VSCC Spring Start (2023)

Preamble

This year the VSCC’s Spring Start meeting returned to its proper April slot and FISCAR were again invited to share our Tom Cole Trophy Race with their Hawthorn International Trophy race. Interestingly, for at least a couple of years now, and I assume, in recognition of my enthusiasm for 50s sports cars, VSCC have delegated to me the task of allocating the entries to the two respective races, so any wrong slotting is down to me although I think it’s been OK up to now! I did get myself slightly confused regarding the Hawthorn cars since I had understood that in view of the new HSCC Haig Griffiths Formula races, the VSCC had moved away from last year’s pre 55 drum braked regs and back to their pre 60 regs. Wrong! However, as you will see they didn’t correct my programme notes, or the ‘Hawth’ allocation to some of the FISCAR entries cars which appeared alongside. In fact, none of our class 1 & 2 cars complied with their pre 55 drum braked regs. It mattered not in the context of the race but did mean that the 1958 2 litre Cooper Monaco of Ben Maeers was entered in Race 4 – The Hawthorn & Patrick Lindsay Memorial Trophy races for racing cars where he finished a fine 7th overall! He would have disappeared down the road in our race since he was 2 seconds a lap quicker than our quickest entrants! Incidentally, one of the great sights and sounds of the day was in that race - Peter Greenfield’s Alfa Romeo 158!

It doesn’t matter that the Hawthorn entry was restricted to pre 55 whilst FISCAR is part of the grid, but would be problematic if they tried to run a separate race, I feel. I was quite ‘chuffed’ to learn that within VSCC Comps circles, they always refer to this race as the FISCAR race, and it’s true that we tend to provide most of the grid, but nice to get that recognition. We will, of course, be doing it all again in July at Donington and hope for another great grid of cars. In some ways, it’s a surprise that having raced at this meeting since 2013 (see programme notes, or this website’s race reports!) with good outcomes, our collaboration only now takes us to another venue!

In all, 30 cars entered this combined race – a lovely and eclectic group of cars. I have agreed to allow a very few extra non compliant invitation cars into FISCAR this year, and in this race they included Pete Shepherd’s Austin Healey Sebring Sprite and Mark Morgan’s Ginetta G4. A G4 would normally have me running for the hills but this is a nice original 997 cc car and Mark, by his own admission, won’t set the world alight with it! It should blend in nicely mid pack. As many of you know Mark has supported us for many years with his AC Ace which he sadly now has to sell. Neither car is involved in the classes so class outcomes are not affected but they can compete in the Index of Performance and Pete can be part of the Austin Healey team, since that too is based on IoP.

Sadly, we lost 3 cars even before practice started. The Nicholas Jarvis Allard J2X didn’t appear, and the Kellison failed to turn up as Richard Tyzack had intended to test the day before but the towing vehicle broke down and recovery hassle took forever (25 hours!) and Richard was, understandably, pretty ‘wrecked’ by the end of it. The third car not to run was the lovely HWM Jaguar to be driven by Paddins Dowling although I do not know why, since it sat in the paddock the whole day (see photo).

Qualifying

It would have been slightly worrying if the Hawthorn cars hadn’t been at the front, and Martin Hunt duly took pole in the great sounding HWM Jaguar on a 1.09.63 and sharing the front row was the little Cooper T39 Bobtail of Barry Cannell on a 1.09.96. However, it was a little surprising that two FISCAR Tom Cole entrants took the second row even though the cars and their drivers are amongst our quickest. Richard Woolmer qualified 3rd in Paul’s lovely little class 2 Elva,  on 1.12.09, whilst alongside, fresh from his fine win in the Tony Gaze Trophy at the Goodwood Members meeting the previous weekend, was Jonathan Abecassis in his familiar class 1 left hand drive Austin Healey 100/4 on 1.12.73. Both cars are prepared by Woolmer Classic Engineering which must create some internal team banter (actually, I know it does as I have witnessed it!). Two more Hawthorn cars occupied the 3rd row with Paul Pochciol’s Jaguar C – type and Jonathan Cobb’s very smart looking Cooper Bristol, on 1.12.86 1nd 1.12.95, respectively. The times between 2nd and 6th, promised, in theory, some close racing.

Surely the most valuable car on the grid, the beautiful Maserati 300S driven by Tania Pilkington took 7th in a 1.13.24 and alongside was the first car eligible for both Hawthorn and Tom Cole Trophies, the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica driven by Theodore Hunt, 8th,  in a very fine 1.14.07. Dwight Merriman was 9th in a car, new to me, the ex Peter Arundell Lotus Elite.  Alongside in 10th was the first of our invitation cars, the Austin Healey Sebring Sprite of Pete Shepherd on a 1.15.25. Very close behind was the Austin Healey 100M of Glenn and Rory Tollett , Rory posting 1.15.41. and they shared the 6th row with the Dougal Cawley/Martin Groves Lotus Elite on 1.15.61. On row 7, Alex Quattlebaum qualified the LECo XPAG in 1.15.94, the first of the class 3 cars with Neil Burnside on a 1.16.72 in his MGA Twin Cam, also a class 3 car, although if their respective qualifying times reflected their true pace, Neil would not be able to hold onto Alex. Row 8 was occupied by Justin Beckett in the sole AC Ace Bristol on 1.17.05 and Mark Morgan in the little Ginetta G4  on 1.17.12. Barry Dye (1.17.81) in the third of the Lotus Elites and Zaheer ‘Ed’ Shah (1.18.00) in the second of the Elva Courier Mk 1’s were on row 9.

Alan House qualified 19th in his Morgan +4 on a 1.18.92 and just 3 hundredths behind was the TR3 Falcon of Andrew Cox.  Row 11 contained the flat rad Morgan +4 of Mark and Jonny Shears, first of the Class 4 cars, and the substantial Bentley Mk6 Special of Vernon Moore. Their laps times were 1.19.13 and 1.20.74 respectively. Simon Jefferies qualified 23rd in 1.21.38 in the Aston Martin DB MkIII, which doesn’t like the Silverstone National circuit as much as Castle Combe! He shared row 12 with the 3rd member of the Morgan team, Reuben Jacob in his +4 in a time of 1.21.72. Row 13 was occupied by Shaun Bromley in his MGA on 1.22.15 and alongside, it was pleasing to see Chris Pring in his wonderfully original Allard J2 on 1.23.24.

Finally, all alone at the back of the grid was Christopher Mann in Ellie’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spyder qualifying in 1.24,12. This delightful car was entered instead of the Disco Volante which is having some TLC work done on it. Chris, despite being a good bit older than I, still lives in the fast lane and I can do no better than quote from an email that he sent me a couple of days ago:-

“I had only flown in from Brazil the previous night, and I had to drive up on the road in the Monza and have the Spyder left at the track!

The car was raced in USA and Canada in period, (some of the scrutineering stickers are still on it) and it came with a horrible roll-bar etc, so I fixed it up as a ‘Spyder Corsa’ for Ellie. I’ve run it twice at the ‘Pom’, for which it is much better suited.

We’d changed the carbs (from 35DCO3s to 40DCO3s) and the dizzy ….. to try to get a bit more top-end and it was the first time I’d driven it since, so it was somewhat out of tune. In fact initially on 3 cylinders!”

Race

Three tenths of a second doesn’t sound much in historic racing circles (it’s a lifetime in F1, of course!)  but it remained to be seen whether the nimble Bobtail could hold onto the more powerful HWM. It certainly looked to be a two horse race for outright victory and the Hawthorn International Trophy. Equally, qualifying times for the Tom Cole part of the race suggested victory would be fought out by two cars. Jonathan Abecassis was attempting to make it a hat trick of wins but he had the formidable driver pairing of Richard and Paul Woolmer in the Elva to contend with. Richard had outqualified Jonathan by almost 7 tenths and whilst his dad, Paul, was not as quick as his hotshoe son, he was nevertheless still pretty quick as he proved last season. Richard was driving first and Jonathan had to hold onto him, or at least keep him in sight, to give himself a chance of retaining the trophy. In row 3, the following two Hawthorn cars of Paul Pochciol and Jonathan Cobb in C-Type and Cooper Bristol respectively could come into play here as the closeness of the qualifying times suggested they might.   Times down the field also gave us the prospect of some good close racing ahead.

The weather was dry and bright as the 27 cars that made up this terrific field emerged from the paddock onto the track, completed their warm up lap and formed up on the grid. Conditions seemed pretty perfect although the state of the track was a relative unknown since there had already been 7 earlier races no doubt laying down rubber and some oil.  As the cars got away at the start, the Merriman Lotus Elite, well up the grid in 9th failed to start but mayhem and damage did not ensue as everyone managed to jink around it. As the cars disappeared towards Copse, the marshals did a great job of pushing the Lotus behind the pit wall before they reappeared at the end of lap 1. One or two cars backed off through Woodcote the first time around, on the reasonable expectation of yellows to cover the recovery, but it was all clear!

Back at the front, Martin Hunt converted his pole position into the lead followed by his fellow front row man, Barry Cannell in the Bobtail. Jonathan Abecassis achieved the first part of his task to contain the Elva by outdragging Richard Woolmer to take 3rd place, and challenging the Bobtail for 2nd. Jonathan Cobb’s Cooper Bristol got ahead of the C-type and Theo Hunt managed to get ahead of Tania Pilkington’s Maserati as they charged into Copse, pursued by the rest of this splendid and eclectic collection of sports cars.

As they all headed through Brooklands, Luffield and Woodcote for the first time,  Martin Hunt had already built up a lead partly because Barry Cannell was having to fend off the Abecassis Austin Healey which was still nibbling at the tail of the Cooper. Just as significant was the fact that the Cobb Cooper Bristol had snatched 4th from Richard Woolmer giving Jonathan breathing space and yet more hope that he was on target. The longer he could stay ahead of the Elva, the better the chances of being in contention after the pit stops. The Jaguar C type initially also challenged Richard but soon began to drop back. Theo Hunt had his Dad’s Frazer Nash LMR in an excellent 7th ahead of Tania Pilkington’s Maserati but how long could he stay there?  Rory Tollett had made a good start in the Austin Healey 100M and was up to 9th as they completed the first lap, but he had the Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite on his tail and Pete Shepherd in the Austin Healey Sebring Sprite was also in touch.

Neil Burnside had the MGA Twin Cam up to 12th and was followed by Alex Quattlebaum who was slowly winding the LECo up and would surely make ground. Following Alex, a stream of beautiful cars, line astern, led by Justin Beckett’s AC Ace swept across the line as Chris Pring brought his Allard J2 into the pits for an unscheduled stop, but was the problem terminal?     

Onto lap 2 and Barry Cannell closed right up to the back of Martin Hunt’s HWM, whilst both had opened up a gap to Jonathan Abecassis in 3rd. Jonathan Cobb’s Cooper Bristol was now on the tail of the Austin Healey but more importantly for Abecassis, was still resisting Richard Woolmer in the Elva. The Pochciol Jaguar C type was beginning to drop away in 6th but was itself pulling away from the FNLMR of Theo Hunt, who, in turn, seemed now to have the better of Tania Pilkington in the Maserati. In fact, although some gaps had opened up and others closed, the order of the first 17 cars remained unchanged and the first change of position was found in 18th place occupied by Vernon Moore in the Bentley, Vernon having displaced Mark Morgan’s little Ginetta - what a contrast they made! There was no other change on this lap with Chris Mann’s little Alfa bringing up the rear. Of the Allard there was no sign. However, in a note to me later, Chris has advised that ‘ On the exit of Becketts on the first lap, I felt one of the shoulder straps on my harness come loose. Taking a cautious approach I came in at the end of the lap to re-secure it (the belt had actually slipped off the HANS device).’ Quite right, too, safety first! Chris returned to the track but was now a whole lap down, and although he was a bit quicker than a number of cars ahead, he wasn’t going to regain that lost lap.

At the end of lap 3, Martin Hunt had opened up a two second lead over the Bobtail which was now 3 seconds clear of the Abecassis Austin Healey, but more ominously for Jonathan, Richard Woolmer had finally taken 4th and was now within 2 seconds and closing. Pete Shepherd had gained two places, moving into 9th in the Austin Healey Sebring Sprite, but that was because an exuberant Rory Tollett had spun his Austin Healey 100M going into Brooklands and in the ensuing avoidances, Pete sneaked up the inside ahead of the Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite which had to run wide to avoid the spinning 100M. It also promoted Alex Quattlebaum, the LECo moving up 2 places into 11th whilst Rory had dropped to 14th. Behind, Mark Morgan had regained 17th position from Vernon Moore, and Alan House in his Morgan +4 had displaced Simon Jefferies in the Aston DB MkIII. The re- emerging Allard J2 of Chris Pring came through in front of Reuben Jacob’s Morgan and Chris Mann’s Alfa, but was, as reported above, almost a complete lap down on them.

Lap 4 and Martin was over 3 seconds ahead of Barry, the HWM clearly having the edge over the Bobtail and they were on their own, almost 5 seconds clear of Jonathan Abecassis who now had his mirrors full of a pressing Richard Woolmer in the very quick Elva. It seemed that Jonathan would struggle to resist Richard but he had gained valuable race time with both his start and the fact that Richard had been held up for a couple of laps. Behind, the edge had started to go off the performance of the Cooper Bristol and Paul Pochciol had taken his C -Type passed Jonathan Cobb, into 5th whilst the latter now dropped into the clutches of the very well driven Frazer Nash of Theo Hunt. The Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite got back passed Pete Shepherd’s Austin Healey Sebring Sprite on grunt down the Wellington Straight! Justin Beckett had taken 12th from Neil Burnside in AC Ace and MGA Twin Cam respectively. Rory Tollett, back up to speed, was closing on both, and behind, Barry Dye had moved his Lotus Elite up to 15th at the expense of Andrew Cox’s unique Triumph TR3 Falcon. Ed Shah’s Elva Courier had dropped down into 21st behind both Alan House and Simon Jefferies and was followed very closely by Shaun Bromley’s MGA. There was some very good battling going on at this end of the grid although those behind Shaun were beginning to drop away a little.

Martin Hunt completed his 5th lap after 6 minutes of racing. The pit window was now open but none of the front runners headed there. His lead was still gradually growing to Barry Cannell and they were now out of sight of the chasing Jonathan Abecassis. Richard Woolmer, though, was no longer on the Austin Healey’s tail, the Elva having  dropped  2 seconds behind and now that Richard was on his own, I could hear why. As he accelerated through Woodcote, a misfire in the Elva’s MGA engine was clearly audible. This had apparently started virtually from the off and clearly handicapped the Elva’s chances of Tom Cole victory, so that barring mishap to the left hooker Austin Healey, Jonathan would win the Tom Cole Trophy for the third year in succession. Richard was still quick however, and although the misfire cost him about 1.5 seconds a lap he was still in 4th place, but vulnerable to the Pochciol C-Type Jaguar which was slowly closing the gap. 5 seconds behind, Theo Hunt had the Frazer Nash up to 6th having overtaken the visibly slowing Cooper Bristol of Jonathan Cobb. A further 5 seconds down, Tania Pilkington was on her own in the lovely Maserati, since Pete Shepherd in the little Austin Healey Sebring Sprite was a further 6 seconds behind, again being challenged by the Cawley/Groves (I don’t know whether Dougal or Mark were driving first) Lotus Elite. This interesting A-H/Elite battle which took place in the early part of the race displayed the relative merits of the two cars clearly revealing that the Elite was quicker out of the bends and down the straights but the Sprite was quicker into the braking area and through the corners and made noticeable ground through the Brooklands/Luffield section. Not quite what I expected! However, I noted that this Elite sits noticeably higher than the other Elites that race with us.

Justin Beckett had moved up to 11th but had the recovering 100M of Rory Tollett closing in, Rory now splitting the battle between Justin, Neil Burnside (MGA Twin Cam) and Alex Quattlebaum who had dropped to the back of this group in the LECo, because he had headed to the pits to take his mandatory pit stop, the first to do so. Barry Dye was 15th, in the Elite, holding off Andrew Cox. Vernon Moore was thundering around in the big Bentley, clear of the entertaining battle between Simon Jefferies (Aston Martin), Ed Shah (Elva) and Shaun Bromley (MGA). In 21st place, Alan House in his Morgan was ahead of the Shears flat rad version but, like Alex, was heading for the pits to take his mandatory stop. The two leaders were now beginning to lap the slower cars.  

As they completed their lap 6 the first 7 places remained unaltered, but there had been a bit of action behind as the Cawley/Groves Elite had repassed the Pete Shepherd Sebring Sprite and they had both overtaken Tania Pilkington who was heading for the pits! The 3 of them crossed the line 8th, 9th and 10th covered by less than a second, but the Maserati did so in the pits. Justin Beckett had shown unexpected resistance to Rory Tollett’s recovery drive, holding the 100M at bay for a second lap although it seemed likely that the inevitable would occur sooner rather than later. Behind them, in 13th, Neil Burnside was going very well in the MGA Twin Cam, well clear of Barry Dye’s Lotus Elite and the TR3 Falcon of Andrew Cox. Mark Morgan was 16th in the diminutive Ginetta G4, 6 seconds clear of the Aston Martin DB  MkIII of Simon Jefferies. Another 6 seconds later, the leader came hurtling across the line to complete 7 laps, Martin Hunt making the HWM’s straight 6 XK engine absolutely sing. Barry Cannell appeared to have stabilised the gap to just under 4 seconds in the Cooper Bobtail. Jonathan Abecassis remained 3rd with Richard Woolmer still gamely trying to keep him in sight despite the worsening misfire, the Elva ahead of the C –type Jaguar. The gap back to Theo Hunt was 7 seconds but he was unchallenged in 6th as the Jonathan Cobb Cooper Bristol continued to drop away, his 1.20.15 lap time compared to a qualifying time of 1.12.95! Pete Shepherd was lapping a good bit quicker, the Sebring Sprite now only just over a second behind the Cooper Bristol but Pete would soon have Rory Tollett bearing down on him, as Rory had finally moved ahead of Justin Beckett’s AC Ace. Neil Burnside was in 12th as Alex Quattlebaum headed for the pits. Barry Dye, Andrew Cox and Mark Morgan, 14th, 15th and 16th were the last to remain on the lead lap.    

As the leaders completed Lap 7, they lapped a number of cars that were already either in, or entering, the pits for their mandatory stops, not only the Maserati, but also Vernon Moore (Bentley), Simon Jefferies (Aston) and Reuben Jacob (Morgan). On track, apart from the pitting Maserati, there was no change in the position of the leading 10 cars but Richard Woolmer, in 4th place had done a 1.15.02 lap, his slowest by far of the race and he was to head for the pits on the next lap. Rory Tollett having finally overcome Justin Beckett to take 11th had almost 3 seconds to make up on Pete Shepherd’s Sebring Sprite but would soon be there. Mark Morgan was still the last of the unlapped runners, as the HWM howled over the line to complete 8 laps, having stretched the lead to almost 5 seconds over the Cannell Bobtail. The Abecassis Austin Healey was a strong 3rd overall, 12 seconds behind, but the Pochciol C- type Jaguar now occupying 4th just over 4 seconds behind was lapping marginally quicker than Jonathan at this stage. Richard Woolmer was heading to the pits to hand over to Paul, in what was to be a long stop to attend to the misfire. Theo Hunt, going great guns in the Frazer Nash was in 6th whilst Tania Pilkington’s Maserati behaved itself this year by restarting in the pitlane to enable Tania to continue. 

More cars took to the pits as Martin Hunt completed his 9th lap, the HWM having reached this point in a tad under 10 minutes 48 seconds. His lead seemed secure as Barry Cannell’s Cooper Bobtail, well settled in 2nd place, had no answer to the Jaguar powered car ahead of him. In 3rd place, Jonathan Abecassis, had no apparernt challengers for the Tom Cole Trophy either, and was 4.5 seconds ahead of the third placed Hawthorn car, the Jaguar C-Type of Paul Pochciol. Jonathan’s nearest Tom Cole challenger was now Theo Hunt, in 5th overall in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica but he was a long way behind the Austin Healey and about 2 seconds a lap slower. The Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite was 6th, some 15 seconds behind Theo and Pete Shepherd, 7th in the Sebring Sprite, with Rory Tollett breathing down his neck in the 100M. The ever slowing Cooper Bristol had dropped behind Rory, so was now 9th, still circulating but several seconds slower then the AC Ace of Justin Beckett who was 10th and last of the unlapped runners. However, with a number of cars both in the pits or back on track following their stops, the true positions would not become clear until all cars had completed their stops and got back up to speed. Chris Mann (Alfa) was returning to the track whilst Barry Dye (Lotus Elite), Chris Pring (Allard)  this time in for his mandatory stop,  and the Woolmer Elva on its extended stop were all occupying the pitlane.  

The positions of the leading 6 cars remained unaltered as they crossed the line to complete 10 laps but the C-Type headed to the pits for its mandatory stop so was about to lose 4th place. Rory Tollett had sneaked ahead of Pete Shepherd as they headed down towards Copse to take 7th but it had taken him 7 laps to recover to this position. That 3rd lap spin had been very costly and he nearly threw it all away again exiting Copse when he got into an almighty tank slapper, just managing to get it back facing the right way in front of Pete who would pit at the end of the lap. The only other car on the lead lap was the Jonathan Cobb Cooper Bristol but his race was run and Jonathan retired the car on the next lap. Mark Morgan (Ginetta) and Mark Shears (Morgan) also took to the pits.

At the end of lap 11, Martin Hunt continued to lead whilst Barry Cannell took to the pits in the Bobtail. Jonathan Abecassis pressed on, as did Theo Hunt and Rory Tollett and these were the only 5 currently left on the lead lap, all others either one or two laps down. We were well into the pit stop phase at this point so some might get back onto the lead lap once the leaders had taken their stops. The Woolmer Elva however, had no real way back as its stop was about 2 minutes longer than normal whilst they sorted out the misfire. As Paul, having taken over from Richard emerged back on track, the car now sounding on song, he was 2 laps down and well towards the back of the field. He embarked on a recovery drive which certainly took him forward but was never again in contention for a top spot.

The field was truly scrambled by now and over the next couple of laps, most of the pit stops were completed. On lap 14, Martin Hunt speared the charging HWM into the pits for his stop and, unusually for this race,  there was no lead change and he returned to the track still ahead since his closest challengers had already taken their stops and the others were too far behind to have their moment of glory. Martin was, in fact, the last, bar one, to pit, as only the Triumph TR3 Falcon of Andrew Cox, had yet to do so but the pit window would still be open for several more laps. Sadly, Chris Mann was about to retire – he takes up the story:- 

Everything was fine in the race, but after about 20+ mins, I saw very low oil pressure (30 psi) and as I needed to drive it home, and was pretty much last and a bit of a mobile chicane,  I decided not to risk blowing it up - so retired.

The oil pressure issue was temperature-related, so for racing it needs an oil-cooler. It completely recovered to its usual 60 and gave no trouble all the way home. I entered this underpowered little car really to support FISCAR.  And until the DV is ready again, next time I'll probably enter the Zagato, because it's clear the Giulietta is too slow for any 'power-circuit'.

Never a mobile chicane, Chris, and many thanks for the continued support. I can’t wait to see the Zagato out! 

Over the next few laps, the race order started to re-establish itself and by the end of lap 17, Martin Hunt had an unassailable 13 second lead over the Cooper T39 Bobtail of Barry Cannell. Jonathan Abecassis in the Austin Healey was almost half a minute behind in 3rd but had no challengers for the Tom Cole Trophy as he was over 30 seconds ahead of Theo Hunt in the Frazer Nash LMR and still pulling away at about 2 seconds a lap. Theo was now up to 5th overall, his fine drive continuing. However, ahead of him, now back up to 4th, lay the Jaguar C –type of Paul Pochciol who had been quietly getting on with it and making ground. He had lost a bit of time in the stop but was again lapping a bit quicker than Jonathan but seemed unlikely to be able to close the 13 second gap in the remaining 9 minutes of racing. Tania Pilkington was up to 6th in the fabulous Maserati 300S, 25 seconds ahead of Pete Shepherd in the Austin Healey Sebring Sprite. Pete had been pretty consistent, and so far had stayed out of trouble to hold a position slightly ahead of where I would have expected. He had repassed the Tollett Austin Healey after Rory had handed over to Glenn, who couldn’t quite match Rory’s pace but, of course, Rory had lost a lot of time recovering from his spin! Glenn now had his mirrors full of the AC Ace of Justin Beckett, another who was just quietly (Justin, not the car!) getting on with it and now challenging the Austin Healey for 8th. Both these cars, in line astern presented the classic lines of two of the finest sports car shapes to come out of the 1950s. Alex Quattlebaum, always competitive in the LECo, was also homing in on this duo so we were in for some real dicing towards the end of the race especially since the out of position Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite was only 2 seconds further back, in 11th and catching all of them.

Neil Burnside was a rather lonely 12th in the MGA Twin Cam well ahead of Barry Dye’s Lotus Elite. Mark Morgan, was 14th, 2 laps down in the Ginetta G4, with Vernon Moore 15th, in the big Bentley Special, but now with a recovering Paul Woolmer surely about to pass in the Elva, with fellow Courier driver, Ed Shah, 5 seconds behind in 17th. Simon Jefferies was 18th in the Aston Martin DB MkIII, Simon working as hard as he could on a circuit not suiting its characteristics but also having to bear in mind that he had to drive it home! Jonny Shears had the Flat Rad Morgan in 19th, and Shaun Bromley, 20th in the MGA. 3 laps down were, according to the lap charts, Chris Mann (but already retired) and Chris Pring in the Allard. Not appearing in the chart for the completion of lap 17 were Andrew Cox in the TR3 Falcon and Reuben Jacob in his Morgan +4. However, Andrew had appeared on the lead lap, as high as 6th, at the end of lap 16 and had reappeared in 5th place at the end of the leaders 18th lap having just been lapped by him, but his elevated position was simply down to the fact that he had not yet pitted. Reuben also reappears on the lap chart at this stage, 3 laps down. If I’ve left anyone out, my apologies but interpreting lap charts can be a challenge to an aging brain!   

Martin Hunt completed his 19th lap in 23 mins 51.46 sec, and I’m pleased to say that all 24 surviving cars appear on the lap chart at this point. Only Martin, Barry Cannell, Jonathan Abecassis and Paul Pochciol remained on the lead lap, and now that everyone except Andrew Cox had stopped, this was unlikely to change. Theodore Hunt was 5th, one lap down in the Frazer Nash LMR and Andrew was 6th but he‘d gone one lap too far without stopping as he entered the pits at the end of the lap, failing to beat the closing of the pit window and it was to cost him a penalty at the end of the race. Tania Pilkington was next up and would have passed Andrew next lap even if he hadn’t pitted, and the Maserati was also gaining a little on the Frazer Nash but 9 seconds back with only 5 minutes of racing left to make a further place gain looked like an uphill task. Others also just one lap down were, in order, Pete Shepherd, Alex Quattlebaum, Justin Beckett, the Cawley/Groves Elite which was still closing in on the LECO and AC, Glenn Tollett (Austin Healey) and Neil Burnside in the MGA Twin Cam who was shortly to challenge Glenn. The remainder of the field were now 2 or 3 laps down on the leader with the exception of Chris Pring’s Allard which had now gone 4 laps down but, he had, of course, stopped twice, so this was not a true reflection of his pace. 

By the time the leader completed his 20th lap, the battle between Alex Quattlebaum (LECO), Justin Beckett (AC Ace) and Cawley/Groves (Lotus Elite) was joined and covered by less than 2 seconds and they had all gained a position at the expense of Pete Shepherd’s Austin Healey Sebring Sprite. Pete who had had a great race up to now and what appeared to be a comfortable 9 seconds ahead of the dicing trio, decided to replicate Rory Tollett’s earlier spin heading into Brooklands - it cost him almost 20 seconds and 3 places, as 7th became 10th! In 11th, Glenn Tollett’s Austin Healey 100M had fallen into the clutches of Neil Burnside‘s MGA Twin Cam, and it was surely only a matter of time before Neil made his move. Barry Dye was next up on his own, but a further 10 seconds back, Mark Morgan had taken the Ginetta passed Alan House’s Morgan +4. They crossed the line just 7 hundredths apart and there was life left yet in this great dice which went all the way to the flag. They were both being caught hand over fist by Paul Woolmer in the Elva. Some way behind Paul, Vernon Moore was battling to hold off Ed Shah who had closed in, the Bentley Special and the Elva Courier creating a real contrasting spectacle. It was great to see so much action continuing down the field at this late stage of the race.        

The top 4 cars continued to charge over the last 5 laps, but well apart and unchallenged. However, Paul Pochciol’s Jaguar C-type was lapped by the leader on the penultimate lap, so that when Martin Hunt took the flag in the HWM after 25 laps, only Barry Cannell’s Cooper T39 Bobtail, 14 seconds behind, and Jonathan Abecassis in his familiar Austin Healey 100/4, a further 40 seconds back completed the full distance. Martin, in winning, won the Hawthorn International Trophy and Jonathan Abecassis, 3rd overall and our class 1 winner, won the Tom Cole Trophy.  

The C-type took a comfortable 4th (and 3rd behind Barry Cannell in the Hawthorn International) and what appeared to be the almost perfect drive from Theo Hunt in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica netted him 5th although Tania Pilkington had closed the gap to 5 seconds at the flag in the Maserati, which was the last of the cars to be just one lap down on the leaders. Theo was therefore 2nd in the Tom Cole and 1st class 2 car home.

 Two laps down, in a terrific drive almost under the radar, Alex Quattlebaum, took 7th in the little LECo XPAG, the Dougal Cawley/Mark Groves Lotus Elite which had been a bit up and down the order, just failing to catch Alex by 3 tenths at the flag. Alex was therefore 3rd in the Tom Cole and 1st of our class 3 runners. 3 seconds behind the LECo/Elite duo, Justin Beckett brought the sole AC Ace Bristol home 9th in another fine drive. Pete Shepherd took the Invitation Austin Healey Sebring Sprite to 10th, his late race spin possibly costing him a place or two although the 3 cars ahead had been closing in, anyway. Neil Burnside in the MGA Twin Cam finished 11th, 13 seconds behind Pete but well clear of Glenn Tollett in the Austin Healey 100M. Paul Woolmer’s recovery drive brought the Elva Courier up to 13th but it was not where the car should have been on pace and both he and Richard understandably cursed the car’s early misfire, but that, as they say, is motor racing. Paul had literally snatched the place from Barry Dye’s Lotus Elite on the line. A further 7 seconds behind Barry, Alan House brought the first of the Morgans home in 15th position. Alan had finally overcome the challenge of the little Ginetta of Mark Morgan who crossed the line just over 2 seconds later. I imagine that they had had great fun slugging it out over those final laps and they were the last to complete 23 laps.

Three laps down, Ed Shah, took 17th place in the second Elva Courier Mk1. He had crossed the line a mere 0.69 seconds in front of Vernon Moore’s Bentley MkVI Special but Vernon was classified 19th. Why? Well Andrew Cox was classified 18th on the same time as Ed having been docked 5 places for his late pit stop. Andrew takes it up:-      

‘I had a highly enjoyable race and day. Thanks for the info on the actual result. I thought the stop might have been late because I forgot to start the timer and only got it going after some indeterminate time.’

I’m hoping that Andrew’s next race with us will be less eventful. Whilst this time it was self- inflicted, the result at Castle Combe was that the time keepers had failed to register one of his laps, so a true indication of where the car should be with us, is yet to be reflected by its classified position! 

Simon Jefferies brought the rather majestic Aston Martin DB MkIII across the line in 20th, and he felt that he had got the best he could out of it at this circuit. Less than 2 seconds behind, in the class 4 winning  Morgan +4 Flat rad was Jonny Shears which he’d shared with Dad, Mark. They were followed home by Shaun Bromley in the MGA. Finally, 4 laps behind were Reuben Jacobs in his Morgan +4 and the out of position Chris Pring in the Allard J2.

At the end of the race, Martin Hunt, Barry Cannell and Jonathan Abecassis took to the podium and were presented with their awards and Champagne for being the first three to cross the finishing line, and Jonathan was also presented with the Tom Cole Trophy for the third successive year. Your committee has decided that he may now keep it and we will introduce another Trophy for next year. In Index of performance, Dougal Cawley and Mark Groves took the top award in the Lotus Elite, but on equal points with Alex Q and Theo Hunt. The Morgans finished first in the team Inter-Marque competition.The class winners have already been identified above, but the full results table will follow in due course.  

This was a really good looking race, the cars created a wonderful spectacle, and with what is becoming the norm for our grids, great complimentary noises emanated from the commentary box. There was the occasional spin, both in practice and in the race but the driving remained gentlemanly, yet competitive. It was a joy to watch, all the cars from 1st to last provided visual pleasure and it’s just a shame that we don’t get more spectators.

Now, I’m sure a number of our competitors recorded their races and Pete Shepherd has sent me his in car footage of his whole race which I’ve now viewed 3 times and absolutely loved it. See here:-

https://youtu.be/EDfRkLhIfiE

Gallery

Tailpieces

___________________________________________________________________________________________________