Silverstone Classic 2010

[John Turner]

42 starters and 34 finishers for what is still probably my favourite grid of this meeting (although Race 18 runs it close). These are the cars that previously ran 90 minutes into the Saturday evening, a format that takes a lot of beating. This was an hour long race, briefly headed by Martin Stretton in Jon Minshaw's Lola T70Mk3B but he found his rear end (the car's, not his own ) rather wayward and Simon Hadfield (57 - Nick Linney's ex Sid Taylor T70Mk3B) dived up the inside in Luffield to take the lead soon to be followed by Olly Bryant in his Mk3B (14). Those two engaged in a great dice for several laps before Simon tripped up over some back markers and Olly came through in the lead with Martin a few seconds back and Simon similarly a few seconds back in 3rd. Soon after that I lost the plot completely so cannot tell you too much more except to say my friend 'brands' muttered to me about having an 'envious moment' having seen Roger Wills jump from driving McLaren M1C (2 - DNF) to M1B (24 - 17th) the latter shared with Paul Radisich. Despite Martin's concerns over the Lola, the 33 car finished 2nd in Jon's hands only 2.2 seconds behind the winning T70Mk3B continuation car of Steve Tandy (21). The Abarth Osella PA1 (41) of Grant Tromans and Michael Cain was 3rd, taking the Helmut Marko class. I feel moved to mention excellent drives by Georg Kjallgren and James Littlejohn in the Daren Mk2 (50) who finished 10th overall and won the Jo Bonnier class and Dion Kremer who finished 12th overall in the Elva Mk8 (10) who won the Edgar Barth class. And to show that I don't shy away from stirring up a bit of controversy, what do we think of the Red Bull logos on Adrian Newey's GT40? (5 post of pics for this race!):-

[simon drabble]

I agree this and the Woodcote and Pre 63 were my favourite grids and not sure of the order of preference!

[John Turner]

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[John Turner]

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[john ruston]

Considering Red Bull pay for it all ,loads of dosh,should be a few more.If you have continuation cars why not modern adverts?
The car does not have much Essex Wire in and probably closer to Mark Webber than Paddy McNally,who owned when I first saw it back in 60's.So there is another connection with the big players in Bernie's Game.

[John Turner]

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[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by simon drabble

what is the Kamm tailed MG? Is this a special - it looks very nice

It's a Lenham Le Mans coupe with - I think - a Williams & Pritchard front end; it may be the one that Whizzo drove at Goodwood last year, that was up for sale a few months ago? Lenham conversions were done on both MG Midgets and AH Sprites, mostly as road cars. Unfortunately they have nothing in common with Sebrings or other Works specials, so AFAIK were never homologated in period, but I have read that at least one has acquired HTP papers...

[Colin McKay]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Well, they are a bit different, and didn't Ian Jacobs run one quite successfully last season? He's now running the Merc 450SL (see pic @ #593) so probably 'out of the frying pan, into the fire'

I think you'll find this is the same car, painted a more subtle shade over the winter!

[John Turner]

Final lot:-

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by Colin McKay

I think you'll find this is the same car, painted a more subtle shade over the winter!

Not necessarily Colin, because I seem to recall last year (or earlier this year?) two, and on one occasion, three Jensen Healeys in this field.

[alfa 76]

As one who races in 70s (that's me chasing the JWF Italia Healey which later fell off at Club) the Jensen Healey situation is - Bob Trotter in the red one which blew up at the 2008 Classic and again last Sunday at Combe on the second lap out after an expensive rebuild; Rob Barter in the dark green one, which is indeed the ex- Ian Jacobs 2008 70s Championship winner; and David Lane in the Gulf liveried car, not at the Classic this time and I think still recovering (the car not David) from a biff in practice for the International Trophy meeting in May.
We in the Alfa brigade by the way consider them to be modern rocket ships which leave us outclassed, at least when they are working!

[John Turner]

Thanks for clarification, David:-

[Moosehead]

Mate of mine raced a Jensen Healey back in the '80's I think (was before I knew him), seem to recall him saying it was rather unreliable.

[Peter Mallett]

I've always liked these Alfas.

http://tentenths.com/forum/attachmen...8&d=1280928593

[midgetman]

Didn't Ian Jacobs race a Jenson Healey in period? I'm sure he did, must have been about 1981, year I started racing, 'cos he offered to give me a free entry at Combe so there were 'nuff starters in his class to get full points. Maybe brain just addled again.

The Beers' Midgets - they've got two of the ex-Dick Jacobs cars, the other is the Milne dark blue one that still races.

I missed the WSM race - gutted - looks a real cracker from the pics. I could hear it tho'......better music than the concerts!

[Colin McKay]

He did indeed, with some sponsorship from the owner's club as I recall.

And while we're about it, let's get the spelling of Jensen right - Mr Button's got a lot to answer for

[simon drabble]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

I've always liked these Alfas.

http://tentenths.com/forum/attachmen...8&d=1280928593

had several - lovely cars rubbish race cars as they are too heavy (unless you are lucky enough to own a GTA!). That is why so many people run them with 2 litre engines (of course if you are running in 70's roadsports that is fine)
sadly a case of style of result!

[John Turner]

The second race for these cars, and the heading isn't quite correct since there were 4 Cooper T43s in the race. Anyway, 37 starters and 34 finishers for this 20 minute race in which, once again Gary Pearson (7 - BRM P25)controlled at the front. However, Philip Walker was back with his Lotus 16 (1), starting from the back of the grid and was expected to make rapid progress forward. Tony Smith in the Ferrari Dino (25) overcame Mark Gillies in ERA R3A (17) early on and actually closed on the BRM, coming almost within striking range, but Pearson always had a bit in hand and towards the end of the race, raised his pace, knowing that Walker's meteoric progress had put him on the tail of the Ferrari. As Pearson eased away from Smith, so the latter was passed by Walker, and in fact, the Lotus was only 2.8 seconds behind the winner at the end. You could say that this was perfectly stage managed by Gary P, as he would surely have been well down the road to put himself out of reach of the closing Lotus had the race been a longer one:-

[John Turner]

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[john ruston]

Was it Don and Alan at Aldon who specialised in preparing Jenson Healeys in mid 70's?

[John Turner]

A grid full of some of the most beautiful and/or iconic front engined cars ever built, restricted to Pre 63 cars and lasting for one hour. There were 49 starters and 37 finishers, and I've taken ages to pick the photos because I took so many, and even now don't think that I have selected all the best ones. All (except the first) taken around Abbey, I'm afraid, as by this time I was a tad too jaded to take myself off to Bridge and Luffield halfway through.

This race was Willie Green's return to racing after several years of retirement. I must admit to having mixed feelings about seeing him return after the conversations that I had with him when he made his decison to retire following his very nasty accident at Goodwood a few years back. Afterall, his career had already spanned 40 years. On the other hand, as a huge fan of his driving, it was great to see him back. Once a racer, always a racer, I guess, although I know Willie had, in all honesty, and quite publicly, decided against his debut at the Le Mans Classic a couple of weeks earlier.

Although on paper, following qualifying, this appeared to be a close race between the rare 4-litre version of the Ferrari 250GTO (2, a 330GTO really then) of Carlo Vogele/Willie Green, the Aston Martin DP212 (1) of Wolfgang Friedrichs and David Clark, and the Lightweight Aston DB4GT (43) of Stuart Graham and Richard Attwood, everyone seemed to expect the Ferrari which Willie had put on pole to win. Still the Graham/Attwood pairing looked strong and at the off, Vogele could not match the pace of Graham and the DB4GT eased away to a lead which was as much as 10 seconds at one stage. The Ferrari held 2nd easily, but Friedrichs dropped steadily back through the field in 212. Ultimately, The Ferrari did indeed win since the Graham to Attwood changeover took about 20 seconds longer than the Vogele to Green stop, thus Attwood was behind by 10 seconds once the respective stops had taken place and he simply wasn't quite able to match Willie's pace, and I noticed that towards the end the Aston was a bit smokey. At the end, he said that he was driving a road car whereas Willie's was a racing car. True I guess, but in fact the Aston had put up the fastest race lap at 2.17.794 in Stuart Graham's hands against Willie's fastest lap of 2.18.418. Of course, I'm pretty certain that Willie could have gone a good bit faster if he had had to. David Clark took over DP212 when the car was in about 14th but gave the car a storming second half run, which by dint of both quick lapping (a best of 2.17.801 note!) and some attrition amongst one or two of the cars running ahead of him brought the Aston into 4th at the flag. By a consistently quick and untroubled run, Marc Devis and Jarrah Venables brought the Ferrari 250GT SWB (37) into 3rd:-

[John Turner]

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[John Turner]

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[John Turner]

Yes, I have note JR's Speedster twice in the previous posts! More:-

[johngee]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Yes, I have note JR's Speedster twice in the previous posts! More:-

I'm sure, as a loyal troublemaker in 10/10ths, he deserves special treatment and it's such a pretty car anyway.