VSCC Donington (2023)

VSCC Redgate Mug and FISCAR Inter-Marque

Donington, 9th July, 2023

Preamble.

This year, and following our long association with their Spring Start meeting VSCC were kind enough to offer FISCAR a second race with them at Donington. The format would be the same as at Spring Start allowing our 50s Inter-Marque sports cars to run alongside their pre 1955 sports cars which were racing for the Redgate Mug. I think that the VSCC have come to the conclusion that in order to allow their members with early 50s sports and sports racing cars to run at their meetings, they need another organisation running 50s sports cars to join them to make the grid numbers viable. FISCAR are very happy to fulfil this role and VSCC tend to let us take the lead as we allocate the classes and which cars belong to which part of the race. Quite a number of the cars comply with the requirements of both grids here, so this is a true cooperative integration of the compliant cars from both clubs.

To quote Andrew Tarring, Competition Secretary of the VSCC, ‘…….   I think the proximity of Classic Le Mans and Goodwood Festival of Speed impacted all our races’. This was no doubt true but it was a little disappointing that between us we did not muster more than 17 entries. It was another group of good quality cars, though, and whereas we had had 4 Astons at Thruxton, none were entered here, for various reasons, but this was partly compensated for by the appearance of two Alfa Romeos, the first time for a very long time that we had a brace of this marque on the grid. Richard Frankel entered his pretty little 1300 cc Giulietta Sprint and Chris Mann again pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the entry of his rare and stunning 1900CSS Zagato Coupe.

A  pair of VSCC entered Frazer Nash Le Mans Replicas also joined us and wouldn’t it be splendid if we saw more of this marque in FISCAR  races?  Here, they would be the only cars contesting FISCAR Class 2. The LMR to be driven by Alistair Pugh was entered by Peter Mann, who turned up in his Bristol 406 Zagato which I believe may be the only one on a short wheel base. In any event, we had two representatives at the event celebrating the art of Zagato!

Dougal Cawley and Mark Groves, another VSCC entry, brought along Dougal’s Lotus Elite, and it was clear that it had had some suspension work undertaken since the Spring Start race as it was now sitting lower to the ground. I tried to ‘sell’ FISCAR to Mark, who expressed some interest in joining us so fingers crossed. Full sports racing cars were thin on the ground, only two entered, the likely winner, Martin Hunt in his HWM Jaguar and Jonathan Cobb driving the Cooper Bristol. It was hard to look beyond Jonathan Abecassis in his Austin Healey 100/4 to win the FISCAR Inter-Marque race with the 4 Morgans likely to win the team award as the only full marque team. This remained so even after the sad withdrawal of Alan House’s Morgan +4 following his very painful fall at the hotel he was staying at (See NEWS section). The performance of some car/driver combinations was unknown to us, so outcome of Classes 3 & 4 were pretty unpredictable and made Mark’s Index of Performance even more of a lottery than usual, but that’s what makes it all the more fun!

As the field completed the first lap, Martin Hunt had a lead of over 3 seconds from Jonathan Abecassis who was being closely challenged by the Cooper Bristol of Jonathan Cobb. The TR3A/B had dropped back to its starting position and was one second ahead of Brian Arculus, 5th in the first of the Lotus Elites. Alister Pugh had gained a place in his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica and occupied 6th, already 4 seconds ahead of Andrew Cox in the unique Falcon bodied TR3. The Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite was 8th and had the Glenn Tollett Austin Healey breathing down its neck whilst 10th, a couple of seconds back, was the second of the Frazer Nash LMRs, in the hands of Michael Scott. Shaun Bromley had the red MGA Coupe in 11th and he was followed by Mark Shears in the Flat Rad Morgan +4 and Richard Frankel in the Giulietta Sprint who had now passed Rueben Jacob’s Morgan +4. 15th was Chris Mann in the Alfa Zagato having dropped back after his good start and he was about to fall into the clutches of the Tony Kilby Morgan +4.

Over the course of the second lap, the HWM maintained its lead, whilst, in 2nd, Jonathan Abecassis had his mirrors full of the Cooper Bristol of Jonathan Cobb. They were now over 3 seconds ahead of the TR3A/B and whilst Brian Arculus in the Elite was still just about in touch with the Triumph, he was also pulling clear of the Alistair Pugh FNLMR who was in 6th. Already 6.5 seconds behind Alistair, but recovering from the poor start, was the Cawley/Groves Elite which had passed the TR3 Falcon to take 7th. Glenn Tollett, was 9th, in the Austin Healey 100M, just under 2 seconds down on Andrew Cox. Glenn was followed fairly closely by the Michael Scott FNLMR and holding on well behind them was Shaun Bromley, 11th in the MGA. Richard Frankel had the little Giulietta Sprint flying now and had moved up to 12th at the expense of the Shears Morgan which was followed by the later +4 version of Reuben Jacob’s. Tony Silby had passed Chris Mann’s Alfa which was now, last, but definitely not least!

At the completion of lap 3, Jonathan Abecassis had pegged back the HWM slightly, both posting their fastest lap of the race, but surprisingly, Jonathan’s was, by a small margin, the quicker! He was still being shadowed by Jonathan Cobb’s very smart Cooper Bristol and this dice looked to be going all the way. The leading 3 had stretched clear of the Turral TR3A/B and Brian Arculus was now 3 seconds down but he was well clear of the Alistair Pugh FNLMR. The positions behind remained unaltered and there was no position change during lap 4 either, but the race for 2nd continued to rage and a large gap was growing behind the Cawley/Groves Elite, 7th, fully 10 seconds ahead of the Cox TR3 Falcon but unable to make any significant headway, at this stage, on the Frazer Nash ahead.

The pit window was now open, and first to head for the pits was, as usual, Brian Arculus. This seems to be a sound strategy as it enables Brian to rejoin the race with the majority of laps ahead of him in which he can quickly get back into his stride and a race flow unfettered by having to give any further thought to the stop. Here, he appeared on the lap chart as last, whereas his closest pursuer, Alistair Pugh in the Frazer Nash who followed him into the pits is shown in 6th. I think the answer to this little conundrum is the fact that Brian stopped short of the timing line and Alistair beyond it. This would also explain why Glenn Tollett also appears ahead of Brian despite the fact that he, too, pitted on lap 5. It was only these pit stops that affected the positions. At the end of lap 6, Martin Hunt still held a lead of 2.5 seconds ahead of Jonathan Abecassis although Jonathan Cobb, previously pretty much glued to the tail of the 100/4, had lost a small amount of time whilst the leaders had been lapping Chris Mann. Positions remained unchanged.

On lap 7, all 3 leaders appeared to have taken a bit of a breather as they had all dropped their pace by a couple of seconds, but Jonathan Cobb more so than the others since he was now 2.5 seconds behind Jonathan Abecassis. The thought that the track had become more slippery was offset by the fact that subsequently, all picked up their pace, so it was more likely that they had come upon Tony Kilby’s Morgan on a part of the track where lapping was difficult. Brian Arculus, Alistair Pugh and Rory Tollett (having taken over from Glenn), all having pitted were also now a lap down but all back in the order relative to each other that they had been in prior to pitting!

The next cars to go a lap down were the Morgans of Reuben Jacob and Mark Shears; the latter lay between the two leaders as they completed lap 8, Martin leading Jonathan Abecassis by just over 2 seconds with Jonathan Cobb’s Cooper Bristol a further 3 seconds down. It was fair to say that these 3 were in a performance league of their own, Jonathan’s 100/4 doing an admirable job of splitting the two sports racers. The TR3A/B was going strongly in the hands of Geoff Turral in 4th place, 16 seconds back from the 3rd placed Cooper Bristol, but was over 25 seconds ahead of the Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite which was up to 5th due to some of the cars ahead having already pitted. There was a similar gap back to the Andrew Cox TR3 Falcon in 6th, although 7th and 8th were close, less than two seconds covering Richard Frankel’s Giulietta leading Shaun Bromley’s MGA, and they were the last to remain on the leading lap at this point.

At then end of lap 9, the HWM headed for the pits and the 100/4 assumed the lead and was now 4 seconds clear of the Cooper Bristol, which never again quite got up to its optimum performance. Its race bore a similarity to that which had occurred at Silverstone Spring Start when the performance seemed to tail off. The gap had gone up to 5 seconds by the end of the following lap although its position appeared secure, but with another 10 laps to go would it remain so? With the pitting of the HWM, the TR3A/B was up to 3rd, but so big was the lead of the first 3, that Martin Hunt after he returned to the track was already back up to 4th and now the last car on the lead lap! It was on this lap that Andrew Cox spun going into McLeans, and subsequently dropped oil. Andrew noted the drop in oil pressure so trickled back to the pits to retire. In doing so, he unwittingly left a trail of oil because …… ‘An oil union from the pressure accumulator to the oil cooler parted’ and Jonathan Abecassis spun on this but recovered without losing a place, as the slowing Cooper Bristol of Jonathan Cobb was unable to capitalise. Several cars took their pit stops during this middle phase of the race and at the end of lap 11 only 3 cars remained on the lead lap and they were the erstwhile leaders. The yet to pit Jonathan Cobb now led, whilst Jonathan Abecassis, still on the lead lap was stationary in the pits and Martin Hunt would be back up to 2nd before the 100/4 returned to the race. Brian Arculus was now up to 4th in the Lotus Elite, having passed the Frankel Alfa, the latter going extremely well but yet to pit.

It would be fair to say that with spillages earlier in the day, the track was quite slippery, despite the great efforts by marshals to mitigate this but the new oil spillage did, unfortunately, exacerbate this and our drivers being the careful and sensible chaps they are, eased back slightly. Although this may not have been the only reason, the best lap times came in the first half of the race with one exception as Jonny Shears hadn’t got the memo and put in the Flat Rads fastest lap on lap 18!

Rory Tollett had taken over the Austin Healey 100M from Glenn on lap 7, but the car was not behaving anything like as well as it had at Thruxton, and his lap times were all over the place. The gearbox had become increasing recalcitrant and in the end Rory decided to end this uneven battle and brought the car in to retire it at the end of lap 13, our second and last DNF of the race.

As Rory was retiring the 100M, Jonathan Cobb was well into his 14th lap which he completed 48 seconds ahead of Martin Hunt’s HWM with Jonathan Abecassis, a further 17 seconds behind in the 100/4, but the Cooper Bristol still hadn’t pitted, and order would surely be re-established once it had done so. Brian Arculus was now in a safe and solid 4th from the Turral/Worthington TR3, but Alistair Pugh’s FNLMR in 6th had only a slender 1.4 second lead over the Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite which had been gradually closing in. The now retired Tollett 100M was recorded as 8th but permanently stopped, so next up on the track was Michael Scott in his FNLMR well clear of Shaun Bromley’s MGA. which was just under 4 seconds clear of Richard Frankel’s Giulietta, these two, possibly unknowingly, battling it out for Class 4 honours. They were followed at some distance by the Shears and Reuben Jacob Morgan +4s, two laps down while behind them Tony Kilby and Chris Mann pressed on, the latter having spun in front of the leader a couple of laps earlier.

Jonathan Cobb finally pitted the Cooper Bristol, from the lead at the end of lap 15. He was the last by several laps to do so. Whilst he was stationary, Martin Hunt thundered the HWM back into the lead and 21 seconds later Jonathan Abecassis followed across the line to regain 2nd place as the Cooper Bristol returned to the track. Brian Arculus remained the only other driver on the lead lap in 4th place in the Lotus Elite. These places were not to alter during the rest of the race, although the HWM continued to stretch its lead over the 100/4 which in turn was pulling away from the Cooper Bristol.

By the end of lap 17, Alistair Pugh’s 5th place in the Frazer Nash LMR was coming under increasing threat from the Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite, and this was the main point of racing interest over the final laps . The TR3AB, now in the hands of Robert Worthington was in no man’s land, secure in 7th, almost half a minute down but ahead of Michael Scott’s FNLMR, by a similar amount. Shaun Bromley had the MGA in a fine 9th place with a 6 second cushion to the chasing Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint of Richard Frankel. 11th, two laps down was Jonny Shears in the Flat Rad Morgan +4, 15 seconds ahead of the later +4 version in the hands of Reuben Jacob, and Tony Kilby, also Morgan mounted, was 13th. Chris Mann was about to go 3 laps down to the leader, and whilst he may have been at the back, the Alfa attracted a lot of interest and attention and some of the entertaining angles it achieved through the corners suggested that Chris was really trying to put on a show.

Martin Hunt reeled off the last few laps to take the flag, having completed the 20 laps in 31 mins 25.37 secs, at an average speed of 75.58 mph. He was kind enough to say that Jonathan Abecassis had kept him honest but I would be surprised if the HWM had not had a bit in hand over the 100/4. Jonathan had taken fastest lap, but I suggest that was because he was trying harder than Martin. The large gap at the end of half a minute, however, was simply down to Jonathan spinning. Jonathan Cobb brought the Cooper Bristol in 3rd, 20 seconds behind the Austin Healey. His best lap was not far off the two in front but as mentioned earlier his performance had faltered. Interestingly, all three of the leading cars leaders had posted their best lap on lap 3 and less than 3 hundredths separated them.

Brian Arculus completed the same number of laps to finish a very comfortable 4th in the little Lotus Elite, 50 seconds clear of Class 2 winner, Alistair Pugh, in his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica. Alistair had just held off the Cawley/Groves Lotus Elite by 4 tenths of a second. Robert ‘Toddy’ Worthington brought the TR3A/B, having taken over from Geoff Turrall came home in 7th with Michael Scott in the second of the splendid FNLMRs, 8th. Shaun Bromley had a very good drive to 9th, winning him both Class 4 and the Index of Performance award whilst Richard Frankel was a fine 10th in the 1300cc Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. The Morgans in various +4 guises, of Mark/Jonny Shears, Reuben Jacob and Tony Kilby (who won Class 3) occupied the next 3 places and Chris Mann was the last to finish. There were some pretty big gaps down the field which we can put down to the relatively small field. Half a dozen more entries would have made all the difference but it was a lovely and diverse grid, nevertheless. The different shapes that the 50s sports cars offer, are always a great watch.

Photo Gallery

The following photographs by Pat Arculus until otherwise stated

All the following photos taken by Mick Walker until otherwise stated. The early ones are from qualifying.

Tailpiece(s)

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