HSCC - Cadwell - 19 April 2009

[John Turner]

16 starters; 13 finishers.

Anyone wishing to embark on racing in a historic single seater series could do a lot worse that consider an FF2000. This new and developing series compares favourably with the cost of some other historic single seater categories, and is still relatively cheap. This is certainly the view of James Murray and a study of the prices tends to confirm this. However, with it's likely success will come the inevitable hike in values, so if you are going to do it, get a car now!

This race was for 20 minutes and it was Wilf Arif (12 - Royale RP30), from pole, who took the lead at the start, only to spin it away during the first lap and hand the lead to Scott Temple (19 - Reynard SF79) who then built and maintained a small gap to James Murray (15 - SF77) and the chasing pack. However, they all knew that there was a danger lurking behind in the form of one Neil Fowler. He had only completed two qualifying laps when a damper failed on his SF79 so started from a lowly 12th on the grid. Not that it made much difference since this fine driver scythed his way through the field to lead with half the race remaining and stayed there to the flag. Temple gamely tried to hang on but was 3.5 seconds adrift at the flag. Murray had looked good for 3rd for almost all the race, but towards the final stages came under increasing pressure from the SF80 of Steve Gardner. Unfortunately, by all accounts, the latter, in a desperate last lap attempt to wrest the position from Murray, tagged the SF77, taking them both out, so the least that can be said about that is that it was great shame for both of them. It meant that Andy Storer was promoted to 3rd in his Royale RP27, and sole class B runner, Antony Raine (any relation to Alan?) 4th in Merlyn Mk28. Arif recovered from his spin to finish 6th. For completeness, I should also mention the sole class C (Invited Formula Super Vee cars - 1600cc) runner, John Bowles in his Royale RP9 who, not entirely surprisingly finished 13th and last of the classified finishers.

The first pic shows Arif cresting the brow heading into Charlies, on the first lap, followed by Temple, with the yellow wing of James Murray's SF77 just visible. Next we have a full view of the SF77 which James had only acquired a couple of weeks before. Derek Smith finished 11th in his Delta T80 (10), whilst Scott Temple (19), finished 2nd as described above. 41 is the unusual Sparton SF80 of Mark Pierce who finished 9th. Last, but actually first, the excellent Fowler (98):-

[James Murray]

This meeting was the first time I had driven a FF2000 a categeory I'd always overlooked in the past. They are brilliant fun to drive! Having raced for several years in Historic FF1600 and thoroughly enjoyed it, i was looking to buy another one, but by chance more than enything ended up with the Reynard. They don't have much more power than a ff1600 probably about another 20bhp so with the wings they're not much faster in a straight line, but the cornering ability and driveability of the engine make them significantly faster. They're comparable in running cost to a FF1600 apart from the requirement to carry wet tyres and are eligible for all sorts of championships in UK and Europe. Definately a good series to start racing in for a novice, someone who fancies a change from HFF1600 or a driver just looking to try something different. Hopefully the series will continue the momentum its gathered already, which I'm sure it will with Alan and Ian (Delta) coordinating it.

[delta]

Thanks for the compliments James.Alan should get all the credit as i do b-----r all.

[acespeed72]

this is my first report on my racing on the site, cadwell was my second race of the year at my favourite circuit. qualifying didnt go so well as i spent too much time behind an s type jag ignoring blue flags but suppose it was my own fault as i should have held back. ended up 14th on the grid.

the race went a little better and passed the said jag quickly and got on with the race, car ran like a swiss watch and made my way up to 8th overall and first in class but need to find some pace to keep up with those rapid imps which i enjoy racing against.

would like to take the time to thank the marshalls who seem to enjoy the historic saloons.

[HRSTR5]

John,

Thanks for the nice snap of my TR5 racing in Historic Roadsports.

Cadwell was a very enjoyable meeting, it's such a great circuit. I had a car issue in qualifying which dropped me down the grid a couple of places from where I reckon I should have been. But having bled the injectors for the race, all was well. Got an okay start, and managed to get a couple who were boxed in behind the unusually slow-starting Turner of Dick Coffey. A couple of laps in and I managed to get past the Morgan of Jonathon Rushton under braking for Park, and tried to close of Colin Sharp - hoping for a repeat of our close tussle at Donington. Not to be this time, I took a couple of tenths out of him for a couple of laps (nowhere near enough to even pressure him), and then started to try a 'bit too hard' and dropped back a bit.

2nd in Class again, and a nice unusual Class Award, being a replica over-sized spark-plug, makes a nice change from the usual pots! (I don't want to give the impression that I always get one, or that I'm in any way ungrateful!!!)

Great weekend, bring on the next one!

James

[John Turner]

Welcome to acespeed72; another driver finds us, excellent. Thanks for your account, and to James for his. I don't think that you guys have any idea how good it is when you give us the driver's view of what/why something happened; it fills in the gaps.

[John Turner]

15 starters;15 finishers.

Race B over 20 minutes was for the later rear engine FJ cars.

Jon Milicevic was on pole in his Cooper T59 but failed to take the grid following a driveshaft failure during qualifying, so it was Denis Welch who took the lead and stayed there in his Merlyn FJ, pressed hard by James Claridge for much of the way, although the gap had eased out to 3 seconds by the flag. Michael Hibberd had initially trailed these two closely in his Lotus 22, but gradually dropped back, and was very nearly caught on the line by Mark Woodhouse (Lotus 20/22).

The pics show David Hall (59 - BMC Huffaker Mk2) who finished 9th, then Christopher Drake (53 - Elva 200) chased by Paul Smeeth (78 - Lotus 22). Smeeth did take the position to finish 5th, but Drake still won Class D in finishing 6th. Unfortunately, I have no picture of Class C winner, Andrew Robertson in his Crossle 4F, who finished 10th. Pic 3 shows John Hutchison (41 - Lotus 18) leading Stephen Futter (31 - Lotus 20). They had swapped places by the flag finishing 12th & 13th respectively. Next up is Mark Woodhouse in his Lotus 20/22 (84 - 4th). The lead battle through Coppice and finally Hibberd (Lotus 22) tackling the Mountain.

[John Turner]

23 starters; 20 finishers.

A good sized grid, for Cadwell, for this race over 20 minutes which was a Barter benefit, Julian converting pole to a comfortable win in the TVR3000M and his father, Charles, riding shotgun at an ever increasing distance behind in the Datsun 240Z. The gap was 6.4 seconds at the flag, with the chasing group another 27 seconds behind, so no contest for the first two places. The battle for 3rd was excellent however, and it was held by several cars during the race - see pics below.

The first pic shows the grid off the line with the Barter front row getting away in the order they finished. Note the very good start by Bill Braithwaite in the Lotus Europa although he was to be shuffled back in pack in the great race for 3rd to eventually finish 8th. Note the Triumph GT6 (61) of Luke Clark-Bagnall halfway down the grid; he was to pull off and retire before reaching the Mountain first time round. Next, 82 is the Lancia Fulvia Zagato of Alex Childs who finished 16th and first in Class D1. I'd actually passed him on the way to the circuit .... mind you the Lancia was on a trailer at the time! Streaming through and out of Mansfield, we have the battle for 3rd, led here by the Jensen Healey of Ian Jacobs, who had done a great job to work his way to the front of this group, but after a while decided that as he was leading his class (D2) by a country mile to ease back and let the others squabble .... apparently! He finished 6th. Note Braithwaite has just locked up. Alan Harper in the Elan (44) was 4th, Steve Cooke (65 - Lotus 7 S4) was 5th and Josh Sadler 7th in his Porsche 911. Pic 4 shows Rory Stockbridge, this year TVR Tuscan (3 -litre V6) mounted who finally converted his 3rd place qualifying slot into 3rd place in the race. 31 is Mark Bennett's MGB GT V8 cresting the mountain to finish 9th. Finally, definitely my favourite shot of the set, Paul Aslett's Porsche 911E tackles the Mountain on his way to 13th:-

[John Turner]

25 starters; 21 Finishers

This was the second race for this field on the day and the last race of the meetimg, on a beautiful early evening with the setting sun low in the sky. There was a startline incident in which both John Bladon and Neil Davis went off, and from where I was standing it looked worse than it was, since they both rejoined and finished the race. At the front, Amanda Whittaker again established herself in the lead in the Elden and eased away from Westie Mitchell (Merlyn Mk 20), who had David Wild stay closer to him this time being just a couple of tenths away at the flag. In fact the the first 4 finished in the same order as the earlier race (see race 2) with Robert Wainwright a rather lonely 4th. The battle behind was good with several cars contesting for 5th place, although this did not include John Hayes-Harlow who only completed the first lap.

Light and shade were the order for this race, with the trees around Hall Bends casting long shadows. The fisrt pic shows the first 3 in the order in which they finished on the Mountain on lap 2 and already breaking away from the rest. Amanda Whittaker continued to move away from the other two to win by just under 7 seconds; it had been an excellent day for her and the two wins set herself up as a strong contender for this year's championship. Pic 2, shows Michael Wales (28 - Merlyn Mk20) on his way to 17th, whilst the next shot is of 5th place John Harrison in Lola T200. Roger Arnold (55 - Merlyn Mk20), Matthew Sturmer (63 - Macon MR8) and Adam Sykes (Merlyn Mk11A). I wonder if Arnold had had a good start for he was to drop behind these two and finished 14th, whereas Sturmer was 11th and Sykes 10th. HSCC Chairman, Chris Sharples (77 - Palliser WDF1) made a good start but dropped to 8th at the end, unhappy with having made what was, in his view, a couple of fatigue induced errors. Not entirely surprising considering this was the second frantic FF1600 race of the day and Chris is my age. Even I was tired by the end of the meeting and I'd only walked around the circuit ... once! Finally, Dick Dixon exits Hall Bends on the approach to the Hairpin. He finished 18th in his Lotus 61.

[dikko]

At least Dixon put enough fuel in to finish this time..as slow as he went......... Someone said in the morning races were 15 long ..I thought minutes he meant laps......nice reportage John T. May I reprint to all FF boys lease? (do you have a Silverstone report?)

[TorqueWench]

Lovely pic of John in the Junior - he had a cracking race and is still 2nd in the overall Championship due to some consistency. However, Snett next Sunday could change all that!

Well done John - shame Autosport (and therefore Kevin) don't use your reports, but I guess it would a few pages to the magazine!

See you at Snett? Come and say hello

Cheers

[Matthew Sturmer]

Thanks for the photo's of the Macon John. It was my first time out in the car as I got it over the winter. It's the ex. works car of Syd Fox and we (royal we, Pete at PA Motorsport) have just returned it to it's original 1970 livery which will be debuted at Snetterton this weekend.
I will also have my F3 Van Diemen /GRD out over the weekend. If you are there, pop over and say hello.

Matthew

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by dikko

At least Dixon put enough fuel in to finish this time..as slow as he went......... Someone said in the morning races were 15 long ..I thought minutes he meant laps......nice reportage John T. May I reprint to all FF boys lease? (do you have a Silverstone report?)

So, is that you, then Dick? We have met, although, you wouldn't have realised it. Please feel free to use pics/report. No, I wasn't at Silverstone (Son's wedding!).

Originally Posted by TorqueWench

Lovely pic of John in the Junior - he had a cracking race and is still 2nd in the overall Championship due to some consistency. However, Snett next Sunday could change all that!

Well done John - shame Autosport (and therefore Kevin) don't use your reports, but I guess it would a few pages to the magazine!

See you at Snett? Come and say hello

Cheers

Sarah, thanks for kind comments, but to be fair to the Autosport reporters, they have both word and time constraints that I don't.

Originally Posted by Matthew Sturmer

Thanks for the photo's of the Macon John. It was my first time out in the car as I got it over the winter. It's the ex. works car of Syd Fox and we (royal we, Pete at PA Motorsport) have just returned it to it's original 1970 livery which will be debuted at Snetterton this weekend.
I will also have my F3 Van Diemen /GRD out over the weekend. If you are there, pop over and say hello.

Matthew

I'll certainly be at Snetterton.

[TorqueWench]

Originally Posted by dikko

At least Dixon put enough fuel in to finish this time..as slow as he went......... Someone said in the morning races were 15 long ..I thought minutes he meant laps......nice reportage John T. May I reprint to all FF boys lease? (do you have a Silverstone report?)

Hi Dikko - see you at Snett - will Jane be there too?

[bigvalveelan]

Well I've just found this site - excellent and thanks to John Turner for his reports. I was in the red Elan in HRS desparately trying to keep Mr Marler's geen Elan honest. By a strange quirk of the regs an early Elan can legally race some 55kg lighter than a late one - everything else is near enough identical. So I ended up being a little too desarate on the final lap and had an interesting 360 up the hill.

We'll both be at Snetterton this weekend, in the first race of the day, so hopefully we can have a re-match (although I'm not too optimistic as I think that weight penalty will do me in!)

Paul

[Peter Mallett]

Welcome to our friendly forum bigvalveelan (great handle?).

John is our star reporter although we do have other posters who report from time to time. Also as you can see the drivers are a great source of info too, so feel free to tell us how you overcame the disadvantage at Snet.