Britcar 24 hour Support races, 20th September, 2008

[John Turner]

Well despite my best efforts to make the post title different from the thread title, it hasn't worked so, Race 7 was for the Toyo Tyres racing Saloons; a very large grid of 44 Pre 1994 cars, of which 38 finished, enjoying the full GP circuit, many, I believe, for the first time. This was the second race for this field, the first having been run on Friday, as part of this 3 day meeting.

As some of you may have noticed, I have a penchant for big BMWs especially if they (legitimately) carry 'M' badges, so I was delighted to see the M5 of Adrian Kneebone, head through Bridge in the lead. No small achievement since this was his first race outing in the car. The lead was shortlived but he remained at the pointy end for the whole race, and I'll get back to him later!:-


Now Stacy Vickers had broken a driveshaft on the Mazda RX7, whilst dicing for the lead with John Willcocks on Friday, so, following repair, had to start from the back of the grid on Saturday. In his charge through the field, it brought him up to the back of the Tony Ellis RX7, also going very well and in the top 6. They made a fine sight heading out of Bridge with Vickers on the tail of Ellis. Although he passed Ellis, a couple of 'interesting' moments with other competitors brought Stacy to the conclusion that this simply wasn't his weekend and decided that discretion was the better part of valour on this occasion and he retired the car whilst it was still intact. Ellis went on to record a fine 4th place in a car that seems to be going well now:-


The very smart E30 M3 EVOIII of Rob Payne also retired:-


Dave Robbie thundered around midfield, in his XJS, to finish 19th:-


Tim Wilson, BMW 318, finished 11th:-


It was Ken Lark, in his very quick VW Corrado, who relieved Kneebone of the lead early on and simply drove away to record an emphatic victory by 38 seconds. The presence of a very close John Willcocks will be explained with the next pic!:-


JW had won the race the day before and was understandably very 'chuffed'. He started this one at the front but having got up to speed with the pack howling around and behind him, caused more than a little consternation when he accidentally knocked the fuel pump switch off (it's only been there 14 years or so, hasn't it John?). The car ground to a halt and remained undamaged due to some demon evasive manouevres by the pack (well done guys!). Once the problem was identified the car was released back into the leading pack, but now 1 lap down. John latched on to the leader, and such was their pace that even without passing Lark, he was unlapping himself and moving up the field. Eventually he got passed the Corrado to complete the unlapping process and finished a fine 6th:-


Tom Ibrahim brought his Vauxhall Astra home in 7th:-


Rob Smith was 8th, and Class F winner (Production BMW Cup class), in his 320:-


Kneebone held down 2nd place for quite a while but was hunted down by the VW Vento of Len Simpson. Kneebone's defence was compromised when they got amongst some backmarkers, here, and it was the VW that emerged in front as they exited Brooklands. Just 3-tenths of a second separated them at the end, so it was a VW 1-2 with the big BMW 3rd in what was quite an eventful race:-

[johnw]

Originally Posted by John Turner

.......caused more than a little consternation when he accidentally knocked the fuel pump switch off (it's only been there 14 years or so, hasn't it John?)

It has indeed, hence assuming something had broken and not looking for the obvious. Familiarity breeds contempt I guess

Indeed well done to all 47 guys for avoiding me.

Thanks for a great write up for the series again John. It's much appreciated.

[Highside]

Originally Posted by John Turner

The very smart E30 M3 EVOIII of Rob Payne.....

Originally Posted by John Turner

also retired.

Great report on a great day John - and thanks for the really very good photograph. Any more where that came from?



Cheers

Rob

[John Turner]

Thanks, Rob; I think that was the best I have of you.

[Austinspace75]

Cheers for the report John!

Very nice indeed.

[John Turner]

We don't get to see these too often, since they lie in that grey area between historic and modern. Some of these cars are over 20 years old (the 33s are anyway) and they have some great liveries. So just a few of the older ones are shown here.

32 starters, 26 finishers. The race was won by the modernish Alfa GTV V6 24V of Roger Evans by 25 seconds and going away. He was fully 3 secs a lap quicker than anybody else. He was followed home by the Neil Smith Alfa 156 who, in turn had a substantial lead over 3rd place, who I will come to shortly.

Demonstrating quite a bit of roll out of Bridge is the Alfa 75 3.0 litre V6 of Chris Snowden who came 5th. I had one of these cars for a while, but apart from it's fabulous engine and looks that set it apart from the crowd, the less said about it the better. I could never get on with the brakes and managed to write it off:-


Tha 75 was replaced in the Alfa line up by the 164, a much better car, by most accounts. This is the very striking 3.0 litre V6 example of Ian Brookfield, which finished 9th:-


The well driven 33 of Bryan Shrub was 3rd by some margin, so you can see that the race at the front was pretty well spread out:-


Chris Oxburgh brought his 75 home in 10th:-


The smartly presented (as indeed most of this field were) 33 of Chris Healey heading through Priory. He finished 17th:-


Another 75. This one is turbo driven according to the programme. Unfortunately, it didn't finish, in the hands Graham Pressley:-

[mattt]

John some of the pictures seem to be missing

[John Turner]

Not on my screen, Matt, but I do find occasionally that they take a while to load up. They are there, I promise you.

[mattt]

there there this time straight away