Bentley DC Silverstone August 13/14th + 50's GT race (merged)

[John Turner]

Will post a pictorial review of the 50's race shortly but, in the meantime, you might like to view our captioned picture gallery of the race, compiled by Richard Bell here:-

http://www.fiftiesracing.org/index_f...ereportbdc.pdf

[John Turner]

Starters – 23
Classified – 21
Duration – 30 mins

As Mark has pointed out this is actually listed as Race 10, although it was the 11th race of the meeting. Anyway, it was a lovely grid of cars and with one exception, indicative of the type of cars that we intend to cater for in FiSCR. The exception was Tony and Pia Bianchi’s Farrallac Allard (18) which as a late entry got in under the radar. A big V8 engined sports racer, it had already won the previous day against stiffer opposition than this grid could muster. It was on pole by a substantial margin. A great car in its own right but a bit of a shark amongst minnows, it was nevertheless harried early on by Brian Arculus in his Lotus Elite (7) since it would be fair to say that Pia does not have quite the pace of Tony, and it made for quite an intriguing spectacle. Once Tony Bianchi had taken over the car he powered away to a victory by 36 seconds from Brian, who was driving solo and showing a real turn of speed! The battle for 3rd was an excellent race long one in which the Austin Healey 100M (44) of Mike Thorne prevailed over the Aston DB3S of David Bennett by just 1.5 seconds. There were some excellent dices all the way down the field, and I am going to try to depict every car in the race over the next few posts, without using any of those which are already on the website!

1) The Farrallac leads the Elite on the first lap
2) Jim Campbell’s Aston DB2/4 (2) finished 12th
3) Mark Campbell (no relation!) finished 18th in his DB2/4 (133)
4) The Lotus 11 (147) of John Gray and Don Hands finished 19th but it’s pace suggested a much higher placing was possible, so a problem?
5) The Hazell/Green Austin Healey 100M (8) was 20th
6) Paul De Havilland failed to finish in his Jaguar XK150 (3) a car in which he won this 50’s race at Thruxton a couple of years ago.

[John Turner]

1) The Healey 100 (1) of Duncan Arthurs and Adam Ruddle who finished 17th
2) Andy Shepherd (5 - AC Ace Bristol - 5th) and Jim Mackie (83 - Austin Healey Sprite - 6th)
3) Paul Conway (99 - Ace Bristol - DNF)
4) Andrew Mitchell (17 - Mitchell Special Sports - 10th).
5) Tim Stamper's DB2/4 (10 - 13th)
6) Louise and Jason Kennedy's Lancia Aurelia B20 (33 - 15th)

[John Turner]

1) Brian Ireland (11 - MGA - 16th)
2) The battle for 3rd!
3) Doug Martin's Alfa Romeo Guilia Spyder (6 - 11th)
4) Nicholas Ruddell (25 - Aston DB MkIII - 7th)

[John Turner]

Last lot:-

1) The runner up!
2) Nigel Batchelor (31 - DB2/4 - 14th)
3) Dicing DBs - the Jon Gross/Chris Woodgate MkIII (49 - 8th) and the DB2 of Paul Chase-Gardener (14 - 9th)
4) Nick Savage in a borrowed Alfa Sprint Veloce (9 - 21st)

[John Turner]

OK, I've moved the discussion regarding FiSCR and car eligibility etc to a new thread here:-

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129823

Kept the pictorial race review on here though, and will at some stage add a few relevant pics from later races which also had historics in it.

[John Turner]

Starters - 13
Classified - 11
Duration - 20 minutes

With one exception, all Bentleys and won on the road by Simon Worthington in a modernish bewinged Turbo R, but later penalised, so that Paul Forty was declared winner in his MkVI special. A few of the older cars are depicted below:

1) Jock MacKinnon - 3-litre - 4th
2) Guest/Strickland - 4.5 litre - 9th
3) Leigh/Leigh - Frazer Nash Interceptor - 10th
4) Morley/Morley - 3-litre - 5th
5) Vivian Bush - 3 litre - 12th
6) Morley/Morley, in their other car(17) - 3/4.5litre - 3rd and the Majzub/Carr 4.5 litre (22) - 11th

[John Turner]

Starters - 12
Classified - 12
Duartion 10 minutes

The handicappers did pretty well here with most of the cars but Julian Grimwade in his Lagonda Rapier S/S (8) will no doubt be on the receiving end of a heavier handicap next time since he won by 26 seconds, from the Riley Special 9-12/4 special (11) of Richard Brightman and the flying Sue Darbyshire in the Morgan Super Aero (3):-

1) Chritopher Scott MacKirdy - Aston Martin Le Mans (9 - 8th)
2) Paul Chase-Gardner - A M Speed Model (24 - 7th)
3) Richard Brightman
4) Sue Darbyshire was effectively in the scratch car as clearly the quickest car out there and great to watch her negotiating the other cars through Luffield
5) The winner!
6) Chris Lunn - Talbot 105 (5 - 5th)

[John Turner]

Starters - 9
Classified - 8
Duration - 20 mins

Won by Tim Patchett's MG TA (25) by a margin of 55 secs from the Aston Martin Speed Model of Paul Chase-Gardener with the Invicta S (10) of Trevor Swete, 3rd.

1) Keith Piper's Aston Martin International (6 - 7th)
2) Hamish Monroe's Frazer Nash Super Sports (2 - DNF)
3) Peter Dubski's Aston Martin 15/98 (1 - 4th) fitted with the body from the Gartside Special
4) Clive Temple with his Riley Brooklands (4 - 8th)
5) It was a very entertaining drive from Trevor Swete in his Invicta S (10). Rare to see an Invicta on track, let alone one driven so enthusiastically
6) The winner!

[jamesholland]

Picture no.4 is of Clive Temple's Amilcar, not his Riley Brooklands.

[John Turner]

Agreed; I was reading from the results sheet zombielike!

[lml698]

My word !! didn't those MG TA's have small fat tyres and wheels in the 1930's !!!!

[John Turner]

3 shots from the final race of the day - Allcomers Handicap:-

1) John Hutchison (Jnr) - Reliant Scimitar GTE
2) Geoff Ward - Lancia Beta Monte Carlo
3) David Hughes - Ford Sierra Cosworth

[juliang]

John, thanks for posting that. I was no 8 Lagonda and yes the Handicapper was a bit kind, although in the Saturday handicap it went very much the other way. I can only presume that they looked at my practice time on the Sunday when the car was running sick. Maybe they should have used the Saturday race time.

In my defence though I did drop to 1.23 on Sunday which is three seconds quicker than I've ever gone round there.

It was a great weekend, thanks to all the Bentley Boys and Girls, see you all next year and thanks for the pictures, first time out in my new Benjy Boys Romper Suit.

[John Turner]

Julian, great that you have found us; well done and very warm welcome. I wish we could get more of the pre war car brigade in here in order to get more discussion and pics of the various events through the year.