AMOC, Donington, 19th Oct, 2008

[John Turner]

After the HSCC on Saturday, I'm hoping to head to Donington for AMOCs last race meeting of the year, on Sunday. Hope a few spectators will turn out!

[lml698]

I hope so too!! An FIA spec 50's 60's race, Special Pre War Sports car race, Super GT race plus 50's sports cars, Healeys, Intermarque etc. 200 odd entries in !!!

[brands]

Some nice tin, will have to see if I can get a weekend pass for this and the HSCC finals.

Entry list http://www.amoc.org/images/stories/d..._donington.pdf

Timetable http://www.amoc.org/images/stories/d..._timetable.pdf

[John Turner]

Well the rain held off, although the wind was tad on the cold side! Great racing to add to that seen at the Silverstone HSCC on Saturday, plus meeting yet more friends, made this a memorable weekend. In fact, I reckon, the two meetings combined provided the highest quota of lead battles, I'd seen all season. Great stuff. Pics to follow, as John said on the other thread, about February ..... well maybe earlier!

[terence]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Well the rain held off, although the wind was tad on the cold side! Great racing to add to that seen at the Silverstone HSCC on Saturday, plus meeting yet more friends, made this a memorable weekend. In fact, I reckon, the two meetings combined provided the highest quota of lead battles, I'd seen all season. Great stuff. Pics to follow, as John said on the other thread, about February ..... well maybe earlier!

Jan 28th?

[GBRM]

From what I've been told about the the Super GT race it was very good whilst the two Astons lasted with Anthony Reid winning in my Dad's old car that's had a few mods now.

Checking the times of the Nationat GT cars from this year he lapped as quick as this years winners, awesome and looking forward to seeing John pictures (if he got any of the GTs) - I don't think Dad and Dave Ellis did actually ever race against each other if my memory serves.

[John Turner]

Gregor, it was an excellent race whilst the Ellis car was running. They put on a great show to some accompanying great sounds. The Marsh Plant car had the wrong gears for the track but Reidy loved it, and confirmed that it was quicker than the GT3 cars he had been testing recently. He reported that it was a bit short on grip but excellent in every other respect, including aerodynamics. David Ellis is finally beginning to get his car up to the pace of his old 'yellow peril' and he has a list of improvements that he will carry out over the winter. The car is already very fast in a straightline, and it was this that made the race, because he was getting away from Reid on the straights. If we can only get some more cars out for next year, as discussed 'elsewhere', this could become a great series.

Yes, I do have pics of both cars and will be putting them up here, eventually!

[GBRM]

Great, look forward to them; I was sent about 15 from the recent Silverstone test and it looks great. I thought Nick Whale was doing the GTs in his Porsche (he did a few rounds of the British Supercup in it to get used to it) and I Richard Chamberlain said he's going to bring his 935 out too (I think he's tied up with Britcar at the moment) and we've discussed the ex-Malcolm Hamilton E-Type on another forum and that might come out, so we're getting there!!

[John Turner]

A super meeting for the end of the AMOC season. However, before getting on with the review, some of you, if you bought Autosport the week following this meeting might have noted my name on the byline to the report. I got a call from my son, Kevin, on the monday morning saying that poor old Marc Orme, who normally reports from Donington had had a burglary on Sunday night and that amongst the stuff stolen was his laptop and all the notes for the meeting, and since Marc was also understandably preoccupied with this traumatic event, could I put something together. Since I don't make notes, I used my photos, combined with memory to knock something together and the result got printed! Then, the following day, I received a request from Mark Campbell of AMOC to help put together something for a couple of the races to send out to the mags and finished up writing virtually the whole piece (it's actually easier doing it that way!), which I was pleased to do. So, those of you who read HMRN, please note that the unaccredited report is mine, and just to blow my trumpet further so are a couple of the accompanying pics. After two days of enforced journalism, I've now retired!

25 starters and 21 finishers, the first race was red flagged and massively delayed after David Such had put his Aston V8 in the wall at the pitlane entrance. Although this made a bit of a mess of the car, David was fine but a fuel spillage, and a quickly quelled fire closed the pitlane and the race was stopped. It took a long time to clear up which led to some very sensible retiming of some of the latter races so that the meeting still finished on time.

On pole for this race was Chris Scragg in his V8 and qualifying times suggested that he should win without too much difficulty. However, Darren McWhirter, starting alongside in his Zagato bodied DB4 clearly had other ideas, as he stormed of the line to take the lead and defied all attempts by Scragg, who even got alongside at Hollywood on one occasion, to take the lead. This went on for several laps until the stoppage. McWhirter, of course, knows how to win in this car but it was still a fine effort since although Scragg posted fastest lap, it was not significantly so to suggest that had he taken the lead, that he would have got away. Incidentally, whilst this is not a real DB4GT Zagato, it is great to see this glorious shape on the circuits since you'll only ever see the real thing at Goodwood. Anyway, this great battle was interrupted by the red flag and was not continued at the restart since Scragg pitted for some work and only returned later to complete a further 3 laps. McWhirter was able thereafter to stroke home to win by nearly 20 secinds from the Vantage N24 of Will Goff:-


Paul Hipwell's V8 which finished 16th:-


Ian McCallum's DB5 finished 13th and is being passed here by Bob Searles who took the DBS V8 on to 7th:-


Another DBS V8. This is Rikki Cann's, looking as though it is halfway through a rebuild. It finished 9th:-


Richard Butler failed to finish in his V8:-


This is John Goldsmith in what I seem to remember is the only factory built lightweight DB6. He finished 8th:-


This apparently is the famous old Marsh Plant DB4 (Geoffrey Marsh still own's one) that the late Gerry Marshall drove. Note the tribute to Gerry. Driven by Jean Pierre Frottier who finished 17th:-

[John Turner]

26 starters, 23 finishers - a mixture of small and big Austin Healeys of various ages and split into classes. As seems to be the norm these days, one of the quick 'tiddlers', albeit fitted with a 1380cc engine, led the race from start to finish and won by over 10 seconds.

Here in mid pack a good representation of the mak up of the field led by 4 Frogeye Sprites of John Harris (8 - 13th), Bob Cranham (77 - 18th), Brian Bedford (26 - 17th) and Harvey Woods (43 - 22nd):-


Steve Bicknell (41) was classified as a DNF in his Austin Healey 100/6 although he completed the full 10 laps in a time which would normally have placed him 12th - anyone know why? Bill Rawles (46) was 9th in his Healey 3000 MkII:-


Mike Thorne (44 - Healey 100M) leads Anthony Bolton (Sebring Sprite) but they had swapped places by the end finishing 11th abd 12th:-


Hugo Holland-Bosworth took his Healey 3000 MkI to 3rd:-


Paul Campfield made good his escape at the start and won comfortably in his Frogeye Sprite:-


David Smithies did his best to stay in touch with Campfield, in his 3000 but to no avail, and finished 2nd ahead of Holland-Bosworth by 4 seconds:-


Ted Williams was 10th in his 3000:-

[John Turner]

23 starters, 21 classified finishers. The usual range of lovely Astons, from a well represented contingency of prewar cars through the range of post war road and sports racing cars, but no DBR1/300 on this occasion.

First lap, through the Craner Corves comes Mark Baldwin (DB2/4 MkIII), David Reed (DB2), Nicholas Ruddell (DB2/4 MkIII), David Bennett (DB3S) and Mark Midgeley (DB2). Baldwin's lead was shortlived as Reed had the quicker car by the best part of a second a lap and went on to win by 20 seconds from Baldwin. The reason it was 20 seconds rather than 10 will be revealed below! Ruddell was to come 3rd and Bennett, 4th. Midgeley retired after 8 laps:-


Heading into The Old Hairpin is Chris Adams (55 - DB2 - 10th), Paul Chase-Gardner (63 - DB2 - 8th) and Jim Campbell (26 - MkII - 11th):-


Another pic of Jim Campbell:-


The reason Mark Baldwin lost a further 10 seconds on the leader. A very long moment which started when he drifted too wide out of the Craner Curves, got onto the grass, spun through 180 degrees, went backwards through the gravel trap, completed another 180 degrees to return to the track eventually at the entry to The Old Hairpin. He rejoined the race in 4th place:-


Chris Scott-Mackirdy was 18th in his Le Mans Special:-


In the meantime, Baldwin had set about recovering lost ground and here he is seen having a go at Bennett. He failed on this occasion but took 3rd shortly after. He then chased down Ruddell to resume 2nd place. They have just lapped Mark Campbell (33 - DB2/4 MkI) who finished 14th. In the background, I think, is the non finishing Midgeley:-


It's been good to see a couple of DB3s (as opposed to the later DB3S) out this year, in fact 3 if you include the ex Angela Brown Coupe. This is Martin Melling's which finished 13th:-

[lml698]

Nice report John ( as ever) However to spare my blushes it is in fact my father in his DB2 being lapped (car 35) !!! so almost correct!!

[John Turner]

Sorry, Mark; I need to get some new specs! So, it's Colin in DB2, no 36!

[John Turner]

The race that we discussed earlier on in the thread. This Super GT series is still struggling for entries and grids are filled out with some cars that frankly you would not associate with these classes. It must be hoped that the recession does not prevent a few more coming out next year, because these cars can be mighty, and mighty entertaining too. Although he has now relinquished his role, well done to Stephen Archer for getting this series up and running.

The race was for 40 minutes with compulsory pit stops, although at least half the field drove solo. Notwithstanding the above comments, there was some fine racing, particularly at the front between two cars that absolutely epitomise what this class of racing should be all about. David Ellis had his Aston GT700R, based on the Virage shape on the front row, but on pole was Anthony Reid on the Marsh Plant Aston V8 seeing its first race in 9 years, since the late Gerry Marshall campaigned it with gusto. It was the superior power of the Ellis car that told off the line, and he took the lead chased by Reid, and the two cars left the rest for dead; no great surprise there, though.

Further back a cluster of Astons, Ancient (DB4/5s) and Modern (Vantage N24s) head into the Old Hairpin for the first time. The N24 at the front is the Scott/ Brooker-Cary car which was to finish 10th. Behind is the N24 (90) of George Miller/Les Goble and the DB5 (56) of Ian McCallum and John Bussell and I'll return to them in the next pic, and would ask you to note the position of the two cars relative to each other. Behind them is another N24, in which Tom Black was to finish 9th, and the Le Blanc/Smithers DB4 which finished 11th:-


The N24 and the DB5 were alongside each other going into the Old Hairpin, and neither were prepared to give way. Now I'm not sure whether they actually touched but clearly the N24 was forced to run wide into the gravel (here) and the DB5 gyrated. The upshot was that the whole field passed them. The N24 finished 12th of the 13 classified finishers, and the DB5 retired after just 2 laps:-


Meanwhile, Anthony Reid was still giving chase to David Ellis:-


Peter Foster (Ex DB4 man!) and Tim Mogridge just got on with it in the Ferrari 355 Challenge and took 6th place:-


In fact, Reid got ahead briefly a couple of times but in the wrong places enabling the superior power of the GT700R to retake the lead on the straights:-


However, this one worked! A superb move started back up the Craner Curves saw the Marshplant car get up the inside into The Old Hairpin, and from there on Reid kept the lead. Although Ellis tried to hold on, he started to slip back and retired the car with mechanical woes. It had been wonderful to watch these two whilst it lasted. More, please!:-


As well as the Ellis car, Reid expected a strong challenge from the very modern Caparo T1 (an invitation car? and no, I'm not going to put a pic of it up here) but although starting from the back and working through to 3rd place it's best lap was 3 seconds off Reid's. Instead 2nd place, albeit a lap behind was the Arthur and Boysie Thurtle Chevrolet Camaro Z28, driving in their usual fast and controlled style. Challenged early on by the Sunbeam Tiger of Jackie Cochrane, Cochrane later had to park it at Starkey's:-


The Le Blanc/Smithers DB4 was 11th:-


The beautifully presented Ford Mustang of Robin North was 7th:-

[GBRM]

Great pics and report John - Almost as good as the one someone wrote in Autosport.

[John Turner]

There appeared to be a larger than usual turnout for this 15 minute race. 29 starters (and no Alfas, James?) and 27 finishers. All British sports and GT cars, there were 3 post 1959 cars but these were of models, production of which started in the earlier decade.

Frontrunners in this race were Mike Thorne (Austin Healey 100M) and Brian Arculus (Triumph TR3A) and what a race they made of it, too. There were loads of excellent battles down the field, and the first shot shows Anne Reed (DB2), Keith Hampson (Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans) and Gareth Williams (Lotus Elite) together early on in the race, and coming into McLeans Corner. Williams was to pass both the Sunbeam and the Aston and went on to finish 18th, whilst Reed finished 21st and Hampson 23rd:-


Paul Chase-Gardner who I normally associate with a DB2 (which was in this race, but driven by David Allen to 11th) drove this Jaguar XK140 to 25th:-


Stephen Chapman was 26th in this Sunbeam Alpine Harrington:-


4 Astons and 2 Jaguars head through Coppice. The light was pretty poor by this time and both I and my camera were struggling, so only a few of my pics of this race survive. However, they were the only ones taken at this location between McLeans and Coppice as apart from the marshals posts, there was not another person in sight, let alone taking pics:-


Martin Melling (DB3 - 22nd), Keith Hampson again and Mark Campbell in DB2/4 (33 - 24th). 1.5 seconds covered all 3 at the flag:-


Keith Hampson again! I was clearly not with it when selecting these pics at midnight last night:-


Kevin Zwolinski (Jagiar XK140 - 10th) was unable to hold off the Aston DB2/4 of Douglas Barker, who went on to finish 8th:-


The battle for the lead was terrific. It lasted the whole race with Arculus grabbing the lead in the TR3A from the start but displaced a couple of laps later by Thorne. From then on the Triumph seemed tied to the back of the Austin Healey 100M and the gap here was the biggest that it ever got to, throughout. A truly splendid dice, they finished in this order split by just 0.198secs, and fully 25 seconds ahead of 3rd place man, Xavier Sanz de Acedo in the well driven Sprite.

[lml698]

John - with a hint of bias - great report onwhat i gather was a good race to watch.
The good news is that this series will expand to 8 rounds next season - all at major tracks- and will include 13, 3 or 4 man teams covering 8 marques ( Aston, Alfa, AC, Sunbeam, Healey, Jag, Triumph, Lotus and possibly Warwick !! ( all to period Spec) So it should be good for entrants and viewers

[John Turner]

Thanks Mark! Interesting that the series is intended to be expanded; I hope that indicates that you have received strong expressions of intent from drivers and teams.

The programme for Race 6 listed 29 entrants, of which 22 started and 17 classified as finishers. This long standing AMOC series has had its up and downs and some years ago included some of the specials that we now hope will make up the Super GT fields. After going through a downward trend, it appears to be recovering although what effect the recession has, renains to be seem. All the foregoing is based on my perception, so I'm quite happy to be told I'm wrong!

I'm sure that Boysie Thurtle was looking forward to a great battle with Jackie Cochrane's Sunbeam Tiger. They are seen here on the first lap with Robin North's Mustang and almost completely hidden from view, Chris Scragg's Aston V8:-


Behind the leading group, we see Tim Mogridge (Ferrari 355 Challenge), eventually to finish 4th, Nicholas King (DB4) who passed him to finish 3rd, and Stehen Archer (Porsche 964RS). I think Stephen had a moment somewhere since he dropped well back at one stage and finished 8th:-


The battle for the lead was shortlived, as Cochrane pulled off at Starkey's again. It just wasn't his day, as it was the second time that he had to park it there. He's almost alongside Boysie as he pulls up here on lap 3, which suggests that he may actually have briefly grabbed the lead. From there on, the Camaro stroked home to win this 12 lap race by 34 seconds:-


Porsche trio. The 924S of Clive Morrison finished 13th. He was passed by both the recovering Archer, and the 944 Turbo (77) of Alex Mansfield who finished 12th:-


Stephen Moore (DB4) leads David Brooker-Cary (N24) and David Stockton (Porsche 944 Turbo). They were to finish 5th, 7th ands 9th respectively:-


The Sunbeam Tiger of Tristan Bradfield was 14th at the flag whereas Martin Wright's DBS V8 was 17th:-


'The Worlds most successful racing Aston Martin', it says, now owned and raced by Robert Rawe, it was for many, many years owned by Peter Foster who notched up countless victories and class wins. The claim is in respect of this rather than any International success. It is almost certainly the most raced Aston ever, and is probably my favourite DB4. It just looks so right. Rawe took it to 6th in this race:-


Robin North took the Mustang to 2nd place after the demise of the Cochrane Tiger and the last lap retirement of Chris Scragg's Aston. Like Cochrane it wasn't his weekend either!:-

[simon drabble]

Originally Posted by lml698

John - with a hint of bias - great report onwhat i gather was a good race to watch.
The good news is that this series will expand to 8 rounds next season - all at major tracks- and will include 13, 3 or 4 man teams covering 8 marques ( Aston, Alfa, AC, Sunbeam, Healey, Jag, Triumph, Lotus and possibly Warwick !! ( all to period Spec) So it should be good for entrants and viewers

interesting - in conjunction with Woodcote trophy it seems 50's "normal" sportscars are now getting the track time in a competitve environment they richly deserve.

[John Turner]

Well said, Simon.

[lml698]

John/ Simon
Yes next season looks promising and the extension of the series including an outround is due to interest and support. We aim to have 13 teams of 3 - 4 cars from the marques listed above. If anyone else is interested get in touch with AMOC. - must use period type rubber and homologated weights and be to period spec.

[John Turner]

9 teams of prewar cars were entered for this race, 8 of whom originally had 3 cars, but we did lose a few cars, although one or two late entrants boosted the grid to 23 cars started but two 'teams' had only one car! I will simply place the cars individually, as I don't have the team results. If this is repeated, I wonder if we could persuade John Ruston to organise a Talbot team for next year?

Positioned near Coppice Corner, this was how the sky looked over the Donington Museum - just thought I'd throw that one in!:-


The French Connection part of the 'Astons & The French Connection' team, the Talbot Lago T150CMD was taken to 5th place by John Guyatt:-


A splendid race long battle between two ex works Aston team cars went on towards the back of the field with Russell Hicks (24 - LM15) just beating Martyn Campbell (19 - LM19) to take 16th. These two formed the rest of the above-mentioned team :-


Meanwhile Jim Campbell established himself in the lead early on and stayed there to record victory by 9 seconds. He was one of the one man teams ( a contradiction, surely) but therefore aptly named 'The Aston Remains'. His 1934 Aston Martin Mk11 started life as a 1.5 litre car (and possibly a sports saloon, at that), but now has a later 2-litre engine fitted, giving it a fair turn of speed:-


Another one man band was late entrant John Densham in his Lagonda LG6 who did his best to chase the Aston home to take 2nd:-


Tom Richardson was last (but note that there were 4 DNFs) in his evocative looking 1929 Riley Brooklands, a member of 'The Rileys' team:-


Amember of 'The Octagons', Brandon Smith-Hilliard brought his MG K3 to 11th place:-


Jane Varley, Aston Martin Speed model of the 'The Two litre Aston' team moved clear of the chasing Philip Champion (Frazer Nash Supersports) of 'The Chain Gang' to take 3rd place:-

[John Turner]

A small grid for this but as a new race, that's hardly surprising. This has plenty of promise capable of attracting some interesting cars. Over 40 minutes with a compulsory stop but as with all these mini enduros some elected to drive solo. Despite the small field, it provided some good racing particularly between the Astons and the Healeys.

As far as I am aware, this was the first race in which both the Aston Martin 214 Replicas appeared together. It was the first which I have designated DP214R1 owned by Wolfgang Friedrichs, but driven solo on this occasion by David Clark, that was on pole, with the Healey of Ian and Bruce Montgomery alongside.

In the first pic, the leading pack come through the Craner Curves with DP214R1(3) leading from the Healey (7), DP214R2 (10 - Martin Brewer/Alec Hammond), the Sunbeam Tiger (4) of Neil Merry/Christian Dick), the Healey (52) of Hugo Holland-Bosworth/Bil Rawles, the John and Gillian Goldsmith DB4GT (2), the similar car of Tarek Mahmoud (5) and Robert Rawe's DB4:-


Into the Old Hairpin for the first time, the leading two have already gone through, and the 52 Healey locks up:-


Robert Cull's TVR Grantura was to finish 10th, after a long excursion onto the grass in the Craner Curves, and is seen here leading the Douglas Barker/Steve Beighton Sunbeam Alpine (82) which finished an excellent 6th, and the Bamford/Adams Aston Martin DB2 which finished 12th:-


The Chris and Charles Clegg Austin Healey Sebring Sprite finished 13th but is seen here ahead of the Pete Foster/Tim Mogridge Triumph TR4 which eventually finished 11th:-


Meanwhile up at the front Ian Montgomery's constant pressure on the Clark Aston paid off and he took the lead. He never really got away though and after handing over to his father, Bruce (I hope that I have these two driving in the correct order), the car was not able to maintain its pace whereas Clark stayed in the Aston after the stop and ran out a comfortable winner by 22 seconds:-


Behind the two leaders, another Aston/Healey battle raged with the Brewer/Hammond DP214R2 resisting a strong challenge by the Holland-Bosworth/Rawles Healey 3000. The Aston remained in 3rd however to finish just 6 seconds behind the Montgomerys whilst the second Healey fell to 5th by the flag:-


The winning car. I know I'm biased but this to me seems every bit as good looking as a 250GTO (In fact I pefer the looks of the 330LMB, which like the Aston looks a bit more purposeful). There really aren't many better looking front engined cars than this. This shape has only ever appeared on 5 cars. The original 2 DP214s (one of which survives), the one and only DP215, and the two very faithfull to the original in appearance 214 Replicas that appeared in this race:-


Aesthetically, the early 1960's was a rich period for Aston Martin. This is the Goldsmith DB4GT which finished 7th. Note the glowing front discs. The Tarek Mahmoud sister car was taken to a good 4th:-


It was pretty dark by the end of this race, which brought the AMOC racing season to an end. It had been an excellent meeting with some very good racing and if it was found wanting, it was only in the size of some of the grids. I hope that despite the recession, next year sees AMOC grids buck the trend and build on this foundation and wish Martin Atack, Mark Campbell and the others all the best in their endeavours.