Silverstone 'Classic' Festival 09 - The Event

[John Turner]

27 starters; 25 starters.

The 2nd race for these cars, this time over 20 minutes. They provided good racing again, I felt, despite the disparity in classes and performance. There was a good early dice for the lead between Dave Jarman (1 - Nissan Primera ST), Tom Shephard (144 - BMW E36 M3 GTS) and Stewart Whyte (8 - Honda Accord - see Pic 1. It was the Honda that emerged at the front after a couple of laps, and pushed off, leaving the BMW and Nissan to battle it out to the flag with the BMW taking 2nd by less than two tenths!

Pic 2 - how's this for a contrast? Unfortunately, Mike Bell's Escort RS1600 only lasted a couple of laps. Rick Pearson's Nissan Primera was 8th. You can't say that these cars don't provide a bit of colour either- see pic 3 - probably the two best sounding cars in the race - Jason Minshaw drove a blinder, I thought, in the BMW E30 M3 (44) in which he finished 6th, whilst the Ford Mondeo (9) of Alvin Powell just pipped him to 5th. Kenneth Rattenbury spins his Nissan on his way to 16th, whilst Ted Williams retired his Ford Sierra RS500 Cossie (50) after 5 laps. Final pic is of Stuart Scott who finished 22nd in the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (77). I think that I would have made this second race 'The Richard Lloyd Memorial Trophy' for obvious reasons.

[John Turner]

43 is the Ford Capri of Tom Pochciol which finished 25th, whilst the much more powerful V8 Perana replica version (25) of Richard Austin finished 7th. 89 is the Nissan Primera of Nigel Bowen who finished 12th and 22, on the grass, is Paul Moloney in his E36 M3 (22 - 14th). 27 is Grahame Bryant in his Ford Capri RS 2600 which finished 15th. I've only just realised (doh!) that Joe Twyman was driving Roger Wills BMW 3.0CSL for this second race, Roger giving Joe the drive after the other CSL broke its crank in practice. Joe finished 18th. Finally, Simon Diffey drove exuberantly to 19th in his Ford RS2000 (20).

[johnh875]

Good stuff John, I will have to have another look at my pictures - I think I posted a link the the album before. I have to say the combination of different eras gave a lot more interest to the race - in addition to some good, close racing (plus some less close!)

[Tim the Grey]

My only complaint was the SuperTourers were, um, 'fragile'?
They'd fly away at the start, then drop away, eventually to fade into the pits. Or park.
Ah well, next year maybe.

[rogerwills]

Originally Posted by John Turner

I've only just realised (doh!) that Joe Twyman was driving Roger Wills BMW 3.0CSL for this second race, Roger giving Joe the drive after the other CSL broke its crank in practice. Joe finished 18th.

Some good evidence there of front splitter abuse John. Thanks, shall be presenting Joe a bill for that one!

[John Turner]

Ooops, sorry, Joe.

[Tim the Grey]

This from a bloke who DESTROYED the splitter in the first race?

[rogerwills]

quiet please......

[john ruston]

Tim.When you pay the Bills you set the rules!

[Tim the Grey]

True, John.
Piper, tune...

[John Turner]

23 starters; 20 finishers.

A 23 (?) minute race, Harvey Death cruised to a big victory again in his V8 Super Tec engined car but the battle for 2nd was good between Ioannis Epidis (10) and Clive Death (85) with the former pipping the latter by just under a second. Roger Wills (1) finished 9th, whilst Barrie Williams (20) pulled off the track briefly but then continued, to finish 7th. 9 is Andrew Worsley's Mini Miglia which finished 12th.

And that's it for another year - a very long weekend.

[SAMD]

Originally Posted by John Turner

23 starters; 20 finishers.

A 23 (?) minute race.

That just gave me a notion. What if race distances were determined (within a minimum and a maximum, say, 10 Minute minimum and 20 Minute maximum if we were talking about 20minute races) by the No of entries. Sounds very complicated!

So if you had a poor grid of say, 9 cars, the race length would be 10 mins. But if you had a good grid of say, 22 cars, the race would run its full distance. ie; 20 mins And a 15 Car grid would get 15 minutes.

[Al Weyman]

Yeah very fair, you pay your start fee and because no one else turns up you only get half a race, no thanks.