Silverstone Classic 2008 (25-27 July)

[Mark Griffiths]

It was definitely "Hopeless", the gravel-voiced David Moyes look-alike in for the first stint, John. We were very worried on the pit-wall that Peter would be caught by Charles Gillett's Nash on the last lap. Now that was a good drive.

[John Turner]

The Denis Hulme Trophy Race for World Sportscars Masters, sponsored by Hagerty, over 90 minutes took place during Saturday evening on what was probably the best day of the summer. Rather than the F1 or Group C cars, this was, for me, the best grid and feature race of the whole weekend. To do it justice, I'm going to spread this race over 3 posts.

It was the lighter, nimbler Lolas that established themselves at the front, even on the GP circuit, rather than any of the bigger classic 'bangers', with the T210s of Charlie Kemp and Geoff Lister heading Ollie Hancock in the T212. To see the field streaming through Club and heading up into the braking area at Abbey was a sight to behold in the early laps. Here, the leading cars have already gone through, and we see the Continuation T70MkIIIb of Steve Tandy and Peter Chambers, eventually to finish 9th, heading the original T70MkIIIb of Shaun Lynn in David Piper's livery:-


We could have done with at least one more of these, plus a P4, and a couple of Porsche 917s and we would have had almost the perfect field! The Ferrari 512M of David Hart sadly only lasted 8 laps:-


The Chris Ball/Neil Daws Ford GT40 leads the Elva Mk8 of Gabriel and Dion Kremer who finished 22nd:-


Great Martini livery seen on the Porsche 911SR of Betts/Williams, who finished 27th:-


The Chevron B16 of Jamie Boot leads the B8 of Joe Ward. Both drove solo with Ward taking 18th and Boot, 20th:-


The rare Ginetta G16 of Ted Williams and Chris Clarkson only completed 4 laps, unfortunately:-


Ollie Hancock eased into the lead after 7 laps and an excellent long first stint saw him drive splendidly to extend that lead before he handed over to Anthony:-


Chris Beighton had a strong early stint in the T70MkIIIb:-

[John Turner]

The race had started at 8.00pm. so these next were taken about 8.30 at a guess. A clear sky with the sun now quite low produced some reflected light off the side of the cars as they came through Abbey as you will have seen from the last couple of shots of the previous post. It is seen here again with the Ligier JS2 with Paul Knapfield pressing on:-


The Richard Meins/Chris Lillingstone-Price Lola T70MkIIIb went on to finish 5th and is seen here diving up the inside of the Chevron B8 Andrew Hill and Alec Hammond who finished 23rd:-


The gorgeous Ford F3L driven solo by John Young:-


Adrian Newey also drove solo in his GT40 to finish 19th:-


This livery really hits all the nostalgia buttons! Shaun Lynn driving the (ex?) David Piper T70 MKIII. Sadly, the car only completed 14 laps:-


The Ball/Daws GT40 gets into a spin. It got perilously close to the barriers below where I was standing but just avoided impact and continued although it later retired after 22 laps:-


The F3L again - such a striking car:-


The Michael and Will Schryver Chevron B6 takes to the grass and gravel. It, too, unfortunately retired after completing 28 laps:-

[chunterer]

Oh yes JT!

Look at those lovely cars, thanks for putting them up for us all to see.

The F3L has always been a favourite of mine, even if it was hugely underdeveloped in its heyday. Gorgeous car.

[John Turner]

The Alan and Guy Minshaw Chevron B8 finished 15th:-


T70 and F3L head into Bridge:-


The Beighton/Finnemore T70MkIIIb again:-


It's now about 8.40pm with the sun even lower and I've headed to the inside of the circuit at Priory. The F3L yet again, this time ahead of a GT40, the car it was intended to replace. As Chunty says, it really should have been developed further; it surely would, ultimately, have proved its worth:-


Paul Knapfield takes the JS2 up the inside of the Andrew Middleton Taydec Mk3 going into Brooklands. He is shortly to pit and hand the car over to Simon Hadfield. The Taydec finished 16th:-


Close to 9.00pm and into the pits heads the wolfgang and Oliver Matthai Porsche 908 which was to finish 17th:-


One of the early frontrunners, Chris Fox had taken over from Charlie Kemp and then spun at a greasy Becketts. Unfortunately, the car proved difficult to restart, although it must have done, eventually, since it is seen here. It was classified 25th, having lost many laps:-


Anthony Hancock, having taken over from Ollie, gets a helping hand to take the winning car out for its final stint. They both drove pretty flawlessly, (in the car that, in my view, they could have won with last year but for their late and lengthy pit stop) and it was a well deserved win. Their winning margin was over one minute from the Jonathan Baker/Ollie Bryant T70Mk3B, with the similar car of Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore, 3rd:-


I've decided that I'll post a few more pitlane shots on here, on Friday.

[John Turner]

Ok, Saturday, then! Last few shots of this race, taken about the same time as the other pitlane shots above but with my other camera, which allowed a bit more light in.

I'm pretty sure that is Richard Meins to the left of the T70 since I know what Chris Lillington-Price looks like; Chris is a very tall guy. He's about to go out for the final stint in the 5th place car, and is awaiting release by the timekeeper:-


Similarly, Simon Hadfield waits to go having taken over from owner Paul Knapfield who is checking that the door is properly closed. Look at that sky!
Although a lap down, Simon went out and had a 'play' with the 2nd and 3rd place T70's. The Ligier finished 6th:-


Under the watchful eyes of both camera and timekeeper, the Lola T210, about to go out with Chris Fox aboard after losing many laps (see post above):-


The Rolls Royce Marina of Simon and Mark Ashworth, just after the hour mark. It didn't return to the track, but I don't know why:-


Geoff Lister had brought his Lola T210 in a bit earlier for Gareth Burnett to take over only for the fuel pump to stop working. Apparently it was, typically, a cheap bit, a fuel pump relay, that had failed, and Gareth didn't get his drive. He is to the left talking to Geoff and adopting his usual laid back approach to motor racing. You can never tell whether he's disappointed or not, but I'm sure he was. This was, I understand, this cars first outing for many, many years.:-


Hope you have enjoyed the extended coverage of this particular race and sorry that not every car appears, and that others appear more than once. It was all down to shot choice.

[Tim the Grey]

John. Never make excuses for what you choose to cover. Just be sure to charge for the shots you don't make public in here! Otherwise various Pros will be after your guts...

[rogerwills]

John, does the class winning M1B make an entry on your camera's data card?

[John Turner]

Tim, I can't charge for my shots for several reasons, but I don't think the pros have anything to fear from the quality of my shots. I can't even get many people to pay just a tenner to get access to my image archive from which they would then be free to download anything I put up there!

Roger, you are getting soooo predictable! I just knew that as soon as I'd finished that race you'd ask. Unfortunately, the survival rate of pics from this race (as with most) is low, and this is the best of just 2 poor shots of the Mclaren that survived the cull!:-

[rogerwills]

Ha, just keeping you on your toes John. As one of the people who did pay the tenner for access I was hoping for some favouritism! Not to be, that photo is of Nick Whale, not me!

[John Turner]

Roger, I think that you do pretty well by me, for the most part. You asked for the class winning McLaren. Sadly, none survive of you in the car - you wouldn't have wanted to see them anyway, assuming that is, that I captured you in it. As a general rule I try to include 10-tenthers in my reviews where possible (ie if I've got a remotely decent pic). As for the archive, that is a different matter; it's taking me ages to build it, but it will get bigger and better, once we are out of the racing season!

Just to clarify, Roger was entered in his own Mclaren M1B but it wasn't ready in time so he got a drive with Nick Whale and they finished 13th and 1st in class. Of course, Roger has since got his own M1B ready, and had that great drive to 2nd at Goodwood. And that is quite enough publicity for Mr Wills, for the time being!

[Peter Mallett]

I recall Martin Bolsover being quite a good peddler of the M1B.

[johngee]

Originally Posted by rogerwills

Ha, just keeping you on your toes John. As one of the people who did pay the tenner for access I was hoping for some favouritism! Not to be, that photo is of Nick Whale, not me!

Just goes to show how overpaid you are in Moscow

Seriously, John's too modest - his photos and reports are first class.....and the only way I get to find out what really went on at 'my' meetings......while I'm trying to find (and failing miserably! ) a Belgian tow truck (in joke!)

[terence]

Absolutely agree John,JTs reports put many magazines in the shade!

Such a shame he wont come out to Spa. lol.

[Gary Critcher]

Blimey, John! Those are good photos!!

[John Turner]

Thanks to all for kind comments. Will get this particular 'show' back on the air, hopefully tomorrow!

[John Turner]

Sponsored by Bonhams, another fine field formed up for this 60 minute race with compulsory pitstop. There were quite a number of cars driven solo however.

The leading group through Club for the first time with the Jamie McIntyre (19 - Lister Chevrolet) heading the pack with Graeme Dodd (1 - Cooper Monaco already challenging and Frank Sytner (40 - Cooper Monaco) and Ewan McIntyre (15 - Lotus 15) holding a watching brief. These 4 cars were to finish in the Top 5 but not necessarily in the order shown! Dodd, apparently delayed after a coming together with the Lister eventually took the lead and eased away a little from McIntyre with another gap to Sytner. However, none of these gaps were decisive. They all kept in sight of each other:-


Gary Pearson (sharing with Nigel Webb) in the C-type Jaguar almost completely obscuring the Rupert Wood/Rupert Whyte Widi MkII. They were 26th and 29th respectively at the flag:-


Malcolm Verey (19 - Allard J2 - 19th) heads the Chisholm/Newall Jaguar XK120
and the MGA of Mark Ellis and Conrad Bos (57 - 24th):-


The other Allard, the J2X of Chris Phillips did not fare so well. I imagine this was a pretty scary moment when the nearside rear stub axle sheared off coming through Club. After revolving a couple or more times, the car came safely to rest without hitting anything:-


More heavy metal. The thunderous Keen/McAlpine Kurtiss 500S finished 18th:-


Stephen Gibson (7 - Lister Jaguar - 12th), leads the similar car of Barry and Tony Wood, and the Willment Climax of Barry Cannell/Wigley, neither of which finished:-


Entertainingly driven, the XK120 of Chisholm and Newall finished 30th and last of the classified runners, although I don't know why since according to the results sheets it only completed 6 laps, a lot less than several cars that completed more but were unclassified. Maybe it came out for the last lap!:-


Frank Sytner couldn't have pitted at a better time, from 3rd, to hand over to Simon Hadfield, just as the safety car was deployed. With many other pitstops taking place during the lengthy safety car period Simon found himself in the lead behind the safety car, with closest challenger, Graeme Dodd having a lapped car between them. A feature of this safety car period was the complete inability of a couple of cars to lap at a speed that enabled them to catch the tail of the leading group of cars behind the safety car. Instead, they actually dropped further behind, much to the frustration of the second half of the field behind them. The upshot of this was that when the safety car went in and the leading group were released, the second group were half a lap behind and still unable to get up to speed until they had passed the start/finish line. By this time Hadfield and Dodd were up to speed and caught the back of the pack, I'm guessing, around Bridge/Priory. All negotiated safely however, and the gap between the two leaders, who had left the rest behind, fluctuated between 4 to 6 seconds before Simon eased off over the last lap to win by just 1.8 seconds from the still pressing on Dodd. So, Cooper Monaco's were 1st and 2nd, with the Jamie McIntyre/Neil Cunningham Lister Chevrolet was a distant 3rd:-


Malcolm Clubbe had handed his Cooper Monaco over to Martin Stretton at the pitstop and Martin, in typical Stretton style charged the car through the field up to the back of the McIntyre Lotus 15. As expected he passed the Lotus, but less expectedly, McIntyre not only held on but briefly retook the position, and for a few laps this was a good dice until Martin gained the ascendancy to finish 4th by 3 seconds. So, a good drive by him but also an excellent one, in my view, by Ewan Mcintyre, for 5th. The Peter Horsman/Jac Nelleman Lotus 17 was 6th, but unfortunately, I didn't get a decent shot of this car. Sorry, Peter!:-

[Peter Horsman]

John, that's no problem - it's good to see the others. We hung on to Ewen for a while, but he then managed to grind out quicker times than I could manage. I agree that Ewen has got to grips with his 15 well - he's one of the guys I feel safe with dicing with inches to spare, but more often, he's away with the big boys. This is only his first season in the car, having raced Jamie's Rejo the year before, and Caterhams I think before that.

Of course, in this race the 120 dumped its oil on the pit straight and into Copse, which caused the safety car period. I found myself suddenly on the grass, but just managed to coax it back onto the track by Copse where I promptly spun and spun. Happily, I was able to rejoin the race. Not so Rupert White in Rupert Wood's Widi following on: Rupert found himself into the wall several times damaging the car substantially but mercifully he walked away.

The inability of drivers to catch the safety car can be the cause of much frustration! Whilst on the subject of driver discipline, the start of this race was odd in that there was a huge gap between the first few cars across the line at the start (none of this side-by-side rolling start stuff, which was a fearture of the start of the Gentleman Drivers' race), and, in that GD race, a lot of the quicker cars overtook the slower ones well before the start line at the end of their safety car period. Understandable certainly. But per the rules? Not in the briefing I went to!

Have I seen Frank's Cooper advertised for sale? Clearly a potent car.

[John Turner]

Great post, as usual, Peter, full of additional detail that helps make these threads. Thanks for explaining the safety car period; I had completely forgotten the cause.

Yes, Frank S does have his Cooper Monaco up for sale, along with a couple of other cars; I think that he is having a bit of a clearout!

[chunterer]

Is he? Crikey the credit crunch must be hitting fairly lofty heights now then.

[Peter Mallett]

Just don't go there ok?

[John Turner]

In this case, I'm fairly certain that the credit crunch is not the main motivation for this sale, so don't get too alarmed.

[john ruston]

Frank is concentrating on F1 car and given up racing three/four different cars at one meeting.Its probably his age and triple bypass and if it is the credit crunch we are all in the s..t!He's not a bad bloke,honest.

[John Turner]

A 40 minute race with compulsory pit stop for The Jack Sears Trophy. If ever you needed proof that historic racing is a separate genre capable of creating its own history and not merely a reflection of what went on before this was it. 48 entries of which 21 cars were American V8s, surely some sort of record. 21 Mustangs (including 1 GT350), 6 Falcons and a Mercury Comet Cyclone - a grid about as untypical of the 1960 - 1966 period as you could get. Sadly, there was but one Jaguar MkII, a car that dominated the first part of that period. At the end of the race the V8s occupied the first 16 places and of the 12 cars that were unclassified 5 were from the small car classes, leaving just 3 surviving 'littluns'.

It was the Max Rostron/Ulf Larsson Mustang (18), not the fastest, but the most consistently quickly driven car that emerged the winner, from the similar cars of Graeme & James Dodd, and Chris Chiles Snr & Jnr:-


The Ford Falcon Sprint of Westley Harding and Desmond Smail brightened up the field considerably with its classically American livery. It finished 11th:-


One of the few small car survivors was the Hillman Hartwell Imp of Roger Hurt, although it finished 36th and last of the classified cars:-


Highest non V8 finisher was the Arne Berg/John Haugland Lotus Cortina, which finished 17th:-


In 20th place and by far the first small car home was the Mini Cooper S of Roger Ebdon and Tim Watson:-


The Alfas were the most entertaining cars through Abbey. This is the Guilia Sprint GT of Roz Shaw and Tom Shepherd who finished 26th:-


The sole MkII Jaguar was that of Chris Scragg but it only lasted 9 laps:-


The John Bennett Alfa Guilia Ti Super finished 30th:-


Roger Cope was first BMW home. His 1800 Tisa was 21st:-


Early frontrunner was the Mercury Comet Cyclone of Nick Whale and Richard Dodkins but it eventually finished 5th:-


Roger Wills drove solo to bring this Mustang home, 8th:-

[John Turner]

This was the same field as had raced for the Jack Brabham Trophy on Saturday. Enrico Spaggiari spun early on, making a repeat of the previous day's victory unlikely. He spent the rest of the race attempting to recover lost ground. Mark Piercy snatched the lead from the second row but whilst initially challenged by John Clark and a little later by Peter Horsman, he was never headed, and won by nearly 12 seconds.

Piercy (72 - Cooper T53):-


Peter Horsman - Lotus 18/21 - 2nd:-


Ian Landy in ERA, R9B was 17th:-


'Whizzo' Williams in Connaught A4 and Paul Grant in Cooper Bristol MkII. They finished 16th and 18th respectively, split by the Maserati 250F CM7 of Allan Miles:-


Mark Clubbe was 11th in his Cooper T45:-


John Elliot, Lotus 18 - 21st:-


Brian Horwood retired his Cooper Bristol MkI after 5 laps:-


Umberto Rossi, 34th in his Alfa Romeo Tipo B:-


David Bennett was 35th in his Maserati A6GCM:-


Richard Pilkington, 36th in Talbot T26:-


Roy Walzer gets a bit crossed up in his BT11 in his fine battle with Robs Lamplough (Lotus 33) which lasted to the flag. Lamplough stayed ahead and they finished 8th and 9th respectively. They were both passed by the recovering Spaggiari, seen at the back here, who went on to finish 6th:-