The John Gross Memorial Trophy

Castle Combe Autumn Classic

7th October, 2017

Preamble

This was to be the fourth running of the Jon Gross memorial Trophy at Castle Combe and it rather proved the increasing difficulty of putting a full grid of pre 1960 Aston Martins together. Their value has soared in recent years and their owners have the choice of entering them in a number of high profile events. That we managed to get 12 of them in one place was no small achievement, and to them we added a small selection of invitation cars. This grid is always an interesting one and with high quality cars.

Qualifying

The qualifying lap times clearly illustrated the wet conditions of the track. Steve Boultbee-Brooks put his Aston Martin DB3S on pole in a time of 1.42.901 which was a good 15 seconds or more off what we knew he could do on a dry track. With a great time of 1.45.700, the experienced and quick Mark Gillies put the Aston Martin Monoposto Brooklands alongside Steve. Chris Woodgate qualified 3rd in the ex Jon Gross DB MkIII, first of the GT Astons on a time of 1.47.128, and alongside was Martyn Corfield in the first of the Invitation cars, the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica, on a time of 1.48.292. On the third row, another DB MkIII qualified 5th in the hands of Dr Simon Jefferies and alongside was Arthur Smith Fitchett in an invited FISCAR FLIER, in a truly excellent 6th place on 1.50.278, a time which suggests that Arthur enjoys the wet conditions. On row 4 was an extraordinary pair of contrasting and iconic cars, Richard Bradley in the Aston Ulster on a 1.51.662 and Chris Mann in his Alfa Romeo Disco Volante on a time of 1.53.882. Sharing the 5th row were Peter Dubsky in his 15/98 & Mark Campbell in his DB2 albeit 2 seconds apart on 1.54.217 & 1.56.231 respectively. David Ozanne’s Aston Martin Speed Model sat behind Peter’s 15/98, on a 1.58.201, and alongside David was John Briggs in the second of the Ulster’s in a time of 1.59.848. On the 7th row was Tony Green in Justin Kennedy’s ex works DB2, VMF 65, and Tony was clearly feeling his way in this famous car and would surely improve in the race, on 2.00.801, and alongside was Heinz Stamm in his Speed Model, on a 2.02.853. On the last row was Craig McWilliams in the diminutive Kieft Climax 1100 on a 2.12.930 and Keith Piper in the oldest car in the race, his regularly campaigned 1932 International on 2.24.700. There were some big time gaps here and there is no doubt several drivers were understandably being ultra cautious in their valuable steeds in such wet conditions. If, as we hoped, the track dried out, those gaps would surely close.

Race

Track conditions, mercifully, were much improved for the race. Steve Boultbee-Brooks, from pole took the lead but he was almost surprised by an absolutely stonking start from Martyn Corfield in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica, which launched off the line like the proverbial scalded cat from the second row and briefly challenged the Aston. However, the DB3S had a bit of performance spare and over the first lap, edged away (see photo at top of the page) so that when they crossed the line for the first time the gap was 1.7 seconds. Some indication of the improvement of the, albeit still greasy track, was that Steve’s standing start lap had been over 9 seconds quicker than his pole time and Martyn’s was no less than 13 seconds better than his best qualifying lap. Their initial pace was such that Chris Woodgate, 3rd in the DB MkIII was already 6.5 seconds behind the flying duo, although he too had a good enough start to out drag Mark Gillies in the Aston Martin Brookland, which tailed him closely across the line. An excellent start by Peter Dubsky in the 15/98 had taken him from 9th on the grid to 5th as they crossed the line for the first time and almost 2 seconds clear of Simon Jefferies in the other DB MkIII. Chris Mann had the Disco Volante in 7th, whilst Tony Green had the DB2 VMF65 next up just over one second behind. Richard Bradley and John Briggs came through in close order, the pair of Ulsters looking magnificent together. Heinz Stamm had also had a great start in his Speed Model, up to 5th from 12th but clearly had had more than a moment since he was now down in 11th and had his mirror full of the other Speed model of David Ozanne. Arthur Smith Fitchett couldn’t keep his Arnott Lea Francis anywhere near his superb starting position and had dropped back to 13th ahead of Mark Campbell (DB2), Craig McWilliam (Kieft Climax) and Keith Piper (Aston Martin International).

By the end of lap 2, Martyn had edged his Frazer Nash a little closer to Steve’s Aston, and the gap was just 1.1 seconds and these two in effect were disappearing into the distance as Chris Woodgate, leading the GT class in 3rd place, was already a further 12 seconds in arrears, and he still had Mark Gillies for company. They had opened up a small gap to Peter Dubsky in the 15/98 who, in turn was dropping Simon Jefferies DB MkIII, Simon probably more inmtent on watching his mirrors as Chris Mann’s Disco Volante was looming large! Behind, the gaps between Tony Green in VMF65 in 8th and Keith Piper in 16th were, in general gently opening up and this trend continued over the next few laps with the exception of Arthur Smith Fitchett who was edging his Arnott closer to Heinz Stamm’s Speed Model Aston, with Mark Campbell also upping his pace to keep the pair well in sight, in his DB2. Back at the front Steve also increased the pace of the DB3S a little and at the end of lap 4 had taken his lead out to just over 2 seconds over the gamely driven Frazer Nash of Martyn Corfield. The two were actually split by Keith Piper who had just been lapped by the leader, but the pair were now 23 seconds clear of Chris Woodgate who still had the Aston Martin Brooklands of Mark Gillies obstinately glued to his tail.