BDC, Silverstone (2020)

 The Bentley Drivers Club Meeting

Silverstone National, 22 August 2020

Preamble

Along with the VSCC Spring Start and the Castle Combe Autumn Classic, The Bentley Drivers Club meeting at Silverstone in August has always been one of our key events. It’s the only race meeting that the BDC puts on in the year and it seems to have retained that lovely old style feel of club racing from the 1960s when I started attending such meetings. FISCAR have generally supported it well but in recent years our number of entries has tailed off a little to the extent that we were at risk of having to share a grid this year. As many of you know from our Home page, we headed this risk off by guaranteeing financial security to the BDC for this race. Although there were concerns about how the Covid 19 situation would impact on entry levels and certainly with 3 weeks to go, I was still concerned that we might not hit our target, a last minute surge, took us hopefully into a small profit share for our club. This was despite the fact that Richard Tyzack had to withdraw the Kellison and that neither Philip Elder (MGA) nor Simon Evans (Allard) could get their cars ready in time, despite their best efforts. Richard has since contacted me to advise that ‘ we are still rebuilding the car after the crazy fires we suffered last year’ and parts required from the US were delayed due to the lockdown.

So, in the end we had 25 cars entered and they all turned up on Saturday, raring to go. New members Oliver LLewellyn (Allard), Zaheer ‘Ed’ Shah, whose great efforts to return his TR3A to FISCAR compliance have been well documented here, and Glenn Brackenridge (Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans) were very welcome additions to our grid. The Harrington body was a great new shape to our grids and it was joined by the extraordinary Bristol 450 recreation built by Andrew Mitchell to a commission from Frenchman, Olivier Bore.  I have no problem with replicas if they are of cars that no longer exist and are built accurately using the correct components, and I’m delighted that its debut race was with us.  For those of us car nuts who grew up in the 1950s, this is one of the iconic shapes made more familiar by the excellent Dinky model (ref 163) which sold well enough to be in production 1956 -1960 – I’m a mine of useless information! The recreated Bristol was considered sufficiently newsworthy to be included in a half page feature in last week’s (20th August issue) of Autosport which also gave mention to BDC & FISCAR.

I could go on further about the various entries but they will all get mentions during the following report. Suffice it to say that it was a superb grid in spite of the complete absence of the Austin Healey and Aston Martin marques. In fact, although AMOC had their own race (Jack Fairman, Innes Ireland & Mike Hawthorn Challenge) for a variety of 1950s cars, sadly there was only one Postwar racing Aston present, that of the DB2 in the hands of Hanna Reed.           

Qualifying

Qualifying went pretty much as expected and it always seemed likely that the first 3 positions on the grid would be occupied by the Lister Bristol of Stephen Bond, the Lotus Elite of Brian Arculus and the Allard J2 of Oliver Llewellyn but in what order was perhaps not quite so predictable as Stephen’s Lister had a fresh engine and whilst Oliver and his Allard were not unknown to me, their current form remained less obvious. However, the Allard’s power, very competently controlled by Oli, suited the straight line nature of much of the Silverstone National circuit. The only impediment to its thundering progress was the Brooklands/Luffield section of the track. It duly delivered pole by 1.3 seconds clear of the Stephen’s Lister Bristol. This was an unexpected margin given that Oli’s time of 1.13.178 was not by any means the quickest that a number of our cars had done at this track in the dry before.  The Lister Bristol, sounded superb but Stephen has certainly bettered his time of 1.14.455 which placed him alongside the Allard. Brian was third just half a second off Stephen’s time.

Paul De Havilland’s time of 1.15.101 gave him an excellent 4th on the grid with the beautiful black Jaguar XK150S and it was so close to Brian’s time in the Lotus that I should perhaps have included him in my list above.  Robin Pearce, one of the stars at last year’s Castle Combe was a further 3 tenths back in the AC Ace Bristol. Paul and Robin were the leading Class 2 qualifiers and the experienced Richard Thorne in the Morgan +4, first of the Class 3 runners, rounded out the top 6. Tristan Bradfield was the leading Class 4 qualifier, 12th in the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans.

I will not run through the whole list of our cars and their times as at the end of this section I have added a table of the lap times, having extracted them from the TSL time sheets which combined them with the AMOC race cars with which FISCAR shared qualifying.

It should be noted that since Leigh Sebba was also running in the Morgan race which allowed a different (and faster!) wheel and tyre combination, I had agreed on this one occasion only, a tyre dispensation in order to alleviate the practical difficulties of bringing a separate set of wheels and tyres to the event. It meant that he qualified higher up on the grid than normally would be the case but it adversely affected his Index of Performance rating for the race. Leigh’s performance in this great little car also served to remind us why we are normally so very strict on our tyre regulations.  

Shaun Bromley was lucky to be in the race at all as a few days before the race he had suffered a break in and had all his racing gear and tools stolen. Shaun takes up the story – ‘We wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for Malc Fitzpatrick  and his team at TTP Performance ( Bromsgrove – Ed). Malc got the car prepped ready late last week and also lent me all of his personal race wear which he sent up in the boot of the MGA on the trailer. In addition the car did require tyres that were sent accidentally to Brands Hatch on Friday to which he sent one of his guys from Brands Hatch up to Bromsgrove late Friday tea time with the tyres.’  A case of someone in the racing community going the extra mile to help and it enabled Shaun and Josh to race the MGA.

Andrew Mitchell managed to get the Bristol 450 Recreation safely through qualifying, as did Glenn Brackenridge in the delightful Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Le Mans, although he did qualify last. There is surely more pace yet in this car as it is currently in rally set up complete with a large pair of rally lamps bolted to the front!  Jeremy Holden qualified ahead of Glenn, playing himself in and finding the Frazer Nash rather more physically challenging compared with his old Austin Healey 100. Harry Naeger was delighted to find himself ahead of both in the Jowett Jupiter. Full qualifying details below:-

Race

Two cars were missing when our cars rolled out onto the grid in fairly bright conditions, the sun sharing the sky with billowing clouds as it had done all morning. Mark Morgan’s AC Ace had a driveshaft failure in qualifying and Alan House had discovered a lack of oil getting to the timing chain and wisely decided not to risk racing his Morgan +4. Thus we had 23 fantastic cars representing, by my reckoning, 15 different marques, a truly superb cross section that spanned the fabulous 50s decade.

There was drama from the start as Oli Llewellyn stalled the Allard from pole. First gear on this car is high and needs careful application of the clutch. Oli was well aware of this and had warned Brian Arculus lined up behind him, of this possibility beforehand, so that at the off, Brian easily jinked his Lotus Elite around the Allard to slot in behind Steven Bond who had made a fine start from the front row in the Lister Bristol. Of course, since I was, at the time, stationed on the inside of Copse, and there was no commentary, it was a surprise to see the leading cars come streaming through with the Allard nowhere to be seen. However, it was not the only staller on the grid, as further back on the grid, Zaheer ‘Ed’ Shah (from henceforth known as Ed!) had also done so in his TR3A, necessitating a brilliant avoiding action from Louise Kennedy, who managed to miss the back of the slow away Triumph in the Lancia Aurelia. So it had all kicked off in the opening seconds, and some real drama attended this race throughout.

Eventually, Oli and Ed got going and there were plenty of places to make up, particularly for the Allard and as the cars completed the first lap, Brian Arculus having snatched the lead from Stephen Bond, it rumbled through down in 10th place. Ed had fared better somehow, quickly recovering lost ground, bringing the TR3A through in 14th, his starting position. Both Brian and Stephen had recorded their first laps in the 1.17s, pretty hot going from a standing start and they had no intention of hanging around for Oli to catch them, and were stretching the field out in a bid to make their escape. They were already a second clear of Paul De Havilland in his Jaguar XK150S, Paul in turn, a second clear of Robin Pearce in the quickest of the AC Aces. Robin was ahead of Richard Thorne’s Morgan +4 whilst David Cottingham and Nigel Winchester, in AC Ace and Lotus 7 respectively were scrapping for 6th and they were nearly 3 seconds ahead of the AC Ace of Justin Beckett who nevertheless had made up 3 places from his starting position. The top 10 were completed by Alex Quattlebaum and Oli Llewellyn, the latter surely about to boom passed the little LECo XPAG.

As the rest of this great field charged onto the second lap, John Waterson was seen cruising into the pits and into retirement. His Lotus Elite had suffered a misfire in qualifying and had only just managed to post a slow time to get onto the grid in 21st position. The misfire appeared to have been eliminated for the race and John  had a great start but as he exited Becket’s it returned and he had to trickle back to the pits. It was a not a great day for John as he only completed 3 slow laps in total but he stayed and acted as pit timing crew for fellow Elite driver, Barry Dye.    

At the end of lap 2, Brian Arculus, driving the Lotus Elite with great aplomb had already improved on his qualifying time by over half a second and had eked out a 1.3 second lead over Stephen’s Lister Bristol which was being held by Paul De Havilland in the XK150S. Robin Pearce was still in touch 1.5 seconds behind Paul, in the AC Ace. These 4 were now clear of the pack, the gap back to 5th placed Richard Thorne’ s Morgan almost 4.5 seconds. Looking measured and mature in his driving, and picking his way carefully forward, Oliver Llewellyn was now up to 6th in the Allard. This car is deceptively fast as it is fairly low revving, but Oli was already into the 1.13s lap time, matching his pole lap time.

The race for 7th was well and truly joined as Nigel Winchester had squeezed his little Lotus 7 passed David Cottingham’s AC Ace but just one tenth of a second separated them as they entered lap 3. Alex Quattlebaum had his LECo in a seemingly secure 9th place and pulling away from Justin Beckett’s AC Ace but Justin was being caught by Tristan Bradfield, going really well in the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans. Some seconds back but also going well after her heart stopping moment at the start was Louise Kennedy in 12th in the lovely Lancia Aurelia B20GT. Ed Shah had passed Josh Bromley’s MGA, the TR3A moving into 13th and started to close on the Lancia, but all 3 were part of a group of 5 cars separated by a mere  2.5 seconds, the other two being Nick Atkins (Lotus Elite) and Leigh Sebba (Morgan +4 ). Barry Dye who had not had the best of opening laps was out of position, down in 17th in his Lotus Elite but was lapping a good bit faster than the group ahead of him and he would be with them by the end of lap 3. In 18th was Andrew Mitchell in the Bristol 450, its race debut going to plan, and clear of Mark Shears (Morgan +4), Jeremy Holden, still getting to grips with his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica and Harry Naerger (Jowett Jupiter).  Trailing a little further back was Glenn Brackenridge in the splendid Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Le Mans.

As lap 3 was completed, Brian Arculus, driving as well as I can remember had increased his lead to over 2.8 seconds, having lapped in 1.13.612, which was only 2 tenths slower than the Allard which was now up to 5th. Between them, Paul de Havilland had closed in on Stephen Bond in the Lister Bristol, so the battle for second appeared to be brewing up. Robin Pearce had lost no ground to these two and Oli in the Allard was 4 seconds behind the AC Ace.  Now in a lonely 6th was Richard Thorne, very competitive in the Morgan, some 5 seconds clear of the battling Nigel Winchester and David Cottingham, a blue train but quite a contrast between the diminutive and stark Lotus 7 and the smooth lines of the AC Ace.  Alex Quattlebaum was matching their times but making no impression on them but still edging away from Justin Beckett, in the second of the team of AC Aces, in 10th.

Tristan Bradfield had the Sunbeam Alpine LM in 11th and was already 10 seconds clear of Louise Kennedy in the Lancia Aurelia who now had her mirrors full of Ed Shah’s TR3A and the 5 car train mentioned earlier had become 6 strong as Barry Dye was now in amongst them and their order had changed. Nick Atkins had moved ahead of Josh Bromley and Barry had overtaken Leigh Sebba’s Morgan +4 Flat Rad, so the pair of Elites were on the march. Behind this group, the status quo was being maintained.

Into Lap 4, and Steven Bond upped the pace in his Lister Bristol, so that by the end of the lap he’d pegged back leader, Brian Arculus, by over half a second, the gap down to 2.1 seconds. It was to be Steven’s best lap of the race, another to get into the 1.13s, and it took him away a little from the attention of Paul De Havilland’s Jaguar XK150S. Robin Pearce was only 1.2 seconds behind the Jaguar, the AC Ace still nearly 3 seconds ahead of Oli Llewellyn’s Allard. Just 7.6 seconds covered these first 5 cars and they were clear of the increasingly isolated Morgan of Richard Thorne who was now almost 7 seconds ahead of the still battling Nigel Winchester and David Cottingham, rarely more than a few tenths apart in 7th and 8th respectively.  In 9th, Alex Quattlebaum could see the pair ahead albeit almost 3 seconds behind in the LECo. Tristan Bradfield was putting in a great drive in the Sunbeam Alpine and keeping Alex honest and now had a substantial 12 seconds lead to the chasing group of 6 cars, headed by Barry Dye who had worked his Lotus Elite to the front of it and was continuing his charge. 6 seconds covered this pack, Barry being followed by Louise Kennedy (Lancia Aurelia) driving out of her skin to hold off the TR3A of Ed Shah, Nick Atkins (Lotus Elite), Leigh Sebba (Morgan +4) and Josh Bromley (MGA). A further 13 seconds away was Andrew Mitchell in the Bristol, shadowed by Mark Shears in the second of the flat rad Morgan +4s and Jeremy Holden in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica.  Both Harry Naerger (Jowett Jupiter) and Glenn Brackenridge (Sunbeam Alpine Harrington) were to be lapped on lap 5, such was the pace of the leaders.

Brian Arculus’s lead, as they crossed the line at the end of lap 5, was down to three quarters of a second but that was because he had crossed it in the pit lane taking his mandatory stop in the Lotus Elite. Brian later expressed surprise that he had still not seen the Oli Llewellyn Allard looming large in his mirrors before pitting. Steven Bond assumed the lead in the Lister Bristol. He had stretched his gap to Paul De Havilland in the XK150S to just over 2 seconds but Paul’s gap back to the AC Ace of Robin Pearce remained unchanged and the Allard had still not quite caught them. The order of the cars behind had not changed, although they had all moved up one place as Alex Quattlebaum had also pitted. Before the race Alex was a bit troubled by how the 2 minute (Covid 19 induced regs) pit stop, timed between the pit entry and exit lines would be monitored (later, not the only one to query it!), but he need not have worried since his stop was very lengthy whilst his team tried to get to grips with the oil breather issues caused by over pressurisation.  He was not the only one in trouble, as on lap 5 Jeremy Holden in the Frazer Nash LMR had detected blue smoke in his rear view mirror and a glance at the oil pressure gauge indicated zero pressure and he pulled over by a marshal’s post to retire. Subsequent investigation has suggested that this too may have been over pressurising. We were now into the pitting phase which really mixes up the order and our pit window of 20 minutes is particularly long so it is sometimes not until the closing stages of the race before some of the positions are re-established, or resolved.

Robin Pearce (AC Ace ) and Glenn Brackenridge (Sunbeam Alpine Harrington) had followed Brian into the pits, all 3 cars stationary during lap 6 and Alex Quattlebaum was still sitting there whilst his team improvised a modification to rectify the oil pressurising problem. It was to be a very long stop for the LECo. Steven Bond continued to lead at the end of lap 7 in the charismatic Lister Bristol but Oliver Llewellyn had finally worked the Allard into 2nd place just 2 seconds behind and there seemed a certain inevitability about the fact that he would eventually hit the front. Paul De Havilland was 4 seconds behind Oli at this stage, a long way clear of Richard Thorne’s Morgan +4. Some way behind was the battling duo of Nigel Winchester and David Cottingham, the gap between them being the largest (apart from the pit stop phase) at 1.9 seconds that it would be between the Lotus 7 and the AC Ace for the whole race. They were, at this point, 5th & 6th respectively, yet to pit. Tristan Bradfield was over 14 seconds adrift of them but in a good 7th whilst Justin Beckett had pitted his AC Ace, in 8th. The following 3 places were occupied by Barry Dye (Lotus Elite), Ed Shah (TR3A) and Louise Kennedy (Lancia Aurelia) and although Louise had finally to give best to the Triumph the two were still only a second apart.

At the end of lap 8, the Lister Bristol flashed across the line with a 1.4 second lead, the Allard closing but not yet there! Two more cars were in the pits, the Morgan of Richard Thorne and the Jowett Jupiter of Harry Naerger, handing over to Thomas Leopold. Erstwhile leader, Brian Arculus had rejoined the race in 12th place, a lap down on the frontrunners but expected to make rapid ground whilst poor old Alex Q was still sitting patiently (allegedly!) in the LECo.       

It was at the end of lap 9 that the Allard finally boomed by in the lead, as Steven Bond had headed to the pits to take his mandatory pit stop in the Lister Bristol. Paul De Havilland carried on but was now 10 seconds down on the Allard but about to take 2nd in the XK150s which was going beautifully. In the pits along with Steven, were Barry Dye (Lotus Elite), Ed Shah (TR3A) and Nigel Winchester in the Lotus 7, this breaking up his great dice, albeit briefly, with David Cottingham’s AC Ace. The LECo was still sitting stationary in the pit lane but Alex’s long wait was about to come to an end.  Only 6 cars were on the lead lap and two of those were in the pits – the Lister Bristol and the Lotus 7.

Oli had extended his lead over the Jaguar to 14.3 seconds by the end of 10, banging in a 1.12.451 on a clear track in preparation for his own pit stop at the end of lap 11. David Cottingham yet to stop was up to 3rd in the AC Ace and Tristan Bradfield up to 4th in the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans and these 4 were the only cars now on the lead lap. Brian Arculus had his Elite up to 8th and the question was whether Steven’s Lister Bristol would emerge from the pit lane in front or behind him.

Over the next couple of laps, the area around Luffield became a wheel depository, well, for two, anyway! On this circuit the Brooklands, Luffield, Woodcote sequence creates the biggest stress on many of the components and the first car to cry ‘enough’ was the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans when a halfshaft broke heading into Brooklands and the detached wheel decided to take its own path in Luffield much to the amazement of the following Louise Kennedy in the Lancia who watched it cross the track in front of her. As Tristan remarked this was the slowest part of the track so the Sunbeam was brought to rest safely and the Lancia negotiated the wheel quite comfortably, Louise lifting just briefly. This was a very disappointing outcome for Tristan as he had the Sunbeam going extremely well and in the top half of the field. Louise Kennedy headed to the pits to hand the Lancia over to Jason rather anxiously explaining that she had experienced gear selection problems right at the end of her stint.  Jason later reported that the gear selection had cleared itself; just an old car glitch!

A lap later, and in the same place, the extraordinary Bristol 450 recreation shed a front wheel.  The new  wheels had been manufactured from drawings and photographs but of course they were untried under racing conditions and to quote Andrew Mitchell  ‘clearly it was a sustained pressure that made the lugs on the outer wheel rim fracture and remove itself from the centre’. They will be beefed up for Castle Combe! These occurrences took place on laps 12 and 13 and the Sunbeam and Bristol were the last cars to retire.

Whilst Tristan and Andrew were having their dramas in Luffield, the race swept on. The leader, Oliver Llewellyn pitted the Allard at the end of lap 11 so that, briefly, Paul De Havilland assumed the lead in the Jaguar XK150s but he, too, pitted a lap later. David Cottingham had also just pitted the AC Ace, as had Andrew Mitchell in the Bristol, but as we have seen, Andrew’s race was about to come to a 3 wheeled end!  4 cars pitted behind Paul’s Jaguar – Nick Atkins (Lotus Elite), Mark Shears (Morgan +4), Josh Bromley (MGA), handing over to Dad, Shaun, and Leigh Sebba (Morgan +4). The MGA was chucking out quite a lot of water at standstill but there was no concern from Josh or Shaun since the view was that it was simply an excess from the header tank. The car certainly made it safely to the end! These were the last of the mandatory pit stops, so we could expect the field to start sorting itself out although Alex Quattlebaum was never going to finish anywhere but last of the classifield finishers. The LECo had finally emerged from the pits, the oil breather problem apparently cured, and going well, but Alex was now 4 laps adrift with not enough time left in the race to make any places up.

By the end of lap 13, the Allard was back in the lead with Stephen Bond chasing hard in the Lister Bristol but now 9.3 seconds down. Brian Arculus had worked his Lotus Elite back up to 3rd but was a further 9 seconds down on Stephen, surprising, given that he had been ahead of the Lister in the first half of the race but, of course, he may have had less luck in negotiating the traffic than Stephen as they progressed up through the field after their pit stops.  Robin Pearce was less than 4 seconds behind the Elite, the Ace, again flying! A further 20 seconds behind, Paul De Havilland, in the XK150S was matching Robin’s pace.  23 seconds back from Paul, holding down 6th and 7th positions, were Nigel Winchester (Lotus 7) and David Cottingham (AC Ace), battle rejoined, and both about to be caught by Richard Thorne in the Morgan, the last car to be on the lead lap. My reading of the lap charts shows Barry Dye (Lotus Elite), Justin Beckett (AC Ace) and Jason Kennedy (Lancia Aurelia) occupying the next 3 places, one lap down and everyone else was at least 2 laps down.

Over the next few laps there was little change of position, Oli extending his lead in the Allard, but Brian making no ground on Stephen, and not getting away from Robin either, the AC Ace leading Class 2 by a comfortable margin. By the end of lap 16, Richard Thorne had passed both David Cottingham and Nigel Winchester to regain the Class 3 lead from Nigel and a hard charging Shaun Bromley in the MGA led class 4 and was up to 11th overall.

On lap 18, Oli put in a lap of 1.12.320, the fastest lap of the race and his lead was now up to 20 seconds over the Lister Bristol, so victory was assured barring misshap (or penalty!).  Stephen Bond had the Lister 14 seconds clear of Brian Arculus in the Elite, but Brian still had Robin Pearce’s Ace for company with Paul De Havilland’s Jaguar a further 19 seconds back. These were now the only cars on the lead lap and the real action lay one lap down as having passed them Richard Thorne had not immediately pulled away from Nigel Winchester and David Cottingham. He eventually eased out a gap leaving the Lotus and the AC to continue their fabulous race long scrap which had seen them swap places several times.         

As the race wound down to its conclusion, the Jowett Jupiter, now driven by Thomas Leopold who was pushing hard, was seen trailing blue smoke and after much gesticulation from the pit crew, Thomas brought it in a second time for a quick mechanical check. The engine block has a long term leak but as Harry Naerger said ‘we had made a good temporary repair with some aluminium filler at the start of the season which seems to be coming to the end of its life now. Tom was pushing the car much harder than me and we think this was causing a little more oil to drip onto the exhaust after hard cornering which then caused the rather spectacular smoking. Tom was sent back out and finished without difficulty. After Castle Combe the engine will come out as we should have a new gearbox to fit by then. Hopefully we can then address the oil leak more permanently!’

Oli Llewellyn had settled into a good rhythm with the Allard, holding a comfortable 20 second lead over Stephen Bond in the Lister Bristol with the gap back to Brian Arculus in the Elite hovering around the 14 – 15 second mark, whilst Brian was still being shadowed by Robin Pearce in the Ace, Robin never quite near enough to challenge but always in Brian’s mirrors. A further 22 seconds behind and on a similar pace was Paul De Havilland in the XK150S. Back in 6th was Richard Thorne, now pretty much on his own whilst the 7th place battle between Nigel Winchester and David Cottingham continued to rage but it appeared that David was gradually gaining the upper hand as he was now the one regularly ending the lap in front.  In a very solid and unchallenged 9th place was Barry Dyer in the second of the Lotus Elites and 10th was Justin Beckett in the second of the AC Aces, his position also very secure.

Alex Quattlebaum now running very well in the LECo, and putting a very competitive best lap of 1.17.777, nevertheless went 5 laps down to the leader. Alex was not to overhaul anyone enough to gain any positions, but was quite clearly  enjoying himself as he put his 3 best lap times in over his last five.  

As Oliver Llewellyn crossed the finishing line for the 23rd time, the flag dropped to signal the end of the race. The Allard always had the edge over its rivals but this was a sensible drive from the young Oli, unfazed by the stalled start and he didn’t simply charge back through the field in a rush but picked his way carefully forward and didn’t head the race until lap 9. The car was particularly suited to the point and squirt nature of this track and it will be interesting to note how it goes elsewhere. However, despite the fact that his best lap in the 1.12s has been matched by a number of our cars in the past, I have, for future informed Oli that I have ‘promoted’ the car out of Class 1 to Chairman’s Invitation Class, alongside Richard Tyzack’s Kellison.

The race order had remained unchanged over the last few laps but unfortunately, a number of penalties applied at the end of the race, mainly relating to the length of various pit stops, altered the final results. I guess it was always going to be difficult for drivers to time their stops accurately given that the mandatory two minute stop was between the pit entry line and pit exit line, but it was surprising so many seemed to have breached this and certainly some of the drivers were perplexed by their penalties but without going into a detailed analysis of all the timings, I can offer no opinion!

The time penalties greatly exaggerated the Allard’s win over the Lister Bristol - 20 seconds becoming 57 seconds - and, of course, the race averages of those incurring the penalties were also adversely affected. Brian Arculus dropped from 3rd to 4th but I’m afraid the heaviest penalty went to Justin Beckett for breaking the pitlane speed limit, the 60 second imposed, pushing him several positions down the order. Although these penalties were all over half a minute long, it didn’t otherwise actually have a huge impact on the overall positions although it meant that Paul De Havilland rose from 5th to 3rd and became class 2 winner. Other class outcomes were unaffected with a fine win in Class 3 & 6th overall by Richard Thorne in the Morgan +4 and an excellent Class 4 win & 10th overall by Josh & Shaun Bromley in the MGA, going as well as I can ever recall, and, as a result top scoring on Index of Performance. Team positions and the rest of Index of Performance scores will all be recorded in the results listed at the end of this report.

I would like conclude on the happy note received from David Cottingham, which I hope summed up the general feeling of both this meeting and our race in particular:- ‘ I simply could have not enjoyed the day more than I did. Great start with the front eight cars all leaving the line as though joined together by glue until the Allard stalled. What a race long duel I had with Nigel. Virtually every lap at the entrance to Copse, Becketts and Brooklands he slid up the outside and took my planned apex. I had to slow to avoid contact but I then overtook  before Maggots, on the main straight and out of Woodcote. Two laps before the end I used 300 more rpm in all gears out of Becketts and stole a lead sufficient to keep the advantage. Proper racing!’

Gallery

There follows a substantial number of photographs from Rachel Bourne and Mick Walker. The first is just a small selection from Rachel, covering qualifying, pit & paddock and startline shots but Rachel took over 500 photographs, which can be found here:-

Tailpieces

————————————————————————————————————————————