See Red, VSCC, Donington 5/6-9-09

[John Turner]

19 Starters; 14 finishers.

A 1 hour race, sponsored by Historic Motor Racing News, with mandatory pit stop; some drivers ran solo.

Simon Hadfield placed Leo Voyazides Lotus Cortina (47) on pole, but Voyazides started the car. He is no mean driver himself and took the lead - see pic 1, which also shows John Young in LC (81) diving up the inside of the Michael Steele/Roger Buxton LC (68). Behind is the Andy Wolfe/Rob Hall LC (71) and the BMW 1800TISA (100) with Jackie Oliver on board, and once this group had sorted themselves out it was these two latter cars that emerged to challenge Voyazides. Pic 2 shows Quirina Louvman in the Alfa Guilia Sprint GT (58) which she was sharing with James Wood. Louvman was later to lose it out of the Old Hairpin and beach it irretrievably and retire but I do not understand why the car was not listed as a DNF in the results sheets. 112 is the BMW 1800TISA of Dave Saunders/John Palmer, still with one wheel off the ground well passed the apex. They were to finish 13th. Pic 4 is the Fiat Abarth 1000TC (2) of Joey and Stephen Beale. Not unexpectedly, with the smallest and oldest car in the race, they were the last of thhe classified finishers, and it was good to see them there. This scrap seemed to go on for a long time between the LC (61) of Malcolm Pau/Rob Wells and the BMW 1800Ti (111) of John Clark. The LC eventually gained the upper hand and finished 3rd whilst the BMW was 5th. Last pic (more next post) is of the Alfa Guilia Ti (52) of Richard and Andrew Frankel who finished 12th.

[John Turner]

Robert Barrie, who I associate with Porsches, is seen here driving an Alfa Guilia Ti Super (97) which unfortunately was unclassified having retired just under two thirds distance; I don't know whether the trailing exhaust had anything to do with it. Meanwhile up at the front, Voyazides had succombed, first to the LC (71) and then the BMW (100), Oliver then closing in on the leader. Here the leader locks up but it was to be some laps before Oliver found a way passed to take up the lead. Voyazides had not lost too much time to this duo and he handed over in good shape to Hadfield, who then started banging in some really quick laps, so that when Oliver pitted to hand over to Richard Shaw, he took the lead just as the BMW emerged from the pits. Shaw had no answer and Hadfield took the 47 car to a 15 second victory over the BMW; both were a lap clear of the field. The Wolfe/Hall LC (71) had retired after 32 laps, and I wonder whether this is an early sign of the cause? Pic 5 shows the Del Portello/Michael Gans Alfa Guilia Sprint GTA (74) which finished 6th and the similar car (75) of Paul Hocking and Geoff Turrall which recorded a DNF. Final picture is of the Simon Tate GTA (80) which took 4th and the Mini Cooper S (20) of Marc and Russell Earnshaw who tok the flag in 11th place.

[John Turner]

28 starters; 22 finishers.

One of Motor Racing Legends series for Pre 1956 sports racing cars, this race was over 60 minutes with a mandatory pit stop; almost all cars had driver changes. Of the leading 3 protagonists, we lost the Maserati 300S of Duncan Ricketts at the start through transmission failure so it was left to Carlos Monterverde (sharing with Gary Pearson) in his Ferrari 250TR (41, an invitation 1958 car) to give battle to the Ben Eastick/Tony Dron Jaguar D type (6), Dron driving first, - see PIc 1. Unfortunately, on lap 2 Monterverde ran wide through the Old Hairpin, and in attempting to return to the track (see pic 4), put the power on a bit too early, and despite his best efforts, he lost control and crossed the track and smote the barriers near Starkey's damaging the tail of the Ferrari. He got going again but trickled back to the pits to retire. Pic 2, a rather poor one, but shows the Aston DB3S (27 - 8th) of David Bennett and Chris Woodgate, the Allard J2X Le Mans (4 - 7th) of Tom Walker and Jonathan Cobb, and the Austin Healey 100M (65 - 9th) of Neil Hardy and Jeremy Welch. The Aston and Allard stayed close most of the race with just a couple of seconds splitting them after the hour. Pic 3 is of the Osca MT4 (40) of Pickering/Pickering which finished 22nd. Pic 5 - the Porsche 356 of Williams/Anso which finished 19th, and the final pic in this post is of the Aston DB3 (17 - 14th) of Martin Melling and Richard Hall, and the Ferrari 750 Monza (12 - 11th) of Richard and Andrew Frankel.

[John Turner]

The Aston DB2 (51 - 12th) of Mark Midgeley and Adrian Johnson. Pic 2, the Kurtis 500S (99) of Christopher Keen, one of the few driving solo, drove very quickly and consistently, and in fact put in the fastest race lap of all in getting to within 4.7 seconds of the winner at the flag, for a fine 2nd place. Pic 3 is of the Hardy/Welch Healey again. Next we have 85 which si the Stehen Bond/Keith Fell Lister 2 seater Sports which finished 6th. Pic 5 is the Chris and Oliver Philips Allard J2X (1) which failed to finish and the final pic is of another non finisher, the Gordini 23S (30) Eddie McGuire and Nick Wigley. I will post a few more pics of this race but it won't be immediately!

[John Turner]

A pair of Frazer Nashes; the Phil Champion Mille Miglia (36 - 13th) and the Le Mans Replica (38 - 10th) of Gavin Henderson and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards. Next pic shows the Mike Thorne/Johnny Todd Austin Healey 100M (44 - 5th). Car 10 is the 3rd placed Lotus 10 of Adrian Hall and Nick Adams. For much of the race they seemed to be in close company with the RGS Atlanta of Barrys, Cannell and Wood, who finished 4th. 50 is Mark Hoble who drove solo in his Triumoh TR2, whilst having a spin is the C-type Jaguar (2) of Stephan Ziegler and Bob Newall who finished 17th. Finally, the winning D type, this time with Ben Eastick aboard (I hope that I have the drivers in this car the right way round - I'm sure Ben will tell me, if not!).

[John Turner]

22 starters; 21 finishers

I must admit to a bit of scepticism here in terms of grid size, but was pleasantly surprised, and actually, now I come to think of it, I'm seeing more and more ladies in racing overalls at all levels of motor racing; brilliant stuff!

This race was over 5 laps, and was led initially by Jane Varley in her Aston Martin 15/98 Speed model (20), followed by Sue Darbyshire in the Morgan Super Aero (157), Tania Pilkington (38 - MG K3 Replica) and Holly Mason in Aston Ulster LM17 (17). See Pic 1 as they enter The Old Hairpin. Pic 2 shows these 4 on lap 2 through the Craner Curves with Darbyshire having taken the Morgan into the lead. Pic 3 is of the Riley Nine 12/4 Special of Joanne White who finished 4th. 88 is the Talbot Lago T23 of Gillian Carr who finished 6th, whilst Josephine Shoosmith was 7th in her Frazer Nash Boulogne (77). Try as she might, Varley (20) was unable to wrest the lead from the very determined Darbyshire who took the flag by 2 seconds. Tania Pilkington was 3rd.

[John Turner]

Holly Mason was sadly to retire LM17 (17) after 3 laps. The big Lagonda LG45(135) rather dwarfs Georgina Bradfield but she ladyhandled it to 12th. The BMW/FN 319 Sports (41) of Emma-Jane Gilbart-Smith was 13th, the last car to finish on the same lap as the winner. 95 is the MG Magnette of Sarah Diffey who finished 15th. Pic 5 shows the out of focus (sorry!) Alvis Sports Special (72) of Pia Bianchi, the Alfa Romeo Sports (79) of Rosanagh Eden and the Alfa 6C 1750 of Alex Pilkington (28). They finished 10th, 12 & 11th respectively. Finally, Sadie Wigglesworth (80 - Lea Francis Hyper - 14th) leads Diffey and Heloise Way (82 - Austin 7 Ulster - 16th).

[John Turner]

18 classified finishers.

29 cars qualified for this race according to my grid sheet but as we have already mentioned, a few didn't start following the thefts. I'm not clear how many actually took up their grid positions, since the VSCC website from which I took the results this morning does not seem to list non finishers. It also seems to have a few errors and driver name omissions on it. I'll try to correct one or two as I go through.

As we have discussed, the races were running late, so that this 1 hour race with pit stop, the last of the day, started just before 7.00pm. Lighting conditions were difficult, even for the pros, so, as an amateur, I was really struggling. However, I tend to guess the best setting and just click away and take as many as I can (the real benefits of the digital age!) in the hope that some will turn out OK. On this occasion, as usual, most came out as rubbish, but just a few seem to have captured the interesting light, so here goes!

Gareth Burnett had qualified on pole, by 3 seconds, with John Ruston's Alta Sports but as we have seen this entry was withdrawn, so it was Charles Gillett who was effectively on pole and he it was who took the lead from the off (see pic 1 ) in his Frazer Nash Supersports (44) which he gradually extended from the similar car driven by Patrick Blakeney Edwards and Andrew Hall (sorry I have no decent surviving pic of this car, Patrick!). Gillett was to win by just over 21 seconds. Pic 2 is of Jim Campbell's Aston Martin Mk II which ultimately finished 3rd. For the record this quick car actually started life as a MkII saloon but was rebodied in the style of a 1.5 litre Ulster, but fitted with a 2 litre engine. Pic 3 is, according to the results, a Morgan 4-4 TT Replica driven by Adrian Van Der Kroft. However, the car (177) is clearly an ex works Talbot AV105, and finished 6th. The results also show it as winning class PW1 but I hope that the driver (I assume that it was Adrian?) was not given an award for it since that class is for cars up to 1100cc! Next we have the MG K1/K3 (6) of Peter Fenichel and John Dutton which does not appear in the results sheets. David Ozanne takes his Aston Martin 15/98 Speed (9) model into the Old Hairpin ahead of the Turner/Metcalfe Alfa Romeo Spyder Corsa (2). The Aston finished 12th. Final pic is of John Polson taking his Talbot AV105 replica to 7th.

[John Turner]

16 is the Alta sports, in the Craner Curves, driven by Sam Stretton and Chris Chilcott, which surtely should have finished much higher than its 17th final postion, so I'm assuming a problem. It had been running 3rd early on. Spectacular stuff from the supercharged 4.5 litre Bentley (1) of Nigel Batchelor on its way to 14th. Next is another pic of the Alf Corsa Spyder (2) which finished 10th. It is seen here coming through Redgate; by this time I was shooting through the fence and gently heading towards the exit gates! 31 is the Agnew/Murphy Bentley 3/4.5 which finished 8th. Following the driver change, the driver of the Alfa Spyder Corsa checks before emrging onto the track as Jim Campbell passes by. In the background appears to be the Richard Lake/Jane Varley Aston Speed Model which presumably started but pitted and didn't rejoin as it does not appear in the results sheets. Final pic is of the Alfa Romeo 1750 (28) of Alex and Tania Pilkington who crossed the line in 17th place. Behind is the 31 Bentley.

[John Turner]

Patrick, this is about the the best I can do for the Le Mans Replica as I was shooting (almost) into the sun.

That about wraps up this meeting for me, as I went to Cadwell the following so. At least I can say that I was at Donington for the last meeting at the 'old' circuit, even if not for the last day. Anyone care to post pics/make comments for the Sunday races as there were clearly a lot of great cars racing?

[eclectic]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Spectacular stuff from the supercharged 4.5 litre Bentley (1) of Nigel Batchelor on its way to 14th.

I wonder how different the internals of his engine are from the engines used by Barnato etc at the 24 heures du Mans and Brooklands?

I'm sure if they had that 'flame thrower' exhaust in period there would be wonderful Gordon Crosby paintings to demonstrate just how spectacular it was.

Clearly something odd going on, any suggestions?

I was spectating from the Red Gate corner during practise and thought it looked very 'wrong'. There are all sorts of rumours going about that some competitors are using brand new 5.2 litre "Bentley" engines with the blocks metal sprayed with iron to thwart a magnet test, much higher compression ratios than were ever achievable in the '20's and loads of overlap on the cam, even wild stories of limited slip diffs.......... however, if any of this was true, it was all to no avail as the driver came nowhere near to bothering the engravers.

[john ruston]

Mr Chicot parked the Jose Fernandez Alta in gravel trap so that answers that .They would have finished behind Nash pair should the boys have kept to the black stuff
Best line about GB non start from Andrew Hall.Thought the fiver they gave that big bloke to nick Gareths wallet very good value as they knew the three quid he lost would stop him racing!.Those Nash bods think of everything.

[john ruston]

Nigel Batchelor-Its the pee's he eats on daily basis.The innards of that Bentley are absolutely as period.

[eclectic]

Originally Posted by john ruston

Nigel Batchelor-The innards of that Bentley are absolutely as period.

Glad to hear it, still, it seems that an awful lot of fuel is going into that engine and not being burnt until after the exhaust valves!

As I said, these are the general paddock rumours about some competing Bentleys, doubtless, if true, someone would have raised a protest?

[john ruston]

Why,They are nearly -about 4.5 litres and those Tractor drivers need all the grunt they can get!Those old brakes were no good anyway,cant expect people to race safely with those!Bottom line is they are a bit cumbersome and slow so nobody's really interested in protesting anything with old bangers.We have the alternative method of taking the pi.. out of each other if we think an entrant is trying it on.
Have you seen those crap plates the professional race organisers give away as prizes!

[John Turner]

I just assumed that timing was a bit out on the Batchelor Bentley. I wonder what colour the plugs were at the end?

[eclectic]

I forgot to add the smiley to my original post!

Still, I would wonder why the engine rebuilder thinks it is a good thing to waste so much potential energy in the exhaust system!

Just for fun maybe?

[Boys In Blue]

8.10 pm Sunday 25 October Motors TV

The Vintage Seaman Race

The Historic Seaman and Flockhart Trophies Race

The Williams Trophy Race

Standard and Modified Pre-war Sports Car Race

[John Turner]

Thanks BIB, must try and remember that.

[eclectic]

BiB, do I read this right, so somebody from TOPO (The Old Post Office HQ of the VSCC) now posts here?

[john ruston]

Nigel Batchelor plug colour-Obviously green.

[simon drabble]

John T - great photos of great cars, the older I get the more I start to get the whole VSCC era

[eclectic]

Originally Posted by simon drabble

John T - great photos of great cars, the older I get the more I start to get the whole VSCC era

Oh yes!

[jamesholland]

Seconded!

[john ruston]

Not a bad season.
VSCC combined with AMOC Team Races at 300 Quid ish a time would make for an entertaining year.Cars stay at about same price and usually cheap to run if you get a good one.Drive to circuit and then home.
That's club racing at its best and like it was in the good old days!