Evoking memories of local hero Jim Russell, the three-time Autosport national 500cc Formula 3 champion whose fiery 1959 Le Mans crash in a Cooper T49 Monaco changed his priority to the racing school he founded, Ollie Crosthwaite and Nick Finburgh’s maiden Stirling Moss Trophy victory in a sister car was the talk of Motor Racing Legends’ new Snetterton Historic event. Russell had won a race at Snetterton in a Monaco a month before his career-changing day – watched by our photographer, aged nine!
Third time out in future F5000 team owner Jackie Epstein and Bill Wilks’s 1963 Targa Florio mount – owned by Crosthwaite & Gardiner’s MD for 15 years but only recently restored – Ollie chased top qualifier Peter Ratcliff (Lister-Jaguar Knobbly) initially before relaying his great mate Finburgh. Nick chased down Ratcliff’s partner Luke Stevens and went ahead when a “catastrophic diff failure” sidelined the former Caterham champion, autocrossing at Brundle. Stevens did well to keep it out of the barriers and limp back to the pits. Stuart Morley thundered Richard Hudson’s Lister-Chevrolet home second, having survived a huge spin at Riches lapping Peter Snowdon in David Reed’s Aston Martin DB2.
Nigel Webb/John Young won the concurrent RAC Woodcote Trophy race after a fine run to third overall in the former’s ex-Duncan Hamilton Jaguar C-type. They beat Rick Bourne/Malcolm Paul’s ex-Mike Anthony Lotus-Bristol MkX and Patrick Watts/Malcolm Harrison in the Cooper-Bristol T25, a veteran of the 1953 Goodwood Nine Hours with Tommy Sopwith and John Coombs.
Gareth Burnett’s Alta aced the Pre-War Sports race, but he was content to let Eddie Williams (Frazer Nash Super Sports) past for a lap. “I wanted to see what he had, as I had plenty in hand,” said the Irishman, who watched Patrick Blakeney-Edwards throttle back in the fast Nash when its Meadows engine got hot. Michael Birch made it a 1-3 for the Pace Historics team in his lofty Talbot AV105, with Clive Morley best of the Bentley boys.
Three Ford Sierra RS Cosworths and two Nissan Skylines scrapping in Sunday’s twin Historic Touring Car Challenges enthralled the audience, who packed the grandstand at Murrays. Paul Mensley led both, the second from the back in his Murray Carter tribute Sierra, but finished neither, advantaging Ric Wood and Jonathan Bailey, whose Japanese monsters also chased David ‘Fireball’ Tomlin’s RS500 each time.
“Following the Sierras, I knew I didn’t have to push because of the amount of oil on my windscreen – I could taste the impending doom,” said Wood, whose best lap of 1m16.985s (92.77mph) was the weekend’s fastest. Behind them, Josh Cook enjoyed sharing Pete Hallford’s 1970 Boss Mustang. Tony Dron Trophy and U2TC honours in the finale fell to sole survivors James Slaughter (Ford Capri) and Henry Mann/Karl Jones (Lotus Cortina).
A cracking Alfa Romeo Challenge, in which the top three battled throughout, opened the Historic Racing Drivers Club’s offering. James Colburn (Giulia Sprint) maintained a narrow edge over brother Ben (1750 Berlina), who robustly staved off Chris Snowdon in Richard Melvin’s Group 2 GTV – last raced here by Peter Hilliard in 1982 – for a Westbourne Motorsport 1-2. As James accelerated to the chequer, his potent two-litre engine’s oil pressure dived, thus he switched off immediately. Newcomer Jake Margulies’s sonorous GTV6 finished fourth with a dink in his door after a first-lap kiss from Jonny Horsfield’s Alfetta.
‘Gentleman Jack’ Sears would have approved of the Lotus Cortina podium lockout in the Pre-’66 Touring Car race. Mike Gardiner/Josh Cook lapped the field, chased by Mark Burton/Graham Pattle and Craig Jamieson, who elected to start his pristine machine from the pits having not previously done a standing start. Aimee Watts drove father Patrick’s Mini Cooper S brilliantly to fourth, having got ahead of Jamieson during the stops, which delayed Tim Scott-Andrews’s rumbling Ford Falcon.
Hotfoot from winning at the Silverstone Vintage Sports-Car Club event on Saturday in an Austin 7 Ulster, Matt Moore saddled his AC Cobra to victory in Dunlop Allstars with his elbow on the door “to direct cool air up my sleeve”. Moore shook off Mike Thorne, enjoying his stunning new CRC-run Shelby GT350, with Ben Colburn (Lenham GT) third, having benefited from James Wilmoth spinning his Healey out of Riches following a safety car interlude.
Mondello Park MPSC: Newsome and Byrne star in Formula Vee thriller
Formula Vee may have only had one race at Mondello Park last weekend but it produced some of the best action, with less than 0.1 seconds separating the top two at the flag.
Multiple champion Anthony Cross qualified his immaculate Sheane on pole position and, when the lights went out, he made a good start, but fellow front-row occupant Lee Newsome made a better one and it was he who led the capacity pack down to Turn 1. Behind, Jordan Kelly displaced his brother Owen and almost immediately was on the tail of the leading pair. Sean Newsome dived past Owen Kelly too, as Jordan Kelly sliced past Cross for second at Turn 3.
Meanwhile, Jack Byrne was on an almighty charge, carving through the pack to take him to third. A perfectly timed move at Turn 3 soon elevated him to second and he started to chase down leader Newsome. Aided by some backmarkers, he was right on his rival’s tail as they started the final lap, and they crossed the line side by side, with a delighted Newsome getting the verdict by just 0.078s.
Reigning champion Graham McDonnell returned to the Fiesta ST class for a one-off outing and rattled the regulars by qualifying on pole. As series leader Eddie Peterson and Michael Cullen battled, he eased away for an impressive win. In race two, McDonnell battled up from sixth but couldn’t catch Cullen, who had ousted his son Victor from the lead early on.
Aaron Gaughran’s Dallara F307 beat poleman Tony Greenan’s F317 off the line and was never headed in the opening Formula BOSS Ireland race. Greenan maintained his lead in race two and held off the fast-starting Michael Roche in the initial laps, before Roche slowed. Gaughran then got into a groove and closed down the leader, who rebuffed every challenge until a late-race lunge around Southside Corner got Gaughran alongside and he made it stick on the main straight to do the double.
Michael Cullen has had a tough Stryker season so far, but he took a strong win in the opener, keeping one eye on the mirrors, as his son Victor shadowed him all the way to the flag in an impressive, and popular, performance. Cullen Sr doubled up in race two from Jonathan Taylor, with Victor completing the podium in third.
John Whelan was first across the line in the opening Zetec race but a number of robust moves meant he was summoned to the officials and excluded. This gave Alan Dawson the win, from Phil Lawless and Eoin Murray, guesting in one of his team’s cars.
Andy Kavanagh led race two well despite the best efforts of Murray, until a switchback at Southside worked to perfection and allowed him through. Murray was first across the line, but received a penalty from the officials for early-race contact with Lawless, dropping him down the order. This handed the win to Collie Barrable, with Kavanagh taking second and Dawson third.
Elsewhere, Mike Dermody’s British Touring Car-liveried Vectra took the honours in the first Future Classics contest, with others falling foul of the dreaded barrier time. In race two, former Fiat pilot Paul Flanagan’s beautifully presented Renault Clio 172 took the spoils.
Irish Legends ran on both days with Rob Barrable, guesting for his injured brother Peter, and Geoff Richardson taking three wins apiece after some highly entertaining racing. The finale was red-flagged and the crowds were treated to a five-minute sprint at the restart, with Barrable charging up to Richardson’s bumper and shadowing him across the line.
David Travers took both Junior Mini Challenge victories, fighting off an early threat in race one from Fergus Chalmers, before he retired with clutch failure.
Gearbox karts made their annual Mondello appearance and Alan Crossen managed a hat-trick of wins in his 250cc Anderson machine, despite some stiff opposition. The 125cc glory was split between Michael Curran and Mick Dunnion, who starred in race two with a giantkilling fourth overall.
British Hillclimb: Menzies slides his way to Channel Islands hat-trick
It was a case of three out of four for Wallace Menzies as the British Hillclimb Championship made a welcome return to the Channel Islands last week for the first time in three years.
With two run-off wins on Jersey on Wednesday and a third on Guernsey on Saturday, it was a big trip for the reigning champion. But as usual, Alex Summers and Scott Moran ran him close and the narrowest of his three wins was by just 0.01s. Summers won the first run-off on Guernsey and bagged a new hill record to keep the title race bubbling nicely.
Menzies left Jersey with two more wins under his belt after a day of fierce competition, slipping and sliding on the Bouley Bay hill. Though blessed with warm and sunny conditions, the track was dirty to start the day and still offered less than optimum grip by the end of the afternoon. But that didn’t stop the Scotsman winning twice in two hard-fought run-offs.
In the opening bout, Menzies was on target for a win by three or four tenths until the final hairpin when his Gould GR59 slid perilously close to the grass bank. To his credit, Menzies kept it planted, corrected the opposite lock and fired off over the line to set a 37.39s time. Incredibly, that was 0.01s better than Moran had managed moments earlier. Last to run was Summers, and he wailed the Cosworth Indycar-engined DJ Firestorm up the climb in style to stop the clock at 37.44s, leaving the top three covered by just 0.05s.
Menzies admitted that he had nearly thrown it all away at the last corner but, miraculously, he had done enough in the lower reaches of the hill to secure another victory. Trevor Willis, Richard Spedding (in the best of the under two-litre cars) and Matthew Ryder rounded out a competitive top six.
On the second run-offs, it was Summers who clocked a 37.02s to throw the gauntlet down to his rivals. Willis, Spedding and Moran were all in the mid-37s and so it all came down to Menzies on the very last climb of the day. After another round of tweaking traction control settings on the mighty Gould, Menzies rocketed off the line and stormed the hill to set the fastest time of the day at 36.85s and secure his second win. “The grip levels here are a lot lower than we’re used to,” admitted Menzies after two storming climbs.
Elsewhere in the top 10, Ryder approached his first time on the hill by building his pace all day to bag two sixth places, while local hero Nick Saunders from Guernsey topped the home challenge in his Reynick with eighth and seventh places.
Three days later on Guernsey, the competition was just as tight at Val des Terres on the twisting public road climb up from St Peter Port. The first run-off could not have been closer as Summers pipped Menzies by 0.01s and they both climbed 0.4s under Moran’s 2016 record.
Menzies later exactly matched his 26.57s climb to clinch the second run-off and extend his points lead to eight, while Summers slipped to fourth behind Moran and the flying Spedding, who topped the under two-litre cars throughout. Willis claimed two more top-six finishes, and Saunders again headed the hard-charging home contingent.
Reports by Marcus Pye, Leo Nulty and Paul Lawrence. Photography by Richard Styles, Michael Chester and Paul Lawrence. Want more reports from the world of national motorsport? Subscribe today and never miss your weekly fix of motorsport with Autosport magazine
