1984 Trimoco RAC British Saloon Car Championship - Discussion & Results

[KA]

Originally Posted by KA

Round 9- Brands Hatch (GP Circuit) 28 August 1984. 20 laps.
Slightly odd scheduling, a second consecutive round at Brands, with a 5-week gap between the two....

There's an album of 1984 Brands BTCC pics by Peter Novani on Flickr- the crowd in the background doesn't seem big enough for the GP meeting, so possibly they're from this meeting?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3611177...7622382683987/

Updated to include cars shown in the Flickr pic album. One question- the pics show the Drury Alfas as numbers 40 (Dowsett- name clearly visible on the door) and 42 (Smith?) I thought they were 40 and 41? Given this pic (frustratingly, there's no visible driver name on the door- the livery is different to the no.40 car), had I just got the numbers wrong, or was there a late-season change of drivers?
40- Dowsett:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3611177...7622382683987/
42- Who?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3611177...7622382683987/

[KA]

Round 10- Donington Park 16th Sept 1984. 30 laps.

Pos.	Cat.	#	Driver	Team/sponsor	Cat.	Car	Grid	Q-time	FL	Laps	Time	Notes
1.	1.	7	Andy Rouse	Rouse/ICS	A	Rover Vitesse	2
2.	2.	14	Win Percy	Hughes of Beaconsfield	A	Toyota Celica Supra	1
?	1.	38	Graham Goode	Graham Goode Racing	B	Nissan Bluebird Turbo
?.	?.	18	Dave Brodie	BBW Motorsport	A	Mitsubishi Starion Turbo	3
?.	?.	6	James Weaver	CC Motorsport/BMW GB	A	BMW 635CSi	4
?.	?.	9	Frank Sytner	Sytner BMW/GSI	A	BMW 635CSi	5
?.	?.	40	Phil Dowsett	Terry Drury Racing	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6
?	?.	66	Alan Curnow	Longman/Datapost	C	Ford Escort RS1600i
?	?	70	Jock Robertson?	Julian May/Pegasus	C	Ford Escort RS1600i

Another sketchy report, which only really covers the top few in qualifying, the race between Rouse and Percy for the win, and the dramas leading up to Graham Goode's class win (I posted some of this ealier in the thread- in short, a time-consuming upgrade of the Nissan's brakes in the days before the meeting, an all-nighter to replace the engine after a head-gasket failure when they arrived at the track, and changing the gearbox, plus further work on the brakes between qualifying and race....)- the Goode story taking up at least two-thirds of the report.

Story of the race is that Percy put the Supra on pole again from Rouse, led the early laps until Rouse got past, then spent the rest of the race trying to find a way past the Rover again
'Not to be denied, Percy clung on grimly, always confident that hecould go back in front in the later stages of this longer (30 laps) race. When the chips were down, though, Percy's tyres had done their best work, and the cars were perfectly matched-the car that was in front, stayed in front, despite some heart-stopping attempts by Percy that saw some minor contact. Once again, these two had put on the show of the race, if not the entire meeting. Certainly the new-found competitiveness of the Hughes of Beaconsfield Toyota has saved the series'

Rouse's win tied up thechampionship for him- his lead having been eroded over the previous rounds by Percy's improved form, and a run of success for Richard Longman in Class C

Championship positions after 10 of 11 rounds (best 9 to count)
1. Rouse 77 points
2. Longman 66 points
3. Dooley 48 points
4. Hodgetts 45 points
=5. Goode & Curnow 42 points

The article is illustrated with a couple of shots of Rouse and Percy turning onto the pit straight, one early in the race with the Toyota leading, the second with Rouse ahead- in both, they're absolutely nose-to-tail- the captions are 'Percy fends off Rouse' and 'Rouse fends off Percy. The two were never further apartthan this, and despite a couple of minor paint
exchanges, their battle was hard and clean'

Apart from the top 6 qualifying positions, that's all there is about Class A, except Sytner's 635 had been rebuilt after it's shunt at the TT:
'This represented a sterling effort by the Ted Grace-managed team, who had grafted a completely new rear end onto the car after Sytner's TT co-driver Barrie Williams had involuntarily joined the carnage at Silverstone's Woodcote corner during the deluge the previous weekend. The result appeared to be a write-off, but afte Ted Grace's merry men had finished with it, you couldn't see the join!'

In Class B, after his pre-race dramas, Graham Goode was beaten off the line by Phil Dowsett's GTV6, but soon got past to take an 'apparently-effortless' win

No mention at all of Class C- the only record of it's existence in this report is the photo heading the article, showing Curnow's Datapost Escort and the Julian May/Pegasus Escort (presumably Jock Robetson?) on the grid. I've included every driver mentioned or illustrated in the report in the results table above

Oh yes, nearly forgot....the report mentions one other event from Donington:
'It is not often that a sportsman becomes champion in his field for two consecutive years on the same day. Yet that is the distinction accorded to Andy Rouse, who received his award as 1983 champion from Brian Courtenay, doing the honours as Chief Executive of Trimoco Holdings.'

The award ceremony for 1983 was apparently very low-key; PC's reporter Art Markus commented that he (and I'm presuming from his tone that he's including the other journalists reporting the meeting in that)- wasn't invited to attend, 'in fact the whole affair was very hush-hush- slightly embarrassing perhaps?'......And so ended (We think!) without doubt the most sordid episode in modern British motor racing'

[KA]

Round 11- Silverstone 7th Oct 1984. 15 laps

Pos.	Cat.	#	Driver	Team/sponsor	Cat.	Car	Grid	Q-time	FL	Laps	Time	Notes
1.	1.	18	Dave Brodie	BBW Motorsport/Mitsubishi Colt Cars	A	Mitsubishi Starion Turbo
2.	2.	7	Andy Rouse	Rouse/ICS	A	Rover Vitesse	1
?	1.	38	Graham Goode	Graham Goode Racing/EBC Brakes	B	Nissan Bluebird Turbo
?.	2.	40	Phil Dowsett	Terry Drury Racing	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6
?.	3.	32	Rob Kirby	ARDT/John West	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6
?.	4.	??	??
?.	5.	30	Jon Dooley	ARDT/Napolina	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6
?.	?.	9	Frank Sytner	Sytner BMW/GSI	A	BMW 635CSi
?.	?.	6	James Weaver	CC Motorsport/BMW GB	A	BMW 635CSi
?.	?.	5	Vince Woodman	CC Motorsport/BMW GB	A	BMW 635CSi
?.	?.	17	David Kennedy	BS Automotive/Grundig	A	BMW 635CSi
?.	?.	14	Win Percy	Hughes of Beaconsfield	A	Toyota Celica Supra
?.	?.	13	Charles Sawyer-Hoare	Equipe Esso/Daily Mirror	A	Rover Vitesse
?	?.	?	?	?	A	Ford Capri 3.0S						Can't tell whether it's Newman or Chatfield in the pic

The report doesn't give much of the result apart from the top 2 and Class B. Dave Brodie finally took the first win for the Starion, shadowing Rouse for 13 laps before getting alongside the Rover on the exit of Club, as Rouse was baulked slightly by lapped traffic. Brodie stayed alongside, finally making the move stick approaching the Woodcote Chicane

The two drivers' comments on the performance of their rivals' respective mounts in the last laps are interesting:
Rouse on the Starion: 'No way I was getting back by on the last lap- he was taking three lengths out of me on every straight'
Brodie on the Rover 'I couldn't believe the power of that Rover. I was outbraking him at the end of every straight, but it was really quick in a straight line'

The BBW team were ecstatic with the result, after a tough time trying to find reliability from the 2-litre turbo engine. The big breakthrough, however, had been in handling, a new limited-slip diff having transformed the Starion. Apparently, the standard Mitsubishi LSD wasn't up to the job, leading the team to run a softer rear suspension set-up than they'd like in an attempt to kill wheelspin out of slower corners. The new LSD, designed by the team, solved the problem.

Somewhere behind this, a tight race-long battle between the Kennedy, Weaver and Woodman 635s was settled in Weaver's favour, though the fourth BMW of Frank Sytner was well ahead by then. (incidentally, Kennedy seems to have changed his race number during the season- a Brands pic on Flickr, as mentioned a few posts back, clearly shows the Grundig 635 as car 16....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3611177...7622382683987/
....whereas a pic of the Kennedy/Weaver/Woodman scrap in PC clearly shows it carrying no17....)

In Class B, Graham Goode took a dominant win. Behind him, there was drama amongst the Alfas....I think I've told this story before, but Dooley needing 4th in class to tie up Class B, was down in 5th, with a down-on-power V6. Team-mate Kirby (holding 2nd in class for most of the race) made what seems to have been a last-ditch effort to help Dooley's position by slowing down just before the finish line, letting Phil Dowsett past into 2nd, but only managing to drop himself to 3rd, the class title going to Graham Goode...
Dooley later commented 'He'd have done the team a bigger favour if he'd just driven it into a wall!'

Naturally, this being the 1984 BTCC, there was off-track drama, centred around fuel and the intercoolers on the two turbo cars...

Firstly, Brodie was subjected to demands for no less than 3 fuel samples after the race- the third, in particular is described as 'particularly heavy-handed' and bordering on harrassment- it was made long after the statutory 1 hour Parc Ferme period had ended, and considerable pressure was put on a junior team member by the scrutineers- whileteam principals Brodie and Ken Brittain were already in with the Stewards to discuss a protest made against them.

The protest centred around the Starion's intercooler- the fitment of intercoolers on Group A cars being a particularly controversial issue it seems. Apparently, it should have been legal on the Starion, as one was fitted on the production car- except, for some reason, the homologation papers didn't record this fact....

Jon Dooley also protested the Goode Nissan over the intercooler- he had apparently been trying to get a clear ruling on this from the MSA all season, and finally protested the Nissan, both to clarify the position in the rules, and to protect his championship position.

No idea of the result beyond the top 2 and Class B, however a photo of the start of the race gives an idea of who was present at the front of the grid, so I've included every identifiable car illustrated, though I don't know where they finished.

[KA]

Performance Car's 1984 BTCC coverage ends with a review article in the Feb '85 issue. I won't go through it in detail, but will include the final championship table as they list it, with a few additional notes (number of race/class wins etc taken from the article text)

Pos.	Cat.	Driver	Car	Cat.	Points	Wins	2nds	Fastest Laps	Notes
1.	1.	Andy Rouse	Rover	A	77	6	4	5	One 2nd place dropped
2.	1.	Richard Longman	RS1600i	C	74	6
3.	1.	Graham Goode	Nissan	B	50	4
4.	2.	Jon Dooley	GTV6	B	50	2
5.	2.	Chris Hodgetts	RS1600i	C	45	2
6.	3.	Phil Dowsett	GTV6	B	44	1
7.	3.	Alan Curnow	RS1600i	C	43	1
8.	4.	Rob Hall	RS1600i	C	35	1
9.	5.	Alan Greenhalgh	Golf GTi	C	30	1
=10.	2.	Frank Sytner	635CSi	A	29	0
=10.	4.	Rob Kirby	GTV6	B	29	0
?.	=3.	James Weaver	635CSi	A	25	1
?.	=3.	Win Percy	Celica Supra	A	25	1

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

The silver 'Direct Tyres' 635 was indeed a prodsaloon. Albert Mirko entered his near standard car with slicks for this prestigious meeting and predictably was somewhat off the pace and struggled to compete even with the Class C cars. Mirko had done a couple of Uniroyal or Monroe rounds with the car, and wasn't IIRC a class contender in those either.

Originally Posted by KA

Thanks for that- I'd been puzzling over the pic in PC since I re-read the report. Mirko is a name I haven't heard in a long time- Don't really know much about him except he was running a 635 in Prodsaloons around that time- got a vague suspicion he turned up racing in the USA some years later.

Did a bit of digging, and I'm guessing this is the Albert Mirko in question-
http://www.mirkoracing.com/about.htm

I thought I remembered the name, as he appeared briefly in the short-lived US NATCC Supertouring series in 1996, with a Honda Accord- unusual in that it was prepared by his own team from a US-spec Accord, so one of the very few US-prepared cars raced in the series, most teams importing secondhand machinery from European series. The '96 NATCC yearbook has a pic of the car, showing the same 'Mirko Racing' logo as on the website

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by KA

Performance Car's 1984 BTCC coverage ends with a review article in the Feb '85 issue. I won't go through it in detail, but will include the final championship table as they list it, with a few additional notes (number of race/class wins etc taken from the article text)

Added the points as they appear on the official BTCC page in red. This should be fun to try and unravel, but that won't be just now. At least class C seems to fit, but various unresolved cases in both class A and B seems to be the culprit.

Jesper

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

Round 11- Silverstone 7th Oct 1984. 15 laps

|A|Ford Capri 3.0S|Can't tell whether it's Newman or Chatfield in the pic .

Please excuse the mess i've made KA!!

The Capri in question must've been Newman's (although I can't remember it actually being there), Chatfield only did the GP supporter during the season IIRC.

With regards to the race results; Win Percy and Neil McGrath finished 3rd and 4th this time, ah erm, second thoughts it actually may have been the other way around....

What I can reiterrate from a post a couple of pages back is that Percy made a terrible start and spent a good portion of the first half of the race dealing with Class B cars and the rather fraught scrap between the BMW's and CS-H's Vitesse. By the time he'd done that Rouse and Brodie were long gone, although I suspect the Supra may not have had enough to challenge those 2 round the GP circuit like he hads at the twistier Brands and Donington tracks?

[Jesper OH]

[QUOTE=KA;2631848]Round 3- Oulton Park 20 April 1984

Pos.	Cat.	#	Driver	Team/sponsor	Cat.	Car	Grid	Q-time	FL	Laps	Time	Notes
1.	1.	6	James Weaver	CC Motorsport/BMW GB	A	BMW 635CSi	1					First non-Rover win since start of 1983 season?
2.	2.	7	Andy Rouse	Rouse/ICS	A	Rover Vitesse						New car after Silverstone shunt?
3.	3.	10	Peter Lovett	TWR/Sanyo	A	Rover Vitesse
4.	4.	14	Win Percy	Hughes of Beaconsfield	A	Toyota Celica Supra
5.	5.	5	Vince Woodman	CC Motorsport/BMW GB	A	BMW 635CSi
6.	6.	11	Tony Pond	TWR/Sanyo	A	Rover Vitesse						gearbox problems
7?.	7?.	9	Frank Sytner	Sytner	A	BMW 635CSi
?.	1.	35	Robin Brundle	Dowson/Computervision	B	MG Metro Turbo
?	2	38	Graham Goode	Graham Goode Racing	B	Nissan Bluebird Turbo						about 20 secs behind Brundle
?	1.	77	Richard Longman	Longman/Datapost	C	Ford Escort RS1600i
?	2.	69	Chris Hodgetts	Brooklyn Motorsport	C	Ford Escort RS1600i
?.	?.	32	Rob Kirby	ARDT/Salmon Can	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6						tyre problems
?	?.	41	Paul Smith	Terry Drury Racing	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6						tyre problems?
?	?	40	Phil Dowsett	Terry Drury Racing	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6						tyre problems
DNF	DNF	30	Jon Dooley	ARDT/Napolina	B	Alfa Romeo GTV6						Fastest Lap
DNF.	DNF.	34	Patrick Watts	Dowson/Computervision	B	MG Metro Turbo						car stopped on green-flag lap
DNS	DNS	17	David Kennedy	BS Automotive/Grundig	A	BMW 635CSi						DNS-Reserve entry?

The Terry Drury Alfas and Kirby's 'Salmon Can' cars were all in trouble with tyres- according to the race report, suffering from Dunlop only being able to provide a choice of 'the right size, but the wrong (too hard) compound, or the right compound but the wrong size...

Performance Car reported this round and the next at Thruxton in a single article, so coverage is a bit sketchy[ /QUOTE]

Had another look at this home video style Oulton Park shoots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ixO...x=0&playnext=1
A rough car count, on what is presumably the first lap, reveals 23 cars circulating in "this" order:

1. James Weaver (A-BMW 635CSi) whitish
2. Andy Rouse (A-Rover Vitesse) blue
3. and 4. Peter Lovett and Tony Pond (A-Rover Vitesse) blue
5. Win Percy (A-Toyota Celica Supra) white/red
6. Frank Sytner (A-BMW 635CSi) white
7. Vince Woodman (A-BMW 635CSi) whitish
8. unknown (A-Ford Capri) ex-Woodman?
9. Jon Dooley (B-Alfa Romeo GTV6) black/white, 1:58
10. Chris Hodgetts? (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) white/blue
11. Robin Brundle (B-MG Metro Turbo) blue/white
12. Richard Longman? (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) red
13. Paul Smith or Phil Dowsett (B-Alfa Romeo GTV6) red
14. Alan Greenhalgh (C-VW Golf GTI) yellow
15. Graham Goode (B-Nissan Bluebird Turbo) white/red/blue
16. Alan Curnow? (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) red
17. John Morris (B-VW Scirocco GTI) red
18. Rob Kirby (B-Alfa Romeo GTV6) white/red
19. Paul Taft (B-MG Metro Turbo) white
20. Rob Hall (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) white/blue, #72, look for 1:28
21. Paul Smith or Phil Dowsett (B-Alfa Romeo GTV6) red
22. unknown (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) white
23. John Myerscough? (C-Alfasud Ti) black #57

Only one Computervision Metro, but from KA's result that would be because Patrick Watts had already parked his car. So 24 cars on the grid?
Then at about 1:50 Charles Sawyer-Hoare appears in the #13 Rover, making it 25 cars?

Jesper

[KA]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

Had another look at this home video style Oulton Park shoots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ixO...x=0&playnext=1
A rough car count, on what is presumably the first lap, reveals 23 cars circulating in "this" order:

1. James Weaver (A-BMW 635CSi) whitish
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1678887...7611422894664/
2. Andy Rouse (A-Rover Vitesse) blue
3. and 4. Peter Lovett and Tony Pond (A-Rover Vitesse) blue
5. Win Percy (A-Toyota Celica Supra) white/red
6. Frank Sytner (A-BMW 635CSi) white
7. Vince Woodman (A-BMW 635CSi) whitish
8. unknown (A-Ford Capri) ex-Woodman? Can't get a handle on which Capri it is- either Mike Newman or Brian Chatfield
9. Jon Dooley (B-Alfa Romeo GTV6) black/white, 1:58
10. Chris Hodgetts? (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) white/blue There doesn't ever seem to be a really clear shot of the car, but the blue/white diagonal stripes paintscheme suggests the Brooklyn car
11. Robin Brundle (B-MG Metro Turbo) blue/white
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1678887...7611422894664/
12. Richard Longman? (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) red Longman ran as #77-see 1:47
13. Paul Smith or Phil Dowsett (B-Alfa Romeo GTV6) red
14. Alan Greenhalgh (C-VW Golf GTI) yellow -Definitely- the yellow Ordibel colours would stand out a mile even if it wasn't the only Golf on the grid!
15. Graham Goode (B-Nissan Bluebird Turbo) white/red/blue
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1678887...7611422894664/ (looks like the Alfasud in the background?)
16. Alan Curnow? (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) red
17. John Morris (B-VW Scirocco GTI) red- #33- very clearly seen taking a trip over the grass at the end of the clip
18. Rob Kirby (B- Alfa GTV6) #32, in 'Salmon Can' colours- clearly seen at at 0:53
19. Paul Taft (B-MG Metro Turbo) white- White Metro with Klaxon-Neimann sponsorship- has distinctive large 'Klaxon' lettering across the front grille- in the background of this pic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/3164762466/
20. Rob Hall (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) white/blue, #72, look for 1:28 Sponsor visible on the car at 1:28 is 'Universal Grinding Wheels'- fairly sure they were Hall's main sponsor, with Ford dealer Lloyds of Stafford
21. Paul Smith or Phil Dowsett (B-Alfa Romeo GTV6) red
22. unknown (C-Ford Escort RS1600i) white- don't ever seem to get a good look at this one- probably the Julian May/Pegasus car (Jock Robertson?)
23. John Myerscough? (C-Alfasud Ti) black #57 Black car, looks like an ARDT/Napolina car from 1983 (ex either Rob Kirby or Andrew Thorpe)- seen clearly at 0:26

Only one Computervision Metro, but from KA's result that would be because Patrick Watts had already parked his car. So 24 cars on the grid?
Then at about 1:50 Charles Sawyer-Hoare appears in the #13 Rover, making it 25 cars? Definitely the CS-H Rover

Jesper

Yes, just watched that through a couple of times, and that looks like a pretty good summary to me. I've added a few of thoughts to the list in bold, particularly points in the video where some of the cars are especially clearly identifiable

[chunterer]

Again, that Oulton footage is wonderful isn't it?! Thanks to Jesper for bringing that back up!!

The Capri is definitely Newman's - he's battling hard with Dooley in the early part of the clip...

There must've been some sort out on that opening lap because like KA i'm sure that's Hodgett's Escort well up there early on, with most of the other Class C cars also above the 'B's'.

The Turbo cars struggled a bit here?

Myerscough's Sud was definitely there and the unknown white Escort was Barry Lee's.

I'm not sure of the story of CS-H. He must've started from the pitlane or something, because he's not in the group during that opening lap coverage?

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Again, that Oulton footage is wonderful isn't it?! Thanks to Jesper for bringing that back up!!

The Capri is definitely Newman's - he's battling hard with Dooley in the early part of the clip...

There must've been some sort out on that opening lap because like KA i'm sure that's Hodgett's Escort well up there early on, with most of the other Class C cars also above the 'B's'.

The Turbo cars struggled a bit here?

Myerscough's Sud was definitely there and the unknown white Escort was Barry Lee's.

I'm not sure of the story of CS-H. He must've started from the pitlane or something, because he's not in the group during that opening lap coverage?

One car very significantly not in that video- Brodie's Starion which presumably skipped the Oulton round

[chunterer]

Indeed, I don't think Brodie was there?

It was a long time ago, and although I was there (approaching Old Hall and recall Perry McCarthy's spectacular flip in the earlier FF race!) I can't remember all the details about the Trimoco race, other than Weaver making a great start and then gradually pulling away from the rest, all of whom seemed to suffer tyre difficulties.

I've got the programme somewhere but about as much chance of winning the lottery of finding it! I suspect Brodie may have been on the entry list as a reserve, as was the Grunding BMW, which you may have mentioned previously KA, something I'm not sure about.

A separate point. I reckon Oulton must've been the first race where we really saw the potential of the Percy Celica Supra. It was all over the TWR cars early on and one wonders what it could've done had it found a way past. I doubt Win could've challenged Weaver who was on another plane that day, but Rouse may have been vulnerable?

[KA]

Sorting out some old Autosports to put in the loft, and found the original race report for this one- I'd previously posted the result from the notes I'd taken from it, so didn't have much background detail...

Originally Posted by KA

Round 2-Silverstone, 1 April 1984. 20 laps/58.64 miles

Think Woodman missed this round, as his CC BMW was still being rebuilt?

Woodman's absence confirmed as due to the Donington shunt a week earlier. The Brodie Starion was also absent- Autosport's comment is rather cryptic:
'Silverstone saw a more representative 28 cars taking part in practice,even allowing for the absence of a couple of Donington contenders, namely Vince Woodman, still recovering from his nasty accident, and Dave Brodie, whose Colt Starion....'
I don't have the previous issue to hand, so what were Autosport not mentioning?

As mentioned in the result table, Jean-Louis Schlesser was on hand as cover for Tony Pond, away in Yorkshire debuting the 6R4. Schlesser drove the first qualifying session, while Pond arrived by helicopter in time for the 2nd session. A pic confirms the Rover appeared in the first session numbered '11T'

Tony Dron was in the Hughes Supra, substituting for Win Percy, on TWR Jaguar ETC duty at Monza

Seasonal debuts for David Kennedy in the BS/Grundig 635, and Charles Sawyer-Hoare's Rover

The first lap accident was reported as being caused by Rouse being tagged on the left rear corner, after a slow start from pole. The Rover 'suddenly slewed sideways and then nose-dived into the pit wall. In the ensuing melee, Phil Dowsett's Alfa and Alan Greenhalgh's Golf were also eliminated

Curiously, the race wasn't stopped, and two of the cars, the Rover and Alfa seem to have been left in the middle of the track before Copse for the duration of the race!

Kennedy's 635 had to pit for a puncture, as did Weaver on lap 12. James resumed almost a lap down on leader Pond, and spent the rest of the race in close company with him- unlapping himself by 'theatrically' outbraking the Rover into the last corner

Dennis Leech was delayed by the first lap shunt, but got up to 5th place before a broken halfshaft ended his race on lap 14

In Class B, the Computervision Metros ran a few seconds apart all race- Watts taking the win despite a late race misfire. John Dooley had pressed Brundle hard in the early laps until the Alfa's propshaft 'disintegrated' at Maggots on lap 7

Goode had a 'promising' run in the Bluebird until the engine 'went off-song' and the Nissan fell back behind Paul Smith's Alfa (badly delayed at the start) and Curnow's Class C Escort. Watts, Brundle, Kirby, Smith and Goode were the only classified finishers. The result table only gives Goode 10 laps completed....

In Class C, Longman got away from Hodgetts at the start, and maintianed his advantage. Longmann, Hodgetts, Curnow, Rob Hall, and the Myerscough Alfasud were the only finishers. There's no mention of the Barry Lee Escort other than in the qualifying times list, but he was obviously not having a good weekend, with practice times of 8m16.90(!) in Q1, and 2m14.20 in Q2, still over 15 seconds off the next slowest qualifier. Maybe a DNS with car problems?, though there's no indication in the report

I've added the fastest laps, but there are still some gaps in the finishing order

[Jesper OH]

Mayby not much in terms of results, KA, but very fine to get some idea of what was going on in the race with your comments.

Jesper

[KA]

Spent some time last night looking back through old magazines to see if there was anything else I could add- certainly don't seem to have any more result information to add- I have very few 1984 Autosports, and though I should have a complete run of Performance Cars for the year, I can't find all of them at the moment
One thing that we're missing for quite a few of the Group A threads are details of race numbers, entrants and sponsors. Like I did in the '83 thread, here's a list of 1984's runners and riders, to see if we can fill in the gaps. I'll post each class separately to allow updating

Class A

Race no.	Driver	Entrant/Team	Sponsors	Car	Notes
4	Dennis Leech	Leech	usually unsponsored	Rover Vitesse
5	Vince Woodman	CC Motorsport	BMW GB	BMW 635CSi
6	James Weaver	CC Motorspot	BMW GB	BMW 635CSi
7	Andy Rouse	Rouse Engineering	Industrial Control Services	Rover Vitesse
9	Frank Sytner	Ted Grace	Sytner Alpina+GSI+Chartered Trust Finance	BMW 635CSi
10	Peter Lovett	TWR	Sanyo/Esso	Rover Vitesse	stepped down after R4
10	Jean-Louis Schlesser	TWR	Sanyo/Esso	Rover Vitesse	replaced Lovett for R5&6 only
11	Tony Pond	TWR	Sanyo/Esso	Rover Vitesse
11T	Jean-Louis Schlesser	TWR	Sanyo/Esso	Rover Vitesse	Drove Pond's car in qualifying at R2 Silverstone
12	Mike Newman	Newman	Burlington Wallcoverings	Ford Capri 3.0S
13	Charles Sawyer-Hoare	Rouse Engineering	Esso+Daily Mirror+Sign Language	Rover Vitesse
14	Win Percy	Hughes of Beaconsfield	Toyota GB	Toyota Celica Supra
14	Tony Dron	Hughes of Beaconsfield	Toyota GB	Toyota Celica Supra	stood in for Percy at R2 Silverstone
14	Gordon Spice	Hughes of Beaconsfield	Toyota GB	Toyota Celica Supra	stood in for Percy at R6 Silverstone
16/17	David Kennedy	BS Automotive	Grundig + Penthouse	BMW 635CSi	from pics, race number seems to change from 16 to 17 late season
18	Dave Brodie	BBW Motorsport	Mitsubishi Colt Cars + Mail on Sunday	Mitsubishi Starion Turbo
20	Steve Soper	TWR	Austin Rover Fleet + Herbie Clips	Rover Vitesse	ETCC car
21	Neil McGrath	Linden Racing(Clive Faine)	Connells Estate Agents	Rover Vitesse
23?	Brian Chatfield	Chatfield		Ford Capri 3.0S	car still in 1982 CC/Esso colours. Did Newman or Chatfield run as no23?
??	Albert Mirko	?	Direct Tyres	BMW 635CSi	Prodsaloon at Brands GP meeting

[KA]

Class B

Race no.	Driver	Entrant/Team	Sponsors	Car	Notes
30	Jon Dooley	Alfa Romeo Dealer Team	Napolina	Alfa Romeo GTV6
31	Andrew Thorpe	?	Hampshires of Dorking	Vauxhall Astra GT/E	Think car was self prepared...
32	Rob Kirby	Alfa Romeo Dealer Team	Salmon Can(Canned Salmon Bureau)	Alfa Romeo GTV6
33	John Morris	Morris	?	VW Scirocco 1.8	John had split with John Maguire Racing for '84 and was preparing the car with his own crew and no Volkswagen UK backing
34	Patrick Watts	Roger Dowson	Computervision[I]+Esso[/I]	MG Metro Turbo
35	Patrick Watts	Roger Dowson	Computervision+Esso	MG Metro Turbo
38	Graham Goode	Graham Goode Racing	EBC Brakes?	Nissan Bluebird Turbo
40	Phil Dowsett	Terry Drury Racing	Alfa Romeo GB	Alfa Romeo GTV6
41/42	Paul Smith	Terry Drury Racing	Alfa Romeo GB	Alfa Romeo GTV6	a late season Brands pic shows a car with no.42- a change of race number or a change of driver? - Smith ran 41 all season, don't recall him missing any races. Did Drury run #42 at BGP or the Donington and Silverstone season closers?
43	Paul Taft	Roger Dowson	Klaxon-Neimann+Birmingham Post	MG Metro Turbo
?	Hamish Irvine	Irvine		Mazda RX7	Brands GP meeting only?

[KA]

Class C

Race no.	Driver	Entrant/Team	Sponsors	Car	Notes
51	Alan Greenhalgh		Ordibel + Windrush Garage	VW Golf GTi
57	John Myerscough	[B]ARDT[B]	Napolina	Alfa Romeo Alfasud
66	Alan Curnow	Longman	Royal Mail Datapost	Ford Escort RS1600i
69	Chris Hodgetts	Brooklyn Motorsport	Engineering Computer Services	Ford Escort RS1600i
70	Jock Robertson	Julian May	Pegasus	Ford Escort RS1600i
72	Rob Hall	John Maguire	Universal Grinding Wheels	Ford Escort RS1600i
77	Richard Longman	Longman	Royal Mail Datapost	Ford Escort RS1600i
84	Barry Lee	Lee	Total Oils+BHP Motorsport Video	Ford Escort RS1600i

Anyone I've missed, or any further details to add?

[chunterer]

KA, good idea to list all the season's entries like that (in the other threads as well.)

I've added a few thoughts in bold italics in your posts. Hope they are on the right lines for you?

Got a couple of other things bugging me about sponsors and things like that from the time, but like you said it's finding the right info to check it all!

[Frank de Jong]

Originally Posted by KA

Goode dominated class B, but the real drama in the class was behind him, Jon Dooley losing the class championship in controversial circumstances.
Dooley only needed a 4th place finish to clinch the class title- unfortunately, despite being fastest Alfa in qualifying, he also lost two engines, and had to start the race with one described in the report as 'cobbled-together'. Predictably, this was off the pace, and in the race, he ended up down in 5th in class, with team-mate Rob Kirby the leading Alfa in 2nd....

On the last lap, approaching the chicane, Kirby held a narrow lead over Phil Dowsett, but suddenly slowed, allowing a surprised Dowsett to take 2nd in class. Presumably this was a last-ditch attempt to help Dooley into 4th place, however Kirby's momentum was enough to still take him over the line in 3rd, denying his team-mate the class championship....
Dooley wasn't impressed with Kirby's actions, commenting 'He'd have done the team a bigger favour if he'd just driven it into a wall!'

Much of the drama was off-track though, with protests flying around- Dooley protesting the Goode Nissan over it's use of an intercooler, and Toyota protesting the Starion on similar grounds (to say nothing of the scrutineers asking for no less than 3 fuel samples from Brodie's car...)

Since both Brodie and Goode were disqualified in the end, Dolley still won class B!
A few other notes: Taft had both #43 and #36 (at Thruxton, rd 4 at least). #42 Terry Drury racing Alfa was driven by Drury himself.
In a few weeks, the BSCC 1984 will be available at my site - my results for 1984 are pretty complete, and I even could match the final points standing on the official site with my race results.

[Alex E]

I found this picture I took at Brands, not sure of year but I think `84. alex

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Alex E

I found this picture I took at Brands, not sure of year but I think `84. alex

Alex, great shot!!!

That might be Brands up into Druids?

Also judging by the number 1 on the Supra, I reckon it could be sometime later in 1983 as Percy was champion in 1982 and he ran #14 in 1984?

[rs1600irob]

PLEASEEEEEEE COULD SOME1 HELP ME,,,,,ive just bought wat i beleave to be BARRY LEE'S RS1600I FROM THE BTCC,,,the cars been in a barn for many years and was raced after barry ad it as a modified sallon!!!!!!!! i been seaching for 3 days for pictures of this car n can only find the datapost and a few others,i will try to post pictures of the escort up but please any help wd be so greatful many thanks rob

[rs1600irob]

Originally Posted by KA

Class C

Anyone I've missed, or any further details to add?

PLEASEEEEEEE COULD SOME1 HELP ME,,,,,ive just bought wat i beleave to be BARRY LEE'S RS1600I FROM THE BTCC,,,the cars been in a barn for many years and was raced after barry ad it as a modified sallon!!!!!!!! i been seaching for 3 days for pictures of this car n can only find the datapost and a few others,i will try to post pictures of the escort up but please any help wd be so greatful many thanks rob

[rs1600irob]

PLEASEEEEEEE COULD SOME1 HELP ME,,,,,ive just bought wat i beleave to be BARRY LEE'S RS1600I FROM THE BTCC,,,the cars been in a barn for many years and was raced after barry ad it as a modified sallon!!!!!!!! i been seaching for 3 days for pictures of this car n can only find the datapost and a few others,i will try to post pictures of the escort up but please any help wd be so greatful many thanks rob

Originally Posted by KA

One car very significantly not in that video- Brodie's Starion which presumably skipped the Oulton round

please contact me robert_neville8@msn.com any help or pictures wd be grateful

[KA]

Hi Rob- That's a discovery!

Even though IIRC Corgi made a model of it at the time, Barry Lee's RS1600i seems to have been pretty camera-shy compared to the Brooklyn & Datapost cars- probably not helped by the fact that it didn't seem to race that often, just 1984 (not even sure if it did the full season- think it's only mentioned in about half of the race results in this thread) and a couple of races in '85

The only pic I know of on the internet is this one, showing it on display at the 1984 Hot Rod World Championship meeting.

http://www.mkpics.smugmug.com/galler...451_mouV7-A-LB

Anyone out there got any more?