The Spencer Lane-Jones Trophy

Inter-Marque Race

Castle Combe Autumn Classic

7th October, 2017

reamble

Our grid at Castle Combe once again proved to be our biggest of the year, and although slightly down on previous years did not follow the level of downward trend experienced at most of our other meetings, this year.

The programme shows 32 entries, although I note that the anticipated late entry Jaguar C -Type did not appear in it, but then it didn't materialise at the meeting at all, sadly. There were unfortunately a number of entries that didn't appear - Glenn and Rory Tollett in their lovely MGA Coupe, Tim Stamper in the Aston Martin DB2/4 and Alan House in his Morgan +4. However,  a welcome late entry from Kevin Kivlochan in his AC Ace created a full team of AC Aces. Marc Gordon substituted his Jaguar XK 150 for a Lotus Elite, which whilst it deprived us of any big cat entry, did bring the Elites up to a full team.  I was somewhat alarmed to note that one Mark Williams had entered but since he turned up without his cue but with Mark Hoble's Triumph TR3, I am able to record that this was a programme error!

We welcomed 4 newcomers to our ranks. Richard Tyzack in the Kellison J4R, a Chairmans class car, and although I was a little concerned at the potential performance of this 4.6 litre V8 machine, it was lovely to see a new exciting shape on the grid. Andrew Davenall joined us for the first time in the ex Chris Gawne Lancia Aurelia so that with the entry of Jason & Louise Kennedy's similar car, we had a brace of these classic Italian GT machines on the grid. Marc Mezey had entered his Austin Healey 100/4 and, last but not least, Peter Bower entered his Frogeye Sprite, imported from the USA and which sported an unusual Kellison bonnet. This gave us, for the first time, 3 under 1 litre Frogeyes on our grid since Neil Cameron and John Tewson had also entered theirs.

I think it was also probably the first time that we had 4 FISCAR FLIERS - LECo, Connaught, Kieft and Arnott Lea Francis -in one race and they were able therefore to form their own team.   

The news story of the morning before qualifying even got going was that Chris Mann, who won't mind me mentioning, I hope, that he is in his 70s had, in the early hours of the morning, tackled a thief intent on stealing the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante from the trailer parked outside Chris's house. Having driven this miscreant off, and undaunted, Chris and his wife, Ellie, headed down to Combe where Chris took part in 3 races, 2 in the Disco Volante and one in his wonderful 1924 Alfa Romeo RL Targa Florio.  

Qualifying

Conditions, reminiscent of last year, attended qualifying, as the track was pretty wet again.  Nevertheless, the status quo was maintained with Steve Boultbee-Brooks once again annexing pole. Alongside Steve on the front row,  was Barry Dye's Lotus Elite with whom he was sharing his not so secret weapon, ARDS instructor, Richard Fores. Richard had been Robin Ellis co pilot when they won outright in 2014 in Robin’s Elite. Qualifying a superb 3rd was Kevin Kivlochan in his AC Ace Bristol with the similarly powered but very much starker shaped Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica of Martin Hunt, sharing with Patrick Blakeney Edwards, alongside. They always constitute a formidable driving combo. The third row was occupied by Marc Gordon finding the Lotus Elite much to his liking and the always competitive Nick Matthews  in his Austin Healey 100/4. Robin Ellis was a little further back than I expected in his Lotus Elite in 7th place but I anticipated a higher finish from him and completing the fourth row was Martyn Corfield in his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica. 9th was the AC Ace Bristol of Tim Pearce and rounding out the top ten was Paul Griffin who did a great job in the conditions in the Connaught, first of the FLIERS.   

The following rows were crammed with loads of wonderful cars from our favourite period. Paul Ziller and Mark Hoble circulated their TR2s closely together for the whole of qualifying. They occupied 12th and 13th, this time Paul having the edge. Richard Tyzack and Nick Taylor qualified the big Kellison 16th, thus allaying my fears for the time being!  John Tewson was the first of the Frogeyes, qualifying 15th although I felt that Neil Cameron in 21st had more performance to come and Peter Bower was still finding his way in his new acquisition, down in 24th. Tristan Bradfield qualified Keith Hampson's Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans, 25th, Keith playing mechanic, on this occasion. They had passed me on the M5, with the Sunbeam on the trailer in the morning thus proving even on a motorway, I have become a potterer in old age! Brian Arculus was clearly keeping his powder dry down in 26th in the Giuliettta SVZ and Craig McWilliams must have been pleased that he had not qualified the little Kieft Climax last. That honour went to Arthur Smith -Fitchett in the Arnott Lea Francis but Arthur only did two laps so it was clearly not representative. It was wonderful to see these two early post war little sports racers alongside each other on the grid. 

 Race

It was our turn take the graveyard slot on the programme and although the track was now pretty dry, the dark conditions became increasingly emphasised by the evening beginning to draw in. The race started at 5.35, just 5 minutes late, but what a magnificent sight this grid always makes; fabulous cars from a time when many of us, well, me anyway, were just youngsters.

Steve Boultbee-Brooks got the lovely DB3S off the line from pole and just held the lead from a number of strong starters just behind. However, once he got some grip and into his stride, the sure footed Aston pulled clear so that by the end of lap 1, he had gained a 2.2 second lead over Richard Fores, who had started alongside him on the front row. Richard was one second ahead of Martyn Corfield, who had made a terrific start from the fourth row, in his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica. The second Lotus Elite, in the hands of Robin Ellis, was up to 4th, hard on Martyn’s heels, but behind, a 3 second gap had opened up to 5th place, Martin Hunt in the second of the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replicas. Nick Matthews was in 6th place in the quickest of the Austin Healeys just ahead of the fast starting Kellison J4R in the hands of Nick Taylor, marginally ahead of Paul Ziller, who had also made a good start, bringing the TR2 up to 8th from 11th on the grid. It was in stark contrast to his fellow TR2 pilot, Mark Hoble, who failed to complete the opening lap, slowly heading into the pits trailing a cloud of smoke. Stephen Bond in the Lister Bristol and Marc Gordon in the third of Elites completed the top ten, Marc having lost 4 places. As this splendid field of cars streamed over the line to complete their first lap, it was noted that Marc Mezey in his Austin Healley 100/4 complete with evocative Carrera PanAmerica insignia had failed to appear.

As the leaders crossed the line at the end of the 2nd lap, the Aston still led but Richard Fores had closed the gap slightly and the two were easing away from Robin Ellis who had moved up to 3rd at the expense of Martyn Corfield’s Frazer Nash. Just under 6 seconds covered the first four but they were already clear of the chasing pack since the gap between Martyn and Nick Matthews in his Austin Healey was already up to 6.5 seconds. It was a pretty hot pace at the front because Nick is quick in that car and couldn’t hold onto them at this stage. He was a just one second ahead of Nick Taylor, in the Kellison and 7th on the road was Marc Mezey, but Marc was already a lap in arrears having taken over 3 minutes to complete his first lap, so a spin or an off, I’m guessing (anyone know?). He was about to be lapped by Martin Hunt in his FNLMR who was 7th, just ahead of Stephen Bond and Marc Gordon, now beginning to get into his stride in the Lotus Elite. Less than half a second covered these 3, and they had overwhelmed the TR2 of Paul Ziller who had dropped back to 10th, but still ahead of his qualifying position. Battles down the field were beginning to form; Alex Quattlebaum (LECo2) and Paul Griffin (Connaught ALSR) had begun their race long battle of the FISCAR Fliers, and Tristan Bradfield (Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans), Brian Arculus (Alfa Romeo Giulietta SVZ) and John Tewson in his Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite were circulating closely together. A little further back, Craig McWilliam (Kieft Climax), Justin Beckett (AC Ace) & Peter Bower in his Austin Healey Sprite were also dicing, so there was plenty to entertain the many spectators still remaining at the circuit. At the back Arthur Smith Fitchett was dropping off the pace a little in the rare Arnott Lea Francis, although ahead of course, of the above mentioned Marc Mezey.      

Over the next few laps, Richard Fores whittled away at Steve Boultbee-Brooks lead, as the Lotus slowly reeled the Aston in. I’m sure that owner Barry Dye’s blood pressure was rising in anticipation as he saw the prospect of his car taking the lead. The gaps between the chasing cars had grown as Steve and Richard continued to pull away from Robin Ellis in his Elite, over 7 seconds behind the flying duo at the end of lap 4, but his was becoming a lonely race as he had a 4 second cushion to Martyn Corfield who couldn’t hold onto the Elite. Martyn in his FNLMR had a gap of 6 seconds over the Kellison of Nick Taylor, the big V8 booming away in 5th place and just beginning to close that gap to Martyn. 6th was Nick Matthews in the Austin Healey picking up his pace with his eyes firmly set on getting onto the tail of the Kellison, but it was a tall order. Also gaining momentum and moving forward was Marc Gordon in his Lotus Elite, so we now had 3 of these legendary little GT cars in the first 7. Stephen Bond was 8th in the wonderful Lister Bristol running well just ahead of what seemed a fairly subdued Martin Hunt. He was playing himself in on the drying but greasy track and there was surely more pace to come from both Martin and his Frazer Nash. The top 10 was rounded out by Kevin Kivlochan, also trying to make up ground after a slow start in his AC Ace. He had pushed Paul Ziller down to 11th, the TR2 just unable to capitalise on the brilliant start and simply not able to match the pace of those cars that had qualified ahead of him, but it was a great effort. At this stage he was still running ahead of a couple of cars that were lapping a good bit quicker. One of these was the AC Ace Bristol of Tim Pearce, who was rapidly homing in on the TR and Tim was being chased by the equally quick Neil Cameron in the little Frogeye Sprite, going great guns in 13th and belying his qualifying pace. Behind him the Griffin/Quattlebaum battle raged and they were over 20 seconds clear of Brian Arculus, who had got the better of Tristan Bradfield, the Alfa just beginning to draw away from the Sunbeam. Normally, Brian would be the first to pit but presumably felt he needed to get into clear air before doing so and pitting first on this occasion was Chris Mann in the glorious Disco Volante, the only one to do so at the end of lap 4. Louise Kennedy had the Lancia Aurelia in 19th, but was being rapidly reeled in by Shaun Bromley in his MGA. Shaun had clearly qualified out of position, since he had started 8 places behind the Lancia. Andrew Davenall (Lancia Aurelia), Peter Bower (A-H Sprite) and Craig McWilliam (Kieft Climax ) were now dicing it out as Justin Beckett had pulled his AC Ace clear ahead of them, and was now trying to catch John Tewson, 21st in his Sprite .

Laps 5 & 6 were pretty eventful. At the end of lap 5 Richard Fores had the Elite now on the tail of the Aston, and such was the pace of these two that Robin Ellis, no slouch in the second of the Elites, was nearly 10 seconds down in 3rd but over 5 seconds clear of 4th placed Martyn Corfield in the FNLMR. Martyn was inexorably being closed upon by the Kellison, whilst Nick Matthews was still trying desperately to cling onto the big V8, himself being hunted down by Marc Gordon in the Elite. All 3, despite being in disparate cars had pumped in 1.26 laps. Stephen Bond had them in sight but was just beginning to fall away, in 8th place, but had been over 2 seconds quicker on that lap than Martin Hunt in the pursuing FNLMR and Kevin Kivlochan, in 10th had edged just a little closer to Martin but was still over 5 seconds down on the Frazer Nash. Tim Pearce was 11th in his AC Ace but had not yet completely shaken off the well driven Frogeye of Neil Cameron. At the end of this lap, the pit lane started to look busy as 5 cars pitted in close order; the TR2 of Paul Ziller, Connaught ALSR of Paul Griffin, LECo2 of Alex Quattlebaum, Alfa Romeo Giulietta SVZ of Brian Arculus, and the Frogeye of John Tewson.

On lap 6 Richard Fores snatched the lead from Steve Boultbee-Brooks, these two now almnost 13 second clear of Robin Ellis. At the same time, we lost two of the ‘littluns’, dicing towards the back of the field, when they came together out of Quarry. Craig McWilliam ran the Kieft a tad wide on the exit, getting the two offside wheels onto the wet grass and he was a bit of a passenger after that as the car slewed uncontrollably back onto the track and smote the Austin Healey Sprite of Peter Bower heavily in the side. The impact pushed the Sprite onto the infield and Peter was out on the spot, whilst Craig drove gently round to the pits to retire; a great disappointment for both of them. Two more pitted at the end of that lap; Robin Ellis and Neil Cameron.

At the end of lap 7, Steve Boultbee-Brooks had closed back slightly on the Lotus Elite but thereafter Richard Fores, clearly in the groove, started to pull clear. As Robin Ellis was in the pits, Nick Taylor had the Kellison up to 3rd having just passed Martyn Corfield, who’d had a slow lap, and this had also enabled Nick Matthews to close up on Martyn, the Austin Healey now just 1.5 seconds behind the Frazer Nash, and they were both being caught by Marc Gordon in his Lotus Elite, in 6th place. Two more pitted that lap; Justin Beckett (AC Ace) and Arthur Smith-Fitchett (Arnott Lea Francis). It was not a happy stop for Justin as he was later penalised for a pit stop infringement. Robin Ellis, just getting up to speed after his stop, had emerged in 10th, the last car still on the lead lap, but he would inevitably move forward once all the stops had been completed and as the race unfolded. Martyn Corfield pitted his Frazer Nash at the end of lap 8, as did Tim Pearce in the AC Ace Bristol. Richard Fores had the lead out to 1.2 seconds which he extended to almost 3.4seconds by the time he pitted at the end of lap 9 to hand the Elite over to owner Barry Dye. Nick Matthews was now up to 3rd as Nick Taylor had also pitted the Kellison to hand over to Richard Tyzack, and Nick was followed in by Stephen Bond in the Lister Bristol, Martin Hunt in the second of the Frazer Nashes, handing over to Patrick Blakeney-Edwards, and Andrew Davenall in the second of the Lancia Aurelias, already a lap down. At the end of lap 10, Steve Boultbee-Brooks, yet to make his stop, had the Aston back in the lead over half a minute clear of Nick Matthews and Marc Gordon, in 2nd and 3rd, but both were now in the pits, so the nearest challenger on the road was Kevin Kivlochan, 52 seconds behind, but he too had yet to pit, so the leading car which had pitted was the Lotus Elite of Barry Dye who now had Robin Ellis bearing down on him in the sister Elite. At this point we had just 6 cars on the lead lap and two of those were stationary in the pits!

At the end of lap 11, we had just entered the second half of the race; there were only 4 cars on the lead lap. Steve had the Aston ahead by 56 seconds to Kevin Kivlochan in the Ace, and half a minute behind Kevin, Robin Ellis had moved ahead of Barry Dye. Barry had never expected to be able to get close to the times that Richard Fores, probably the quickest driver in the field, had been setting, and, bit between teeth, Robin was intent on making a bid for victory although in reality, he appeared not to be quite on the pace of the Aston and needed the intervention of some other factor to even get close. Now a lap down, Shaun Bromley who had been making up ground took his stop and he was followed in by Louise Kennedy who handed the Lancia Aurelia over to Jason. Shaun however, did not go out again, as an exhaust strap at the rear had broken allowing the silencer to drag on the ground and there was no time to fix it. It denied son, Josh, his turn at the wheel and was our 4th retirement; a good run terminated too soon.

The leader finally pitted at the end of lap 12, which gave Kevin two glorious laps at the head of this great field until he, too, pitted the AC Ace at the end of lap 14. The Aston, which, even after the pit stops, hadn’t dropped below 2nd place, was just 5 seconds behind and passed the pitting Ace. Robin Ellis was now just 10 seconds behind the Aston. Could he somehow get within range of Steve? It seemed unlikely. Barry Dye, working hard to make the best of the great drive by Richard Fores with a good finishing position, still held 3rd place but was being caught at 3 seconds a lap by the charging trio of Nick Matthews in the Austin Healey 100/4 running just ahead of Marc Gordon in the Elite, and Martyn Corfield in the Frazer Nash. All cars had now completed their pit stops, the last two to do so being Marc Mezey in his Austin Healey 100/4 and Tristan Bradfield in the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans. Marc had been battling to make up all the lost ground from lap 1 but it had been hard work, given the pace of the field.

Now into the last third of the race, it appeared to be stalemate at the front, the gap between Steve in the Aston and Robin in the Elite fluctuating only slightly between 9 and 10 seconds, both circulating in the quick 1.25 bracket. This went on until lap 18 when Steve’s lap time dropped off by 1.5 seconds, and stayed in the 1.27s for the next couple of laps, whilst Robin consistently stayed on pace and saw the gap closing to the Aston. At the end of lap 18 the gap was down to 8.5, then 6.8 on lap 19 and 4.6 on lap 20, Robin spurred on by now having the Aston well in sight. Behind these two, albeit 39 seconds behind, Nick Matthews with consistently quick driving had established his Austin Healey 100/4 in 3rd place, 5-6 seconds ahead of Martyn Corfield in the Frazer Nash. Both had overhauled Barry Dye, and it was now a question of whether Barry could withstand the charging Patrick Blakeney-Edwards in the second of the Frazer Nashes. Over 10 seconds behind, Stephen Bond was fighting to retain 7th from Marc Gordon in the third of the Elites, and the outcome was not entirely certain. In a lonely 9th was Kevin Kivlochan, well clear of Neil Cameron in the giant killing Austin Healey Sprite. The positions behind were pretty static although Andrew Davenall’s race had come sadly to an abrupt end on lap 17 when carrying a bit too much speed into Quarry, locked up and slid into the tyre barriers, and the Aurelia was out. In the same place, just a lap or so later, Alex Quattlebaum in the LECo, having closed back up to Paul Griffin took a dive up the inside of the Connaught but finding the door closing braked heavily, the tail coming out and Alex briefly at 90 degrees but still on the track. Alex felt that Paul had pulled across him when he was already halfway alongside, but having viewed the footage on several occasions, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that this was what, in modern parlance, is called a racing incident. Alex was certainly carrying a lot more speed, and I suspect that Paul, already committed to his line was caught by surprise. In any event, he certainly exited the corner pretty wide and there did not appear to be any contact; Alex was rapidly back into his stride determined to catch the Connaught again in the dying moments of the race.

Steve Boultbee-Brooks took the chequered flag by just 3.1 seconds, in a well judged race, ahead of Robin Ellis. He’d seen Robin coming and picked up his lap time a little on the last lap to keep a small cushion of a gap. Robin Ellis had driven his socks off to catch him and entertained the spectators greatly in the closing laps. Nick Matthews in a fine drive in his Austin Healey took the final podium position. The two very competitive Frazer Nash Le Mans Replicas finished just 3 seconds apart after half an hour’s racing, in 4th and 5th respectively in the hands of Martyn Corfield and Martin Hunt/Patrick Blakeney-Edwards. Barry Dye had been unable to stave off Patrick, but it was still a good drive to net 6th, ahead of the Lister Bristol of Stephen Bond, who just about kept the third Elite of Marc Gordon at arms length. 9th was Kevin Kivlochan, first of the AC Ace Bristols home and the last car to finish on the same lap as the leader. An excellent 10th was Neil Cameron in his Austin Healey Sprite, 11 seconds clear of Tim Pearce in his AC Ace Bristol, with the Kellison of Richard Tyzack in 12th. Alex Quattlebaum, dander well and truly now up, put in a 1.27.962, damn quick for an XPAG, on lap 18 to catch and pass the Connaught of Paul Griffin, these two finishing 13th and 14th. Paul Ziller, also banging his best lap in on lap 18, took 15th. An odd quirky fact is that no less than 8 cars put their quickest laps in on their 18th lap! Brian Arculus brought the great little Alfa Giulietta SVZ home in 16th, and was the last to complete 20 laps. On l9 laps were Tristan Bradfield in the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans, Christopher Mann in the fabulous Alfa Disco Volante, John Tewson’s Austin Healey Sprite, and Jason & Louise Kennedy in the surviving Lancia Aurelia B20GT, in 17th - 20th places respectively. On 18 laps were Marc Mezey, who surely without that poor first lap would have finished a few places higher and last but not least Arthur Smith Fitchett in the Arnott Lea Francis. However, Arthur was not classified last as Justin Beckett, who had completed 19 laps, was demoted 5 places due to the pit stop infringement already recorded in the narrative.

Results

Gallery

Tailpiece(s)!

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