HSCC Silverstone, 12th May

[simon drabble]

great photos John, thanks I guess that photograph was taken in the first lap. I can imagine that David Bennet would be right up your street as he also has a beautiful DB3RS (I think that is the right model - the sports racer)!

[mark garritt]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Best grid for these cars so far this season and included 7 FIA spec cars, 4 of which were American V8s (3 Mustangs & 1 Falcon). It was however, the Jaguar of Graeme Dodds who was on pole but for the race the track was still a bit tricky and he was unable to translate that into a victory and finished 5th. It was fellow front row man, Les Ely who hit the front early on with his BMW 2000 and made the running even opening a several car lengths gap initially. However, Bob Bullen (69 - Anglia) emerged from the pack (5th on the grid) to close on Ely and challenged strongly for the rest of the race. Both hard chargers, my fear of contact was ill founded and it was a good battle with just half a second separating them at the end. Bullen just couldn't quite make the decisive move:-


I don't claim quality for this pic, but you get value for money in terms of quantity. Harry Wyndham's Falcon (24 - 10th) in the vanguard. Forming up on him, Rob Kerkhoven (47 - Lotus Cortina - 15th), Mark Garritt (32 - Alfa Guilia - DNF), Steve Platts (94 - Singer Chamois - DNF), Simon Benoy (87 - Hillman Imp - DNF), Adrian Oliver (89 - Imp - 17th) & Malcolm Verey (26 - Ford Mustang - DNF). Coming in from the left with opposite lock on is Colin Flynn (78 - Mini Cooper S - 19th). Running wide to the right is the Ford Mustang of Peter Hallford. Hallford and/or his car seemed definitely off colour because I would normally expect him to be close to the pace of the similarly mounted Nigel Vaulkhard, who qualified 3rd and finished there too. Hallford on the other hand was 5 secs of pace in qualifying and although he reduced that to 2 seconds in the race it was still not enough to get him to the sharp end and he finished 14th:-


The third Mustang was that of Malcolm Verey which, as I have recorded above, failed to finish:-


The little DKW 3-6 of Tim Bishop finished 23rd and last of the classified runners. This is a 1959 car with an 1100cc engine, so good on him. The only older car was the 1958 Riley 1.5 of Peter Flatt who must have been pleased with his 20th position. I'd love to see more of these 50's cars out:-

John, the pics look good, I was driving 32, the DNF was due to the throttle cable, as the race progressed, it decided to come lose so we were only getting part throttle, eventually it gave up and that was that, frustrating, but typical Alfa! Les and Bob did themselves proud, as did a few of the other guys.

[John Turner]

Mark, warm welcome!

Great fun with a big grid of Formula Junior cars! The wet morning qualifying conditions threw up a surprise, and probably no more so than to poleman Simon Armer, who recorded a time nearly 3 seconds faster than anyone else in his Cooper T59, so well done, Simon. I'm sure he was realistic though, for the race was in dry conditions, but in giving best to the faster cars he still finished 6th in this big field. Simon Diffey in his Lotus 20 qualified 3rd but snatched an early lead but was chased down by Michael Hibberd who qualified 7th in the Lotus 27 and it appeared that we were in for a fine duel. However, this is the defining moment when Diffey lost it into the braking area for Abbey and beached it, on lap 4, allowing Hibberd (52) a relatively easy passage to the chequered flag.


Peter Mullen (21) failed to finish in his OSCA but Tim Bishop held this opposite lock moment very well, and continued on to finish 20th:-


The ladies would probably call this cute, and actually it is, isn't it? However, it was also well driven to 12th place. Andrew Taylor and his Britannia, and how rare is that? A one off?


3 different examples of the front engined cars surround the Elva 200 (32) of John Dowson and he didn't finish; I'm sure that there is no connection! No 27is the Gemini Mk2 of Paul Dixon who finished 25th, 4 is Derek Walker in the Terrier Mk1V who went onto to score a fine 8th (so probably lapping the others), and, at the back, I believe this to be No 18, the Elva 100 of William Colaric, who finished 24th:-

[johnh875]

Great stuff John, good to see some Imps racing. Did you get a chance to see the Aston up close? It looks to be in fantastic condition and it is great to see a car like that being raced.

[John Turner]

I certainly did John; had a good stroll round it in the pit garage.

Let's hope that the quality of entry for the BRDC sportscars can be maintained now. This race was for The Reg Parnell Trophy, and what a stalwart Parnell was for the Aston Martin team in the early to mid 50's and a much better driver than he is sometimes given credit for. Anyway, Gary Pearson had placed the Lister Jaguar on pole, rather surprising I felt given the conditions and that sharing the front row with him was Graeme Dodd in the Cooper Monaco. Pearson it was who led at the start on a dry track but ultimately he had no answer to Dodd who having got passed eased away to win by nearly 9 seconds. Apparently, this was the first time Dodd had beaten Pearson in a straight encounter and Tim Parnell presented the Trophy named after his father to the delighted Cooper driver.

The star of the race however, for me was Julian Majzub in the Sadler Mk3, a Canadian sports racing car of 1958 fitted with a 4.7 Chevrolet V8. We were told by the commentary that this car had been sitting in Majzub's collection in Switzerland gathering dust for many years. Clearly a handfull, it only qualified 13th, but come the race, Majzub manhandled (literally) the beast to 3rd overall. Even when he got the car pointed in the right direction, application of the throttle had the car kicking out of line, and every exit from Abbey required at least 3 attempts on the throttle before the car kept straight enough to keep the right foot planted. However, once underway, it absolutely rocketed down the straights. This car could be a real front runner if the power and handling can be harnessed properly. Here Majzub is fighting the car through Abbey in an attempt to pass 3rd place Steven Gibson in the Lister Jaguar. He did succeed but as you might have guessed it wasn't on this occasion:-


Closest to the camera is Tom McWhirter in the Tojeiro Jaguar who finished 17th. Alongside is Ben Eastwick who finished 10th in his D-type, and almost completely hidden from view, the Rejo MkIV of Ewan McIntyre who failed to finish:-


The lines through Abbey were in teresting and variable all day. Two are demonstrated here the Lotus Elevens of James Paterson (12 - 15th) and Ian Fraser (33 - DNF), seem more appropriate than that taken by Chris Phillips in his Allards J2X (14th):-


Barry Wood has just spun his RGS Atalanta going into Abbey, and it was of sufficient violence to throw the passenger (!) door open. Sadly, it caused him to pull the car into the pits to retire:-

[simon drabble]

another report of the high standard we come to expect from you John! I think (along with the Guards Trophy - so I am biased!) this was the feature race of the day.
Both races had a great variety of cars and some good racing throughout the field. I watched this race from the bank on the outside of Copse and thoroughly enjoyed the tussles going on.
The noise of the Lister Jaguars is superb - possibly only equalled by David Pipers Ferrari which was out testing on the day before. Quite understandably the man (not DP, it was an elderly American I have seen race a GT40 before) driving it wasnt pushing it which suited me as we saw and heard it for longer each time it came round!

[John Turner]

Thank you, Simon.

The grid for the DBT cars could have been larger but it could have been worse too, and I know that at least one regular, Neil Glover was on holiday. If you had to choose between a holiday or driving an F5000 car, surely it's no contest ....... so why weren't you there, Neil?

Peter Meyrick used his wet weather skills to put his March 762 on the grid, but had to be pushed off the grid and did not start. It was left therefore to Simon Hadfield to make the running in the Lola T332, which he did to such good effect that at the end of the race with 11 laps completed he had lapped everybody up to 3rd place and was 36 seconds clear of 2nd place man, Mark Dyer in his Lola T400, with the similarly mounted Frank Lyons, 3rd. Here he has just lapped Daryl Taylor (90 - March 78B - 7th) and is in the process of lapping Jeremy Wheatley (36 - Surtees TS15 - 11th):-


James Murray seems to make a habit of starting from the pitlane (what was the reason this time, James?) at Silverstone, but another fine and fast drive brought him through the field to finish 5th, in his Brabham BT36:-


Roderick Smith failed to finish in his Chevron B40:-


Stephen Gibson finished a good 4th in his Surtees TS8. He is seen here lapping Judy Lyons in Lola T332 (13th):-

[James Murray]

John your quite correct! This time the starter motor jammed and by the time the problem was resolved they wouldnt let me out the pit lane.

To be honest it wouldnt have made any difference to my finishing position if I had started properly the way things panned out. Nice photos.

[John Turner]

James thanks for the clarification. At least that way you get to overtake some cars! Your best lap was very close to the 4th place best so might have been an interesting dice!

[johnh875]

It must have been a great race meeting with all of those cars running, those last two races look fantastic.

If I can put in a request for the next few, I see in the results there was a Fairthorpe racing, did you get a photo of that? When I saw the name I had an image of an Atom but I see they are (very) different from that.

James what are the F5000 cars like to drive? What did you race before that?

[John Turner]

John, yes, I'm pretty certain that I have a picture of the Fairthorpe and will include it when I get to its race.

I don't think that James can tell you about driving F5000's though since he drives an F2 Brabham. Simon Hadfield might offer some thoughts though, if we can persuade him to post on this thread!

[johnh875]

Thanks for the clarification John - reading the sheets the thought did pass through my mind I hadn't heard of a Brabham F5000 car before, but I haven't heard of lots of cars so it didn't strike me as wrong!

[John Turner]

At last, Paul Anderson in his Porsche 928 took victory ahead of poleman Charles Barter in the Datsun 240Z. Although the race was stopped early Alexander seemed this time to have the edge and it was unlikely Barter, who was gracious in defeat was going to recover. In fact the lead contest also involved Paul Conway in the Morgan Plus 8. All three circulated closely together and Conway was actually closer to Barter, than Barter to Anderson at the end. All relative of course, since less than 1.8 seconds covered the three of them at end:-


Mark Bown's TVR 3000M came home 21st in this big field which had 36 starters and 32 finishers:-


Alfas hunt in packs! Max Haycocks (17) finished 29th, Mark Dudley (78) finished 27th and John Dobson (81), 31st:-


Mixed bag! The Spitfire of John Thomason finished 18th but could not stave off the Datsun 240Z of Paul Stafford (16th) or the the Escort RS of Bob Trotter (17th). All of them were passed by Peter Shaw in his TVR Tuscan (3 - litre V6 version) who went on to take 13th:-

[Teddington Ted]

John, it's Paul Anderson not Alexander.

[John Turner]

Yep, just checking to see if anyone is reading this ! No, seriously though, my apologies, thinking of too many things at once! I'll alter it. Paul Alexander drives a BRM, I think, doesn't he?

In the absence of Matthew Watts, it was good to see Ian Gray take victory in his Brabham BT30. However he wasn't pressed to achieve it, finishing over 16 seconds ahead of Richard Kendle in the BT21B:-


Richard Davies (6) takes his Brabham BT28 passed Anthony Goddards Merlyn Mk9 to finish 6th. Goddard finished 9th:-


Synchronised spinning by Antony Ross (51 - Lotus 59) and John Chisholm (85 - Gemini Mk3A) causes Chris Atkinson (3 - Merlyn Mk20) to take avoiding action. Chisholm stayed beached, but Ross finished 21st and Atkinson, 16th:-


Michael Scott in the Brabham BT30 he acquired from Neil Glover last year, finished 3rd:-

[John Turner]

Another fine grid of cars for the last race of the day. Simon Crompton is a fine driver and qualifying in the wet conditions probably helped but it was still a bit of a surprise to me to see him qualify the AC Ace Zephyr alongside poleman, James Paterson in the Morgan plus 8. I didn't rate Crompton's chances on a dry track. However, on the first lap Paterson, with Crompton no more than a few lengths behind, entered Abbey far too quickly, and wisely decided to keep the wheels straight and head onto the grass. In trying to regain the track he spun, and by the time he rejoined Crompton was about 12 seconds down the road with several cars between him and the by now fired up Paterson. The Morgan charged through to 2nd but he never really looked like getting to the AC in the time available, particularly as he continued to lose time at Abbey, which he never really seemed to get right. Crompton won by 6 seconds with an excellent display of fast and consistent lappery. What a gorgeous looking car that AC is:-


The very smart Porsche 911 of Peter Tognola put up the fastest lap in his class but unfortunately failed to finish:-


Paul Tooms Lotus Elan finished 7th, but Josh Sadler was another not to finish, in his Ginetta G4. Tony Howard was 8th in his Morgan plus 8 and Martin Halliday 9th in his Lotus 7 S3.


Already noted by John, above, the very rare Fairthorpe Electron Minor Mk2 of Spencer Arnold which finished 24th. This is powered by an 1147cc engine so presumably a Triumph Herald/Spitfire unit:-


So that's it. It remains for me to say that this was another excellent meeting by the HSCC and run to a tight schedule on time, packing in 10 races. So well done to the organisers, officials and marshals (as well as the competitors, of course!) for making this all happen.

[johngee]

Nice report and great photos as always. Sorry that you're not coming to Brands Hatch at the weekend - See you at HSCC Snetterton 9/10th June?

[johnh875]

Thanks John - not the best looking car I've ever seen, eg door line doesn't match the rest of the body, reminiscent of a Turner to some degree

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by johngee

Nice report and great photos as always. Sorry that you're not coming to Brands Hatch at the weekend - See you at HSCC Snetterton 9/10th June?

Thanks, John, and I'm almost certain to be at Snet.

Originally Posted by johnhH875

Thanks John - not the best looking car I've ever seen, eg door line doesn't match the rest of the body, reminiscent of a Turner to some degree

No, you're right, my shutline doesn't match the rest of my body .... oh hang on, you mean the car!

[johnh875]

I don't want to know what you were talking about there John!

[RICHARD.T]

Hi Alan
Thanks for the complements even if the facts were not quite right but I am not sure about the ruthless on the track bit.
I always tried to be pleasant to everyone and always found the marshalls good fun with their hearts in the right place. Sometimes when you are trying to get to the top (F1) you become too focused and serious but especially now I just try to be nice to everyone and enjoy the racing.
Bill Coombs did well but he is a very good driver and I am looking forward to a few more races with him, but hopefully with my car working OK.
THanks
Richard

[Neil Glover]

John

Holiday - i wish a blend of a blown engine and a broken leg i;m afraid precluded my outing at Silverstone - will also miss Snett but will be at Brands

[Neil Glover]

John

5000 are simply awesome to drive - 550 plus BHP and HUGE ammounts or torque the are blisteringly fast

[John Turner]

Neil, it's great that you have joined us. Blown engine and a broken leg is certainly a better excuse than a holiday which was the reason given to me by a close associate of yours! Hope the leg is on the mend, the engine getting rebuilt and to see you at Brands.

[Neil Glover]

thank you for the welcome - the V8 is now rebuilt and being re united with the Lola next week - leg is just fine now and will be fit for Brands. Look fwd to seeing you - pls pop over for a coffee its always lovely to catch up.
rgds