VSCC Spring Start 2025

The Richard Bell Memorial Trophy

VSCC, Silverstone, 5th April 2025

Preamble

The VSCC Spring Start meeting is always our first race of the year. It has also always been our ‘titled’ race of the year, initially the George Abecassis Trophy, then, for a number of years, the Tom Cole Trophy and currently, The Richard Bell Memorial Trophy, now in its second year. I imagine that we will keep this title for some years to come in memory of one of our founding members.

Last year the Trophy was won by David Alexander in his Lotus Elite although he did not cross the line first that day since the race ran alongside, as it had done for some years, the VSCC Hawthorn International Trophy race for 1950s sports cars. However, such has been the success of our races over the last couple of seasons that we are now able to purchase our own grids, and VSCC were able to agree that our race would be standalone and only open to members of the VSCC and FISCAR with compliant cars. The one exception to this was the guest invite to Richard Tyzack in his Kellison, who missed out on his retirement race at the end of last season, and we wanted to give him a proper send off.

Our entries did not disappoint, both in quantity and quality, and indeed a couple of members unfortunately failed to get their entries in on time, the closing date set by the VSCC was perhaps earlier than we had anticipated but was stated on the entry form. We had 35 accepted entries, only one of which, the Jaguar XK150 of Stuart Sargeant was a VSCC member. Sadly, Nick Matthews, returning to us after several years absence, did not get to join us on Saturday as the crankshaft of his Austin Healey 100/4 broke in Friday testing.  

David Cottingham has always been a great supporter of FISCAR and he excelled himself last Saturday when he entered both his Ferrari 500TRC and AC Ace in this special race to remember the late Richard Bell. Not only that, and most gratifyingly, David was able to drive the Ferrari himself, sharing with Scott Redding whilst putting our previous wet weather winner, Adrian King, in the Ace. If, like me, you are a historic racing anorak, you might wish to know that the Ferrari was one of, I believe, just 19 500TRCs built and they were the last 4 cylinder Ferraris ever made. David’s car is quite probably the most famous of the batch. It is chassis 0682 and it was entered in the 1957 Le Mans 24 hours by the Belgian National Team, driven by Bianchi and Harris, where it rose steadily through the field to take 7th overall and first in class. David has kept it in the same livery and with the same competition no 28 that it carried then.

Chris Mann, another longstanding supporter of the club brought along the even rarer Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, and we may get to see one or two more of his Alfas, during the course of the season. I could continue to wax lyrical about this grid which was truly a visual feast with something like 17 different marques represented, but they will all get mentioned during the course of the qualifying and race sections.  

Qualifying

Having lost the Nick Matthews Austin Healey in Friday testing, we lost one more car during qualifying. Dougal Cawley in one of 5 Lotus Elites entered, and intending to share with Mark Groves, withdrew the car when excessive lateral movement in the differential was detected, so we were down to 33 cars all of which registered qualifying times.

My programme notes on the pace of the cars was not a million miles away but at the time that I wrote them Marc Gordon had not entered his Jaguar XK150, otherwise I would have included him in the list of top runners.

Not entirely unexpectedly, the Ferrari took pole, Scott Redding posting a time of 1.11.69. over a second clear of the Kellison, Nick Taylor aboard, on 1.12.99. Theo Hunt posted a 1.13.75 in the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica, which owner Dad, The Hon. Martin was down to drive as well. Marc Gordon’s time of 1.14.56 in the Jaguar was matched exactly by Brian Arculus in the quickest of the Elites and Mike Henney in the Turner Climax recorded a 1.15.38 to share the third row with Brian. Adrian King qualified 7th in the Cottingham Ace on 1.15.68 whilst just 4 one hundredths behind was Chris Mann in the Disco Volante. The top 10 were completed by Rory Tollett, sharing the Austin Healey 100M with Dad, Glenn, on 1.15.94, and the first of the MGA Twin Cams driven by Mark Daniel on 1.16.32.

Hot on the heels of Mark Daniell was the Nicola Burnside/Mark Ellis MGA Twin Cam in a 1.16.44 and alongside was Neil Burnside in his Twin Cam on 1.17.16. On row 7, Mike Berry had his Austin Healey 100 on 1.17.47, with Mark Hoble in the sole representative of the Morgan marque in his Plus 4 on a 1.17.58. George Daniel was 15th in another Twin Cam MGA on 1.17.65 and 16th, Peter Baker had recorded 1.18.09 in his Aston Martin DB2 now with its previously orange flash somewhat toned down to a more subdued dark burgundy colour!  Valerio Leone had his very neat little Elva Mk5 next up on 1.18.11 with Andrew Mitchell and Mark Morgan alongside in Andrew’s Lotus Elite having clocked a time of 1.18.38. It was the Little  and Large show on row 10 with Simon Evan’s big Allard J2X Le Mans on a time of 1.18.64 and Richard Frankel’s little 1300cc Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint on 1.19.32. Very unfortunately, although achieving a qualifying time, the engine of the Allard then suffered a pretty catastrophic engine failure. The message from Simon is  ‘if you know anyone with a Chrysler 331 Long Bell housing Hemi to sell… or even a crank for that engine it would be a blessing as I am being given a 2 month waiting list for kit from the US’. Good luck, Simon.

Barry Dye was next up in his Lotus Elite recording a 1.19.92 and sharing row 11 with the Triumph Italia 2000 of Jeremy Woods on 1.20.11. For once, the Italia was not alone as in the paddock was another example in blue which had been driven to the circuit by Marc Gordon! Tim Stamper qualified the war wounded Aston Martin DB2/4 in a 1.20.12 but we know that Tim would go better in the race. Alongside ,he had the ever enthusiastic Martin Stowe in his single cam MGA Coupe on a 1.20.23. Row 13 was an all Sunbeam Alpine affair with Tristan Bradfield and Gareth Evans split by just 4 one hundredths, in 1.20.56 and 1.20.60 respectively.

27th on the grid was our VSCC member, Stuart Sargeant in his Jaguar XK150, only a tad slower than the Alpines, with a time of 1.20.71, and he had alongside, Simon Jefferies in his Aston Martin DB MkIII on 1.21.61. Both these cars are from 1959 – close competitors then as now. Matt Walton was well out of position in his AC Ace, having done only two laps with a worrying fluctuation in oil pressure – his time of 1.22.15, totally unrepresentative! Stuart Dean, in a class of his own (EP) in his MG Dick Jacobs Special Coupe registered a 1.23.18 and behind on row 16 was Andy Cox in the TR3 Falcon, another surely out of position with a time of 1.23.34. The Lotus Elite of John Waterson shared the row with Andy, on 1.23.78, and on his own at the back, last but not least, was George Passey’s lovely road going AC Aceca Coupe, with a time of 1.27.55.        

Race

The meeting was running late, when our fabulous – no other word for it – grid emerged into the sunlight (warm in the sun, not so much in the shade!) and formed up on the grid. It was a superb sight and one that could grace any meeting well up the historic race food chain. Members should be really proud of their contribution  to these grids. Sadly one of our number was missing and didn’t make it to the grid. The Triumph Italia was very reluctant to start and when it finally ran, it had a tremendous misfire and very disappointingly, Jeremy Woods had to withdraw it.

As the cars were unleashed, Nick Taylor shot off into the lead in the Kellison whilst fellow front row man, David Cottingham got a bit swamped and headed into Copse in 4th place having been jumped by both Martin Hunt and Marc Gordon in Frazer Nash LMR and Jaguar XK150 respectively. The Kellison, now separated from the Ferrari, made hay and started to draw away a little from the pack, as the cars jostled for position and some of the out of position qualifiers made good gains. I won’t dwell on the early skirmishes since after only a couple of laps the red flag came out to bring the race to a stop! Apparently, Mark Daniel’s brought his MGA Twin Cam into the pits to have an ignition lead reattached, went back out onto the circuit and the car promptly failed again on track bringing out the red flag. What I’m not clear about is why it took so long to clear, so if anyone has more details of this episode, I’m happy to add it to the narrative.

The upshot of the above was that the grid was reformed in the order that the cars had completed their 2nd lap and it became readily apparent that some cars had made some excellent gains in those opening two laps. Immediately noticeable from the lap charts, I can see that the AC Ace of Matt Walton had improved from 29th to 19th, Tim Stamper in the DB2/4 from 23rd to 13th and Andy Cox from 31st to 25th in the TR3 Falcon.

From the restart, Nick Taylor immediately took the lead again and was almost 3 seconds clear at the end of the first lap, but in 2nd, Marc Gordon in the XK150 was coming under attack from a very racy Brian Arculus in the Lotus Elite, Brian having edged passed Martin Hunt in the Frazer Nash. David Cottingham had his Ferrari in 5th just ahead of a brace of AC Aces in the hands of Adrian King and Matt Walton. Matt was still making great forward progress, but had the Tollett Austin Healey alongside on exactly the same time with, just behind, Mike Henney in the Turner. There was less than a second between David in 5th and Mike in 9th, reminiscent of Formula Ford racing at its best but with better looking and more glamorous cars!

Marc Ellis in the leading MGA Twin Cam was 10th, Chris Mann, 11th in the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante and Tim Stamper in his Aston Martin DB2/4, 12th, the three of them separated by less than a second. Of course, bunching of cars is always more likely in the early stages as everyone sorts themselves out and finds someone to dice with but I’ll still point to the fact that there were some great groups of cars all down the field. Just over two thirds of the way down, I see that George Daniel and Gareth Evans in MGA Twin Cam and Sunbeam Alpine respectively also crossed the line in exactly the same time. Right at the back, I was very surprised to see Andy Cox in the TR3 Falcon, but he has since enlightened me. On seeing the red flag, he had taken to the pitlane, but was then held until the restarted grid had passed so then had to work to get on the tail of the field. As he observed, it could have ruined his race but didn’t, and I would say he had a very good drive thereafter.

Whilst Nick Taylor rumbled the Kellison gently away from the field to lead by 5 seconds at the end of lap 3, there had been quite a bit of movement behind. Matt Walton had taken his AC passed fellow Ace racer, Adrian King, and as Brian Arculus pitted his Lotus Elite, followed a few seconds later by David Cottingham in the Ferrari, Matt and Adrian were now lying in 3rd and 4th places, behind Marc Gordon’s Jaguar XK150 and displaying the attributes that had made the Ace such a competitive car in period, most notably in America. Rory Tollett was now up to 6th in the Austin Healey 100M and Mike Henney was going with him in the Turner, a mere few tenths behind. Marc Ellis was just a little further back in 8th, whilst Chris Mann, in 9th, had opened up a gap of over 4 seconds over Tim Stamper’s Aston. Meanwhile, Neil Burnside was now in 11th in the second of the MGA Twin Cams. Mike Berry had brought his Austin Healey 100 up to 12th a couple of seconds behind Neil, and just ahead of Valerio Leone’s beautifully presented Elva Mk5, with Mark Hoble’s Morgan +4, a few seconds behind, in 14th. Curiously, all 3 of the last mentioned were cars prepared by Paul Woolmer’s team. What are the odds of that in a 32 car field?              

Martin Stowe had been steadily climbing up the field in his MGA Coupe and was now 15th, less than 2 seconds behind Mark Hoble although the Morgan lap time suggests that Mark was entering the pitlane to take his pit stop. Right on Martin’s tail was the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans of Tristan Bradfield, their lap times almost identical, and following roughly at one second intervals were the Andrew Mitchell Elite, Peter Baker in the DB2, Barry Dye (Lotus Elite), Stuart Sargeant (XK150) and Gareth Evans looming very large in Stuart’s mirrors, in his Sunbeam Alpine. It was wonderful sight watching all these cars streaming passed. Rather detached from this group by a few seconds, a trio of cars led by Richard Frankel came through in 23rd in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. Richard had not made the best of starts and was working his way forward. John Waterson (Lotus Elite) and Stuart Dean (DJS Coupe) were keeping him company at this point but the Alfa, lapping quicker was to pull away. Andy Cox was still a few seconds adrift of them in 26th but had overtaken George Passey’s lovely AC Aceca. A few cars were about to pit, so the on track race positions were, as usual, to become quite jumbled.

The Kellison continued to press its advantage and by the end of lap 5 had put a number of cars a lap down although some of this was down to pitting. Matt Walton was 2nd, his excellent drive continuing but he was being matched by fellow Ace driver, Adrian King, as this brace of products from Thames Ditton continued to entertain. They were now 6 seconds clear of Mike Henney’s Turner Climax which was also going very well and trying to hold at bay the very quick Mark Ellis in the Twin Cam MG. Now 10 seconds back from these two, Tim Stamper was holding a strong 10th (6th on the track) in the DB2/4, as Mark Hoble had pitted the Morgan, and Neil Burnside was 12th in his MGA Twin Cam, 3 seconds ahead of Michael Berry’s Austin Healey. There appear to have been no less than 8 cars in the pits at this time, but some cars are completing missing from the lap 5 chart having already been lapped and two splendid and truly unique cars were officially at the back of the field, but still on the lead lap - Andy Cox in the only TR3 fitted with a Falcon body and Stuart Dean’s MG DJS Coupe.    

The pits continued to be pretty busy over the next few laps whilst Nick Taylor stayed out in the Kellison, his lead at the end of 7 laps up to 20 seconds over the new 2nd placed man, Adrian King in the Cottingham AC Ace. Matt Walton’s fine run in the sister car had come to an end. Although going very well, Matt reported that the recently rebuilt engine didn’t feel quite right and after a while the oil warning light was coming on higher and higher up the rev range, so very wisely he pitted to retire. Tim Stamper was therefore about to assume 3rd overall as Matt pulled in. Tim’s elevated position was not simply down to pit stops of other drivers, but also his pace – the battle-scarred body of the DB2/4 belied the quality of the preparation beneath the skin coupled with his fast consistent lapping also contributing. At this point, only two more cars were on the lead lap, the Neil Burnside MGA Twin Cam, just a couple of seconds behind the Aston and a further half minute behind, Theo Hunt, having taken over from Dad, Martin, was absolutely flying and once all the pit stops had taken place, would surely be even higher in the standings, as indeed would Marc Gordon in the XK150, Brian Arculus in his Elite and the Ferrari, Scott Redding having just taken over from David Cottingham. George Passey was the first to go two laps down in his rare AC Aceca Coupe but was in the pits at the time in this regularly used on the road car.

The lap chart for lap 8 is a bit of a minefield showing as it does many of the cars passing the start/finish line twice, a quirk of pit stops and lapping but there was a lot going on round the track. All the leading cars were now either in the pits or back on track following their stops, so the usual big shakeout was in progress where we were beginning to re-establish the order of the race whilst also noting the winners and losers from the stops. Theo Hunt was not the only one to be hurtling around. Not far behind him, the yellow Ferrari was making rapid strides towards the front and the Frazer Nash was unable to halt it’s progress for long, once it arrived on his tail. Scott Redding had quickly overtaken Theo, heading into Brooklands but slightly overcooked it amongst some lapped cars which enabled the Frazer Nash to nip ahead of the Ferrari again but it was only delaying the inevitable as Scott, finally hit the front to completed lap 9 ahead with a 2 second lead. Some 10 seconds later a group of 8 cars came through line astern, led by the lapped Aston Martin DB MkIII of Simon Jefferies (19th), followed by Marc Gordon’s XK150 (3rd), Brian Arculus in the Lotus Elite (4th), Richard Tyzack who was now installed in the Kellison (5th), the lapped Andy Cox (20th), but still making ground, Adrian King in the Ace (6th) and also lapped, Gareth Evans (21st) and Stuart Sargeant (22nd) in Sunbeam Alpine and XK150 respectively. What a stirring sight that must have made. All the pit stops had now been completed, and it is noted that the hand over from Mark Ellis to Nicola Burnside seemed to be particularly slow, reasons unknown, and it would have cost them at least a couple of places in the final results.

 At the end of lap 10, the Ferrari had extended its lead over the Frazer Nash to nearly 4 seconds and was pulling away comfortably. In turn, Theo, in the Nash, had a good cushion of almost 9 seconds over Marc Gordon’s XK150, but Marc had half an eye on his mirrors as Brian Arculus was determined not to be dropped in the Lotus Elite. Richard Tyzack, in the Kellison was not far away either, but his 5th place was coming under increasing threat from Adrian King in the AC Ace. These first six were well away from their pursuers, the first of which was the magnificent Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, Chris Mann driving a great race, almost 5 seconds clear of the Turner Climax of Mike Henney. In 9th, some 15 seconds back, Tim Stamper was pressing on in the DB2/4 but he was being chased by both Mark Hoble in the Morgan +4 and Neil Burnside in his MGA Twin Cam, both of whom posted faster race laps than the Aston. Mike Berry was also in touch in, the Austin Healey in 12th, last of the unlapped runners. Such is the variety in the FISCAR grids that a different marque was represented in each of those positions!

George Daniel was 13th, in his MGA Twin Cam, well clear of Tristan Bradfield in the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans, but Tristan was able to see Martin Stowe in the white MGA Coupe in his mirrors and further back, in the distance, Richard Frankel in the rapid pale blue Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. Glenn Tollett was next up in the Austin Healey 100M but 17th was not where that car should have been. Unfortunately, the car was losing power (and, as it transpired, coolant) and would continue to fall back down the field but did manage to see the flag. You have to wonder when the Tolletts luck will change with this potentially competitive car. Simon Jefferies was 18th, enjoying himself in the Aston Martin DB MkIII, ahead of Andy Cox, finally fully embroiled in the race, Gareth Evans in his Sunbeam Alpine, and Stuart Sargeant in his XK150.   Almost 7 seconds down from this group, Mark Morgan was nevertheless having fun in Andrew Mitchell’s Lotus Elite, some way ahead of Stuart Dean’s MG DJS Coupe, Nicola Burnside’s pitstop delayed MGA Twin Cam and John Waterson’s Lotus Elite. John was the last recorded as one lap down, although there were clearly a few others behind, as 29 cars finished.   

Although the Ferrari continued to pull away from the field, its lead over the Hunt Frazer Nash was still only 7 seconds at the end of lap 12. We were now 3 quartrers of the way through the restarted race. In 3rd place, Marc  Gordon in the Jaguar XK150 had not been able to shake off Brian Arculus in the Lotus Elite. Equally,  just over a second behind the Jaguar, Brian was tantalisingly close without getting on terms; nimbleness not quite able to match power. Richard Tyzack was about 7 seconds back in 5th place, no doubt enjoying his last race but clearly mindful of the close presence of Adrian King in the AC Ace. They were not threatened from behind as Chris Mann’s Disco Volante was some 20 seconds away in the Alfa which was nevertheless being pedalled exceptionally well, a splendid sight, and holding a 5 second gap to the game little Turner Climax of Mike Henney, in 8th. In 9th Tim Stamper in the DB2/4 held a 2 second advantage over the battling pair of Mark Hoble and Neil Burnside in the Morgan and MGA Twin Cam respectively. Mark’s pace was hampered by a top end misfire. They were the last of the unlapped cars  

Heading up the first of the lapped cars was a group of 3 having a good battle; Peter Baker, in his smart DB2 fending off the close attention of both Valero Leone in the Elva Mk5 and George Daniel in the MGA Twin Cam. Some way behind in 15th, Tristan Bradfield was a having another good run in the Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans although Richard Frankel’s Alfa was rather more than a speck in the Sunbeam’s rear view  mirrors. Richard, too was going well, a couple of seconds ahead of Martin Stowe’s MGA Coupe.  Barry Dye was 18th in his Lotus Elite, unchallenged, but briefly in the company of George Passey’s AC Aceca which was two laps down. Andy Cox had worked his way up to 19th in the TR3 Falcon but was unlikely to rise further. His lap times suggest that this was about where he should be, so his late start had not ultimately handicapped him and he’d had the additional fun of passing cars! The Aston Martin DB MkIII of Simon Jefferies was a couple of seconds behind Andy and Simon was probably concentrating more on holding off both Stuart Sargeant in the second of XK150s and Gareth Evans in the second of the Sunbeam Alpines. In this race at least, Gareth had been unable to match the pace of Tristan’s Sunbeam, in stark contrast to Castle Combe where they had battled to the end with Gareth coming out just on top.  Glenn Tollett was pressing on manfully with the ailing Austin Healey 100M but had dropped back behind this group and was to lose another position before the end. In 24th, Mark Morgan in Andrew Mitchell’s Lotus Elite was gaining on Glenn whilst some seconds behind, Stuart Dean was just holding off Nicola Burnside, but could the earlier MG XPAG engine stay ahead of the MG Twin Cam?          

To be continued.