Sunday dramas decided two stunning Tin Top contests in favour of Adam Brown and Andrew Marson when late lead changes looked inevitable as the Classic Sports Car Club got the circuit racing season under way on Silverstone’s International circuit.
Midlander Brown’s participation looked doubtful when his Fives Garage Ford Fiesta ST lost fifth gear on the rolling road. Despite couriers ‘losing’ the gearbox for three days, Satchell Engineering in Devon rebuilt it in record time. Fitted on Friday, Brown duly seized pole.
Arch rivals Nigel Ainge/Danny Cassar also hit problems with their Hillwood Motors Honda Integra Type R, a wiring glitch triggering its engine’s VTEC system at low revs rather than the top end. Concerned that it had run lean, risking piston damage, Ainge started cautiously from 14th.
While Brown took two laps to usurp Joe Hathaway’s Renault Clio 172, destined for a smoky demise, Ainge climbed to sixth before relaying Cassar. A devastating string of fastest laps enabled the latter to rise to third behind Brown and James Wilson, debuting a new Peugeot 306.
Cassar seized second on lap 23 of 25, then reeled Brown in relentlessly. As they traversed Abbey abreast, red flags intervened. Wilson had skated backwards into the gravel at Vale on his own oil, a rod having ventilated the Pug’s block. “The red saved me,” said Brown, his ‘reward’ a 30-second winner’s penalty for the season. Steve Reynolds/John Ridgeon (Civic Type R) gratefully grabbed third.
Andrew Marson, in one of four family Abarths, scuttled clear in Turbo Tin Tops as John Hammersley, starting his 48th racing season, managed oil temperature in the rakish VW Scirocco R planted on pole by son-in-law Nigel Tongue. Carl Chambers (Peugeot 306) passed Hammersley for second, but Carl’s early pitstop strategy backfired as the rest filed in under a three-lap caution called when Bob Hosier’s SEAT Leon’s bonnet flew open on the Hangar Straight.
Tongue was in the groove from the green, powering past David Marson and to within a few lengths of his cousin when the race was stopped four minutes early with teenager Will Oatley off at Stowe in father Tom’s late model Clio. Andrew Marson took the chequer 0.374s before Tongue, whose best lap, the previous one, was quickest by 1.4s.
Irishman Niall Bradley scarpered in both Ramair BMW contests – the most photogenic one-make pack on the CSCC portfolio – pursued by a bevy of more colourful M3 E46s, split by Luke Yeomans’ E36. Jason West, James Card and Nathan Wells, whose E46 GTR came good in the second stanza, ran Bradley closest. Ross Alexander topped the Mini Cooper Ss.
Once UK racing returnee John Seale had relayed fastest qualifier Jamie Stanley into his MTECH-prepared Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo Evo, the destiny of the Slicks Series gold was never in doubt. Novice Steven Gambrell finished on the same lap as pro Stanley with his newly-acquired Porsche 991.2 Cup. Andrew Christopher’s gorgeous Ferrari 488 Challenge was third. BMW battlers topped the concurrent New Millennium race, Yeomans’ E36 prevailing after the merest wheel-arch kiss spun Graham Crowhurst’s stripy E46 at Stowe.
Inaugurated in 1977, the Midget & Sprite championship made its debut on the 1.85-mile layout. Poleman Paul Sibley outran allcomers in both bouts. Former Classic F3 champion Steve Collier led Saturday’s chase, but a worsening misfire and “lights flashing on the dash” prompted retirement from Sunday’s Ted Reeve Trophy feature. Pippa Cow charged to a class-winning third on day one, ahead of Connor Kay, her job eased when electrical issues hobbled rival James Hughes. Dean Stanton won a mesmeric class scrap with Hugh Simpson.
Cow and Hughes completed Sunday’s podium, with Kay fourth. Simpson recovered from a first-lap spin at Stowe – “I misjudged my braking point on cold tyres, and unfortunately tagged Chris Winchester” – to finish sixth, after Stanton expired. Dominic Mooney won a tough Historic duel with Mark Turner, who rotated twice.
The return of a slick tyres option brought another nuance to the Magnificent Sevens competition, and enticed several Caterham drivers back. On pole by 3.954s, Stephen Nuttall blitzed the opener, from back-row starters Jonny Pittard (supercharged CSR) and Tim Davis’ C400, and Ian Payne’s ‘humble’ two-litre version.
From the winner’s 10-place grid drop for the finale, Nuttall was third by Stowe and led next time round! Alas an oil leak, from the catch tank he suspected, presaged retirement. Pittard and Davis thus landed a BOSS Racing 1-2, emotionally dedicated to stalwart team member Bernie Bearman, who died in December. “She was looking down on us today,” they observed.
Richard Carter and Stephen Collins each savoured grooved tyre wins over the other, Collins by a larger margin after Carter survived a hairy tank-slapper exiting Club.
Driving his Lotus Elan ‘26R’, prepared by Ollie Angeloni and father Martin – Mark Blundell’s 1987 F3000 spannerman – Ben Snee aced Classic K and the Swinging Sixties opener. Connor Kay’s TVR Tuscan V6 and Neil Armstrong’s Ginetta G4R finished a lap clear in the second SS race. Penalised 20s for the earlier win, Snee just failed to catch Jonathan Crayston’s Elan S4 for third on the road, but was docked another 30s for contact. That promoted Bailey Frost’s Triumph TR6 and Dean Halsey’s Datsun 240Z.
Former Caterham champion Luke Stevens bustled Ian Thompson’s JRT-built Lotus Cortina between Snee and Rick Willmott (AC Cobra) at the start of the K race, but Jack Smith (TVR Grantura) rounded them all at Abbey. Snee was back ahead within two laps, pursued by Willmott. Stevens/Thompson and John McGurk (Cortina) chased them home.
Dylan Popovic (Ginetta-Chevrolet) took two laps to regain his Open Series qualifying supremacy from Adrian Bradley (BMW M3 E46). Nathan Wells rejoined after replacing a rear wheel damaged in a scrape with Ollie Smith (M3 E36) exiting Stowe. Carter’s Caterham buzzed around Bradley, but Richard couldn’t make a move stick.
Michael Russell (M3 E36) won Modern/Future Classics, cautioned for the recovery of Lawrence Coppock’s beached Jaguar XJS after marshals had extinguished the blazing engine bay of Guy Connew’s XJS in the pits. Roger Hamilton jostled his 1800cc Ginetta G20 ahead briefly, but had to settle for second with the scalps of Tony and Aston Blake (Porsche 911 RSR).
