Relentless sunshine, a blustery headwind on the Brabham Straight and countless dramas on Brands Hatch’s Indy Circuit characterised a 750 Motor Club season-opener that Mark Windley, Ross Boorman, Neil Dudman and Tom Holland will remember as first-time winners.
Windley’s 750 Formula victory on Saturday rewarded the winter rebuild of his Darvi – nine times a championship winner, eight with Peter Bove, once with Robin Gearing – after crashing heavily on their debut at October’s Mallory Park finale. Windley’s imperious outside pass on former champ Bill Cowley’s Cowley MkIV at Paddock Hill Bend, reminiscent of Jacky Ickx’s in 1974’s wet Formula 1 Race of Champions, landed the smartly reliveried warhorse’s 72nd championship round victory!
Cowley, who equalled David Reid’s pole shot in the ex-Dave Hodkin HRD Mk2, survived a Graham Hill Bend clash that precipitated Reid’s retirement to keep second from Steve Boother (Darvi Mk5/6) and Robin Dawe (Diamond Clubmans), best of five Classic Clubmans invitees.
Sunday’s sequel was restarted when Simon Boulter’s Darvi 92J and Peter Hackett’s Mallock collided at the lights, a chain reaction triggered when Reid crawled away from P2 and Windley stalled on P3. Reprieved, Windley and Reid finished 1-2 ahead of Richard Rothery (PRS 1b) after gearbox issues stopped Cowley. Dawe ran third before his newly acquired car broke on the penultimate lap.
Trafford King won Saturday’s Type R Trophy opener from poleman Don De Graaff and Dale Wherton, but Sunday morning’s round came to a violent halt when Jon Labella and Richard Jones, third and fourth, touched on cold tyres on the plunge from Paddock. Labella rotated, flicking De Graaff into the gravel, then was walloped by Max Martin, unsighted in the dust storm. Labella was hospitalised, but discharged in the evening. Ross Boorman staved off Kai Lindsay at the restart, with King third. Chuffed with his maiden success, Boorman added another over Lindsay’s father Richard later to leave top of the table. King salvaged 12th after a fuse popped on the green-flag lap.
Multiple Classic Stock Hatch champion Lee Scott (Ford Fiesta XR2i) posted his first win since 2022 on Saturday, over James Haslehurst’s reshelled Peugeot 205 GTI and Finn Groom’s earlier XR2. Groom led Sunday’s six-car breakaway, withstanding immense pressure from Neil Dudman (205) before straight-line speed told and the Pug prevailed. Magnanimous in defeat, Groom’s day will surely come.
Oak Richardson twice beat capacity 5Club MX-5 Cup fields, fending off Michael Pearce and returnee Roger Chesneau, then Ben Hancy and Pearce. Fourth both times, Tom Holland seized his opportunity in the partially reversed grid finale in which Richardson progressed from seventh to third behind Jordan Johnson.
Four drivers within 0.336 seconds of poleman Paul Cook in Mike Eustace’s E46 M3 and 10 M1 class contenders on a 27-strong BMW Car Club pack augured well. Ben Pearson’s astonishing getaway from P4 meant the M235i pilot was 50 metres clear by Paddock in the opener and 2.5s ahead inside a lap. However, his turbocharged machine was harder on its tyres than lighter rivals, thus Cook gobbled it up.
Steven Schweikhardt impressed on his E46 debut, repelling Mark Lee for third. David Heasman beat fellow 330ci drivers Cavan Grainger and Paul Travers in M2. William Lake stepped up to Schweikhardt’s hot E46 Compact for class 6 gold, while trackday convert Daniel Smith pipped team-mate Sam Walton after a tight Cup duel in 325i Compacts. Race two - restarted after a shemozzle on the rise to Druids that eliminated Walton and David Aspden’s Z3, and left Lake’s machine bruised and battered - was an action replay. Cook again hounded down Pearson as the top four and class winners repeated.
A five-way M2 scrap meant Heasman was boxed-in at the start, but he scrabbled back past “Cav and Trav”, eventually split by Aiden Vilkhou, with Andrew Pywell in tow. Lake, with dented door and acres of tank tape bandaging his rear bumper, pipped Andrew Phillips (330ci) while Smith had an easier time rounding off a perfect first race weekend.
BMW 116 Sprint Trophy champion Matt Highcock snared pole on his graduation to the five-car 120 Coupe Cup division, but spun away his lead approaching Clearways, leaving Anthony Seddon to shade George Heler. Highcock atoned by winning race two, pursued by the Cheshire team-mates.
The battle for supremacy among the 116i masses went to the wire first time out. After Jack Godden encroached on the green pit entrance endeavouring to unseat Peter Keen, 17-year-old James Wareing towed up and snatched victory over Godden by 0.03s as the trio finished abreast. Godden’s grassy excursion exiting Graham Hill Bend later brought Dan Lavery and Ethan Hall closer after chaser Wareing was bumped to fourth for contact with Lavery.
Canny strategies in Sunday’s frenetic 90-minute 116 Trophy enduro around two mandatory 60s stops and five safety car interludes culminated with initial pacemaker Keen repassing Lavery into Surtees 14 laps from home for victory, with Alan Corfield/Seddon third. Although Wareing and Godden - who pushed the lap record sub-one minute after father Chris’ middle stint - were ahead on the road, Ben Willshire “kept things clean” for fourth after various penalties were applied. Half the 28 finishers were on the lead lap.
Shane Stoney blitzed both Radical Club Challenge (successor to the 750MC Bikesports series) races, thanking RLM, the company turning his PR6’s 1340cc Suzuki Hayabusa engine round in eight days following a testing drama. Returnee Joe Stables (PR6) led the chase, but was excluded for being 11kg underweight.
Reigning Bikesports champion Leon Morrell (runner-up in the opener) retired from the sequel when compressor failure left his PR6 without gears. Daniel Headlam and Gordie Mutch topped classes B and C both times, although Jamie Keevill - disqualified from qualifying and the opener for disrespectful behaviour towards officials following an off - charged to third behind Stables, continuing as an invitee.
Quintuple Toyota MR2 champion Shaun Traynor resumed where he left off last year, twice outrunning Neil Stratton and Adam Lockwood. Andrew Ruthven and Tim Heron kept the 1800cc Roadsters in sight with their elderly but effective two-litre Mk2s.
Perennial Sport Specials standard setter Andy Hiley (Chronos) twice streaked away from class A rival Anton Landon’s Cyana. Neil Turner (Caterham 7) bested the stronger B set, in which Marcus Crook (Fisher Fury) and Jamie Bracher (ex-Tony Southgate Sylva Phoenix) gave C standout Stewart Mutch (MEV Exocet) a run for his money.
