HSCC Historic Festival, Brands 28/29 June

[275 GTB-4]

Terrific pictures John...

[John Turner]

Ouch! That's one I didn't know about! The Peter Ergis Lotus Cortina at Westfield? Where did you take that from (and why didn't we meet up?)?

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Ouch! That's one I didn't know about! The Peter Ergis Lotus Cortina at Westfield? Where did you take that from (and why didn't we meet up?)?

Yes..I was quite concerned for the Marshals...the thing looked a little precarious and I worried even more when the Driver appeared and jumped up out of the drivers door...I suppose the Marshals on the spot would have assessed the situation then asked the driver to climb out.

picture provided by a friend who will remain nameless.

Don't know why we didn't meet up...I certainly wasn't hiding

[John Turner]

Winner in the earlier race, Stuart Tilley and 2nd place man, Mark Dwyer had a 'coming together' at Druids on the first lap of this one, putting both of them out and delaying some of their pursuers. It gave Gregory Thornton the opportunity to snatch the lead in his Surtees TS11 although he was to come under severe pressure from the pursuing group, one of whom, here, was Stan Redmond (another over from New Zealand) in Lola T332, in which he finished 2nd:-


James Murray (Brabham BT36) had a good weekend, for after much enjoying his dice with John Monson in the first race, this time he finished 6th overall, winning his class and was just 4.9 secs behind the winner at the end:-


Simon Taylor was 20th in his March 78B:-


The oldest cars in the race were the two Lola T142s of John Belsey and Steve Ross. The latter retired but Belsey, here, brought his home, 21st, last of the classified runners:-


Michael Schryver started from the back in his Lola T332 and worked his way rapidly forward until he caught Bruce Fullerton, also having a great drive, in his T300. Micheal was not able to find his way passed Bruce, but their battle took them up to the back of the leading 3 and they finished 4th and 5th of a 5 car train which crossed the line covered by 1.3 seconds!:-


And here the other T142 which, sadly, Steve Ross (also from NZ) had to retire one lap from the end:-


Keith Norris was was 19th in his Chevron B49:-


Michael Hibberd brought this Brabham BT38 out freshly rebuilt at the beginning of the season and he has campaigned it regularly since. Great to see and it adds colour in more ways than one to any grid it graces! He was 12th:-


And so, back to the front. Despite losing 5th gear, having to hold the car in 4th gear and coming under strong pressure from both Stan Redmond (25) and Sefton Gibb (88), Gregory Thornton held on for a fine victory in the Surtees TS11 by just 0.137 seconds from Redmond with Gibb a further 4-tenths behind. With Fullerton and Schryver also just behind, the 5 cars must have made an impressive sight (and sound!) across the finishing line.

[John Turner]

Ben Simms (March 803B) had this pretty much sewn up although Bill Coombs (Argo JM6) gave valiant chase, but was still 10.6 seconds behind at the end. However, he was 31 seconds ahead of third place man, Paul Smith (Chevron B38). Here, on the first lap, Simms has already opened a gap to Coombs as they head out of Pilgrim's Drop and up Hawthorn Hill:-


Peter Hiscocks Lola T670 was 27th:-


Hugh Price was just 1.3 seconds behind Smith at the end to finish 4th:-


'Our' Marcus Mussa was 5th in the Modus M1:-


Geoffrey Hoodless retired his March 803 after 8 laps, possibly due to collapsed rear suspension?:-


Bernard Lacour took his March 793 (3) passed the Reynard SF79 (7) of Derek Watling to finish 14th:-


Tom Thornton's Argo JM3 was 7th:-

[275 GTB-4]

[John Turner]

32 starters, 29 finishers, with the usual protaganists in the front 2/3 rows. Paul Anderson (64 - Porsche 928) was on pole and the danger man was as usual, Julian Barter in the TVR (9) on the 3rd row. I say that, despite Charles Barter (24 - Datsun 240Z) being alongside Anderson on the on the front row, simply because when his car is going properly, Julian is always hard charger and an almost irresistible force. Here many of the cars are already lined up for release onto the circuit:-


And so it proved, as JB was on it from the start. Here seen challenging Rory Stockbridge (1 - Lotus Europa), who he soon passed, he also passed his father and anyone else between himself and Anderson, who had started to build a lead:-


I don't seem to recall having seen Philip McKelvy (15 Morgan Plus 8) much, if at all, in this series (apologies if this is wrong) but here he was very much on the pace and finished 5th. In fact, the first 7 in this race all recorded their best laps in the 1.50 bracket, as had Howard Bentham who retired his Europa after 6 laps, so a pretty competitive field, although it has to be said that some were more consistent with their lap times than others!:-

The only driver to get under 1.50 was Julian Barter (1.49.972) but best race lap was his only consolation. Having closed on Anderson, a stub axle failure threw the TVR 3000M into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend. He was later to be joined by Scott Winnard's TVR Taimar. Here the leader passes the TVR graveyard!:-


Mr Mallett will be pleased to note the presence of a Capri and Nigel Barnett took it to 16th:-


Once Charles Barter had got into his stride, and with a clear track in front of him, he started to close Anderson down, so that by the last lap he was all over the back of the Porsche. However, as he admitted after the race, he didn't rate his prospects of getting by, until fate intervened. As the two cars approached a backmarker, Anderson made the wrong choice as to which side to pass it. Barter went to the other side, and it proved to be the shorter and quicker route by and snatched the lead that Anderson had held for 10.5 laps of this 11 lap race. Stockbridge was 3rd, less than 4 seconds behind the winner, with Alan Harper a further 2 seconds behind in his Elan S4:-

[John Turner]

Finally, the final race of this meeting. A good grid of 34 cars, although 8 failed to make it to the finish. Ian Gray had it pretty much his own way in the Brabham BT18, winning by 6 seconds amd is seen here already with a gap heading through Paddock Hill Bend for the first time. Tony Keele (36 - Palliser WDB3) and John Monson (52 - Crossle 19F) head the pursuers:-


John Rand finished 17th in his Palliser WDB2:-


Tony Keele consolidated his 2nd place and had a rather lonely and untroubled run to the flag:-


John Monson, on the other hand, was firstly overtaken by Will Schryver (77 - Lotus 27) who went onto finish 3rd and then pipped at the post by Richard Kendle for 4th in a 3 car battle that also involved John Delane in BT18:-


Jon Waggitt (74 - BT18) finished 22nd. However, neither of his pursuers here, Julian Judd (32 - Jovis) and Richard Urwin (28 - BT28) managed to complete the race:-


You really want to avoid hitting the HSCC Treasuer's car if you can. Matthew Truelove did just that ... by the proverbial cigarette paper ... and also managed to gather the ensuing 'moment' of avoidance to finish 10th in the Elden Mk8. Whether Anthony Goddard had missed a gear or not, I cannot say, but he stayed ahead of Truelove to take 9th in the Merlyn Mk9:-


David Brown's Brabham BT23C in which he finished 18th:-

[275 GTB-4]

Loverly shots JT...one thing I have been wondering with the Juniors, is how they worked out winners....if you won your heat etc was that it?? or did they somehow or other aggregate across the three groups to arrive at overall winners ?? (does anyone understand what I'm getting at??? )

[Marcus Mussa]

Originally Posted by 275 GTB-4

Loverly shots JT...one thing I have been wondering with the Juniors, is how they worked out winners....if you won your heat etc was that it?? or did they somehow or other aggregate across the three groups to arrive at overall winners ?? (does anyone understand what I'm getting at??? )

No!

As I recall the winner of each race was the one who completed the race distance in the shortest time. This is in itself one of the fundamental rules of motor racing with the obvious exception of F1, where it applies only if the car is red. There were therefore 3 winners, one for each race. There was no overall winner.

[John Turner]

I'm afraid that I wasn't there on the Saturday for the FJs but it was a massive entry of something like a 100 cars, and part of their Golden Jubilee celebrations. They had to run in 3 separate races and were split into classes:-

Race 1 - Class C (rear engine cars built and raced before 31/12/1960) and Class D (cars built between 1/1/61 and 31/12/63 with drum brakes all round).

Race 2 - Class E (cars built between 1/1/61 and 31/12/63 with disc brakes) and Class F (other invited cars)

Race 3 - Class A1 (Front and rear engined cars fiited with Fiat or Lancia engines built and race before before 31/12/60), Class B (other front engined FJ cars cars built and raced before 31/12/60) and class D (again - in reality these, I think would have been reserve entries that didn't get into race 1)

Thus, as Marcus has said, they would have been regarded as individual races and presumably therefore scoring points for their respective class championships.

[275 GTB-4]

Thank you John and Marcus....ever ask a question and wish you had not ?

I had no idea that FJ had so many sub-classes...I thought a junior was...a junior.

you learn something every day...

[Philip Venables]

From memory, FJ classes: Fiat engined cars; other front engined cars; pre 1960 rear engined cars; drum braked rear engined; and disc braked front and rear engined cars

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by Philip Venables

From memory, FJ classes: Fiat engined cars; other front engined cars; pre 1960 rear engined cars; drum braked rear engined; and disc braked front and rear engined cars

I truly surrender...I had no eye deer that the subject was open to so much discussion...terrific day in brilliant sunshine today at Wakefield Park...MOQR and invited FJ races...a bit of speed differential but generally worked well

[275 GTB-4]

While we are on the subject of FJ though....this one was a great surprise to me!!

[Gary Critcher]

that's on display at Brooklands, right?

[Alan Morgan]

They need to do better research - Juan Fangio, Roy Salvadori etc started their careers in FJ?

[275 GTB-4]

so to speak...

Off roading Chevron B8...



Big Bangers!!