Silverstone, HSCC 40th Anniv. Meeting, 20 & 21 May, 2006 (with photos)

[John Turner]

Some great cars, amongst which were some 'new' ones out, marked this meeting. Low turnout of spectators was a shame due to the poor weather on Saturday, appalling weather on Sunday and other competing events held elsewhere. There were some really good battles and drives through the field for those prepared to brave the elements. The low entry for the Derek Bell Trophy race, was further depleted by non-arrivals, and again by a wet practice. The weather closed in so much yesterday afternoon that I believe that race was cancelled altogether since there are no results for it on MST this morning. The weather again drove me home early so I missed the last couple of races! Anyway a few pics:-

A study in red; Mike Eagles Milano GT and Louise Kennedy's Fulvia Zagato:-


Stuart Tizzard had plenty of help as he prepared to leave the pitlane for qualifying on Saturday. He came 2nd by 3.5 seconds or so to James Schryver's B8 on Saturday, but turned the tables on Sunday by more then enough to take overall honours for the combined race; it was his first Classic Sports car victory. The Lenham would make good subject for the chassis archive considering that (as I learnt on Saturday!) 5 spyders and 2 coupes were built. It was only when I loaded this picture up that I realised that Stuart was gesticulating to me - glad it wasn't rude!:-


A rarely seen livery in this country. Warsteiner, and Wolfgang Mathau's Toj:-


Classic Sports racing cars in action, in the Griffith Formula Invitation race. Jeremy Cottingham's Ferrari 250TR followed by early leader, Benjamin Eastwick's D-type (which, presumably had an 'off' somewhere) and in the background, Josh Sadler's Allard J2X:-

[White flag man]

"We're sinking!"
just like to repeat what I said on the Marshals Forum and congradulate all drivers for putting on such a good show in your hovercrafts!
John, unfortunately the Derek Bell Trophy race did get cancelled, as conditions were at their worst at that time and we are all concerened about the drivers safety. Pity they couldn't have squeezed it on at the end, as we had blue skies by then, ofcourse, but it was a bit late and I'm sure they were sensible enough to have already packed up.
Well done to the Formula 2 guys for a great show, especially on Sunday and I enjoyed watching the Hillman Imps power sliding round Luffield, from the post at Luffield in.
Hope all the guys who didn't manage to stay on the circuit are O.K, there were a couple of nasty looking ones coming under the bridge, I guess nobody told you about the river.
You may think we marshals are the mad ones, but we're wearing 20 layers of clothing, we're not travelling at high speed, and we can see what we're doing, well some of the time.
Thanks again and I'll see you all at Brands.

[zac510]

That Lenham is a beautiful car. Why is it so hard to find information on them on the internet, is it due to their low volume?

Have you made any sense of the gesticulation yet?

[johngee]

It was a great shame that we had to decide to cancel the Derek Bell race. It was scheduled to take place when the weather was at its' worst and with standing water and the tyre width and power of those cars, I'm sure it was the safe decision, the Formula Fords having already had aquaplaning problems. The weather then fortunately improved enough to allow the BRDC Sportscars and HRSC saloons to have their races.

[John Turner]

Absolutely right, John, it made sense. I saw Neil Fowler's accident, which must surely have been only due to aquaplaning on the club straight. Since it was on one of the fastest parts of the tracks, it looked very dramatic and quite a violent impact. Very glad he got out quickly and safely! You could see the 'river' when the tractor was pishing the water around. As a matter of interest, it was not obvious where it was being pushed to!

Zac, I don't think that's a rude gesture on Stuart's part, or am I being naive?

I'll post a few more pics. later.

[johngee]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Absolutely right, John, it made sense. I saw Neil Fowler's accident, which must surely have been only due to aquaplaning on the club straight. Since it was on one of the fastest parts of the tracks, it looked very dramatic and quite a violent impact. Very glad he got out quickly and safely! You could see the 'river' when the tractor was pishing the water around. As a matter of interest, it was not obvious where it was being pushed to!

When somebody of Neil's experience and ability has a problem like that, you know the conditions are bad!
I think the idea was to simply push the water off the track to the sides. I'm not sure where it was supposed to go after that!

[Moosehead]

Some excellent racing yesterday despite the weather. We were spectating at Becketts which I have to say was hilarious during the saloon race, plenty of spins - no damage AFAIK though pity the MK2 Jag ended in the gravel as we were looking forward to his antics having seen him powersliding out of Woodcote during practice.

There was an incident on the club straight after or during the church break involving an Elise, had it jumped the armco from the Stowe circuit?

I have to say as a spectator it was hard work trying to find somewhere dry to watch from as most of the place was a building site in preparation for the GP I suppose, in the end our only option was to ignore the 'road closed' signs and park on the bank at Becketts.

Must say we didn't envy the marshalls, the weather was absolutely terrible and they with absolutely no protection. It really does highlight the need for some basic shelter for these guys.

[zac510]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Zac, I don't think that's a rude gesture on Stuart's part, or am I being naive?

Probably not, but I thought it might have made more sense in context!

[John Turner]

True, but I just don't know; I'll ask him when I next see him (if he remembers, that is!)

Now, since we have mentioned how wet it was, it got worse than shown here, because I had to put my camera away:-

[Red Legs]

They were right to not run Derek Bell Trophy. I had too much power in my ff1600! It was a case of short shifting to avoid wheel spin down the straights.

[John Turner]

Right, back to Saturday:-

David Morris's evocative Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica appears to need only one more strip of tape for the headlamp, to be ready!:-


The rare 1957 Elva Mk3 of Alex Quattlebaum:-


Philip Harper drove his Ralt RT1 to an emphatic 18 second win in the European Formula 2 race, a feat that he was unable to emulate on Sunday when he finished in the gravel at Luffield. Here he is on Saturday:-


The Griffith Formula Invitation race was a delightfully eclectic (talking of whom, where is Mike?) mix. It saw a fabulous 5 car battle for the lead - 2 'littluns' (Rejo and Widi) and 3 'biguns' (D-type, Farellac & Maserati 300S). After Benjamin Eastwick in the D-type and Jamie McIntyre in the Widi, had 'moments' and Tony Bianch's Farellac dropped back with what seemed like a loss of power, it was the Rejo of Rupert Wood which finally triumphed over the beautifully driven Maserati of Mark Gillies. Here the two are lapping David Morris, and Dave Saunders in the Gammon MG:-

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by Red Legs

They were right to not run Derek Bell Trophy. I had too much power in my ff1600! It was a case of short shifting to avoid wheel spin down the straights.

Yes, Marcus Pye reckoned that he was pulling 4800rpm max in the Lola T330 during the very wet qualifying when the car would normally pull over 7000rpm. Still sounded great, though!

Red Legs, what were you driving?

[PaulSands]

None of the photos do justice to just how misearable the weather was

[JEB]

It was very wet wasn't it.
Well done to all who worked hard to keep the action going on Sunday.
Grahame, Chris, Martin, Alan and Emma from the HSCC did a good job in putting the meeting together as well.

The volunteer officials also deserve medals for standing out in the heavy rain... Hope the WHT isn't as wet for you all again this year !

[Red Legs]

Red Legs, what were you driving?[/QUOTE]
Merlyn-not that it would have made much odds.
It was David Morris (mistake in the programe) in the Le mans rep Frazer Nash, the same car his dad drove at castle Coombe 40 years ago. He thought it was still on the same tyres!

[John Turner]

Ah, a Merlyn; that narrows it down a little!

Thanks for the correction on the name - my mistake, not the programme's - I was using the wrong glasses! That Frazer Nash had a lovely patina about it.

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by JEB

The volunteer officials also deserve medals for standing out in the heavy rain... Hope the WHT isn't as wet for you all again this year !

No, it definitely wasn't as bad as last year's WHT!

[Red Legs]

I hope all the drivers of shunted cars are okay- I saw some nasty moments from my seat. Were the drains on the circuit blocked? They were in the paddock- the water table can't be full yet. Bernie might not be impressed if its still raining in three weeks time.
A big thanks to all who marshalled.

[zefarelly]

Bernie never is impressed full stop !

[Tim the Grey]

Originally Posted by PaulSands

None of the photos do justice to just how misearable the weather was

See my gallery from sunday...
http://catmangler.smugmug.com/gallery/847600/2/70995256

It was a bit wet...

Tim

[White flag man]

Moosehead,
The Elise was involved in a track day, on the Stowe Circuit. I'd like to say well done to the Incident crew/Medical team for dealing with the situation so quickly and professionally, especially as they were not on the same circuit. Hope both instructor and passenger are O.K.

[johngee]

Originally Posted by White flag man

Moosehead,
The Elise was involved in a track day, on the Stowe Circuit. I'd like to say well done to the Incident crew/Medical team for dealing with the situation so quickly and professionally, especially as they were not on the same circuit. Hope both instructor and passenger are O.K.

I'm pleased to say that, other than precautionary check ups, both were unhurt. The same could not be said of the car! I agree that the incident was very professionally handled.

[bauble]

A great meeting and covered by two local BBC radio stations!!
I was taking pics on the outside of Becketts during the BRDC 1950's Sports Car event, won by Barrie Williams driving a 1951 XK120 Jag. He beat a Cooper Monaco, which should have won hands down, while the Listers etc, struggled and Mark Gillies took third in a 3000s Maserati. Barrie was power sliding the Jag around Becketts in atrocious conditions, always under control. It was a fabulous sight and I have the pics to prove it, if only i knew how to attache them! Oh! Well.
Louise Kennedy thrived in the wet Roadsports race, driving her Lancia Fulvia, she passed nine cars on the first lap and lapped all of her class rivals. Wonder woman watch out!!
I have decided that if Silverstone could collect all of the water that falls on the circuit during a year they could sell it to the water companies and fund the GP with money to spare.
All of the single seater drivers I spoke to thought it was crazy, but then again so is standing there taking pictures, I suppose.

[PaulSands]

Originally Posted by JEB

Hope the WHT isn't as wet for you all again this year !

I was stood there thinking this is just like WHT

[LAK]

Thanks Bauble - you're too kind.

I have to say a massive thank you to all the marshalls, HSCC officials and of course our very own John Gee and his team for looking after us and ensuring that the weekend ran smoothly and efficiently despite the appalling conditions, especially on Sunday. I know I wanted rain but the conditions in the race were quite unbelievable and it's a testament to the drivers that there weren't more incidents. BTW, I do hope that all involved in accidents are all okay and will be out racing very soon.

I must say that the conditions suited my Fulvia, despite the windscreen wipers being very slow (thank god for Rainex), being fogged up and water getting into the cockpit through various holes. By the end my car had both terminal understeer (on full lock around Copse and Luffield) then terminal over steer so it made for an interesting race!

Bad lucky to hubby Jason who drove brilliantly in the HRS race in the Griffith(and yes I am biased!) to get to 3rd position from 9th on the grid only for the car to have fuel problems which ground it to a halt a couple of laps from the end.

Thanks again to everyone who made the event a success, especially the hard working and very wet marshalls.