[KA]

Sorting out some old Autosports to put in the loft, and found the original race report for this one- I'd previously posted the result from the notes I'd taken from it, so didn't have much background detail...

Originally Posted by KA

Round 2-Silverstone, 1 April 1984. 20 laps/58.64 miles

Think Woodman missed this round, as his CC BMW was still being rebuilt?

Woodman's absence confirmed as due to the Donington shunt a week earlier. The Brodie Starion was also absent- Autosport's comment is rather cryptic:
'Silverstone saw a more representative 28 cars taking part in practice,even allowing for the absence of a couple of Donington contenders, namely Vince Woodman, still recovering from his nasty accident, and Dave Brodie, whose Colt Starion....'
I don't have the previous issue to hand, so what were Autosport not mentioning?

As mentioned in the result table, Jean-Louis Schlesser was on hand as cover for Tony Pond, away in Yorkshire debuting the 6R4. Schlesser drove the first qualifying session, while Pond arrived by helicopter in time for the 2nd session. A pic confirms the Rover appeared in the first session numbered '11T'

Tony Dron was in the Hughes Supra, substituting for Win Percy, on TWR Jaguar ETC duty at Monza

Seasonal debuts for David Kennedy in the BS/Grundig 635, and Charles Sawyer-Hoare's Rover

The first lap accident was reported as being caused by Rouse being tagged on the left rear corner, after a slow start from pole. The Rover 'suddenly slewed sideways and then nose-dived into the pit wall. In the ensuing melee, Phil Dowsett's Alfa and Alan Greenhalgh's Golf were also eliminated

Curiously, the race wasn't stopped, and two of the cars, the Rover and Alfa seem to have been left in the middle of the track before Copse for the duration of the race!

Kennedy's 635 had to pit for a puncture, as did Weaver on lap 12. James resumed almost a lap down on leader Pond, and spent the rest of the race in close company with him- unlapping himself by 'theatrically' outbraking the Rover into the last corner

Dennis Leech was delayed by the first lap shunt, but got up to 5th place before a broken halfshaft ended his race on lap 14

In Class B, the Computervision Metros ran a few seconds apart all race- Watts taking the win despite a late race misfire. John Dooley had pressed Brundle hard in the early laps until the Alfa's propshaft 'disintegrated' at Maggots on lap 7

Goode had a 'promising' run in the Bluebird until the engine 'went off-song' and the Nissan fell back behind Paul Smith's Alfa (badly delayed at the start) and Curnow's Class C Escort. Watts, Brundle, Kirby, Smith and Goode were the only classified finishers. The result table only gives Goode 10 laps completed....

In Class C, Longman got away from Hodgetts at the start, and maintianed his advantage. Longmann, Hodgetts, Curnow, Rob Hall, and the Myerscough Alfasud were the only finishers. There's no mention of the Barry Lee Escort other than in the qualifying times list, but he was obviously not having a good weekend, with practice times of 8m16.90(!) in Q1, and 2m14.20 in Q2, still over 15 seconds off the next slowest qualifier. Maybe a DNS with car problems?, though there's no indication in the report

I've added the fastest laps, but there are still some gaps in the finishing order