HSCC Finals, Silverstone, 9th Oct, 2010 - Page 3

**John Turner** · 14 Oct 2010, 16:41 (Ref:2774959)

19 starters; 19 finishers.

On Saturday morning, Benn Simms, who has recently reclaimed the CF3 championship, told me that he hadn't had a lot of fun in recent races since he had won them by rather large margins and was hoping for something better here. Well he got it, as Jamie Brashaw put his March 793(32) on pole, and whilst Benn (2 - March 803B) took the lead off the start, he needed to be watching his mirrors as Jamie kept him very honest. Although the gap opened to a few lengths at one stage, Benn won by less than half a second. Paul Smith was a rather lonely 3rd in his Martini Mk31 (82) with Keith White (17 - Ralt RT1) 4th and Hugh Price 5th in his Chevron B38 (38). There were a number of good dices down ther field.

**John Turner** · 14 Oct 2010, 16:48 (Ref:2774962)

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Neil Glover · 14 Oct 2010, 20:30 (Ref:2775092)

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Turner

Neil is such an enthusiast and always very courteous and approachable, even when things are not going too well. Pity he doesn't post on here! I'll get around to the DBT (Race 5) soon.

Great to get your input, James (O!); good that you are getting to grips with the Elva.

John . Thankyou for the kind words, I can't tell you what a tough race the DBT finals was. I needed to secure min of four points and come home ahead of Frank Lyons to retain the championship. having qualified pole by almost half a second it was looking good. My team mate mark dwyer soon put me into second to be hounded and given a wheel to wheel race with his son Lee in a march 742, that I can tell you is seriously quick.

You can sense my relief from the image on the crossing the line.

**John Turner** · 14 Oct 2010, 22:02 (Ref:2775138)

Neil, well done, and great to hear from you. I hope that we can improve on 4 posts in three and a half years! Hope to do the DBT tomorrow!

**John Turner** · 15 Oct 2010, 16:08 (Ref:2775437)

15 starters; 12 finishers.

Neil Glover (1 - Lola T332) was on pole and held the lead for the first lap but was passed by Mark Dwyer (22 - Lola T400) who then pushed off to win by 14 seconds leaving Neil to fight off the very close attention of Lee Dwyer in the March 742 (12) for most of the rest of the race. Meanwhile Frank Lyons, who had lost a couple of places at the start in the stunning Gurney Eagle (74) worked up to pace and recovered the lost ground and closed in on the battling duo. When Dwyer's March lost power, Lyons immediately latched onto the tail of Glover, as Neil has already recounted, but failed to dislodge the Lola enabling Mr Glover to retain the championship that he had annexed last season. Well done, Neil. Lee Dwyer finished 4th at reduced speed, just managing to hold off Darwin Smith's March 722 (10). There were a couple of other excellent dices down the field, most notably between Michael Bletsoe-Brown (17 - Chevron B27) and Crispian Besley (4 - Brabham BT38) which was settled in the former's favour:-

**John Turner** · 15 Oct 2010, 16:14 (Ref:2775442)

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**John Turner** · 16 Oct 2010, 11:18 (Ref:2775729)

37 starters; 33 finishers.

There has been much discussion both here and in the paddocks about the merits or otherwise of including the later invitation cars in this series, some of it, frankly, specious. The fact is that this is a very successful formula, providing big grids and it is my belief that the HSCC are simply not going to change it unless they can guarantee a sufficient level of entries to enable them to split this field into two as they have been able to for the Oulton Park Gold Cup. Either way they will ensure that we continue to see the B6/B8s interspersed with the occasional G16 and Lenham Spyder, racing, and anyone at Silverstone last Saturday will have seen why. It was one of the best races I've seen anywhere this season, and Marcus in his commentary was moved to say that it was as a good a race as you'll ever likely to see at Silverstone.

It would be fair to say that Michael Schryver's very hard campaigned Chevron B6 was showing signs of its tiredness at the Autosport 3 hours at Snetterton earlier in the season and it's refresh is well deserved, the engine bay presenting exceptionally well. Michael put her (49) on pole and took the lead from the start and onto lap 2 had gained a few lengths advantage over the chasing pack of Steve Hodges (24 - B8), Nick Fleming (42 - B8), James Schryver (34 - B8) and Graeme Dodd (45 - Ginetta G16). However, coming into Brooklands for the second time, maybe on still cold tyres, the B6 spun, and whilst Michael gathered it all together pretty quickly, the pursuing pack, now led by Nick Fleming all went by, so that, at best he was now 5th and a couple of seconds down on the leading group. Whilst Fleming started to eke out a lead from the battling Hodges and Dodd, with James Schryver in close attendance, Michael began to charge them down. By the time he had caught them they were already amongst the back markers and as you will see from some of the pics, the track got incredibly busy at times. Schryver (M) worked his way to 2nd but it was very hard fought with neither Dodd nor Hodges giving an inch and the 3 ran pretty closely whilst Schryver (J) seemed to drop back a little possibly in traffic (James, your own account would be good!). At this stage Fleming was still a few lengths clear but then a couple of laps later he had dropped to 3rd with Schryver (M) now ahead with Hodges in 2nd, and Dodd 4th. To be honest I could not keep up with the place changes and my pics record the fact that at one point Fleming was back in the lead but Michael wasn't to be denied and won by just over a second from Dodd, with Hodges less than half a second away in 3rd and Fleming a further 1.3 seconds back. James Schryver was 5th, 4 seconds back and the first SRB car home was the Lotus 23 (95, one of six 23Bs in the race) of Denis Welch in 6th. Other Class winners were Mike Wittaker (46-TVR Griffith-Class D-11th), Andrew Smith (67-Marcos 1800GT-Class B1-13th), Peter Sugden (94-E Type-Class C2-21st), Jan Boyes (28-MGB-Class B2-23rd) Mark Hoble (27-Morgan Plus 4-Class B3-27th) and Peter Adams (22-Turner Climax-Class A1-31st).

Three posts of pics, and I apologise for a number of omissions, as the choice was governed by the (poor!) quality of them. For example the one of Simon Drabble in his Merlyn Mk6 (92) was the best that I have of him, and don't have a decent surviving pic of Mark Hoble either; sorry!

**John Turner** · 16 Oct 2010, 11:26 (Ref:2775734)

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**John Turner** · 16 Oct 2010, 11:30 (Ref:2775736)

Final lot for this race:-

**John Turner** · 17 Oct 2010, 12:32 (Ref:2776127)

33 starters; 29 Finishers.

Darren Burke, who hopes to be Porsche Carrera Cup bound next season, duly won this race to retain his unbeaten record this season, in his Macon MR8 (64), so many congrats to him on winning the championship. Benn Simms gamely tried to stay with him for a couple of laps in the Alexis Mk14 (5) but was a lonely 15 seconds behind at the end, with Ben Mitchell (21 - Merlyn Mk20) a further 8 seconds back, having just pipped Ian Ashley (62 - Lola T200) for 3rd place. David Wild made up this battling trio, finishing 5th. Less than second covered all three at the flag.

Again aplogies for omissions, particularly to Matthew Sturmer; I just haven't got a decent pic of your Macon, Matthew:-

**John Turner** · 17 Oct 2010, 12:40 (Ref:2776132)

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johnh875 · 18 Oct 2010, 02:35 (Ref:2776386)

Thanks as always for the reports and pictures John & all who have contributed!

The Derek Bell Trophy must have been a race to see, after seeing the big-power sportscars there last year I can imagine what the F5000's must be like there. I expect they probably run without mufflers too (unlike here...)

Nick Fleming · 18 Oct 2010, 09:52 (Ref:2776558)

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Turner

To be honest I could not keep up with the place changes and my pics record the fact that at one point Fleming was back in the lead but Michael wasn't to be denied and won by just over a second from Dodd, with Hodges less than half a second away in 3rd and Fleming a further 1.3 seconds back.

Just thought I might add a couple of comments to help decipher the last few laps of that race. I thought Michael was long gone until about 5 laps to go when the image of the Hodges' blue and white B8 was replaced with the B6. We had already entered traffic by this point but it was well spread out enough to make little difference to the overall pace. However, it was a set of waved yellows into Maggots that caused me to slow and get caught up behind a couple of the slower cars as we headed onto the national straight with about 4 laps to go. Schryver and Hodges got the slingshot on me and I was demoted to third with that pesky Ginetta nibbling at my heels ;-) I think it was on the following lap that I closed in on Hodges as we rounded Luffield. Schryver had boxed himself in on the straight past the pits with traffic, as had Hodges, so I kept my foot pinned and swerved past the traffic diving up the inside of the B6 to take the lead going into Copse. I think I held this lead until Luffield but as I went round the right hander my engine died and I was mugged again. Pretty sure this was with one or possibly two laps left. Dodd's managed to get Hodges at some point between here and the finish line I think.

I thought I had run out of fuel but it turned out the solder on the float in one of the carbs had broken and I presume that flooded the engine as I rounded Luffield. For anyone who saw me in the pits directly after I was somewhat aggrieved by this unfortunate turn of events and the throwing of gloves and general diva behaviour was perhaps not in keeping with the sportsmanship of this class but a good indication of how hotly contested the Guards trophy is! I have read some of the various other comments on this class but really you have to be at your very very best to do well in the Guards and the mix of cars make the racing more interesting. Personally, I think its fantastic.

Nick

**John Turner** · 18 Oct 2010, 13:42 (Ref:2776660)

Brilliant stuff and a great post, Nick. I think you were entitled to be a bit peeved, under the circumstances. Totally agree with your final couple of sentences, too.

Matthew Sturmer · 18 Oct 2010, 20:19 (Ref:2776837)

I'm not surprised you had trouble taking a decent shot John as it felt like I spent most of the time spinning in circles.

The tyres had reached the end of their life but as it was dry and the last race of the season I thought I would get a new set in the spring.

I realised during qualifying just how tired they were as I really struggled to follow Steve King's similar Macon through the Luffied complex without the front end drifting off towards the main entrance, so decided to swap the fronts around for the race.

This was fine for the first lap but as I turned into Copse for the second time I had my first "brown cords" moment of the afternoon when the front did not have the usual level of grip and I lost 2 or 3 places as I gathered it all up. For the next few laps I picked up the places I had lost and then settled into a nice battle with Andrew Mansell. I was quicker throught the corners but he had the legs on me on the straights. Anyway this culminated with him taking a dive down the inside at Copse and me not conceeding so we went round the corner side by side, only as I was on the outside, it was me who ran out of grip and road first. Spin no. 1

and ended up sat in the middle of the track exiting Copse. Anyway, head went down and plowed on trying to make up places. Passed a number of cars and was having a ball until what transpired to be the last lap, I turned into Brooklands having arrived a touch quicker than the previous lap as there was a red Merlyn just in front that had my name written all over it, and the backend just wasn't having any of it. Spin no. 2

and I got half way to Luffield as the following cars swarmed around me in avoidance. Rejoined and was disappointed to see the flag as I crossed the line ready for another charge.

A lowly finishing spot, but the most fun I've had with my pants on in ages.....

Thanks to everyone for some good, clean racing, and roll on next year.

Matthew

**John Turner** · 19 Oct 2010, 07:38 (Ref:2776984)

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnh875

The Derek Bell Trophy must have been a race to see, after seeing the big-power sportscars there last year I can imagine what the F5000's must be like there. I expect they probably run without mufflers too (unlike here...)

John, yes, you could hear them all round the circuit; fantastic.

Matthew, great post; sorry we didn't catch up.

**John Turner** · 19 Oct 2010, 07:55 (Ref:2776987)

33 Starters; 32 finishers

Paul Toombs (46 - Lotus Elan) seemed to have this one under control from the start, although the gap he built was no doubt aided by the squabbling for 2nd going on behind him. Justin Murphy (52 - Ginetta G4) looked very racy in the early stages, actually getting to that place briefly but the place swapping was frequent with Andy Shepherd (69 - Lotus 7 S2), Tony Howard (76 - Morgan Plus 8) and Robert Barrie, first drive out in the Lotus 7 (2) all in the mix. In the end a fine fighting drive by Barrie secured him 2nd, just under 3 seconds behind Toombs, with Howard and Shepherd, very close behind in 3rd and 4th respectively. Murphy must have had problems as he had dropped off the back of this group at the end, and although he held onto 5th he was 7seconds back at the flag.

Really struggled to put together a set of pics for this race, again. Beginning to think that this was my worst meeting this year in photography terms. Anyway, they follow!:-

**John Turner** · 19 Oct 2010, 08:00 (Ref:2776991)

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**John Turner** · 19 Oct 2010, 08:46 (Ref:2777008)

14 Starters; 9 finishers.

Final race of the day, and HSCC's last of the year; it was probably not the best way to sign off what has been another great year for the club. Grids for these cars seem to fluctuate and along with the DBT seem to suffer the smallest grids. On top of that the track was clearly very greasy, at least round Brooklands through to Woodcote where there were a number of gyratory moments. A race won by a canter by Michael Scott's Brabham BT30 from Antony Ross in his Lotus 59. Westie Mitchell was a lap down in his Merlyn Mk20 (21) after his 'off' with David Brown's Brabham BT23C who didn't finish. Chris Holland was 4th in his BT21 and Alan Fairbrother 5th in his Merlyn Mk20 (86). I have no surviving pics of the first two home!:-

**John Turner** · 19 Oct 2010, 08:51 (Ref:2777009)

And that is pretty much yer lot for this meeting from me; maybe my last of the year unless anyone is interested in pics of some of the older cars participating in the Holly Birkett at the end of the month - if I can brave the elements that is!

zefarelly · 19 Oct 2010, 16:29 (Ref:2777137)

JUstins G4, strangely, went better on the GP circuit, now the handlings sorted, and a few other silly things like snapped throttle cable! its been going great, originally the engine was built/tuned for the Cortina, I've since re-cammed it and he's happier with it, but getting the balance between power/torque (not much of either!) is difficult with the precrossflow, he lost out on accelrative grunt to the twin cams on the silly circuit, whereas the GP let him use the better handling at speed. There's a little more freedom in roadsports regs from the Cortinas FIA spec he's currently got so we're hoping we can improve it further, legally, and get him on the top step next season.

the luxury alternative would be a different engine set up for different circuits!

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Turner

33 Starters; 32 finishers

Paul Toombs (46 - Lotus Elan) seemed to have this one under control from the start, although the gap he built was no doubt aided by the squabbling for 2nd going on behind him. Justin Murphy (52 - Ginetta G4) looked very racy in the early stages, actually getting to that place briefly but the place swapping was frequent with Andy Shepherd (69 - Lotus 7 S2), Tony Howard (76 - Morgan Plus 8) and Robert Barrie, first drive out in the Lotus 7 (2) all in the mix. In the end a fine fighting drive by Barrie secured him 2nd, just under 3 seconds behind Toombs, with Howard and Shepherd, very close behind in 3rd and 4th respectively. Murphy must have had problems as he had dropped off the back of this group at the end, and although he held onto 5th he was 7seconds back at the flag.

Malcolm Smith · 19 Oct 2010, 18:37 (Ref:2777188)

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Turner

And that is pretty much yer lot for this meeting from me; maybe my last of the year unless anyone is interested in pics of some of the older cars participating in the Holly Birkett at the end of the month - if I can brave the elements that is!

John, thanks for this report and the others you have posted during the year.
They have all been extremely informative and enjoyable.

Colin McKay · 19 Oct 2010, 20:05 (Ref:2777221)

Yes, John. Grateful thanks for your insight (and pics), not only for the races I was in, but also those that I just watched. It's always fascinating to learn what was going on elsewhere!

bigvalveelan · 20 Oct 2010, 01:42 (Ref:2777314)

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Turner

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John
Thanks for the reports and pictures throughout the season - i don't know where you find the energy to take pictures and report on all the races - I find it quite enough just to focus on the one event.
I was in the Lotus (46) and the little car just handles and brakes so well that it all seemed a very calm weekend. I took it easy at the start as I knew my diff was not very well tied down (needs new bushes over the winter) but then settled down and watched a tremendous battle ensue for 2nd place. All I had to do was make sure that I didn't tangle with the lapped cars and maintain the gap. But it is a bit worrying how quick Robert Barrie is out of the box in that 7.

It has been a strange year for me as I work for BP and have spent most of the season in Texas sorting a certain well problem and will be involved for a while yet. So it has been great to finish with a couple of wins and I look forward to battling with Mr Barrie next year.

I read all the stuff about Guards and I would do it but for the mix of the sports racers with the GT's. I did Dijon a couple of weeks ago (lovely sunny weekend - shame on all who pulled out at the last minute) and it seems crazy to have such a difference in speeds down the straight.

Historic Roadsports is a fantastic series - it is highly competitive normally with full grids and a huge variety of cars. It is friendly, gentlemanly and can be taken at various levels. And there is always a good race to be had regardless of the car you drive, very rare to be lonely. And if you were to look through the season at the outright winners and podium finishers you'd see a huge variety of cars ( not just B8's etc).

See you next year and thanks again for the reports and your enthusiasm.

Paul (Tooms)

simon drabble · 20 Oct 2010, 05:17 (Ref:2777347)

Obviously I add my annual thanks to JT for the continual reports and photos, every year you deliver excellant "man on the spot" reports full of colour that is not always obvious from the results.
I would like to pick up on a comment made about the B8's. They were brought in to boost the grids in Guards as an invitation class (as they still are).
I cannot understand why a B8 driver would not be lobbying to be included into the new series as a proper class. It must be like an adult playing with kids in Guards for them.
Power difference aside just compare the size of rear tyre to 23b's etc!!
I know for a fact every B8 that moved would be replaced by a GT or pre 66 sports racer that currently does not come out due to the B8's.

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