BDC , Silverstone (2021)

 Preamble

There is something about the Bentley Drivers Club meeting at Silverstone. It’s an anachronism in this day an age and, for me, continues to capture the essence of the club racing scene of the 1960s when I first started to attend race meetings. Clearly a lot of our club members feel the same way and, although there was a period a few years ago when our support declined a little, this trend has been completely reversed over the last couple of years and we have returned to having our own race backed up by a FISCAR guarantee to ensure a ‘no loss’ situation for BDC but also a profit sharing agreement for FISCAR.

This year, initially, we had 32 entries although for various reasons, ‘only’ 27 appeared on the day. It was very disappointing that Chris Pring withdrew his very original and historic Allard J2 (see our News section) when he found excessive driveshaft wear. It would have been the first appearance of this car on our grid. Graham Robson had no luck at all with his entry. He had entered his 541R, the first time he has entered the Jensen with us, only for Paul Woolmer to find that it had a blown head gasket. Although not compliant, I agreed that Graham could substitute his 1959 Elva Courier fitted with MGB engine (pending arrival of an MGA unit) which would have gone into the Invitation Class, only for the gearbox to fail on a road test. I am hoping that Graham will persevere as he has 4 cars that could potentially run with FISCAR. Jason Kennedy put in an appearance but sans Lancia Aurelia which had developed a rather alarming leak from the fuel tank. Simon Jeffries awoke on Saturday morning to discover his driveway and surrounding area flooded and elected understandably not to subject the Aston DB MkIII to trying to negotiate his way out of it. Finally, Thornton Mustard’s yellow Lotus Elite failed to appear, reason unknown at the time of writing. Nevertheless despite these losses, 3 of which were from Class 3, it was still a very good grid at 27 cars!

Entries were open to all FISCAR compliant cars provided they belonged to one of the BDCs invited clubs but, with one exception they were all FISCAR club members. The one exception was Reuben Jacobs with his Morgan Plus 4 who had been persuaded to enter by Richard Thorne. It was Reuben’s first time out so I hope that he enjoyed himself enough to join us. Two cars were on Avons, strictly non compliant tyres, but the Jupiter’s looked pretty worn and I’m not sure they bestowed any real advantage on a car which even Harry would accept is a tailender, but an absolutely delightful one. Hopefully when worn out the replacements will be Dunlop! The other was Leigh Sebba’s Morgan Flat rad. Last year I had agreed to give Leigh that dispensation as he was also entered in the Morgan race which allowed such tyres, and I could understand that having two sets at the meeting might cause practical difficulties. It didn’t extend to this year but Leigh did it anyway, no doubt relying on my good nature, but I couldn’t possibly comment haha! It does mean a class increase (from 4 to 3) and has an impact on the IoP points. However, I must emphasise that FISCAR regulation tyres are Dunlop L, and also Blockley Crossply for the larger diameter wheels, so there will be no more exceptions.

Qualifying

At this meeting, last year, Oli Llewellyn drove the Allard through the field (after a stalled start) to a fine measured victory, as a result of which I promoted the car to the Invitation class. I must emphasise however that whilst this car is not a fully FISCAR compliant car in terms of our original regs constructed 10 years ago, times have moved on and it is in my view very much within the spirit of FISCAR and to an original specification from an early part of the period covered by FISCAR. It is only in the invited class to take it out of the Class 1 competition. I have done the same for Richard Tyzack’s Kellison. At Spring Start, the Allard was just a bit off song, but here it was back to its best, and took pole in a 1.11.617, which I think is the first time a compliant car has dipped under 1.12 in qualifying although Steven Bond achieved this at that Spring Start meeting during the race in his Lister Bristol. However, the margin to Nicholas Harris, at 1.13.238, in the Austin Healey 100/4 and Brian Arculus on 1.13.551 in the Lotus Elite was a bit of a surprise. Brian felt there was more to come from the Lotus but, unfortunately, his qualifying was brought to an abrupt end when he lost 3rd and 4th gears. The initial diagnosis of a broken selector proved to be something worse - a broken mainshaft. Either way, disappointingly, we had lost one of our frontrunners. Another surprise was Paul De Havilland qualifying the Jaguar XK150S, 4th in a 1.13.848. At the time a Class 2 car, its performance is now sufficiently far ahead of the other class 2 cars to make it, barring mishap a certain class winner, so that, by the end of the day, it had been promoted to Class 1!

Jim Campbell qualified his Austin Healey 100/4 in a fine 5th in a 1.14.837, with the 100M of Paul Kennelly, 6th in a 1.15.041. Andy Shepherd and son, Murray, qualified the AC Ace Bristol 7th in a 1.15.387. This was the first of 4 Aces in the field but it was not without drama, since on one lap exiting Luffield, an apologetic Andy had got the AC into a tank slapper just in front of Justin Beckett’s sister car which could not avoid impact, both cars suffering damage, although not sufficient to prevent either starting the race. Alex Quattlebaum qualified the little LECo in 8th on a 1.15.478 with the David Cottingham/Adrian King AC Ace Bristol just a fraction behind in 1.15.510. Alongside the Ace on the 5th row was the first of 5 Morgans, the Plus 4 ‘Baby Doll’ of Richard Thorne in 1.16.438. Sharing the 6th row was the Peter Campbell/Andrew Mitchell Wingfield Bristol Special and Paul Griffin’s Connaught ALSR in a time of 1.16.463 and 1.18.347 respectively, a massive gap of almost 2 seconds! 3 other cars however, were in that 1.18 bracket, the AC Ace of the aforementioned Justin Beckett (1.18.558), the MGA Coupe of Martin Stowe (1.18.888) and the MGA Twin Cam of Neil Burnside on a 1.18.926. I think that there was probably more to come from Neil’s car but unfortunately, it dropped an exhaust valve after just 3 laps so, sadly, Neil was the second of the non starters for the race. Just 2 hundredths of a second separated the Morgan plus 4 Flat Rad of Mark Shears and Richard Plant, from Barry Dye’s Lotus Elite (1.19.106/1.19.108) and the 9th row was completed by Alan House’s Morgan Plus 4 in 1.19.310. The middle order from 12th through to 18th were very close on times and promised some great dicing.

Row 10 contained Mark Morgan in another of the lovely AC Aces in a time of 1.20.704 and Jeremy Holden in his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica. Jeremy has not had a lot of luck with us as the FN failed to make the race as a result of a water pump failure. Christopher Mann qualified 21st in the superb Alfa Romeo Disco Volante in a 1.21.685 and had Sean and Josh Bromley alongside in the MGA Coupe. The MGA’s engine is a bit tired now and the drivers also need a bit more seat time but they did find another second in the race. Stuart Dean, a lot happier with the car now, qualified 23rd in the Dick Jacobs Special Coupe in a time of 1.22.127 and alongside was Leigh Sebba’s Morgan Plus 4 Flat Rad in 1.23.190. Newcomer, Reuben Jacob was next up on a 1.27.276 in his Morgan Plus 4 and the last two on the grid were Harry Naergar and Tom Leopold in the Jowett Jupiter (1.29.719) and Glenn Brackenridge in the Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Le Mans on a 1.30.824. Glenn had ‘tightened up the rear suspension and changed the rear shock absorbers over the lockdown, replaced the front discs and also made an informed guess over a different weber choke size (I couldn't get to a rolling road as they are all booked until September) and it gave me those few seconds a lap compared to 2020. In truth I hoped for even more but the Harrington is quite a heavy beast, heavier than the normal Alpine, and 105 BHP only goes so far. Maybe I can find other tweaks for next year.’ Glenn had certainly found a bit of time over last year and was to find more during the race!

Race

Our race was scheduled to start at 2.25pm but the meeting was running well ahead of itself and the race started 15 -20 minutes early. As this splendid field of cars lined up, the weather appeared bright but with heavy rolling cloud. Showers had been forecast during the day but in the event, the day stayed pretty dry and warm. In addition to those cars mentioned above, it was noted that Richard Thorne’s Morgan was also absent (reason as yet unknown). We had full teams from Austin Healey, AC, MG and Morgan, and I’d put the cars of Paul Griffin (Connaught), Alex Quattlebaum (LECo2 XPAG) and Stuart Dean (DJS XPAG) together to form a FLIERS team.

The Allard is not an easy car to get off the line but Tim Llewellyn left the line pretty cleanly to take the lead from pole whilst his fellow front row starter, Nicholas Harris had a poor start in his Austin Healey 100/4, dropping to 5th, swallowed up by excellent starts from Paul De Havilland (Jaguar XK150S), Paul Kennelly (Austin Healey 100M) and Jim Campbell (Austin Healey 100/4). Tim headed into Copse already clear and the fact that his closest challenger had fallen back and that Brian Arculus had failed to make the grid, meant his attempts to break clear went unchallenged. It was yet another lovely FISCAR field that streamed after him through Copse for the first time and it was noted that Peter Campbell had also made a good start in the Wingfield Bristol Special, as had Shaun Bromley in his MGA Coupe.

Tim completed the first lap with a 3.3 second lead from Paul De Havilland’s Jaguar. Nicholas Harris had recovered to 3rd but was to find it hard to make further progress as Paul was now embarked on an excellent drive, albeit not having the pace to stay with the Allard. Paul Kennelly in the AH 100M was 4th, on the tail of the 100/4 with Jim Campbell’s similar car in close attendance, the 3 Austin Healeys looking superb as they came across in line astern formation. Over the line Peter Campbell, just over a second behind, in the Wingfield Bristol, had made more ground into 6th place but had Andy Shepherd’s AC Ace Bristol virtually alongside. Alex Quattlebaum came through 8th in the LECo chased by David Cottingham in the next AC Ace, these two 2 seconds clear of Justin Beckett (AC Ace) and Martin Stowe (MGA).

A gap of of over 3 seconds had already opened up behind Martin’s MG, as Shaun Bromley came across in 12th place in the sister MGA coupe, having made up several places, leading Alan House (Morgan +4), Paul Griffin (Connaught ALSR) and Barry Dye (Lotus Elite) in close order. A further 3 seconds behind, in 16th place came Mark Morgan’s AC Ace ahead of Stuart Dean in the DJS Coupe and these two were to have a great racelong duel. 18th and 19th were Mark Shears and Leigh Sebba in the early Morgan +4 Flat Rads and they had pulled well clear of Chris Mann (Alfa Romeo Disco Volante), Glenn Brackenridge (Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Le Mans), Reuben Jacob (Morgan +4) and Harry Naergar (Jowett Jupiter), filling the final 4 positions and running closely together. However, the inherent race pace of the Alfa was to manifest itself during the course of the race though as it it pulled away from the group and started to make ground.

Tim Llewellyn completed lap 2 with a lead of just over 4 seconds. Paul De Havilland was still an excellent 2nd but he had qualified 4th fastest so was not best placed to offer the strongest challenge to the Allard and Nicholas Harris, in his Austin Healey, had still not moved onto the tail of Paul’s Jaguar, which was ahead of him by 1.5 seconds. In fact, Nicholas was still fending off Paul Kennelly’s A H 100M and these front 4 were now clear of Jim Campbell’s A H 100/4 by 3 seconds with Peter Campbell’s Wingfield a further second behind in 6th place. The order down the field was pretty stable the only change of position being Alan House (Morgan +4) who passed Shaun Bromley in the red MGA Coupe, to take 12th place.

As the Allard completed the third lap it had stretched its lead by a further half second but such was Paul De Havilland’s race pace behind that Nicholas Harris had made little ground on the Jaguar although he had begun to disengage himself from Paul Kennelly’s 100M. Jim Campbell, in 5th place had dropped away but was 2.5 seconds clear of the Wingfield Bristol, which in turn was easing slowly away from 7th placed man, Alex Quattlebaum in the LECo2. Alex was having a very good run, having just overtaken the always competitive Andy Shepherd in the aluminium hued AC Ace Bristol. Andy was 3 seconds clear of the sister LHD car of David Cottingham, who for once was not embroiled in a close battle as he too, had a 3 second gap to Justin Beckett, also Ace mounted, so the products of Thames Ditton were occupying 8th, 9th and 10th and it meant that we had 3 Austin Healeys and 3 AC Aces in the Top 10!

Martin Stowe had the Class 4 lead in his smart white MGA Coupe, in 11th place overall, but Alan House was beginning to edge closer in the Morgan +4, a Class 3 car. Alan was having a very good run and had pulled away from the MGA of Shaun Bromley who was now under pressure from Barry Dye’s Lotus, unusually, the only Elite in the field, after the withdrawal of Brian Arculus. Barry had Paul Griffin’s Connaught for company but appeared to have the edge on performance. There was a 5 second gap to Stuart Dean’s DJS Coupe who was, nevertheless, going extremely well in 16th and fending off the close attention of Mark Morgan’s AC Ace. There was another 3 second gap to Chris Mann’s Disco Volante but Chris was gathering pace and making good headway, clear of Mark Shears and Leigh Sebba in their early Morgan +4s. Now well and truly detached at the back but circulating closely together were the splendid trio of Morgan +4, of novice racer Reuben Jacob, the striking Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans of Glenn Brackenridge and Harry Naergar’s BRG Jowett Jupiter, a car so evocative of the early 1950s Le Mans scene.

As it completed lap 4, the Allard had extended his lead by a mere tenth of a second, so well was Paul De Havilland going in the XK150S. Nicholas Harris was closing slowly on Paul but improving to second was not a done deal and the lap times of the Jaguar and Austin Healey were pretty closely matched. Paul Kennelly was continuing to drop away from the front 3 slowly but his A H 100M now had a 6.3 second cushion over Jim Campbell’s 100/4 version in 5th place. Peter Campbell was flying in the Wingfield Bristol still less than two seconds behind Jim but was shortly to come under attack from the equally brisk Alex Quattlebaum in the LECo2, both Alex and the XPAG engine well and truly on song for this race. Although passed by Alex, Andy Shepherd was not about to give up in the AC Ace and was less than a second behind in 8th. David Cottingham was now 5 seconds back from Andy, but almost 3 seconds ahead of Justin Beckett, but all 3 Aces, looking and sounding superb, still held positions in the top 10.

Martin Stowe securely in the Class 4 driving seat was holding the gap to Alan House in the Morgan which was now 5 seconds ahead of Barry Dye’s Lotus Elite which had displaced Shaun Bromley’s MGA Coupe to take 15th. Shaun had Paul Griffin’s Connaught ALSR for close company but the pair were well clear of a battling threesome for 17th involving Stuart Dean’s DJS Coupe, Mark Morgan’s AC Ace and Chris Mann’s Alfa. Chris, lapping about 3 seconds quicker had caught Stuart and Mark quite quickly and was preparing to move ahead of both. Some seconds behind came the splendid brace of Flat Rad Morgans in the hands of Mark Shears and Leigh Sebba. Mark and Leigh were 19th and 20th and the last of the unlapped runners, as the leading 3 cars completed their 5th lap amongst our tailenders who were completing their 4th.

This time round the Allard had extended his lead by a second, no doubt negotiating the lapped cars more easily than Paul De Havilland who was having to watch his mirrors as the Austin Healey of Nicholas Harris homed in slowly but inexorably onto the back of the Jaguar. Paul Kennelly in 4th place had actually lapped marginally qiuicker that the two cars ahead of him so remained less than 3 seconds behind although, he too, was amongst lapped cars. Jim Campbell, now 8 seconds behind Paul was 4 seconds clear of a hard charging Alex Quattlebaum, who took his LECo passed Peter Campbell’s Wingfield Bristol as they crossed the line. Andy Shepherd in 8th was working hard to stay with them, and the fellow Aces of David Cottingham and Justin Beckett still occupied 9th and 10th although now some way behind Andy.

A change of position behind involved Barry Dye moving up a place at the expense of Alan House, but only because Alan had signalled the opening of the pit window phase by taking to the pits, the first to do so. Further back, Paul Griffin had moved ahead of Shaun Bromley, the MGA simply not able to hold some of the positions that Shaun had made up at the start. Chris Mann, who was lapping a good bit quicker than several cars in front of him had taken the Disco Volante passed both Stuart Dean and Mark Morgan which left them free to continue their great dice. The two early Morgans maintained their close formation.

The Allard’s 6 second lead over the Jaguar barely altered over lap 6, and in fact, the 3 leaders lapped within a tenth of each other, Nicholas Harris was still almost a tantalising second away from Paul De Havilland. Paul Kennelly was now completely detached from the lead group, in a lonely 4th place, 10 seconds ahead of Jim Campbell’s A H 100/4. Alex Quattlebaum in the leading FLIER, the LECo, had relinquished 6th place and dropped to 9th but only because he had entered the pits to take his mandatory pitstop. However, it wasn’t Peter Campbell who inherited Alex’s position but Andy Shepherd who had repassed the Wingfield. The top ten was completed by David Cottingham and Justin Beckett, still circulating pretty closely in their Aces. The only other car to pit on that lap was the Connaught, in the second of the FLIERs, driven by Paul Griffin, so he too dropped down the order, albeit temporarily. Further down the field, Chris Mann’s Alfa was closing on Shaun Bromley’s MGA and just a little way back from Chris, Stuart Dean and Mark Morgan were still battling it out and remained unlapped.

On the following lap, Tim Llewellyn extended his lead by almost a second having put two more lapped cars, the Morgans of Mark Shears and Leigh Sebba, between the Allard and its pursuers. Paul De Havilland was still driving an excellent and pacy defensive race to hold off the potentially quicker Austin Healey of Nicholas Harris and the positions behind were unaltered other than by the effects of pit stops taken by David Cottingham (AC Ace), Justin Beckett (AC Ace) and Barry Dye (Lotus Elite). David handed his Ace over to Adrian King who rejoined the race but Justin did not return to the track as the AC had suffered a suspected stub axle failure.

On lap 8, Nicholas Harris finally squeezed his Austin Healey ahead of Paul’s Jaguar to take second place although it seemed unlikely that he would be able to make any impression on the gap to the leader and he certainly didn’t immmediately stretch rapidly away from the XK150S. The order was naturally becoming jumbled by the pit stops, the next to take one, being Reuben Jacob in his Morgan on his lap 7. Eight cars had now been lapped by the leaders although two of these were the FLIERS which had stopped on the previous lap and were now embarked on recovering ground.

At the end of lap 9 the Allard’s lead had extended to 7.5 seconds partly due to having put another couple of lapped cars between it and its pursuers and the fact that Nicholas Harris had not shaken off the De Havilland XK150S. Paul Kennelly was still in 4th. He had been isolated in race terms but was not alone since he, too, was amongst lapped cars and had pitted at the end of the lap. Jim Campbell’s A H 100/4 had a 6 second lead over the continuing battle between Andy Shepherd’s AC Ace and Peter Campbell’s Wingfield Bristol, who between them created a silver train in 6th and 7th positions whilst some way behind them was Martin Stowe in the white MGA Coupe, the last of the unlapped runners. Two other cars were in the pits - Chris Mann’s Alfa Disco Volante and Stuart Dean’s Dick Jacobs Special (the final FLIER to pit).

As the leader completed lap 10, Nicholas Harris had eased out his gap to Paul De Havilland to just over a second. 3 more cars were in the pits - Harry Naergar’s Jowett Jupiter into which jumped Tom Leopold, the Sunbeam Alpine Harrington of Glenn Brackenridge, both going two laps down as a result, and Jim Campbell’s Austin Healey 100/4. Just 6 cars were on the lead lap although this was a slightly false picture since none of the top 3 cars had yet pitted. On lap 11, the gap between 2nd place Nicholas Harris and 3rd placed Paul De Havilland had opened to almost 3 seconds, due almost entirely to a slow lap by Paul, and I can only surmise that he encountered lapped cars on a part of the track where passing was difficult. However, whatever the reason, it had broken the chain and Nicholas was free to get his head down and see if he could do anything about the Allard, now 9.5 seconds down the road. The field was now really well spread out over 3 laps, some having stopped, some having been lapped and, a few having both stopped and been lapped! The last of the close track battles between the dicing duo of Andy Shepherd and Peter Campbell had ceased, possibly only briefly, when they both pitted at the same time. Andy handed over to son, Murray, whilst Peter handed over to Andrew Mitchell. Also in the pits at this point were Mark Shears handing over his Morgan to experienced Morgan racer, Richard Plant, and Leigh Sebba’s Morgan.

Paul De Havilland pitted the XK150S at the end of lap 12, the only one to do so, but a lap later the leader also pitted, Tim Llewellyn handing the Allard over to son Oli, leaving Nicholas Harris to assume the lead in the Austin Healey 100/4. Shaun Bromley came in at the same time albeit a lap down, to hand the MGA over to his son, Josh, so Nicholas was now one of just 3 yet to pit, and only he and the Allard were on the same lap at the end of lap 13. The early battles were yet to be rejoined as pitted cars got underway and up to speed and at the end of the leader’s lap 14, Mark Morgan pitted his Ace just a lap down, but several laps actually covered the field since the Jowett had just gone 4 laps down, with two others 3 laps down.

Nicholas Harris retained the lead until he pitted at the end of lap 16 at about the same time that Martin Stowe pitted his MGA at the end of his lap 15, and these two brought the pitting phase to an end. I have regaled you with this before, but pit stops always make it difficult to tell, even from the lap charts, how close some cars on the same lap are to each other but the erstwhile battle between the leading AC Ace and the Wingfield Bristol had been resolved. Andrew Mitchell, quite understandably, could not match the pace of owner Peter Campbell in the Wingfield, whereas Murray Shepherd had the nerve - whisper it softly - to lap more quickly than Dad in the Ace - Ahh the exuberance of youth eh? The other dice between Stuart Dean in the DJS and Mark Morgan in his AC Ace was about to reignite. The vagaries of lap timing regularly provide at least one lap where the the chart has some cars appearing twice, and in this case it was the end of lap 16, and included those of Stuart and Mark, with the latter shown ahead of the DJS Coupe, both lapping in the 1.21 bracket.

Some interesting stats emerged from the pit stops. The timing marshals confirmed that everyone complied properly with the 45 second stop with Jim Campbell being absolutely on the ball, leaving 45.2 seconds after stopping. Indeed all 3 of the Austin Healeys were stopped for under 50 seconds whereas the other two cars in the top 5, namely Paul De Havilland’s Jaguar and the Llewellyn Allard were stopped in excess of 55 seconds and this clearly impacted on their positions when they returned to the track. The Allard was several seconds behind the Harris Austin Healey, which unexpectedly found itself still in the lead and the XK150 had lost a place to Paul Kennelly’s Austin Healey 100M, so we now had Austin Healeys 1, 3 and 5.

At the end of lap 17, Nicholas Harris had a slender 1.3 second lead over Oli Llewellyn’s Allard, but Paul De Haviland had regained 3rd by passing Paul Kennelly’s Austin Healey 100M and they were both over 20 seconds down on the leading pair. A further 16 seconds behind was Jim Campbell in his Austin Healey 100/4, whilst just 6 seconds away was the AC Ace of Murray Shepherd lapping faster than Jim and likely to catch before the end of the race. The number of cars on the lead lap had gone back up to 7 cars, now that all pit stops had been completed, the last of those being the LECo of Alex Quattlebaum who continued to drive with his usual pacy enthusiasm.

A lap down at this stage but only to the leading duo, was Adrian King in David Cottingham’s AC Ace clear of Anderw Mitchell in the Wingfield Bristol in 9th, and 10th, just getting up to speed following his pitstop, was Martin Stowe in his MGA Coupe. Alan House was 11th in his Morgan +4 going a bit quicker than Martin, so another change of place was very much on the cards, whilst 12th was Chris Mann in the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante having continued to make great progress throughout the race from his lowly grid position. Barry Dye (Lotus Elite) and Paul Griffin (Connaught ALSR) occupied 13th and 14th, Paul having hauled Barry back in after their pitstops (see photo above) and they were the last of the cars just one lap down.

Richard Plant, unsurprisingly quicker than owner Mark Shears in the flat rad Morgan + 4, was first of the cars 2 laps down to the leaders but was really making the old Morgan fly in 15th place although it seemed unlikely that he could make up the ground to the Lotus and Connaught in the remaining laps but was having a damn good go at it! Although not appearing on the lap chart for lap 17 (they reappear on lap 18!), somewhere behind Richard, was the duelling duo of Mark Morgan (AC Ace) and Stuart Dean (DJS Coupe). Mark had got ahead during the pit stops but Stuart was not far away and their battle was not yet done! Josh Bromley was pressing on in the second of the pretty MGA Coupes, stretching comfortably away from Leigh Sebba, in the second of the flat rad Morgans. 3 laps down in 19th and 20th positions were Glenn Brackenridge (Sunbeam Alpine Harrington) and Reuben Jacob (Morgan +4) in a great little battle of their own, whilst last, but certainly not least, was Tom Leopold in Harry Naergar’s Jowett Jupiter. There were still another 8 laps to go and this final phase of the race was not to be completed without some drama!

Nicholas Harris had put in a lap time 1.12.950 prior to his pit stop, but he never really got close to that after returning to the track until the final lap, so he was unable to resist for long, losing the lead on lap 18 and trailing the Allard by just under a second as they ended that lap. They were both nearly half a minute ahead of 3rd place Paul De Havilland’a XK150, but having passed the Austin Healey 100M on lap 16, the Jaguar was unable to shake of the tenacious Paul Kennelly who really battled hard and this great dice went on for several laps. Jim Campbell was 5th but had Murray Shepherd’s AC Ace Bristol looming ever larger in his mirrors, and Alex Quattlebaum remained the last of the unlapped runners in 7th place. Adrian King held a pretty lonely 8th place, one lap down but the following 3 places appeared to be close together with Martin Stowe’s MGA ahead of Alan House’s Morgan and Andrew Mitchell behind them in the Wingfield Bristol dropping back. Andrew’s lap times had gone out from the low 1.24s to the high 1.29s and this continued for a number of laps although his times did pick up towards the end! Chris Mann had a poor lap on lap 18 as well and Paul Griffin closed in, the Connaught taking over 4 seconds out of the Alfa. In fact lap times were all over the place at this stage of the race but it is difficult to identify a single cause.

Nicholas Harris now appeared beaten and the Allard completed lap 19 ahead by 2.5 seconds, but, in 3rd, the De Havilland XK150 still had its hands full with the Kennelly Austin Healey, so barring mishap, the final podium position was going to the wire. Jim Campbell now had Murray Shepherd less than 2 seconds behind and it seemed unlikely that he would be able to defend his 5th place from the charging Ace Bristol and conceded the position on lap 20. The little LECo, still in an excellent 7th place, finally went a lap down when the Allard passed Alex during that lap. Alan House had taken his Morgan passed Martin Stowe’s MGA and Paul Griffin had found his way by both Chris Mann’s Alfa Romeo and the apparently slowing Wingfield Bristol. At this time, the long battle between Stuart Dean’s DJS Coupe and Mark Morgan’s AC Ace was resolved in a rather alarming way for both drivers. Stuart had just got ahead of Mark, but heading into Copse, the DJS spun in front of the AC and Mark just managed to avoid an impact. A chastened Stuart later reported that ‘ I enjoyed the race although I rather blotted my copybook by spinning at Copse late on in the race. I am blaming my very old Dunlops. I must get some new ones before next time, both for my sanity and everybody else's safety !’ Although Stuart quickly regained the track, Mark was long gone!

A couple of laps from the end a sudden short rain shower threatened to make the track a bit slippery but in fact, it’s impact was slight and the track dried so quickly that times and positions remained unaffected. Over the final laps, the Allard pulled away from the Austin Healey, but this was down to the drop off in pace of the latter rather than any increase in pace from the Allard. Before his pit stop Nicholas Harris had achieved a best lap of 1.12.95 but afterwards didn’t get anywhere near that until the very last lap. In fact his lap 21 was completed in almost a 1.18, and it meant that he lost touch with the leader and Oli Llewellyn took the flag with a lead of 10.6 seconds. Nicholas nevertheless took the Class 1 win. Heading into the last lap, Paul De Havilland was still 3rd holding off the counterattack from Paul Kennelly’s Austin Healey 100M but the Jaguar’s fine run came to a rather abrupt end when the throttle jammed open creating a moment of real drama for Paul who had to rapidly switch the ignition off. The throttle cable end had frayed and the splayed wires had jammed the mechanism. To add to Paul’s woes, I had to advise him that in the future he would be in Class 1 given the pace he had shown in recent races but he accepted it with good grace. Thus Paul Kennelly finished 3rd with Murray Shepherd  4th in the Class 2 winning AC Ace, the last car to complete 24 laps. 

On 23 laps, Jim Campbell, came in 5th with his Austin Healey 100/4 and some 22 seconds behind, Alex Quattlebaum took a fine 6th place, winning Class 3 in the process, in the LECo XPAG. Adrian King brought David Cottingham’s AC Ace home in 7th place after another good run from the pair.

Those who completed 22 laps were Alan House in his Morgan +4 just 3 seconds clear of Martin Stowe’s Class 4 winning MGA Coupe in 9th. This was a very good result for Martin since the next 3 cars finishing behind him were all potentially quicker cars over the race distance. They were the Connaught ALSR of Paul Griffin (10th), the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante of Christopher Mann (11th) and the Wingfield Bristol Special of Peter Campbell and Andrew Mitchell (12th). Chris, had of course, driven up through half the field, having started the Alfa from the back, and Andrew although returning to his earlier pace for the last couple of laps had already lost places. Barry Dye was 13th in his Lotus Elite with the hard charging Richard Plant bringing Mark Shears early Morgan +4 into 14th followed at some distance by Mark Morgan completing those on 22 laps in his AC Ace Bristol in 15th place.

After his embarrassing spin, Stuart Dean brought the Dick Jacobs Special Coupe in 16th on 21 laps and he was followed in less than 3 seconds later by Josh Bromley in the MGA. Josh had actually been closing in on Stuart although, it was only Stuart’s spin that brought the DJS within striking distance. In 18th was Leigh Sebba in the second of the early Morgan +4s and a further lap down, Glenn Brackenridge and Reuben Jacob crossed the line just half a second apart in the Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Le mans and Morgan +4 respectively, having diced it out for the whole race – great fun. Last, but not least was the Harry Naerger and Tom Leopold Jowett Jupiter completing 19 laps although interestingly, the car’s best lap was fractionally quicker than the two cars ahead of him. Thus ended another great FISCAR race in which 21 cars out of 23 race starters had finished.   

In the Inter-Marque Trophy, the FISCAR FLIERS team of Alex Quattlebaum, Paul Griffin and Stuart Dean came out on top, a bit of a surprise, not least to them! Second were the team of AC Aces and 3rd , the Austin Healeys. In the Index of Performance, the AC Ace of David Cottingham and Adrian King took the win ahead of Stuart Dean who was clearly on a good day despite his spin, in the DJS, and Martin Stowe in the MGA.  The full race results will appear in the usual form below in due course.

I’d like to finish up the report with a quote from an email that Tim Llewellyn sent me a few days after the event:-

‘We are just pleased to get the car out and use it with a bunch of sensible drivers.  I have to say one of the very good things about Fiscar is that the drivers drive with sensible margin and are all good at using their mirrors and being aware of what is around them.  Not all series have earned that reputation. I am anxious however that we do not end up irritating your other competitors if we are out every time.

Tim has summed the FISCAR family up well here, in a nutshell. He is a fully paid up member and my view on this is that this well driven car, from the early part of the decade we represent, is a very welcome addition to any grid that we run, even though its performance is just a tad too quick for it to compete for Class 1 awards and is unlikely, as scratch car, to achieve success in the Index of Performance! I’d love to see how it would perform at Castle Combe, for example!

Gallery

(All photos by Mick Walker and include shots from qualifying)

Tailpieces

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