HSCC Finals, Silverstone, 18th Oct, 2008

[one-two]

Thanks for the kind comments, John. Let me encourage other pre-66 GT drivers to join the Guards Trophy next season. Some excellent racing on the calendar and the shared grid with the sports racers is working well. Cheers, Robert

[John Turner]

22 starters, 20 finishers in this 15 minute race which meant 15 laps and almost 16 minutes to the flag.

It was a good day for Michael Lyons, 2 wins and a 2nd (if I recall correctly) and this was one of the wins. Out of Becketts for the first time, he already has the Merlyn Mk10 in the lead and went on to extend it to 26 seconds at the finish. 88 is the Brabham BT30 of Michael Scott who was eventually to finish 4th. It was Ian Gray who moved up through the pack to take 2nd place in his BT16:-


Grant Saunders finished 15th in his March 703:-


Neil Bowman with Macon MR6 in which he finished 9th:-


Lincoln Small, BT30, enjoyed his run to 10th:-


Showing, I think, why the car didn't make the distance, although it was doing this for several laps, is the Merlyn Mk11A of Richard Bromley:-


Michael Waller in the Cooper T56. He doesn't appear in the programme but the car was clearly the oldest in the race by several years and was therefore, unsurprisingly, last of the classified finishers. Here he is being lapped by the Brabham BT21B of Richard Kendle, on his way to 3rd:-


Will Schryver was otherwise engaged (at Brands, I think), so his dad, Michael, ever the enthusiast, jumped into the Lotus 27 and took it to 7th:-

[John Turner]

Sponsored by 'BP Ultimate', this was another 15 minute race. 22 starters and 18 finishers.

Whilst Bill Coombs and Ben Simms were battling it out at the front, further back, Gareth Walters (96 - Palliser WDF3) is passed down the Club Straight by Colin Painter in the Oliroy C1 (a car, I confess, I've never heard of). However Painter was destined not to finish and Walters was 17th:-


Bill Coombs (Argo JM6), on this day, had the edge over Simms and eventually won by 9.8 seconds:-


However, in finishing 2nd, Benn Simms driving his March 803B had done enough to clinch the Championship, so well done to him, another 10-Tenther!:-


Gary Fletcher was 11th in his Ralt RT1:-


Marcus Mussa took 5th in his Modus M1:-

[delta]

Great pics again John. We installed the Toyota into the Oliroy last year and the owner has done a fair amount of testing before Silverstone with no probs. He lost fuel presure in the race as you said had a DNF.Not had a chance to have a look yet to see what prob was as we were at Nurburgring that weekend. Alan Morgan knows the history of the car will get him to post it up.Thats his department.Good looking car and we know it ran at Monaco in 79 but did not Quallify.

[Alan Morgan]

To be pedantic, the car that failed to qualify for Monaco was the Duqueine VG3, driven by Bernard Perroy. When Perroy fell out with the Duqueine brothers, he joined forces with another French driver, Denis Olivera, and combined their surnames to name the revamped Duqueine "Oliroy".

The extent of the modifications is unclear, but the car certainly acquired some Martini body panels. Perroy ran the car in France in 1980, where it proved reasonably competitive. It's definitely one of the prettier CF3 cars out there.

More information on the Duqueine and Oliroy cars can be found on Gerald Swan's F3 History website (not sure if I'm allowed to post a link, but Googling "F3 History" should prove fruitful)

[John Turner]

Alan, many thanks. Happy for you to post the link.

[Alan Morgan]

OK - it's

http://www.f3history.co.uk

the manufacturers section is fascinating

[ralt-racer]

Hi John thanks for the mention and the pictures. We made a stingy tactical move and swapped the tyres left to right so I could not give Bill a bit more of a battle. Still it was all good for the championship

I did not geta chance to look at the Oliroy on the day so thanks for posting the pictures nice car

Benn

[Dan Rear]

Originally Posted by Alan Morgan

OK - it's

http://www.f3history.co.uk

the manufacturers section is fascinating

Be good if you could get the Ring out again, Alan!

[delta]

Just think Dan if those c v joints had not broken in the famous test Mr Morgan would probally not be assosiated with us now.

[Alan Morgan]

Originally Posted by delta

Just think Dan if those c v joints had not broken in the famous test Mr Morgan would probally not be assosiated with us now.

It would be my loss...

[John Turner]

Always great fun, we've had a lot of great races from these over the last couple of seasons. 36 starters, 30 finishers.

Into Brooklands for the first time, Benn Simms (63 - Cooper T59) has a slender lead over Edwin Jowsey (65 - Lotus 22) and Michael Hibberd (51 - Lotus 27). Hibberd's attempt to take Jowsey failed. In fact he'd locked up already and is actually backing out of the move here. He was able to pass Jowsey later when the latter got involved in an incident with Sam Wilson. Hibberd then briefly took the lead from Simms, but Ben was soon back in front and went on to win by 1.4 seconds. Behind Hibberd, Jowsey finished 3rd but a further 17 seconds away with Sam Wilson 4th in his T59:-


Brendan Roberts race was shortlived as he beached the pretty Lola Mk2 in the gravel at Luffield. I did not note whether he was forced wide, or taking avoidance, or whatever, so I'm hoping that you might tell us, Brendan:-


Justin Fleming (23 - Elva 100 - 27th) leads a gaggle of cars into Luffield. 37 is the Essenkay of Anthony Martindale, who, I think must have a had a big moment somewhere, since he finished 30th and last way behind this group, a position not a reflection of his pace. 55 is the Lola mk5 of Len Selby who failed to finish, 39 is Mike Waller's Keift (25th) with, at the back, the Elva 200 of Sue Spence (46 - 28th):-


Rudolf Ernst takes his Lotus 22 up the inside of Tim Bishop's Sauter (20th) and moved up to 17th at the flag:-


Paul Dixon (27 - Gemini Mk11) chased John Dowson's Elva 200 (23rd) and eventually found a way by to take 22nd:-


I took loads of picture from different angles using Brendan's car as a base frame! Here Crispian Besley applies steering correction on his way to 15th in his Elva 100:-


James Murray took 8th in the Lola Mk5A, having been embroiled in battle with Simons, Diffey and Armer:-


David Stevenson was 21st in his Mallock U2. A lap later he spun here but was able to recover quickly enough not to lose a place:-


I'm not very good at registering class wins and championship postions, as you may have noted but I am trying (very!), so I can tell you that Jon Milicevic, who finished 10th in this race (1st in class C) had already clinched the championship before this race started in his Lotus 18.

[John Turner]

31 starters; 27 finishers. Simon Garrad turned up with his TVR Griffiths 400 (one of 3 pocket rockets in the race) and after a titanic battle with James Paterson's Morgan Plus 8, took the chequered flag by 2.4 seconds. Most of the time they were much closer, as shown here!:-


Mark Hoble (66 - Morgan Plus 4 - 17th) leads Rebecca Ruff (21 - Porsche 911) and John Fitzgerald (22 - Turner Mk2). Ruff was to pass the Morgan to take 16th, whilst Fitzgerald was kept behind in 18th:-


Barry Ashdown was 11th in his Lotus Elan but Mike Eagles failed to finish in the Milano GT. We've seen little of either Eagles or Justin Murphy's Milanos this season which is a shame. They are great little cars with a fair bit of grunt. I note that Justin's is now up for sale at £42k:-


Tim Burrett's Lancia Aurelia B20 was 22nd:-


I know I always illustrate James Wiseman's Alfa Guilietta SZ. On this occasion, he failed to finish:-


Not quite as pretty but still pretty pleasing to the eye is the Guilia Sprint of Graham Oakins who finished 25th:-


Some opposite lock by Mark Garritt is enough to give me the excuse of showing another Griffith. He finished 10th, but this little error was enough to allow Brian Arculus to sneak ahead in his TR3 to take 9th by just 3 tenths:-


And I close with another of my occasional 'yellow' moments. Martin Edridge was 6th in his Ford Mustang whilst the Morgan Plus 8 of Oliver Phillips finished 8th. The whole ensemble is augmented by the the JCB recovery vehicle in the background. Naturally, I claim to have set the whole scene up!:-


Altogether another excellent season of racing from the HSCC.

[SZRacer]

My first post on here for ages! Been trying to put my business and my family first recently. Racing chat has gone on the back burner....until now!

Thanks for the write-up, as usual, John.

With the HRS race, John found me early in the morning doing a head gasket replacment by the side of my van!

In a lesson that will be well-learned by all, and in a first for me in 10 years racing, i was so pushed for time getting the engine back together (I missed practice, but was allowed to start from the back), that I forgot my usual check of wheel nuts.

3 laps in to the race, the car starting handling weirdly, like it had a puncture, or was on ice. I tried one more lap, then pulled in.

On inspecting the rear of the car, on the n/s rear wheel, all but one of the wheel studs had sheared off, and the wheel was being held on by one (loose) wheel nut!

Needless to say, the brake drum was mullered!

so, a lesson to all - ALWAYS check your wheel nuts!!

[John Turner]

Yes, of course, I remember the urgency of getting the head gasket sorted. Shame about the wheel nuts, James.

[Al Weyman]

Originally Posted by SZRacer

My first post on here for ages! Been trying to put my business and my family first recently. Racing chat has gone on the back burner....until now!

Thanks for the write-up, as usual, John.

With the HRS race, John found me early in the morning doing a head gasket replacment by the side of my van!

In a lesson that will be well-learned by all, and in a first for me in 10 years racing, i was so pushed for time getting the engine back together (I missed practice, but was allowed to start from the back), that I forgot my usual check of wheel nuts.

3 laps in to the race, the car starting handling weirdly, like it had a puncture, or was on ice. I tried one more lap, then pulled in.

On inspecting the rear of the car, on the n/s rear wheel, all but one of the wheel studs had sheared off, and the wheel was being held on by one (loose) wheel nut!

Needless to say, the brake drum was mullered!

so, a lesson to all - ALWAYS check your wheel nuts!!

Don't beat yourself up too much, I did the same thing once at Cadwell on one of my cars, so easy done!

[delta]

Agree with Al SZ good to hear from you again.My very first test at Silverstone and my older Brother who went on to be a senior forcaster at the Met office.He was doing very well for himself "had all the brains". It was him who fogot to tell Michael Fish about that hurricane 20 years ago.(he retired early).Anyway back to Silverstone and both the rear wheels fell off the single seater and Silverstone Sid came out to Becketts and gave me a *******ing for not tightning the wheels.But it was my brothers fault.