Story and photos by Simon Wright
A sunny Silverstone greeted the Historic Sports Car Club for their season opener on March 28, 2010. Although the circuit is going through major developments at the moment, the national circuit provided a suitable venue, allowing for some close and exciting racing.
The program provided a variety of historic racing, with Classic Formula 3 heading the single seater races, which also included races for Classic racing cars, Classic Formula Ford, and Formula Junior. The road car based categories were headed by a Guards Trophy race for Pre-66 sports racing and GT cars, a Historic Touring car race for Pre-66 Touring cars and two races for Road Sports cars, one of these being for cars built during the 1970’s while the other is for sports cars built between 1947 and 1969.
2010 HSCC Silverstone Historic Touring Car Championship Results (17 laps) – Silverstone is a fast circuit with long straights, more suited to fast and powerful cars. Yet someone forgot to tell the drivers in the Historic Touring car race this important fact. This results in small cars like the Mini Cooper S racing and passing much more powerful vehicles like Ford Mustangs and Jaguars with engines more than twice the size.
The Historic Touring car championship had an interesting and varied field, ranging from mighty American muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang and Ford Falcon, through BMW 1800 and Ford Lotus Cortina’s, right down to Austin Mini Cooper S and Hillman Imps.
David Betts put his 4.7 Ford Mustang easily on Pole by over 3.5 seconds from the Lotus Cortina of Peter Hore. By Brooklands corner on the first lap though, it was the BMW 1800 of Roger Cope that came through in the lead from a pair of scrapping Lotus Cortina’s of Peter Hore and Mark Jones. On the second lap John Dunham spun his Ford Lotus Cortina coming out of Brooklands and dropped to last place. Cope managed to maintain the lead until the end of the race to take the victory. Behind him, the two Lotus Cortina’s had quite a battle, but by the eleventh lap Mark Jones dropped out. Ben Shuckburgh had been making steady progress with his 4.7 Ford Falcon sprint holding 4th place since lap 3, but with only 4 laps to go, he managed to slip past the Cortina to take 2nd place overall and a class win. The Lotus Cortina is spectacular through the Luffield, Woodcote complex of corners, usually adopting a power slide sideways style out of luffield. Peter Hore managed to hold on the 3rd overall to win his class while Roger Godfrey managed to get his Mini Cooper S from 10th place on the first lap up to 4th overall, also winning his class.
Other Class winners included Colin McKay driving a 1964 Jaguar S Type, Simon Benoy in his 1967 998cc Hillman Imp which finished in the top ten, beating lots of more powerful cars, Alan Minshaw driving an Alfa Romeo GTA and finally David Brand in a Mini Cooper S.
One of the more unusual cars in the race was a 1965 Triumph 2000 Mk I driven by Richard Cross. He drove a steady race from 23rd on the grid, to take 16th overall and finish 2nd in class.
1. Roger Cope, BMW 1800
2. Ben Shuckburgh, Ford Falcon Sprint
3. Peter Hore, Ford Lotus Cortina
2010 HSCC Silverstone Guards Trophy Results (17 laps) – The Guards Trophy series is open to sports racing and GT cars built prior to 1966, and pre 1969 sports racing cars under 2 litres with a model competition history. Nicholas Fleming grabbed pole position in his Chevron B8 by over 1.5 seconds from Graeme Dodd driving his distinctive blue and orange Ginetta G16. Only 2/10ths off this pair was Jon Minshaw in a Jaguar E-Type.
From the start, the yellow Chevron and the blue and orange Ginetta fought hard for the lead, with Fleming holding a tight lead from Dodd. Within a few laps they were fighting it out amongst backmarkers, often lapping slower cars by going either side at the same time. By lap 8 and with over half the field already lapped, Dodd finally managed to get past into the lead. Nick Thompson in a Chevron B6 had slowly been dropping back in third place and soon lost that to Sean McClurg in an Elva Mk7S who was then passed by another Chevron B8 of Steve Hodges. Hodges kept up pursuit of the leading pair, but the race was effectively decided by the Safety car.
About half way through the race, Peter Adams in a Turner MkII spun at Luffield and got stuck in the mud on the inside of the circuit. The Marshalls soon managed to push him back on to the track, but due to the dangerous position of the car on the inside of the corner, the safety car was deployed. By the time it picked up the leader, the Turner was back in the race, but after the safety car period, Dodd pulled away to an easy victory. He opened up his lead to over four seconds before settling for the win and easing off slightly. Hodges finally got 2nd place three laps from the end, and Fleming had to settle for 3rd place. Dodd managed to get his single Ginetta to the victory, followed home by four Chevrons. The Elva of McClurg won its class and finished behind the Chevrons in 6th place overall.
Michael Schryver was best of the GT cars with his Lotus Elan 26R winning his class and finishing 7th overall. Near the end of the race Ian Conway managed a high speed spin at Brooklands in his MGB, which caused Peter Boyes in his MGB to take to the next tarmac run-off area on the infield of Luffield. Conway may have spun on his own oil, as the car was smoking after the spin, and appeared to leave an oil track round the Luffield corner.
Malcolm Rickets had an interesting fastback designed roof fitted to his Lotus Elan, and the Porsche 911 of Philip Smith managed to three wheel round the Luffield complex almost every lap.
1. Graeme Dodd, Ginetta G16
2. Steve Hodges, Chevron B8
3. Nicholas Fleming, Chevron B8
2010 HSCC Silverstone Historic Road Sports Cars Results (18 laps) – The Historic Road Sports cars kicked off the meeting with James Paterson leading the race off from Pole position in his multicoloured Morgan Plus 8 chased hard by the Ginetta G4 of Dave Randall. For the first few laps, the pair battled hard, but by the end Paterson won by over 24 seconds. Randall finished second, winning his class. Turner sports cars took two class wins at the hands of Ben Adams and Dick Coffey while Rebecca Ruff took a class win for the ladies in her Porsche 911. Final class winner was Richard Owen driving a Triumph TR2.
1. James Paterson, Morgan Plus 8
2. Dave Randall, Ginetta G4
3. Chris Phillips , Morgan Plus 8
2010 HSCC Silverstone ’70s Roadsport Race Results (18 laps) – The 70’s Roadsport race had a similar feel to it, as another Morgan Plus 8 of Paul Conway took Pole position. However, the first lap was lead by Paul Anderson in his classic blue and orange coloured Porsche 928, using the 4.7 litre engine to maximum effect. Conway was only third on the first lap, having slipped behind the TVR Tuscan of Peter Shaw, with current champion Julian Barter hanging on to 4th place in his TVR 3000M. By the second lap, Anderson and Conway had pulled clear of the rest of the field and were nose to tail.
Anderson finally took the lead to win the race from Conway, while Peter Shaw finished off the top three, taking a class win in the process. Other class winners included Steve Cooke driving a Lotus 7 S4, Will Morton in his Alfa Romeo 2000GTV, Alex Childs in an Alfa Romeo GT Junior and finally Carl Oldfield in his 3-wheeling Lancia Fulvia.
1. Paul Conway , Morgan Plus 8
2. Paul Anderson, Porsche 928
3. Peter Shaw, TVR Tuscan
2010 HSCC Silverstone Classic Formula Ford Race Results (19 laps) – The Historic Formula Ford race was led from start to finish by Darren Burke in his 1970 Macon MR8.
1. Darren Burke, Macon MR8
2. Simon Hadfield, Merlyn Mk20
3. Benn Simms, Alexis Mk14
2010 HSCC Silverstone Classic Racing Cars Race Results (19 laps) – The Classic Racing Cars race was initially led by Michael Scott driving a Brabham BT30 but once Pole position driver Ian Gray got his 1965 Brabham BT16 back to the front, he was unstoppable.
1. Ian Gray, 1965 Brabham BT16
2. Michael Scott, 1969 Brabham BT30
3. Will Schryver, 1963 Lotus 27
2010 HSCC Silverstone Formula Junior Race Results (18 laps) – The Formula Junior race was led from the start by Pole winner Jon Milicevic and he was never headed during the race.
1. Jon Milicevic, Cooper T59
2. Michael Hibberd, Lotus 27
3. Simon Diffey, Lotus 20
2010 HSCC Silverstone Classic Formula Three Race One/Two Results (15 laps) – The Classic Formula 3 field had two races and both were won by Bill Coombs driving a 1979 Argo JM6 from Benn Simms in his 1980 March 803B. In the 2nd Race Simms actually led for some way before Coombs past him to take the win.
1. Bill Coombs, Argo JM6
2. Benn Simms, March 803B
3. Paul Smith, Martini Mk31
[Source: Simon Wright]
Great info but would it be possible to include fastest lap in each class – I am aware that this is aavailable in oher productions but to have all the info in one place would be a definite bonus
Dave N
ALL GREAT PICS!!!