HSCC, 2008 Autosport 3 Hours Event, Snetterton

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by jamesholland

John, may I correct your report on the Jim Russell Trophy for 500cc F3?

I did inded finish last but had no spins. My lowly placing was down the fact that I started the race a lap and a half down due to an ongoing paddock rebuild in an effort to get the brakes working. I lost them in practice at Russell thanks to a broken flare on the front pipe at the master cylinder. It proved very difficult to get the air out of the system hence the delay and in the race I gradually lost braking performance resulting in another grassy excursion at Russell.

James, thanks very much for the clarification. This is why I so much want drivers to contribute to these threads. It's racing history; may not be important in world affairs but still good to get the facts right.

[John Turner]

This was the race in which I lost my focus settings on my new camera and got home to find virtually all the images blurred so most were deleted, repeating what I had done for the same race at Silverstone, 3 weeks earlier. So 3 poor pics only, I'm afraid!

I don't think that this was a particularly good turnout for these cars; just 24 of them, of which only 16 finished. Julian Barter is the man to beat his year with the TVR3000M which he placed on pole. However, there were a couple of heavy hitters behind him, Richard Plant (Morgan Plus 8) and Paul Anderson (Porsche 928) who qualified 2nd and 3rd respectively who I thought might give him a race given the couple of long straights at this circuit. Surprisingly low down on the grid was Paul Conway, who only qualified 6th in his Morgan plus 8. As it turned out Barter made a great start, Anderson didn't, dropping a couple of places off the line, and Plant just didn't have the pace and retired after 4 laps. Conway's run looked promising without making a real impression on the runaway TVR, but he too retired at the end of 10 laps. It was left to a recovering Anderson to try to chase Barter down, and he did post fastest lap. However, we weren't to find out whether a race for the lead was on since he too, then retired, after 14 laps. Barter therefore ran out an easy winner by 15.5 seconds from current champion, Rory Stockbridge in his Lotus Europa, with Julian's father, Charles, 3rd in the Datsun 240Z.

Andy Jarvis upheld 928 honours by finishing 7th:-


8th was Luke Clark-Bagnall in the great sounding Triumph GT6 Mk3:-


It's good to see a Ferrari contest this series, this year, and William Jenkins has been notching up some good results. Here he was 4th in the 308GTB:-

[John Turner]

Frankly, a poor turnout for this race with only 12 starters and 8 finishers. l can't remember whether this clashed with events elsewhere in Europe but it is disappointing so few turned out because I'd have thought that this circuit suited these cars. Just as well the Lyons family turned up as they had four cars running, so good on them!

Anyway, it was young Michael Lyons (64 - Lola T400) who quickly hit the front from the second row and was never headed, although he was pressured early on by Mark Dwyer, until the latter's Lola T400 failed. Here they come through the Russell Chicane, looking like the mirror image they actually are!:-


Michael Hibberd brought his very smart Brabham BT38 home in 3rd place. I think this was only the second time out this season for this newly restored car:-


Neil Glover (Lola T300/332) had to contend with Frank Lyons (Lola T332) breathing down his neck for over half the race until Frank retired with fuel feed problems. Thereafter, Neil was able to relax a little and stroked home to 2nd:-


David Brown finished 6th in his lovely Brabham BT30:-


'Our Prof', John Monson was 4th in Frank Lyon's Lola T332; that wonderful helmet makes John highly photogenic!:-


Bruce Fullerton was 5th in his earlier Lola T300:-


7th was Colin Gray in his well known BT30 and rounding off the classified finishers was Simon Taylor in the March 78B. The two other non finishers were Judy Lyons in the truly stunning Gurney Eagle who retired after 12 laps and poor old Tim Barry in the Trojan T102 after just one lap. It has to be said that Tim's ownership of this car has not, so far, provided him with a lot of fun!

[John Turner]

A great mix of cars in this 26 car field of which 24 finished.

Front row man, Julian Dodd, used the power of his TVR Griffith to snatch the lead from poleman, Andrew Marler in his Lotus Elan S2. Marler took the lead back going into Russell Chicane where we see Dodd, at the end of the first lap:-


In truth, Marler always had the edge on pace over the rest of the field but pressed on hard to build up his lead, in the expectation, no doubt, that one of several quick cars behind him would emerge from the chasing group to press him. He very nearly threw it all away (see later!):-


There was a strong contingent of Triumphs, led by regular competitor, Colin Sharp in his faithful TR5. He finished 8th, but further back Dickon Parnell (60 -GT6 Mk2) briefly had his mirrors full of David Kirby's TR5. Parnell, however, soon pulled away to open up a substantial gap at the end. They finished 17th and 18th respectively:-


The battle for 3rd, behind the Elan and TVR was very intense with much swapping of places between the Ginetta G4 (5) of David Randall and the Morgan plus 8 of Bruce Stapleton (4). Randall was eventually to get the upper hand, as we shall see. Stapleton finished 4th:-


The Lotus Elan of Rachel Watts heads through the Bombhole om her way to 20th:-


The only all American muscle in the race, the Ford Mustang of Adam Simmonds finished 13th:-


A loud pop and Mark Hoble's Morgan Plus 4 became shrouded in steam and he pulled in at the end of this, lap 14. Blown core plug, Mark?:-


The delightful Alfa Romeo Guilia Sprint of Graham Oakins was last of the classified finishers:-


Once Randall had finally gained the ascendancy over Stapleton he went after Dodd for 2nd. In the meantime, Marler having built up a cushion in the lead lost it all when he had an off, coming into the Esses. I don't know whether he did this on his own or tripped over a backmarker but the result was that a surprised Dodd found himself back in the lead albeit now pressed both by the recovering Marler and a thoroughly motivated Randall. Both the smaller cars overtook the TVR, and briefly Randall looked to have a chance against the Lotus. However, Marler got everything back under control to win by 2.8 seconds. What I don't understand, given the closeness of the race for most of its length, is how both Dodd and Stapleton dropped so far back from Marler and Randall. Although finishing 3rd and 4th they were fully 16 seconds behind Randall at the end:-


And that completes Saturday and my input since I didn't attend on Sunday. Saturday's racing was excellent and entertaining, culminating in the 3 hour race which we have already covered extensively earlier. Superb day, abd I can't wait until next year.

[HRSTR5]

Thanks John, great photos and a good report.

Perhaps one day I'll do something note-worthy, for the right reasons I hope, and get to feature in the reports! For the moment consistent mid-field results are relly the best I can hope for.

If you ever get some nice shots of my TR5 (#31) I'd be interested in seeing them.

James

[John Turner]

James, if you read my reviews regularly, you will know that I don't just focus on the pointy end, often posting pics of last place, and even non finishers. I also try to include as many 10-tenthers, that I know of, as possible, although there are limits to the number of pics I have time to allocate to each race. I have several shots of you in this race. Will this one do, taken literally seconds before the shot of Mark Hoble, above?

James Owen finished 17th in his Triumph TR5:-

[john ruston]

Anyone know of B8 for sale we fancy a go at this.Our old car did well and its time to put our foot in the water again!

[terence]

New or original.?

[zefarelly]

wait until season end when a few more 'bankers' are sweating over their bonus etc . .save yourself a bit of money John!

[john ruston]

Always with History ,back to 60's and can be Road Registered

[John Turner]

John, the B8s are fabulous cars and whilst we must keep them in, there were enough of them in this race. What we are missing are a few genuine earlier GT cars from the early to mid 1960s and this would put the icing on the cake for this excellent race. Your Porsche 904 is exactly the sort of car that this event needs. I thought that's what you had in mind for it anyway! Now all we need is a couple of Ferrari 250/275 LMs (wouldn't it be great to see Peter Hardman in one?), a couple of early GT40s and maybe a Carrera 6. I suspect that the owners of such exotica would be reluctant to pit there valuable cars against some of the newer ones, especially over 3 hours, but it sure would be a great spectacle and evoke memories. Oh and as Roger Wills has suggested, a separate award, for the for first pre 1966 car home. Of course he has a good reason for saying that as he and Joe Twyman would have won that award this year. It is still a valid point, however.

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Now all we need is a couple of Ferrari 250/275 LMs .

I'll have a quick look on fleabay shall I !

It has been suggested, and I believe the HSCC are split, that the race run pre66, perhaps alternate years would do the trick ?

or even better, run the Guards as is and do a 3-4 hour at Brands for GT's and tin tops, pre66, a la SPa 6 hour . . .Gordon and I can share the Cortina then as a precursor for a 6 hour entry

[john ruston]

Snett's OK for us and idea is to do races with both B8 and 904.There is no way 904 can be competitive and then if there are other probs with 904/6's how big are the engines?Did you see the one at LMC.I am aware that the 904/6 that broke 3 mins at Spa was 2.7 litre.Best of luck to them

[John Turner]

Not expecting the 904/6 to be competive, John. It's the fact that it's going to be there that is important. The main thing, for me anyway, is seeing them out there, being driven.

[terence]

Talking of Ferrari 250s,I see the Cottingham brothers are out in one for the six hour.The interest will be in the distance travelled.