HSCC Finals - Silverstone - 20 October 2007

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by johngee

It wasn't enough to interest you!

yes it was, they just don't have a suitable race series! at least until I get a sports car

[johngee]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

yes it was, they just don't have a suitable race series! at least until I get a sports car

I was actually referring to the size of Chris's cheque ........but I hope you find something suitable and come and race with the HSCC .....and I can't wait for the results of your first eligibility check

[zefarelly]

that why I changed the subject John, I know you work for as little as 3 digits an hour though

me or my car ?

[johngee]

Of course - clerks are up there in Premier League footballer territory.....and then, of course, there's all the 'bungs'

Both! You'll be on my 'special' list of drivers to be watched VERY closely!

We're off topic and I feel a JT 'slap' coming on

[John Turner]

No, I'm in a good mood, and anyway, Zef has the authority to slap himself about, whereas we can both slap YOU about!

[johngee]

Then it's a case of entrapment. I'm a persecuted minority and the victim of bullying

[zefarelly]

thats why your a top earner John, some of you pay extra for that !

[terence]

Originally Posted by johngee

Then it's a case of entrapment. I'm a persecuted minority and the victim of bullying

AHH! .Poor John,what with what you have to put up with in "The Office",refference awkward staff,my heart bleed's for you.

[johngee]

Thanks for your understanding Terry but I'm very hurt and now off to join Friends Reunited....or the new SAGA forum (I was told it stands for Sex And Games for the Aged)
JT - post some more photos and reports and get this thread back on track

[MartinSmith]

Originally Posted by terence bower

AHH! .Poor John,what with what you have to put up with in "The Office",

Are you referring to the office behind the monitor room at Silverstone?

Be Careful Mr B!

[terence]

Originally Posted by ClaireSmith

Are you referring to the office behind the monitor room at Silverstone?

Be Careful Mr B!

------As if!

[MartinSmith]

Back to you JT

[zefarelly]

so can I take it that Frank Bough is back room staff at the MSA and a qualified Clerk, and John will add valid reportage/pictures before we descend any further ? ? ?

[johngee]

If only even half the things you say about me were true! ........and can this thread actually descend any further?
No wonder the MSA advise us not to get involved in forums

[terence]

Originally Posted by johngee

If only even half the things you say about me were true! ........and can this thread actually descend any further?
No wonder the MSA advise us not to get involved in forums

Huh! What do they know,look at what you've learned since you started reading our ranting's John.You now have privileged info

[johngee]

Yes, Terry. I've learned not to trust any of you - on the track (possibly) - in the scrutineering bay (probably) and in here (definitely)

[John Turner]

The controversial one, already discussed earlier here and on a specific thread! 3 drivers entered this race with a chance of winning the championship but within seconds of the start, two had been eliminated which pretty much handed the championship to the survivor! The two contenders we lost were Nigel Vaulkhard (Mustang) and Bob Bullen (Anglia). In fact 4 of the quickest cars took no further part in the proceedings, and a slightly surprised Pete Hallford took the win in his (also damaged!) Mustang:-


Hallford was chased closely for much of the way by Louis Bracey in his Lotus Cortina (now for sale I believe; yours for £24k?) but he failed to finish. Before doing so however, he had posted fastest race lap:-


Jonathan Gomm had a good race, working his way toward the front. Here he is seen at Luffield going round the outside of Michael Steele in the massive Galaxy. I'm not sure whether he made the move stick on this occasion but Joe certainly took the big car somewhere and drove on to finish an excellent 2nd, whilst Steele finished 7th:-


The surviving championship contender was Simon Benoy who won his class comfortably and took the overall championship with 69 points. Vaulkhard and Bullen were 2nd and 3rd in the championship on the points they had started the day with, 62pts and 60pts respectively. In the race Benoy was 10th overall. Behind is Don Salvage (Ford Falcon-6th), and Andy Yool (Anglia-8th):-


Although close here, Steve Shuttleworth (Lotus Cortina) finished 14 seconds ahead of Graham Martin (Singer Chamois). They were 12 & 13th respectively:-


My late father owned one of these (and it was even this colour) in the mid 60's and I was lucky enough to learn to drive in it with its lovely straight 6 engine whilst most of my mates were learning in driving school fare of 4 pot Vivas and Heralds etc. Not competitive but very good to see out was Richard Cross in the Triumph 2000 mk1. He finished 16th:-

[johnh875]

Great shots of the Imps!

[John Turner]

The Derek Bell Trophy is a series of races rather than a championship and we had had 4 pairs of winners going into this final race, the first 2 races (Donington & Silverstone) were won by Simon Hadfield (Lola T332), the double headers, at Snetterton by Frank Lyons (LolaT332), at Brands by Peter Dunn (March 73A) and at Oulton by Mark Dwyer (Lola T400). Although I always think of the series as one primarily for F5000 and F2 cars, other single seater formula cars are allowed, including F1! Thus it was that Peter Williams decided to give his rebuilt March 761 an end of season run out in preparation for next year. He duly delivered victory:-


Jeremy Wheatley failed to finish in his Surtees TS15 but, behind, Peter Denham took the Reynard SF78 to 16th:-


Neil Glover (30) 'upgraded' from Lola T300 to T330/332 at the beginning of the season and his race performance similarly improved. He has been involved in some great dices this year, often with Frank Lyons (64 - T400). Here they are scrapping with Jeremy Smith (31 - March 782-19). Glover was 3rd, Smith 4th but Lyons, I think must have had a moment or slight mechanical problem as he dropped off their pace to finish 6th:-


Simon Perkins (91 - March 718M) finished 9th and was well clear of Ian Gray (22 - Brabham BT30 - 12th) and Garrick Eyre (24b - Ralt RT1 - 13th) at the end:-


Dicing yellow perils. Bruce Fullerton (Lola T300) and David Wild (March 712) spent most of the race tied together and finished in this order 10th & 11th just under half a second apart:-


Marcus Pye was down to drive the T332 that he shares with Simon Hadfield but for personal reasons he decided not to race on this occasion and offered the drive to Michael Schryver who eager to acquire experience of a quick F5000 car, naturally accepted! So ignore the MST result which still has Marcus in the car. Schryver was inevitably quick, but I think was caught out slightly by the amount of power going through cold tyres on the first lap and spun in Luffield. He spent the rest of the race recovering, and finished 5th having posted a second best lap time less than two tenths shy of the winner's best.

[John Turner]

A multitude of classes make up this series for Sports Racing and GT cars, the frontrunners coming from the Invitation class. I must confess to not following the championship positions too closely but I can tell you that Martin Richardson (MGB - 48pts) won this year from Philip Nelson (Marcos 1800GT - 45 pts) and Michael Hibberd (Lotus 23B - 37pts) and I'm not sure that I have pictured any of them in any of my reviews. Most remiss of me!

The variable quality of the next 6 pics is (apart from the photographer!) down to the fact that I have been using two cameras this year. My trusty old Fujifilm S5000 (pics 2,5,6) and my newer S9500 (pics 1,3,4). The fact is that the latter has proved a mistaken buy, and whilst a perfectly good camera it has not been up to the particular task I required of it, and I have used it more as a back up. You will see the difference in image quality and I have only used the pics from it where I wanted to illustrate something not recorded on the older camera. I have replaced it for next year with a Canon following advice from a photographer friend.

There were no less than 7 Chevron B6/B8 variants in this race and apart from the presence of the Nerus Silhouette of David Beckitt and the Lenham Spyder of Stuart Tizzard, they dominated the front few rows of the grid. On pole was Michael Schryver (B6) who took the lead but put it on the grass on the first lap, allowing his nephew, James (B8) to take what turned out to be shortlived lead. Here, Michael has just retaken the lead (lap 2, I think) having dived up the inside of James going into Brooklands. The third car here is the B8 of Robert Shaw, and they finished in this order, although Michael was 11 seconds clear at the end. In the background heading into Brooklands, Andrew Willis (Brabham BT5 - 10th), Gareth Jackson (Nerus Silhouette - 9th) and Stuart Tizzard (Lenham Spyder) doing his usual charge forward, in this caes to finish 4th. Two weeks later, at the WHT, he was to drive what I think was his best race of the season:-


A rather better shot! The Chevron B8s of Simon Leighton (42 - 6th), Andrew Hill (97 - 8th) and Jeremy Cottingham (78 - 7th). Immediately after, Hill spun on the exit of Luffield, but recovered:-


David Beckett's Nerus (4 - 5th), Cottingham again, but this time with Tizzard rather closer! In fact I think there was slight touch judging from the marks I later noted on his offside front!:-


Group session! Karl Wetherell's TR4 (19th), Ned Spieker (68 - Lotus 23B - 16th), Steve Hill's Lotus Elite (20 - 20th!), John Monson (7 - Lola Mk1 - DNF),
Steve Monk (Porsche 911 - 22nd), Martin Richardson (MGB - 21st) and Pia Banchi (MGB - 24th):-


Paul Castaldini brought the E-type home,18th:-


Michel Hibberd, Lotus 23B, 25th. Clearly he had problems (which I can't recall) since his lap times would suggest a likely top ten finish:-

[terence]

Is there an echo in here-here-her-he?

[John Turner]

This Championship supported by Chartland Properties. Having looked at the points situation prior to this race, in the programme, it would seem that this championship had also been decided already, except that I don't actually believe it, now looking at the final points position! I think the truth is that the leader, Anthony Goddard was just 2 points clear of Matthew Watts, so had he failed to finish, or equally unlikely, been beaten by other class C runners, then it would have been possible for Watts to snatch the championship. Watts, of course, in class E2 is the regular outright winner, in his Brabham BT29, and he again dominated here, winning as he pleased by almost 29 seconds. It would be good to see him challenged at the front; I don't think that he has had much opposition since Edwin Jowsey moved on. It wasn't enough for Watts to take the championship however, as Goddard (Merlyn Mk9) also won his class and was 5th overall in this race.

Cliff Giddens was 6th in his BT16:-


David Pullen finished 24th in his Chevron B17 (small class, only 997cc):-


Alisdair Pike (BT21) finished 9th:-


Tony Keele was 2nd in his Palliser WDB3:-


Despite a grassy moment at Luffield and (according to the MST results sheet) putting in a best lap over a second slower than that of David Coplowe (92 -McLaren M4A) John Monson kept his Crossle 19F ahead to take 3rd by just over half a second and must have been pleased with this result:-

[John Turner]

Apologies, but have been offline for most of the last couple of weeks with PC probs. For those still interested, I'll try to finish the 3 last outstanding reviews.

According to the programme, three drivers went into this race with a chance of taking the championship; John Thomason, 63 pts (Triumph Spitfire - Class D1), Rory Stockbridge, 62 pts (Lotus Europa - Class C) and Charles Barter, 61 pts (Datsun 240Z - Class B). However, in this race they all won their class, but finished up with Stockbridge the champion 66 pts, Thomason with 62 pts (yes, actually less than he started the day with!) and Barter unchanged(?) on 61pts. Sooooo ..... either the programme was wrong (again) or there are some best results countback/discount in play here, in which case the current championship status printed in the programme was no real guide to the standings. Unfortunately, the championship page for this on the HSCC website seems to be crashing my browser this morning so I can't check. Anyone care to enlighten me about the scoring?

So here is the new champion, Rory Stockbridge, who was 6th overall and first in his class:-


Paul Anderson's Porsche 928 has again improved steadily this season. Having gained an edge over Charles Barter (who is in the next class down, but is often a contender for overall wins) on the faster circuits, he now seems to be able to match the quickest of the A class cars, that of Paul Conway (Morgan plus 8), who doesn't seem to contest all the rounds. He led Conway for most of this race, but a mistake at Becketts cost him the lead. Despite pushing very hard, he was unable to retake the position and was just half a second adrift at the end. Julian Barter (TVR 3000M) beat his Father, Charles, to 3rd, albeit over 14 seconds behind the leading pair who are seen here heading into Woodcote:-


Ralph Harwood-Penn brought his MGB GTV8 home 14th:-


Haven't seen much of Louise Kennedy this season, so a pic won't go amiss! Here Louise stays well out of the way of the lapping Julian Barter, in her Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato. LAK was last of the finishers, but that was no disgrace as she was in the smallest class (E for cars up to 1300cc) and was the sole starter and finisher in that class:-

[zefarelly]

LAK was doing a rain dance all morning

[John Turner]

I was interested to note in Autosports double Christmas issue, that the national section carried a Top Ten rivalries of the year (Page 177) and that it included two from historics; Rowe v Fowler (not unexpected, I guess) and Paul Anderson v Charles and Julian Barter. Another which could have been included was Richard Trott v Ben Simms. Although Simms won the championship by a clear margin, Richard was usually also in contention, and I'm not sure that he did all the races. He certainly had a very unfortunate DNF at Snetterton earlier in the year, when leading, if I recall correctly. It would be good if he commented here, since he is a member! Ben Simms was consistently competitive all year in his March 803B, and Marcus Pye praises both drivers in 'Humble Pye' in the same issue of A/S.

It was Trott (7 - Chevron B43) who won the final round from Simms 2nd, but it was Keith White (1 - Ralt RT1) who was the closest challenger for most of this race. Unfortunately, either a mistake or mechanical problems (it's so long ago, I cannot recall!) dropped White to 4th, some 16 seconds behind Trott at the end. Peter Williams took 3rd in the race, in his Argo JM6:-


Andrew Storer took 12th with his Royale RP27:-


Bill Coombes, 5th, Ralt RT1:-


38 is the March 803B of Alex Ames, who failed to finish. Behind is Paul Smith (63 - Ralt RT1) who finished 6th in the race (3rd in the championship) and Nick Crossley who was 7th in his Ralt RT1. In fact all five Ralt RT1s in the race took the 5 places behind the the podium places:-