The George Abecassis Trophy Race (2015)

This splendid grid of cars was led off the line by James Cottingham in the yellow Ferrari whilst Eddie McGuire bogged down from pole position in the Gordini  and was unfortunately swallowed up by the next three rows.  Spike Milligan made an excellent start with the HWM to slot in behind the Ferrari whilst an equally great start by Andew Sharp in the Aston DB2 brought him into 3rd place. By the end of the lap, Cottingham had the Ferrari howling and already established a clear lead. The battle for 2nd was  already intense with Milligan and Sharp being  joined by Tom Walker in the Allard, Steve Boultbee Brookes in the beautiful Aston DB3S and  Jonathan Abecassis in his Healey  100/4. Dices down the field were beginning to emerge but very sadly, Charly Willems in the wonderful Jaguar HW Alta Streamliner failed to complete the first lap when a collapsed suspension or driveshaft failure pitched him off the track at the exit of Brooklands. It was a long way to come from Germany for less than one racing lap and it would be fair to say that this event has not been kind to him over the last couple of years. 

As Cottingham extended his lead, the battle for second place continued to rage until Tom Walker popped out of the front to make it his for a while. He was driving the big Allard with great enthusiasm and exuberance in stark contrast to his pre race forecast that he was going to take it easy as he had concerns about the effectiveness of his brakes!  The battle behind him continued unabated but now for 3rd! Whilst all this was going on, late entrant and back row starter, Matt Grist in his Father, Paul’s HWM, was carving his way through the pack and was soon to emerge on the tail of the 3rd place battle.  Amongst the dicing going on behind was a fine one between Paul Griffin in his Austin Healey 100S and Robert Clarke in his Austin Healey 100/4. On lap 8, we sadly lost Nicholas Ruddell in his Aston Martin DB2/4 into retirement. By this time the pits had been open for stops for some minutes and with cars emerging back into the race the true positions of the cars were, as usual, difficult to discern until all had completed their stops. The pit stop window was a large one and some drivers elected to come in early whilst others left it until pretty late!    

James Cottingham continued to build the lead. He put the fastest race lap in on Lap 13 and stayed out as long as possible to give his Dad the best chance of a strong placing, for by his own admission, David knew that he would not be able to match his ‘hotshoe’ son’s pace. Conversely, Eddie McGuire, following his poor start brought the Gordini in relatively early from middle order to relay Chris Ward who proceeded to set the race alight with his progress, and on a pace that would have given James a run for his money.  By lap 8, Matt Grist had brought the HWM up to 2nd but all the time James was in the Ferrari the lead continued to grow, but it left Matt well placed to capitalise once the pit stops had taken place. A very unfortunate accident occurred on lap 14, when Graham Robson having just lapped James Wilmot-Smith, both in Austin Healeys, carried a bit too much speed going into Brooklands and spun, leaving James nowhere to go, the subsequent front end damage to James car being substantial and leading to immediate retirement whereas Graham continued albeit with heavy rear end damage to finish 15th.    

The Austin Healey 100S of Paul Griffin suffered intermittent misfiring and this became progressively worse during the race and Paul decided to retire after completing 16 laps. The very competitive Tom Walker continued to entertain us royally, flinging the big Allard about and using all the track; in fact so much so that he was finally black flagged for exceeding track limits once too often. He had held 2nd for several laps until displaced by Matt Grist.  After all the pitstops had been completed, Jonathan Abecassis was surprised to find himself leading this race in memory of his Grandfather although that lead was relatively shortlived as he was hunted down by the Paul Grist whose relentless pace throughout the race reaped its reward when HWM 1 took the lead from Jonathan, briefly lost it again but then firmly established the lead over the last two laps winning by 2.5 seconds. It had been a model of fast and consistent driving. 

Andrew Sharp finished a fine 3rd in the DB2 but he was almost caught by Chris Ward who stormed up to 4th in Eddie McGuire's Gordini, with the ever present Spike Milligan taking 5th. Just behind Spike, David Cottingham maintained good pace to take 6th in the Ferrari with the Aston DB3S of Steve Boultbee-Brooks 7th. An excellent drive almost under the radar by Chris Scholey netted him 8th place in the XK 120 whilst an equally meritorious drive by Nigel Batchelor in the Aston Martin DB2/4 earned him 9th place with Nick Matthews rounding out the top 10 in his Austin Healey 100/4. Mark Butterworth would surely have finished higher than 18th in the Allard K3 but for a slow pit stop and tiring engine John Keatley headed Steven Pryke/Neil Collins in the battle of the Silverstones.

More photos and results to follow