CSCC Classic & Jaguar Weekend - Snetterton, 5/6 April

[John Turner]

A mix of Jaguar saloons, ancient and modern with no less than 3 of the classic Mk2s in the field. Tim Morrant put his XJ6 on pole with Richard Dorlin alongside in his similar car. David Bye's XJ6 was on the second row with the XJ40 of Howard Kirkham.

Poleman, bogged down at the start, losing many places, and it was Richard Dorlin who got away first with a fast starting Howard Kirkham slotting into 2nd chased by Bye. Now even by Jaguar standards the XJ40 is a big car to go racing in, and on lap two, braking into the Esses on a greasy track, it got away from Kirkham. After a long and lurid moment wich left a lot of mud on the inside line, he got going to finish 7th. Bye passed without becoming involved, but was not able to make up ground to the leader and finished 2nd some 7.3 seconds behind:-


Variety in the Esses. Simon Lewis (65 - XJ6 - DNF), Neil Taylor (26 - S Type -8th and Class E winner), Robert Drewery (30 - Daimler Sovereign - 11th) and Colin McKay (36 - Mk2 - 15th):-


Richard Dorlin had an untroubled run to victory:-


Whilst the family also took Class D honours and 5th overall with Peter Dorlin in the Mk2:-


Robert Drewery again:-


A spin in the Bombhole dropped Colin McKay back to finish 15th although his best lap time suggests that this was his natural position anyway, so he obviously made a good start:-

[John Turner]

Damp to wet conditions for the start of this race with a field of 15 cars. The Wainer of Brian Mitcham was on pole, with Simon Diffey alongside in Lotus 20 and James Claridge in Lola Mk5A starting from the back of the grid. However, it was Michael Lyons, from the second row, who got his Lotus 20 to the front early in the first lap only to be passed by Claridge who was clearly not remotely perturbed by starting with a mere 14 cars in front of him. Here we see Lyons on lap 2, Claridge already having gone through in the lead. On lap 3 or 4, Lyons went off at either Riches or Sears (can someone confirm, please), and his car was deemed in a dangerous place and the race redflagged. It was restarted over 4 laps:-


This was taken before the red flag but after the restart, John Boyes finished 7th in his Lotus 20:-


Fastest of the front engined cars was the Elva 100 of Jack Woodhouse, who finished 6th:-


Despite being on pole, Brian Mitcham was unable to match the pace of Claridge, Diffey or Sam Wilson (who finished 3rd in Cooper T59) and had to settle for 4th. Behind him here is Dr Mark Green who was placed 9th in his Lotus 18:-


The eyes have it! Sarah Hutchison brought the Lotus 18 home in 13th place. Coming into view is the Lotus 20 of David Grunberg who went on to finish 10th in his Lotus 20:-


Although Claridge (52) had hit the front early, he did not escape the attention of Diffey (61) who actually got ahead on lap 3 of the restarted race, but it was Claridge who prevailed in the end, having completed the final lap on a drying track, in a 1.31.900, over a full second quicker than Diffey's best, on the previous lap:-

[Colin McKay]

Unfortunatley I stalled in the spin (obviously water in the distributor) and was just getting going again when the race was stopped on lap 6. I'd have had 'em, I would, given another 20 laps.

[John Turner]

Absolutely, Colin, and it's great to hear from you. Anyway, wherever you finished, no-one can take away the fact that you were driving one of the most iconic saloons of any age. Still an XK engine but a slightly later version?

[Colin McKay]

Yep, running a 4.2 in this car which unfortunately precludes me from 'proper' historic racing but necessary to keep up (well, nearly) with the later IRS cars. Having lots of fun nevertheless!

[TorqueWench]

[quote= On lap 3 or 4, Lyons went off at either Riches or Sears (can someone confirm, please), and his car was deemed in a dangerous place and the race redflagged.

It was Sear - the car was sideways on - no apparent damage, but no driver either - presumably he couldn't restart

What fun tho! I was very namby pamby in the corners in the damp, but the little (Stuart Rolt) engine was a dream on the straight bits! Still, only my 3rd race in it, and first since a re-set of the rear suspension (I don't have many excuses, so I will use any that I can!)

[John Turner]

I'm not covering this in any detail, since most cars were modernish. However, a bit of an odd one really, since rather than a race between two teams, it was effectively two races in one. The first 16 cars on the grid were sportscars, 15 of which were Caterhams. The remainder was made up of mainly Jaguar saloons.

Fastest of the 'saloons', in qualifying was Richard Masters but in the race he unfortunately failed to finish in his XJS. The XJ6 X300 of Nick Gwinnut was 24th, whilst Simon Hutson-Flynn finished his race after hitting the barrier at the exit of the Russell chicane in his Maestro.


Cliff Ryan finished 16th in his XJRS. See below re the TVR:-


Roger Donnan in the pretty Crossle 9S, a continuation car that does not pretend to be anything else. He finished 6th, to break the chain of Caterham finishers:-


I didn't even realise our member, Ken Paton, was at this meeting until I got home and actually looked at the programme in greater detail. I just didn't recognise the D-type replica after its respray and new wheels, or is it a new car, Ken? It finished 13th:-


The TVR Grantura Mk3 of Ian Bankhurst which finished 17th:-


Blake Humphrey finished 27th in his XJS:-

[John Turner]

First race on Sunday and this big field was out again. 35 starters although 8 failed to finish.

This time Rod Begbie glued his TVR to the back of Neil Howe's TR4 and stayed there for half an hour. He seemed to have cured his braking problem from the day before, and it was Howe who was locking up, particularly into the Russell Chicane staving of Begbie, who was quicker through Coram. They both put their fastest lap in on lap 14, but Begbie's was fully half a second quicker than Howe's. However, it was not the quickest lap of the race, for that was achieved by Ian Bankhurst in his TVR on lap 7. He had started from the back and was up to 3rd by lap 6, 6.3 seconds behind the two leaders. However, he was then caught and repassed by the always quick Jeremy Cottingham in his MGB. The lap chart then suggests that Bankhust had a moment or spin since he fell back a little and took awhile recovering, finally re-emerging in 3rd on lap 20, after Cottingham had retired on lap 18, and far too late to make any impact on the leaders who finished nearly 14 seconds ahead of him. Here the two leaders storm down the Revett Straight into the braking area for the Esses. Their battle was mighty and Howes just kept the TR4 ahead to win by 0.195 of a second to complete a weekend double:-


Nick Wilkins brought his MGA home in 16th:-


Stephen Bond (85) made this move on Marc Yates (20) up the inside into the Esses stick, finishing 11th, with Yates 12th:-


Jan Boyes continued to entertain in this race, finishing 6th:-


Alasdair Bruce (35) has just lapped the battling pair of Nick Crewdson (21) and Paul Freeman (13). They finished 10th, 21st and 22nd respectively:-


Brian Arculus did rather better this time, finishing 13th in his TR3A and just keeping George Edney's MGB (9) behind:-

[John Turner]

Since I 'lost' the pics for Race 1, I've endeavoured to cover more cars in my pics below! 22 starters and finishers. Won by Stuart Liddell comfortably in the end and complete with 'biffed' nose, Cliff Ryan did his best to hang on in the early stages, as can be seen here by his lock up:-


One of many fine battles in these big cars, Lawrence Ball and Paul Merritt slogged it out for 5th place with Merritt getting it by seven tenths at the end:-


Rob McVicar finished 20th:-


Mike Sharman got it wrong in the Russell chicane but carried on to finish 14th:-


Meanwhile Matthew Skelton (25) displays an interesting line in the same place in his race long battle with Gary Hastings (2) and Andrew Harrison (5). They finished in this order, 9th, 10th and 11th covered by 1 second:-


Formation racing! David Ball (4 - 18th), Philip Comer (71 - 19th) and McVicar again:-

[John Turner]

Once David Bye (57) had recovered from a relatively poor start and extracted himself from the chasing pack he put, poleman, Richard Dorlin (32) under a lot of pressure. The two XJ6s had an intense battle for many laps but eventually Bye took the lead to win by just 0.72 secs:-


Ay the other end of the field, Patrick Doyle pressed on to finish last, but three cars were DNFs:-


Peter Dorlin again upheld class D honours to finish 5th overall (1st in class) in his Mk2:-


Whilst Colin McKay finished 11th and 3rd in class A in his Mk2:-


Class A winner and 6th overall was Ken Angell in his XJ40; he also loves Sandra, apparently!:-


The third of the Mk2s, was 12th; that of Simon Hollingsworth:-

[John Turner]

A 40 minute race with driver changes or compulsory pit stops for those going solo, this had 36 starters and 32 finishers. This was a great field of cars with much diversity. Harry Wyndham put his well known pale blue E-type on pole but he was unable to handle 7.2 litres worth of V8 in the Chevrolet Corvette of young Luke Wos who took the lead from the word go and comfortably dominated the event to win by 19 seconds from Wyndham with the Chevrolet Camaro of Simon Lane, a further 21 seconds behind, 3rd.

Here Luke is in the Esses in a model of the Corvette that is unusual on British race circuits:-


Another unusual sight on British circuits is the Aston DBS in this form since it has the earlier classic straight 6 rather than the later V8. Robin Reed finished 23rd:-


Ian Macdonald brought the rare Peerless GT home in 31st place:-


Through Coram side by side goes the Triumph Herald Coupe of Kevan Hadfield and the Jaguar Mk2 of Simon Isherwood and Will Burrell. Unfortunately, the Triumph did not finish but Jaguar went on to finish 27th:-


Mike McBride was 22nd in the MGC GT:-


In the foreground Glenn Canning in his NSU TT chases the Ford Mustang of Wayne Langridge. Canning was great value and notably quick through the Esses, into the Bombhole and through the Russell Chicane. He finished 13th. Langridge was 10th:-


Nick McAffrey finished 5th in his E-type. In this shot it appears that both nearside wheels are clear of the ground!:-

[Moosehead]

Woohooo, made it into one of Johns reports

Keep up the great work

[Al Weyman]

Glens NSU is a great little car, one of my favourites in last years CMS hav'nt seen him out this year unfortunately.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Glens NSU is a great little car, one of my favourites in last years CMS hav'nt seen him out this year unfortunately.

it was out at Brands a couple of weeks ago (I assume same car, there can't be many around over here)

[DaveGT6]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

it was out at Brands a couple of weeks ago (I assume same car, there can't be many around over here)

Yes that was him and going mighty quickly too!

Mr Turner do you have any 'photos of the number 23 Triumph GT6 - we came in 9th?

[John Turner]

I'll have a look; I'm getting so far behind with all these threads and after this weekend at Silverstone, another one to do!!

[Pretty Vacant]

OMG Moose!!! We're not worthy, can we share garages with oyu knowing we are in the presence of greatness!!??

[Moosehead]

Originally Posted by Pretty Vacant

OMG Moose!!! We're not worthy, can we share garages with oyu knowing we are in the presence of greatness!!??

You may as long as you bow upon entering

Think I'l get myself a new hat........a Crown perhaps

[Celia Stevens]

Ian had the misfortune of having the axle on the Peerless break at Russells on the final lap! He did the slowing down lap with the car held together on the drivers' side by the spring! Oh well mended now, good photo of them, thanks John, only glad it didn't let go when I was driving !

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by DaveGT6

Mr Turner do you have any 'photos of the number 23 Triumph GT6 - we came in 9th?

Best I can do, I'm afraid. 9th was a great result, Dave:-

[John Turner]

Historic in shape if not always in age, Morgans seem more a way of life than any other marque. 30 minutes of racing from a smallish grid (16), just a few pics.

Chris Acklam made a great start to lead briefly before he was overwhelmed by Andy Green and Tony Lees who then entered into a struggle which lasted the distance. Here Lees pressures Green hard through the Esses, and although posting fastest lap, he had to give best to Green by 1.8 seconds at the flag. By that time Acklam was fully 30 seconds back to take 3rd:-


4th overall and 1st in class C6 was Andrew Thompson:-


Leigh Sebba took 12th:-


Peter Henry was 6th:-

[DaveGT6]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Best I can do, I'm afraid. 9th was a great result, Dave:-

Many thanks John!

[terence]

Thats a rather nice red sticker on the bonnet Dave

[DaveGT6]

Originally Posted by terence bower

Thats a rather nice red sticker on the bonnet Dave

Yes - it must possess particularly good aerodynamic properties as it doesn't half make the car go quickly since I put it on

[terence]

I should have realised who you are.