Race

The amalgamation of grids certainly created a reasonably substantial and eclectic grid. Poleman, Charlie Martin, in the Lotus 15 was unable to convert his significant pole time advantage into the lead from the start as Justin Meears stormed the Cooper Monaco to the front, completing lap 1 with a small advantage. However, these two clearly had the legs of the rest of the field, as Peter Haynes in the Lotus 11 came through in 3rd, already 5 seconds down on the leaders, with first of the 1960s sports cars, the TR6 of Rob Cowing close behind in 4th. Brian Arculus in the first of our FISCAR cars, came through in 7th overall, his closest FISCAR challenger being John Harper in David Brazell’s C-Type Jaguar back in 9th but almost 2.5 seconds down on Brian. David Cottingham had made a great start and was up to 10th, 3rd in FISCAR, in the AC Ace but unable to match John’s opening lap time. Behind, our FISCAR cars were mixing it well with some of the 1960s sports cars. Mark Shears was valiantly propping up the rear in the oldest car in the field, the flat rad Morgan just keeping in sight the poor starting MGB of Martin Whitlock who was now getting into his stride and about to move forward through the field.

As the cars came through to complete lap 2, a number of dices were already brewing not least between the leading pair, Maeers, ahead of Martin by less than half a second. They were already well clear of Peter Haynes in the Lotus 11, but Peter was himself consolidating his 3rd place. Behind, however, the Dave Beresford MGB, Brian Arculus Lotus Elite and Richard Parsons Mini Cooper S were line astern of Rob Cowing’s TR6, making an unusual sight. A couple of seconds behind, but even closer together, were the C type of John Harper and John Andon in his Triumph TR4, another unlikely on track pairing. David Cottingham had not been able to sustain his excellent first lap position and had dropped back to 14th just behind Graham Love in the Jaguar XK150. Immediately behind them, Peter Bower in his Austin Healey 100/4 was holding off Tim Stamper in Richard Bell’s Aston Martin DB2/4, these two making a splendid FISCAR pairing. Glenn Tollett, 17th, followed in the MGA Sebring Coupe but was about to be displaced by the charging Whitlock MGB. Very sadly, the Shears Morgan had already retired after just one lap and John Tewson had dropped several places to the back following what was a slow lap in his Frogeye Sprite. He thereafter picked up pace but was never able to recover the lost ground.

At the front, a great ding dong battle was raging between the Cooper Monaco and the Lotus 15 which grabbed the lead on lap 3 in the hands of Charlie Martin. This exciting battle was to continue to the end, not even broken up by the mandatory pit stop. Behind, Peter Haynes Lotus 11 was easing away from the dicing TR6 of Rob Cowing and Dave Beresford’s MGB who were just opening a decent gap to Brian Arculus in the Elite. Brian, still in 6th place was holding off the Parson’s Mini Cooper but pitted at the end of lap 4, the first to do so. John Harper and John Andon in C type and TR4 were circulating in close order in 8th and 9th respectively, well ahead of Stephen Bolderson in another MGB. Back in 14th place, David Cottingham’s AC Ace, had been caught by Peter Bower (Austin Healey 100/4) and Tim Stamper in the Aston Martin DB2/4 and they had an interloper in their midst, the Martin Whitlock MGB which was still surging forward after a bad start. Behind these, and fairly well spread out, were Glenn Tollett (MGA), Justin Becket (AC Ace), Nicolas Rossi, in the second of the C type Jaguars and John Tewson, the little Frogeye shortly to be lapped by the leaders.

John Tewson pitted the Frogeye Sprite at the end of lap 5, the second FISCAR runner to do so, whilst the two leaders continued to dice for an advantage. By the end of lap 6, they had lapped 4 cars and at the end of the 7th lap this had increased to 8. Tim Stamper had brought the Aston in at the end of lap 6 but his battle with fellow FISCAR racer, Peter Bower, in the Austin Healey, was not to recommence, as Peter decided that it was time to explore the gravel at Roberts, just before the pit entrance on lap 8, and was unfortunately unable to extract the car from there and thus ended his fine run. At this point the highest placed FISCAR driver was John Harper in the C -Type, in 5th place, as he had yet to make his stop, but he was still being pressed by John Andon in the TR4.

At the end of lap 8, Justin Beckett pitted his AC Ace but had a dreadfully long stop. It took nearly 2 minutes longer than most. I do not know the cause but it lost him at least a lap and a half, adversely affecting his finishing position by several places. As we headed towards the halfway stage, the two leaders were way out on their own engaged in a fabulous battle that entertained the few spectators there to witness it. By the end of lap 11, they were over a minute clear of 3rd placed Richard Parsons in the Mini Cooper S, who was in that position due to the fact that he had passed Peter Haynes who was taking the mandatory pit stop. We were now well into that pit stop phase, over half the field having stopped, and, along with the inevitable lapping, the on track positions in no way reflected the race places. Only 8 cars were on the lead lap, amongst them, Brian Arculus, absolutely on song with his Lotus Elite, holding down 6th position, and the only FISCAR driver on the lead lap, as our next driver, John Harper, was in the pits handing over the C type to owner, David Brazell.

As we entered the second half of the race, a number of cars were still to pit. Laps 12 & 13 were pretty eventful, as we lost two more cars into retirement, the TR4 of Rob Cowing, and Graham Love XK150. This brought the total of race retirements to 4, but thankfully they were the last, as the rest of the field headed towards the still distant cheqeured flag. At the same time, the leaders pitted and the Cooper Monaco, in the hands of Justin Maeers, grabbed a small advantage and he completed lap 13 over 4 seconds ahead of Charlie Martin in the Lotus 15. Peter Haynes in the Lotus 11, had re-established himself in 3rd place ahead of the Richard Parsons Mini Cooper S, albeit almost a minute and a quarter behind the leading pair. Brian Arculus, our FISCAR race leader, had just been lapped by the duelling duo at the front, but was still well up in the overall standings in 5th place (if I’m reading the lap chart correctly!) but being gradually caught by both Dave Beresford in the MGB, and the later stopping John Andon in the TR6. David Brazell, now up to speed had the C Type Jaguar in 8th, 2nd in FISCAR, also a lap down. The rest of our grid were by lap 14, two laps down on the leaders but battling manfully with the sports cars from the later decade. David Cottingam’s AC Ace, now in the hands of Adrian King was 3rd in the FISCAR class with Tim Stamper now up to 4th in class following the demise of the Love XK150. John Tewson, Nicolas Rossi, Rory Tollett & Justin Becket were still pressing on although Justin was never really able to recover the ground lost in the pits.

Charlie Martin soon whittled down the small lead that Justin Maeers had accrued in the pit stop and by the end of lap 15 had the Lotus 15 right back under the tail of the Cooper Monaco. He grabbed the lead on lap 17 and briefly eked out a 3 second lead during a period of lapping other cars. Maeers came back at him but the Lotus took the flag by 1 second, although it was the Cooper Monaco that took fastest race lap, but by a very small margin. The pair had had put on a great show throughout but in performance terms they were in a class of their own and were the only cars to complete 22 laps. Peter Haynes had a pretty lonely race to 3rd over a lap behind, and Richard Parsons finished 4th in the Mini Cooper S.

Our leading FISCAR racer, Brian Arculus had fought valiantly but he had a relatively slow lap on lap 20 whilst lapping other cars and although he held both Dave Beresford in the MGB and John Andon in the TR6 off to the flag, he was given a 5 second penalty for exceeding track limits, a rather unfortunate outcome to an excellent drive, which demoted Brian to 7th. However, there was a very substantial gap back to 8th, 9th and 10th occupied by the TR4 of Chris Berry and the MGBs of Martin Whitlock and Stephen Bolderson. They finished the race line astern, just over a second covering all three having provided a very lively battle in the last few laps. 16 seconds behind them came David Brazell, bringing his C Type Jaguar home in 11th place overall, 2nd in the FISCAR class, but he was so nearly caught by Rory Tollett in the MGA Coupe who finished just 3 tenths behind. The David Cottingham/Adrian King AC Ace took 13th (4th) just under 5 seconds clear of the Illingworth MGB who had also been awarded a 5 second time penalty as Brian and for the same reason. Tim Stamper brought Richard Bell’s lovely Aston Martin DB2/4 home 15th (5th) in his first race outing for a long time, and knowing Tim’s ability behind the wheel he was only going to get quicker with more seat time. Nicolas Rossi had a pretty quiet race to 16th in the second of the C-type Jaguars. He had entered as a VSCC member but the car was quite probably FISCAR compliant. 17th (6th) was John Tewson in the Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite and last of the classified finishers was Justin Becket in the AC Ace; he’d had a mountain to climb following his slow pit stop.

Full race results and Gallery to follow - JT

Gallery

All photos by Mick Walker except where stated

Tailpiece