AMOC St John Horsfall, Silverstone, 2/6/2007

[John Turner]

I'm heading off to Silverstone to this, one of my favourite club meetings tomorrow. I've only missed it a few times since 1966! I'll attempt my usual effort of bringing a few pics to this thread next week. Anyone else going?

I'm also at Snet. on Sunday for the British GTs which will also have the Heritage GTs, so time permitting, I might do a thread on the Heritage race as well, unless someone else wants to kick one off.

[SZRacer]

Hi John,

As previously stated, I'll be there, in the 50s Sports Car Team Challenge. Hopefully we'll finally get a chance to meet and put a name to a face!

Regards,

James

[John Turner]

And so we finally did; good to meet you, James.

Fine cars and fine weather; I'll post some pics up during the coming few days.
One thing that surprised me was the total lack of any acknowledgement that this year is the 50th anniversary of the iconic DBR1/300's first international win. In 1957 Tony Brooks and Noel Cunningham-Reid took victory at the Nurburgring 1000kms, the first of 3 consecutive victories that this model had there. Surely worthy of commemoration.

[John Turner]

I always feel that this meeting deserves a better attendance of enthusiasts but the level of interest shown on this thread seems also to reflect that. I will neverless endeavour to cover the races in the hope that some might strike a chord!

First one gripe! I won't name them, but not for the first time, I was less than impressed with the commentary team for this event. I felt that as a spectator, I was eavesdropping on a private conversation, and they were constantly interrupting each other and wandering off on some, usually irrelevant, anecdote down memory lane. We'd get the 'I'll quickly run down the grid' comment but by row 2 or 3 an interruption by the other would mean we were very unlikely to get the full grid before the race started. Even during the racing the commentary would go off track and a couple of laps would pass before we were back to race commentary. I know that I couldn't do it any better, but I'm damn sure they could!

A line of pre-war Astons, that would later participate in Race 1:-


Marc Campfield brings his Frogeye Sprite in after qualifying. Hw would later win Race 4 which was for the Austin Healey Club Championship:-


Robert MacVicar's 'mildly modified' DB4 has had its rocker covers painted to match the stripe on the car, for when the bonnet is removed!:-


James Wiseman takes the Alfa Guilietta Sprint Zagato out for qualifying with brakes that were pulling to the left:-

[SZRacer]

Hi John,

Was great to meet you too, and have a chat (briefly!) before I went out to practice.

I have to agree with you about this meeting (and indeed, I could add, about the AMOC meetings I've taken part in this year), in that although there a some fantastic cars, both Aston and non-Aston, the meetings always feel somewhat 'flat' in terms of both friendliness and atmosphere. This is supposedly the 'big' AMOC meeting of the year, but you'd never know it.

I should add that my fellow competitors in the 50s Sports Car Team Challenge are all good fun and very friendly, but I can never quite shake the suspicion that as a non-Aston driver we are regarded as somewhat 'second-class' citizens.

This was confirmed on Saturday, by the empty grandstands, few spectators for the races, but full Aston car park and UBS hospitality area, which as non-Aston owners, we are not 'invited' to!

I know Aston DBs are now commanding serious money, but my SZ (or for that matter the ACs, Jags etc. in our race) are not exactly 'bangers' either!

Sorry, gripe over! I did enjoy the races as an antidote to the whole international meeting/huge pantechicon/hospitality unit type of meeting.

And john is correct about my brakes. The weird thing is that after much fettling, it still did it!! Also, had a terrible start - I was still getting into position on the grid, looked up, and the lights had gone out!

Regards,

James

[John Turner]

I must confess that I have never felt that lack of friendliness at this meeting but I agree that there is an element of flatness about the atmosphere due to the lack of spectators. However, I tend not to dwell on it because the quality of the cars, both Aston and non Aston, easily holds my interest.

The first race was for the pre-war cars, and considering their age this was a good sized grid. David Freeman placed the Speed Model on pole by 1.5 seconds. This car has been in the Freeman family for 50 years and has won the St John Horsfall trophy on numerous occasions - appropriate really, since it is an ex Horsfall car, and it won again quite comfortably by over 12.5 seconds, but did so without posting fastest lap:-


There were a number of good dices down the field, the best of which was for 2nd place between Andy Bell in his Speed Model and Jim Campbell in his Mk11, which had only recently been put back together after many years as several boxes of bits. It is a 1934 car but fitted with a later 2-litre engine. During the race in which they swapped places many times, they both improved on their qualifying times, and in finishing 2nd, Bell actually posted the fastest race lap. The first 3 cars were all lapping in excess of 72 mph, not bad for 70 year old cars:-


The two oldest cars in the race, Robert Murray's B&M (Bamford & Martin) Special, one of the 'works' 1922 French GP Strasbourg cars won his encounter with the newer(!) 1930 International of Richard Ashmead. They came 13th & 14th respectively:-


A little way ahead of the above two, Christopher Scott-Mackirdy in his 1933
Le Mans Special (20), just got the better of Keith Piper in his 1931 International. They came 11th and 12th. The contrast in the heights of not only the radiators specifically, but the cars in general, is most marked in this image:-

[Biff]

Hi John,

Thanks for keeping us informed about the Horsfall meeting. I never usually miss it, but we are selling the house at the moment and had people viewing last weekend.

On the subject of commentary, wait until you get to the 'Bently Drivers Club' meeting, last year, two blokes sat talking, no reference to the race other than 'well, joe bloggs is leading'.

Promotion and presentation is something which a lot of clubs don't have any idea about.

[John Turner]

Hi, Bif, agreed. Incidentally, I just hope that I have sufficient recall to draft brief reports for you at the end of the season; rarely have time to take any proper notes!

This race contained a fairly small grid but provided sufficient entertainment particularly at the front for a few laps. Jon Finnemore, in what must now be regarded as a pretty famous car, the orange Tiger of Team Tiger which he shares with Chris Beighton. Now we know that Beighton is a very rapid driver and I don't think anyone, including Finnimore himself, expects him to be quite as quick. However, he made a superb start from the second row to take the lead and was not about to give it up easily. For several laps, he came under increasingly sustained attacks from Stephen Colbert (12) seen here on the outside and Jackie Cochrane (23) in the open Tiger, before Cochrane took the opportunity to dive up the inside through Woodcote whilst they were lapping a backmarker. Cochrane then eased away to win, whilst Colbert dropped back with some sort of problem to nurse the car home nearly 33 seconds behind. Finnemore therefore appeared to have a very safe second place but two laps from the end brought the car into the pits to retire, leaving Colbert to take 2nd, from a closing David Smallridge in his Tiger:-


Despite the appearances here, Bryn Griffiths in his Alpine 16), fell behind Spencer McKenzie's version (9) to the tune of nearly 20 seconds at the flag. They were 11th and 12th respectively:-


I've always had a soft spot for Harrington bodied Alpines, and this one, driven by Stephen Chapman finished 13th, and last of the classified finishers:-


Andrew Yates (10) and Edmund Cassidy (6), in their Tigers, finished 5th and 6th, respectively:-

[Biff]

Thanks for those John. I appreciate any info.. With regard to the end of season article, I was looking for your view of the season from a regular historic race goer.

What you saw, what you liked from the season, what you disliked from the season and what you hope or fear for 2008.

I am racing at the MGCC festival on the 23rd in the Thoroughbreds, will you be there and if so can we meet up for a chat.

[John Turner]

Yes, hope to be there, Biff!

[SZRacer]

OK, John, perhaps I was a bit grumpy yesterday! Have to say, all the AMOC organisers, and as mentioned the other people in the race have all been very friendly, just that I, as you, find the meetings a little 'flat' and short on atmosphere.

Out next with the AMOC series at Snetterton....having a small rest in the mean time!

Regards,

James

Originally Posted by John Turner

I must confess that I have never felt that lack of friendliness at this meeting but I agree that there is an element of flatness about the atmosphere due to the lack of spectators. However, I tend not to dwell on it because the quality of the cars, both Aston and non Aston, easily holds my interest.

[John Turner]

This one was for post 1960 classic racing Astons. The young Charlie Kemp put his lightweight DB4 on pole by over a second from the similarly mounted experienced veteran Pete Foster and Chris Scragg in the V8. In the absence of Michael Mallock in the late Gerry Marshall's Marshplant car, I really thought that Kemp would ease away to a comfortable victory. However, I had not accounted for a very on form Foster and the improving pace of Scragg in the V8. Both improved on their qualifying times and turned this into a great 3 way battle right to the flag. First Foster and then Scragg challenged and they were often as close as the pic shows here. Kemp did hold on to win but by just 0.197 of a second from Scragg with Foster a further 2 seconds back, having eased back slightly towards the end:-


In 4th, a further 38 seconds behind came Martin Brewer in his DB5, having, what I imagine, was a fairly lonely race as he finished over 5 seconds ahead of the following group who were having their own battle:-


Here is that following group, the DB4s of Conor O'Brien (79) and John Lock (67) and the new Vantage V8 N24 of David Scott. It's a personal view of course, but I think that the N24 is a very worthy successor to the DB4s and on this occasion the newer car got the better of it's two older brethren to take 5th. O'Brien was 6th and Lock 7th:-


17th, and last, but not least, the original V8 Aston, the DBS of Clive Hipwell:-

[John Turner]

I love watching and hearing the big Healeys but these days there is usually at least one Sprite who has the legs of them. To be fair, of course, the quick Sprites do have engines somewhat bigger than originally and have been subjected to a greater degree of development than their bigger engined rivals, and one would suspect also that their power to weight ratio is now favourable. Anyway, there was no exception in this race, and it was Marc Campfield in his 1380 cc Frogeye who secured pole, won the race and set fastest lap. Here the pattern is already set for the leaders as they come through Brooklands for the first time. Campfield is pulling away with David Smithies who finished 2nd in pursuit. He looked to be hounded by Hugo Holland-Bosworth initially, seen here in 3rd, but HH-B eventually finished down in 15th. You'll see why shortly! 16 is the Healey Sebring of Eric Woolley who finished 4th, and 64 is the Healey Sprite of Ian Hulett who finished 6th:-


The Sebring Sprite (20) of Anthony Bolton failed to finish, but the Frogeyes of John Harris (8) and Xavier Sanx de Acedo (54) came in 8th and 9th respectively:-


And this is why Hugo H-B came 15th. He had to go into the pits to close the door after his passenger had made good his escape! What delayed him further was the fact that he had to get out himself to close the door.


This battle for 3rd was resolved in favour of the 'littleun' of Robin Lackford 57):-

[John Turner]

The race for Pre 1960 Astons, so Feltham products plus a fair number of the prewar cars that had featured in the opening race.

Potentially the fastest car by far in this field was the DBR1/300 of Adrian Beecroft. However, he either can't or won't exploit that performance advantage and tends to circulate at the same pace as the DB3S cars. It's lovely to see it out, of course; probably my favourite sports racing car of all time. Beecroft qualified it second behind Martin McGlones's DB3S, and ahead of David Bennett's DB3S, but less than half a second covered all three. In fact they circulated fairly closely together for much of the early part of the race, way ahead of the rest of the field, and in the order in which they had qualified. However, Beecroft won, following an off by McGlone which I will attempt to describe with the second pic. below. Here they are in Brooklands first time around:-


The moment that McGlone lost the lead and the race and dropped behind Beecroft and Bennett. In lapping Andy Bell's Monoposto, on the inside, it appeared to me that McGlone failed to straighten up to line up for Luffield, and instead, headed across the bows of Bell's car. Bell with excellent response, jinked (to his) right, and backed off and thus avoided a rather expensive collision. However, McGlone, now off line went onto the grass and gravel on the outside of Brooklands and in trying to regain the track from the grass at Luffield spun, and rejoined a little way behind Bennett who had also backed off, thus allowing Beecroft to make good his escape. McGlone never quite got back on terms with Bennett, and had to make do with 3rd. Bennett, however, whittled the several seconds lead that Beecroft had over him down to just 1.1secs, at the flag, with McGlone a further 3.4 secs adrift.

Now the Andy Bell 1938 Monoposto, the nose of which you can see in this photo actually qualified 5th fastest, but started for reasons of which I am unaware, at the back. It is why they were lapping him much earlier in the race. In fact, looking at the lap times, had he started in position, I doubt that he would have been lapped at all. The mystery to me is that, as you can clearly see the leading cars had lapped him well before the end of the race, yet he was credited with finishing on the same lap (he finished 7th). Now, how can that be, since he must have passed the chequered flag a lap down on the winner?:-


Mark Campbell's DB2/4 Mk1 with the bigger (2.9 litre) of the two engines fiitted to this model (the changeover to the 2.9, took place mid 1954, I believe) finished 5th:-


This slightly earlier 2.6 litre version of the same model, driven by Douglas Barker, finished 8th:-

[John Turner]

A rolling start race, Jackie Cochrane on pole, in the Tiger, kept the field nicely bunched until released at the startline. He went on to win his second race of the day, but you would have been hard pressed to accurately pick 2nd and 3rd from the following pack. In fact it was Chris Scragg in the big V8 Aston (outside 3rd row) who came in 2nd and David Smallhouse in the Tiger (23 - outside 5th row) who took 3rd. Neither the D-type replica of Thornton Mustard, nor the DB4 of Charlie Kemp (inside 2nd row) finished, and Pete Foster in the other DB4 was fourth, and Simon James (White Tiger, inside 3rd row) was 5th:-


Lwrence Coppock was 18th in his XJS:-


In the foreground, at Luffield, is the Porsche 928GTS of Tim Bryan who finished 8th, and in the background, at Brooklands, the DB4s of Jeremy Cooke and Conor O'Brien who had swapped places by the flag finishing 12th & 13th:-


Excellent battle throughout the race between Stephen Archer in the Porsche 964RS and Tim Mogridge in the Ferrari 355 Challenge. They finished 6th and 7th respectively, just half a second apart. Archer was promoting the restoration fund for the Cutty Sark. Apparently, although not as badly damaged in the fire as was at first feared, it still requires £10m to complete the restoration! In the background is the XJS of Rob McVicar who was 21st and last of the classified finishers:-

[John Turner]

A bit of an odd one, this, made a tad odder by the presence of a single Ferrari 360 Challenge car in the Invitation class. A fairly small grid in which the 996GT3 C of Colin Broster romped home to win by 21 seconds from the similar car of Stephen Doyle.

Just a couple of pics. The first with Craig Wilkins 993 who finished 7th from the Brian Gorman's Martini liveried 911 which only completed 2 laps, and Robin Titterington in the 996 (54) who finished 6th:-


David Whelan finished 12th in his 911RS:-

[John Turner]

A better grid with 23 starters, with an interesting mix of cars. David Bennett was on pole with the DB3S, and it was he, who made the fastest race lap, but he only finished 3rd. However, it was Adrian Beecroft who again won, but was very nearly pipped at the post by Mike Thorne in the Austin Healey 100M. Thorne obviously had problems in qualifying since he started 21st on the grid. However, a fine drive through the field saw him get within 0.193 secs of Beecroft at the flag. And yes, I can't resist saying that, given the relative performance of the cars, this shouldn't really be happening, should it?:-


John Arnold's AC Ace (13th), Peter Shaw'a Alfa Guilia (12th) and Michael Haig's RGS Atlanta (11th) reversed their positions at the flag, and make a fine sight, here:-


Got to include James Wiseman on track. James finished 15th in his Zagato Guilietta. In the background, one I haven't seen before; the Bristol 401 2-seater sports, which came 18th driven by Andrew Mitchell. In view, and also blurred, the DB2 of Anne Reed, who failed to finish:-


I've manage to get all 3 Alfas (Team title - Ecurie Giuliettisti!) pictured in this post. Martin Brewer's Spyder just holds off Douglas Barker's DB2/4 Mk1 to finish 11th. Do any of the marshals recognise themselves?:-

[John Turner]

To wrap this meeting up, the last race was for a mixture of cars from the earlier races with a few more modern ones thrown in. Jackie Cochrane was on pole again all set for win no 3, but was startled, along with everyone else, by Russell Treasure in the Honda powered Lotus Exige who put in what you might call a shooting star performance. From row 3, he launched himself into the lead, was several lengths clear at the end of lap one, put in fastest lap of the race by over a second on lap 2 and expired on lap 3. Oh well! Cochrane was left to stroke home to his hat trick of wins!

I know how many of you love your MGBs, so here is Paula Marklew in what I believe to be Martin Brewer's car. She finished 16th:-


Chris Scragg brought the big V8 Aston home 2nd, and then appeared the following day at Snetterton for the Heritage GTs:-


This picture sums up the mix. Behind the MGB, Jim O'Reilly's Porsche 911RS which finished 8th and Gillian Goldsmith in the Aston V8 N24 which finished 14th. However, since her fastest lap suggested that she should finish in the Top 6, clearly there was problem:-

[johnh875]

Really fantastic report John, you paint a great picture of the races and the pictures are nice too. A great collection of cars racing there to be sure.

[SZRacer]

Thanks for the fantastically detailed report, John (although the level of interest in the meeting on here has stil not risen dramatically, unfortunately!).

The photos are great too!

And our team is supposed to be called Scuderia Giuliettisti, but it keeps getting changed to Ecurie. Must be an Aston thing....

[John Turner]

Very kind comments, John and James, although I'm not sure about the 'detailed' reporting bit.

James, 'Scuderia' does make a lot more sense!

[johnh875]

Just looking more closely at the last couple of posts, JT you actually have 4 Alfas in the one post not 3 - including James' SZ of course! Also the Bristol in the background of the SZ photo, is that a special-bodied 401 saloon or something more exotic? Reason for asking is a friend has a 401

[SZRacer]

I'm confused, as I can only spot 3 Alfas....!

The Bristol, from the brief chats I had with its owner, was recently rebodied (a few years ago), by Andrew (the owner) himself.

Very nicely done, and great shape, and I particularly commended him on the very matt, patinated looking silver colour, which looks much more correct than a super-shiny two-pack job!

It's his first season racing this season.

Regards,

James

Originally Posted by johnh875

Just looking more closely at the last couple of posts, JT you actually have 4 Alfas in the one post not 3 - including James' SZ of course! Also the Bristol in the background of the SZ photo, is that a special-bodied 401 saloon or something more exotic? Reason for asking is a friend has a 401

[johnh875]

Hum, after looking more closely ( ) you are of course correct!

[orouge]

St. John Horsfall - please put me out of my misery. I thought he was killed driving an Aston Martin in a sports-car race at Spa in 1950(?), but I was watching a (rented) video at the weekend which said (I think) that he died in an accident at Silverstone. Do I need a new memory?