Uncommon car of the week: Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato
Ex-rally driver Nick Edmond imported his rare Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato as a bare shell from Germany and has spent years sourcing parts to get it on track, where it suffered an engine oil seal failure at Anglesey in September.
Styled by Milanese coachbuilder Zagato, the 1300cc coupe is overweight and underpowered compared with the MG Midgets and Austin-Healey Sprites in its class, but it added Italian flair to the Classic Sports Car Club's Swinging Sixties grid as Edmond recorded its first finish at the North Wales circuit last weekend.
From apartment wall to the race track: Surtees TS10
Fifty years after it was built, and four decades after it last competed, a return to the tracks for the Team Surtees TS10 Formula 2 car built for Andrea de Adamich to race between F1 commitments was thwarted by a major engine failure at Silverstone on Saturday.
After passing through various hands, and spending a while competing on hillclimbs, the warhorse was sold to Mario Colombo in 1983. He had it painted in Matchbox Team Surtees colours and hung it on his Swiss apartment wall.
Dean Forward acquired the car in the summer of 2019, whereupon it was craned out of an upper floor window. Post-rebuild, the Surtees had teething problems in Friday testing, but its BDG threw a rod on the first lap of Aurora Trophy qualifying.
Three Gunston salute: Thundersports cars battle
The spectacle of three Team Gunston cars battling in the Historic Sports Car Club's Thundersports season-opener at Silverstone last weekend evoked memories of the early 1970s heyday of two-litre sportscar racing, specifically South Africa’s Springbok Series.
Jamie Thwaites’s ex-works Chevron B19 and Gary Furst’s ex-Karl von Wendt Lola T212 both date back to 1971 and Simon Watts’s winged Chevron B26 to 1974.
The South African tobacco brand was a prolific backer of racing and title sponsor of Rhodesian John Love’s F1 team from 1968-75. Its distinctive colours adorned Cosworth DFV-powered Lotus, Brabham, March and Surtees cars.
Family fortunes: David McDonald and Bailey Frost
Pairing up with your dad is relatively common in two-driver races – there were three father-and-daughter duos in the Swinging Sixties alone at Anglesey's CSCC meeting.
But David McDonald and 20-year-old Bailey Frost have skipped a generation. Frost is McDonald’s grandson and made only his third and fourth race starts at Anglesey.
“I quite enjoyed that and I was faster than my granddad!” smiled Frost.
The duo took McDonald’s Triumph TR6 to third in class in Sunday’s Group 2 race.
A popular podium: Steve Hill in British Rallycross
Reigning British Rallycross champion Derek Tohill endured dramas and retirements in every session on Sunday at Pembrey.
Having stopped in the semi-final, the Irishman stormed from seventh to second at the opening corner of the final, but retired again when exiting the joker lap mid-race, his Ford Fiesta contacting the rear of Julian Godfrey’s fellow Fiesta, pulling off a wheel.
The impact also damaged Godfrey’s car and the six-time title winner was caught by Steve Hill on the final tour, 72-year-old Hill passing Godfrey with a corner to go to secure a popular podium result, behind double winner Patrick O’Donovan.
Pics of the week
