World heavyweight title shortly after the GP?) and probably with the 'Philips' backing carried at the TT on the car at the last round
Class B:
No Graham Goode Nissan Bluebird Turbo this year, although the car would appear with a new owner in 1987. So what did Goode do in 1986?
Mark Hales had a rotten start to the season with four straight retirements in the Terry Drury Escort.
I suspect Goode took a year out altogether- I don't think I remember him racing anywhere else on a regular basis
Class C:
Barry Sheene was another ”ghost rider” receiving no points for his forth in class C at the Silverstone finals. Either Sheene or some one involved with the CHMS Clausthaler was telling the story in the Autosport series of ”Race of my life”. For some reason both Sheene and Chris Hodgetts started last 10 seconds after the rest of the grid was send off. Can't remember the reason for this, but will have a look for the story.
Yes, I think there was a story behind this as well. Did Hodgetts and Sheene swap cars between qualifying and the race? Hodgetts had already tied up the chapionship before the last round IIRC, so there wasn't anything at risk by starting at the back of the grid, and going out to entertain the crowd.
The Brands Hatch Racing school Escorts don't seem to have been competing for class C points at the Brands Hatch round 7 race. XR3i winner Stuart Cole would have been third in class, according to Carrera's list, but those 4 points seems to have gone to Tony Crudgington, who otherwise seems to have ended way out of the points.
Argetsinger could be American Mike Argetsinger. He raced in British F3 at some stage during the 1980s anyway.
I suspect the School Escorts weren't classified for points- I've just had a look at the Autosport version of the race report, and although they're mentioned a couple of times, they're not listed in the results table, which has Crudgington in 12th behind Kirby. The only reference to a finishing order for the Escorts is in the text of the report, where it says 'In the XR3i section, Stuart Cole won from Chris Creswell'. I think Motoring News might have listed them as part of the overall race result, and certainly listed all the drivers. I wonder if that's the source of Carrera's race result? (Either that or having been at Brands on the day)
Unfortuntely, I only kept my old Autosports, not the MNs- though frustratingly, I did keep a lot of the BTCC reports, but that one seems to be missing from the file...
Class D:
Tony Lanfranchi received a maximum score of 10 points unopposed twice during the season.
Yes, the return of the 1300cc class was a real farce- Lanfranchi raced unopposed most of the time, apart from the GP support, where James Kaye beat him easily- I suspect with a rather more highly-prepared 'proper' Group A Nova compared to Lanfranchi's prodsaloon.
I think Roger Dowson announced plans to run a 1300cc Metro (Presumably one of the ex-Computervision Metro Turbos in non-turbo form), possibly for Robin Brundle?, but the deal fell through
Another productive day about to end. Thank you KA and Carrera for your contributions and knowledge. Let your fingers flow, while I'll prepare something about the 1987 season. This is the only season for the 1983-1990 period where I have a complete set of Autosports to lean against, but more about that in due time.
Jesper
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