HSCC Silverstone, 12th May

[Gary Critcher]

Well, speaking personally, I had the best race I've had in about two years in the Historic FFord race! Maybe it was the use of the International Circuit, but I had a great time dicing with Barry Hargreaves in his Lotus 61. What did everyone else think?

[simon drabble]

I had a great day - didnt qualify that well but had a great race and gained 4 places to finish about where I think I should have probably started! Met John Turner finally! Thoroughly enjoyed the day despite the weather (and a very slippery track!) roll on Snetterton... HSCC do it again!!

[ChrisA]

Hi Gary, from a marshals view the race was brilliant. I was observing at '' Ireland '', and watching you all coming round Becketts on the 1st two laps I must admit I expected the worst.But HEY absolutely superb. Hope to see you all again at the Classic.

[Teddington Ted]

I met John too for the first time. Good to put a face to a name.

I had a really enjoyable day. The International Circuit has some great corners. After a bit of boating in the morning the HRS race was held in dry conditions (last race). I managed to hold my qualifying position and and run with the TR5s for a while so am a happy bunny.

[Gary Critcher]

just to let you know, I've added 4 little videos from yesterday to my Youtube account here : http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Nike155 , nothing special, just a bit of fun.

[John Turner]

Great to meet some 'old' 10 Tenth friends (and sorry to miss others, especially Gary who I always seem to miss) and make some new ones in T.Ted, Simon and gojo. Thank you to all who made kind remarks about the pictorial reviews of the meetings; it is encouraging, because without the feedback, it's difficult to know whether it is striking the right chord!

This was a great meeting and I think that we can now hopefully say that the pattern of good entrant support with big grids is established now for this season. Even the BRDC Historic Sportscars grid was excellent and the Guards Trophy race showed a massive swelling of ranks. Coupled with excellent racing on the rarely used International circuit this was a meeting to savor. I stationed myself at Abbey (briefly on the inside, but rapidly moved to the outside) where the bend in this guise was almost a hairpin, and since it is a not a corner with which any of the competitors had much experience, the lines taken were both interesting and 'revolutionary' in both senses of the word. As TT, has said the weather threatened to undermine the meeting in the morning and there were some very wet qualifying sessions. However, the track had begun to dry out by the start of the first race and by race 3, I think it would be fair to say (?) the track was dry. A few spits in the air was all we incurred during the afternoon, and thanks to all officials and marshals, the intense 10 race programme was completed on time.

I'll do my usual with this, but since I will probably be away for 3 days in the middle of the week (I really do have another life, you know!) it will be slow going I'm afraid. Contribs. from others, always welcome in any event, will therefore be even more appreciated!

[Gary Critcher]

Hi John, sorry not to meet you again, Brands Superprix perhaps? I do hope you got a piccy of my little dice with Barry Hargreaves, from where I was sitting it looked absolutely brilliant!!

[John Turner]

Gary, yes it was great dice, and I think I did capture it, and if so it will be included when we get to that race. I will hopefully get to the Superprix.

[Gary Critcher]

Excellent! Thank you!

[simon drabble]

I seem to recall some rather lairy lock ups into that corner - and you are right many different lines - I think I tried them all and decided that the "wrong line" according to the books worked best for me, which probably explains why I am midfield not squirty end!!
It was a great meeting and you are right the Guards Trophy was a strong high quality grid. Talk in the paddock was of a possible 6 Hour race into tyhe night at next years Silverstone Classic......

[brands]

It was the first time I've watched and shot on the International circuit where Joe Public had access to the infield which allowed Priory, inside and outside of Abbey and especially Ireland to be used along with the normal Luffield.
Being able to drive from corner to corner also helped when there are rain storms about

I was really surprised at the different lines at Ireland and the speed of several series in the dry there.

A great meeting and I hope the International circuit can be used more often.

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by brands

A great meeting and I hope the International circuit can be used more often.

I agree, and I'm sorry we didn't meet up this time.

Melvyn Selwyn (at least I assume it is him) fills up his 911S:-


Malcolm Verey's Mustang and Graeme Dodd's Jaguar return from qualifying:-


I'm sure that this has been said before but I can't resist saying 'Hands on Hans'. Mike Walker, Lotus 23b:-


An exciting interloper left behind from the previous days testing. An ex Targa Florio Lola T212. In the background, John Rand's Palliser WDB2 (73) and Cliff Gidden's Brabham BT16:-

[John Turner]

Historic FF1600s:
RHS - 31 - Roy Siergiejew's Merlyn Mk17, 77 - Chris Sharple's Palliser WDF1, 66 - Gregory Thornton's Titan Mk4
LHS - 99 - Roger Arnold's Merlyn Mk20, 15 - Gareth Paul's Merlyn Mk 17A, 3 - Chris Atkinson's Merlyn Mk20:-


'Eyes Right' Gordon Wright wonders whether he's just passed his pit garage in the Stanguellini:-


One lap of qualifying in the wet and John Chisholm brings his beautiful XK120 in to have the tyre pressures checked:-


The airbox on the Lola T332 recently acquired by Simon Hadfield and Marcus Pye. Both car and livery are original but not together. However, Simon thought it would be good to show this livery off. I agree:-

[John Turner]

I could go on with this P & P series of images, but I'll make this the last lot.

Phil Bennet finds his pit garage closed (true!) to his Lister Jaguar:-


Another Little and Large image. Ian Fraser's Lotus 11 is dwarfed by the Allard J2X of Chris Phillips:-


Not my idea of fun! Tony Pickerings (Correction - Tony Fielding, my apologies - see gojo's post - JT) Anglia receives attention:-


Another view of John Chisholm's XK120; this time under cover:

[John Turner]

Taken from the inside of the track at Abbey, I realised quite quickly that the zoom on my camera was inadequate, so this race was the only one from this vantage point.

Qualifying had been in the dry, but for the race the track, although drying, was still pretty wet in places. Poleman was Ben Simms with March 803B with Richard Trott alongside in his Chevron B43. The commentators reminded us that Richard had been racing these cars in period against some pretty illustrious names and it was he who grabbed an early lead. However, once the wet conditions had sorted out the field he succumbed to the 3 Ralt RT1s, of Bill Coombs, Peter Williams and Paul Smith, who finished in that order. Simms finished 4th, with Trott, 5th.

Nigel Grant (Delta T78) tries to hold off Roger Price's one year newer version of the same marque, but to no avail. Price finished 12th, Grant, 16th:-


Paul Wyeth (March 793) moves up the inside of Thomas Brimblecombe's Lola T580 and eventually finished 8th whereas Brimblecombe finished 11th:-


Peter Williams, as mentioned above, took his Ralt to 2nd, with fastest race lap, albeit 3 seconds slower than his best qualifying time:-


David Boland took his March 763 to 17th:-

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by John Turner

The airbox on the Lola T332 recently acquired by Simon Hadfield and Marcus Pye. Both car and livery are original but not together. However, Simon thought it would be good to show this livery off. I agree:-

Great pics as usual John.

Is the Lola's colour scheme based on the Danny Ongais car that ran F5000 in the States?

I do believe Ongais drove for Interscope in F5000 and Indy Cars.

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by John Turner

The commentators reminded us that Richard had been racing these cars in period against some pretty illustrious names and it was he who grabbed an early lead. However, once the wet conditions had sorted out the field he succumbed to the 3 Ralt RT1s, of Bill Coombs, Peter Williams and Paul Smith, who finished in that order. Simms finished 4th, with Trott, 5th.

I remember Richard in FF1600 in the early 80's. Always approachable by us Marshals asking questions. I could never understand how such a pleasant chap could be so ruthless on the track! These were the days of big grids, works teams and lots of competition, so I was pleased when he won the season finale at Siverstone, against big opposition.

Went on to FF2000 in 83 and won the championship fairly easliy. (It was the year after Ayrton Senna). Then did F3 in a Ralt RT3 on what was probably a shoestring budget.

Good to see he's back racing again. He posts on here occasionally so perhaps he can give an insight into his early racing days.

[gojo]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Not my idea of fun! Tony Pickerings Anglia receives attention

Nice to meet you the weekend John! unfortunately I changed to wet set up (you know snorkel flippers waterwings etc. thinking won't get caught out like last year), but didn't notice that the track was drying faster then Oliver reads whisky glass.

Sorry to correct you but that was Tony Feildings Anglia with his Dad Ronnie trying to fix clutch problem before the race,but to no avail.

Joe Gomm

[Alan Morgan]

I'm fairly certain that Richard Trott's dominant FF2000 year was 1980 (I think he had about 20 wins).

[Alan Raine]

Alan,

You are right.

I did it from memory without checking the facts.

My apologies.

(Take 3 years of each date!)

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by Alan Raine

Is the Lola's colour scheme based on the Danny Ongais car that ran F5000 in the States?

I do believe Ongais drove for Interscope in F5000 and Indy Cars.

I guess so. It had Ted and Judi Fieldings name on the car but they WERE Interscope weren't they?

Originally Posted by gojo

Sorry to correct you but that was Tony Feildings Anglia with his Dad Ronnie trying to fix clutch problem before the race,but to no avail.

Don't be sorry ..... and I have no idea where I got 'Pickering' from which I find a trifle worrying!

I'll try to put a few more pics up later today for Races 2 & 3.

[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 Turner]

Another fine grid of cars for this very popular series. One can't help feeling that those two very fine practitioners of this particular discipline, Neil Fowler and Nelson Rowe should be moving on to demonstrate their clear prowess to bigger audiences, but I guess minor issues like money and life have got in the way! However, they clearly enjoy what they do and continue to provide us with excellent racing. I promise not to eulogise about them again, other than to say that their dice this time took them away from the rest of the field by over 2 seconds a lap. I dare say you may be fed up with a further image of them in action but I couldn't resist posting this 8-wheeler image. I understood from the commentary that they made slight contact at one point which briefly put Rowe behind by 3 seconds or so. However, he made up the ground and finished just 0.064 seconds behind. The lapped car is that of Terence Tumber in his Lola T200 who finished 23rd:-


Gary Critcher (89 - Nike Mk4/6) has already alluded to his dice with Barry Hargreaves (5 - Lotus 69) which was great to see. They finished in the order shown, 21st and 22nd:-


Anthony Smith (35) and Rodney Bloor (41) in their Merlyn MkIIAs avoid the spinning Gareth Paul in his Merlyn Mk17A. Smith finished 25th, Bloor, 26th and Paul, 27th:-


Chip off the old block? Will Schryver took his Merlyn Mk20 to a fine 4th:-

[John Turner]

This, the third race in the new Garads Trophy series, should have established its justification since this was a big grid of good quality. However, if we are to see a real race for the lead, we need Michael Schryver (B6) and Andy Newall (B8) to enter at the same time! It was Schryver's turn to drive away from the field this time.

The race for 2nd was better. Sean Mclurg had qualified his B6 alongside Schryver but a full 2 seconds slower and his race was with Stuart Tizzard's Lenham Spyder. Tizzard races better than he qualifies and he is ever improving with the Lenham which he took passed Mclurg early on, on the run up to Abbey, as seen in this long shot. Mclurg however, hung on, and it was only in the last few laps that Tizzard eked out a 3 second gap to take 2nd at the flag:-


Once described famously by Dave Brodie, on live TV, as Mad Mike Newman it was great to see Newman racing again. He took the E-type to 10th:-


Having finally met Simon Drabble, I suppose I ought to include a picture of him. Actually, I would have included this anyway, since it neatly displays the range of cars seen in this series. Simon in his Merlyn Mk6 (92) finished 12th, whilst Martin Williams in his Marcos GT finished 14th and Paul Castaldini finished 18th in his E-type:-


I have never hidden the fact that my favourite marque is Aston Martin and I suppose if I ever had the choice of just one road car regardless of cost, it would be a DB4GT. When I started watching motor racing live in the mid 60's, there were a few still being raced but as they aged and value spiralled, they disappeared from the racing scene and are now usually seen only in Classic Tours. So it takes a brave man to race one now, especially in a non AMOC event. So hats off to David Beckett who took this one to 16th. This is a genuine DB4GT too - DB4GT/0105/R, wonderful:-


I'm now away for a few days, so no more from me until probably Friday.

[Gary Critcher]

great photos, John! (if you have any more of my little dice, feel free to e-mail me at gary@yesterdaysracers.com , cheers).