FISCAR INTER-MARQUE

Bentley Drivers Club

Silverstone, 15th August, 2026

Preamble

The Bentley Drivers Club meeting is always popular with FISCAR members. The general ambiance and laid back atmosphere of the event matches that of our club, so we had a good entry of 28 cars this year, only exceeded very marginally by our Spring Start entry.   

Sadly, we were still not to see the ex Le Mans Delage D6 of Mark Brett, but Benn Faulkner had entered the Bristol 450 and finally both of the two ‘new’ earlier spec Lotus Elites of Morgan Cleasby and David Parry put in appearances, although one, the Cleasby car, didn’t make it beyond a couple of qualifying laps before mechanical gremlins stepped in to bring its activities to an early end. New to FISCAR were Josh Ward in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica and Stephen Ward in a Jaguar XK120. George Edney had clearly enjoyed himself so much at Brands that he had entered again here, in his Lester MG. Tania Pilkington was in the superb Maserati 300S again, and Chris Mann, resting his Disco Volante had entered the equally fabulous Alfa Romeo 1900CSS Zagato. All in all this looked like an exciting, eclectic and exotic grid!

Qualifying

The three MSN Lotus Elites made the pace for much of qualifying but by the end of the session, Tania Pilkington’s Maserati 300S had taken pole, just pipping the AC Ace Bristol of David Cottingham and Adrian King. It really was close, Tania on 1.15.514 to Adrian’s time of 1.15.545. Brian Arculus was 3rd, also incredibly close on 1.15.874 and Andrew Mitchell, driving solo this time, on 1.16.134, both in Elites. So just over half a second covered the top 4 and only a further 3 tenths back was Josh Ward in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica on 1.16.480 and the Mark Groves/Bayliss Elite 6th on 1.16.558. The top 6 could all potentially figure in the lead battle.

Over a second behind but hardly surprising given that he was in the early flat Rad Morgan +4, qualifying 7th was Johnny Shears with a time of 1.1.17.853, sharing row 4 with the Jaguar C type of Justin Beckett, still getting to grips with the car, on 1.18.168. What a contrast in shapes! Michael Scott and Neil Burnside shared row 5, in Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica and MGA Twin Cam respectively, on 1.18.296 and 1.18.352. What a delight to see two of these competitive Bristol engined Frazer Nashes on the grid, and both in the top 10, too!       

Mark Hoble qualified his Morgan +4 11th with a time of 1.18.926 with Nicola Burnside alongside on 1.19.213 in her MGA Twin Cam. On the next row, Simon Evans had clocked a 1.19.834 in the Allard J2X Le Mans with Jeremy Woods sharing the row on 1.20.062 in his Triumph Italia, another interesting contrast of body styles. Stephen Ward qualified 15th in his Jaguar XK120 with a time of 1.20.157 with the Cleasby Elite alongside on 1.20.451. the ninth row was occupied by the Sean and Josh Bromley MGA Coupe on a time of 1.21.042 and George Edney’s MG Lester on 1.21.567. Gareth Evans qualified his Sunbeam Alpine 19th with a time of 1.21.679 and alongside he had the Conrad Bos/Mark Ellis MGA with a time of 1.22.377.

Onto row 11 of this excellent grid and we find the Aston Martin DB2 of Peter Baker, sharing with his son Guy, who had just obtained his MSUK licence and this was his first race. The time was 1.22.565 and Andrew Cox was alongside in the Triumph TR3 Falcon with a very close time of 1.22.602. Also very close and heading up the next row was Peter Bower in his MGA Twin Cam with a time of 1.22.711, and he shared the grid with Mark Campbells ex Le Mans DB2 on 1.23.438. On row 13, Chris Mann had qualified the delectable Alfa Romeo 1900CSS Zagato with a time of 1.23.924 and alongside he had new to the series David Parry on 1.25.219 in an earlier spec Lotus Elite.  The final row was made up of the fantastic looking Bristol 450 of Benn Faulkner on 1.27.473 and the Harry Naergar/Chris Bates Jowett Jupiter which had not really got into its stride before engine failure intervened and the car was sadly not to start the race, and neither was George Edney’s Lester MG with distributor failure. Two cars required their transponders to be made operational!

Race

Our grid of 25 starters presented well on this warm bright day but without the stifling heat that had attended our Brands Hatch meeting. A better starting time, too, with the cars lining up behind the front row, Tania Pilkington in the Maserati and David Cottingham in the AC. Whilst Tania got away well, David bogged down a bit and was immediately swallowed up by the next couple of rows as Andrew Mitchell up from the second row grabbed the opportunity to pull alongside the Maserati but the Lotus Elite had no answer to the grunt of the Italian car and had to tuck in behind as the field headed into Copse for the first time. Brian Arculus followed them through in his Elite whilst Justin Beckett had used the power of the C-type Jaguar to grab a couple of places from his 8th placed starting position.  A great gaggle of wonderful cars, led by the Maserati streamed through Copse and headed down towards Maggotts and Becketts where they looped right onto the Wellington Straight, and charged flat out towards Brooklands.

A long snake of great cars jostled their way through the Brooklands, Luffield, Woodcote Complex headed by Tania Pilkington in the Maserati and she completed the first lap with the Lotus Elites of Andrew Mitchell and Brian Arculus in full pursuit. Justin Beckett was up to a superb 4th in the Jaguar C-type, although his qualifying time suggested that he would struggle to maintain that position, and he was followed across the line by Josh Ward and Mark Groves in Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica and Lotus Elite respectively. Behind, there was a small gap of 1.5seconds to Johnny Shears in the flat rad Morgan +4, holding off David Cottingham who was pressing hard and trying to make amends for his poor start in the AC Ace Bristol.  The top 10 was completed by Neil Burnside and Nicola Burnside, both in MGA Twin Cams.  The whole grid came through in a stream covered by 20 seconds, the rear propped up by the fantastic Bristol 450 of Benn Faulkner.   

Tania stormed the Maserati around lap 2 to retain the lead but Brian Arculus had snatched second from Andrew Mitchell as the Elites swapped places. Josh Ward, in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica had passed Justin Beckett’s C – Type Jaguar, to take 4th place and Josh Bromley had made another place in the MGA Coupe, up to 12th having passed Simon Evans in the Allard J2X LM, who lost two places as Mark Hoble in the Morgan +4 followed Josh through. Behind, Conrad Bos (MGA) had gained a place at the expense of Gareth Evans (Sunbeam Alpine).

Other places remained unchanged, but on lap 3, Brian Arculus set the fastest lap of the race so far, to close right up to the Maserati and just 0.049 seconds separated them as they completed the lap. They were now almost 2 seconds clear of Andrew Mitchell who now had Josh Ward’s Frazer Nash to worry about, whilst Justin Beckett was gradually dropping away in 5th place but with Mark Groves slowly closing in, 6th in the third of the Lotus Elites. The gap to 7th had grown to 5 seconds but that position was now occupied by Neil Burnside, in his MGA Twin Cam and he was going great guns having taken two places on the lap, passing both Mark Shears (Morgan ) and David Cottingham (AC Ace). Mark Hoble had taken 12th place away from Josh Bromley’s MGA. Simon Evans had lost several places, his lap time being several seconds off his natural pace in the Allard. Stephen Ward had advanced a couple of places in his Jaguar XK120 (with a great history which will feature in the News/Articles section) and Andy Cox (TR3 Falcon) had passed Jeremy Woods (Triumph Italia), these two TR based cars similarly matched in performance. Chris Mann had advanced one position in the splendid Alfa Romeo 1900CSS Zagato, his victim being Peter Bower in the MGA. This was an extraordinary lap by Chris, his lap of 1.21.991, being his fastest of the race and a good bit quicker than the cars around him.     

On lap 4, Brian Arculus took his Lotus Elite passed the Maserati, to take the lead but at the end of the following lap headed for the pits to take his mandatory stop, handing that lead back Tania Pilkington. Andrew Mitchell was still very much in touch in his Elite and the Josh Ward Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica was only another couple of seconds behind. Mark Groves passed Justin Beckett’s C type, so we now had 3 Elites in the top 5. Mark Hoble was still on the move in his Morgan +4, passing Nicola Burnside’s MGA Twin Cam to take 10th place behind Johnny Shears Flat rad version. Josh Bromley moved his MGA Coupe ahead of Conrad Bos‘s similar car and Stephen Ward took his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica passed Gareth Evans Sunbeam Alpine, so there was plenty of dicing all down the field. Simon Evans had another slow lap and headed for the pits. His stop was a long one, so the prospect of the Allard finishing the race looked increasingly unlikely.  

Tania Pilkington led Andrew Mitchell by 1.6 seconds at the end of lap 6 but headed into the pits for her stop at the end of the following lap, handing the lead over, not to Andrew, but to Josh Ward in the Frazer Nash LMR. Josh had grabbed the position from Andrew’s Lotus Elite during the course of lap 7 and this was turning into a fine drive. Mark Groves was up to 4th in the next Elite, whilst Justin Beckett was now stabilising his position in the C – Type Jaguar just over 4 seconds behind. Two more to head into the pits on this lap were Conrad Bos in the MGA which he handed over to Mark Ellis,  and Gareth Evans in the Sunbeam Alpine. Brian Arculus was now embarked on a long stint back towards the front and Tania Pilkington in the Maserati was about to head back onto the circuit to do the same. Sadly, lap 7 also saw the retirement of Simon Evans with a blown head gasket on the Allard J2X Le Mans.

Josh Ward continued to lead through lap 8 with Andrew Mitchell less than one second behind and Mark Groves, third in the Elite, 2.5 seconds adrift but on the same pace as the leaders. David Parry (Lotus Elite), Benn Faulkner (Bristol 450), Justin Beckett (Jaguar C-Type) and David Cottingham all headed to the pits for their mandatory stops, David handing over the AC Ace Bristol to Adrian King. As usual following pit stops the race order was becoming quite jumbled, but I note that the two previous protagonists for the lead, working their way forward were separated by less than two tenths of a second, Brian Arculus just ahead of Tania Pilkington’s Maserati.  There must surely have been some overlap as they completed the lap.  

Josh Ward continued to lead at the end of lap 9 as Andrew Mitchell headed to the pits on that lap, his 2nd place taken over by another Elite in the hands of Mark Groves. Mark Hoble also took to the pits in his Morgan +4 and he was followed in by Nicola Burnside, and after an interval, Stephen Ward’s XK120 and Christopher Mann’s Alfa Romeo Zagato.  Meanwhile the battle between Brian Arculus and Tania Pilkington continued to rage as they worked their way up through the field.

The Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica remained superbly in the lead as they completed lap 10, Josh Ward’s lead 3.3 seconds over Mark Groves, as they progressed amongst lapped cars. Neil Burnside was 3rd in his MGA Twin Cam but was 20 seconds behind and keeping a wary eye on his mirrors on the ever competitive Jonny Shears in the Morgan +4 Flat Rad with Peter Baker, almost matching their times in his Aston Martin DB2, just afew seconds behind. Michael Scott in the second of the Frazer Nashes took his stop at this point along with Josh Bromley who handed over to Dad, Shaun. Andrew Mitchell had emerged onto the track just behind the Arculus/Pilkington battle and was looking to make it a 3 way fight, just over 2 seconds covering them.

Mark Campbell, a lap down, pitted his DB2 on the leader’s lap 11, but Josh Ward then pitted the Frazer Nash from that lead at the end of lap 12, and he was followed in by the 2nd placed Lotus Elite of Mark Groves, who handed over to Bayliss. Neil Burnside (MGA Twin Cam) was another to pit on this lap and he was joined by Peter Baker who handed his Aston Martin DB2 to son, Guy who was having his first race. A little later, Andy Cox brought the TR3 Falcon in for his mandatory stop. All this left, Jonny Shears to complete lap 13 in the lead in the Flat Rad Morgan. Between him and 2nd place man were a number of lapped cars, but that man was Brian Arculus in his Lotus Elite, and Brian still had Tania Pilkington and Andrew Mitchell on his tail and victory could go to any of the 3. Just 10 seconds further back, Josh Ward had emerged from his stop in 5th place, whilst 6th was Adrian King in the AC Ace, 7th, Justin Beckett in his Jaguar C-type and Neil Burnside, 8th in his MGA Twin Cam. At this stage, he was the last to remain on the lead lap. However, the leader with nearly 40 seconds in hand was yet to pit, but once he had done so this would bring a couple more back onto the lead lap.   

To be continued!