Story and photos by Simon Wright
The final round of the Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) Historic Saloon Cars took place October 17th, 2009 at the Silverstone National circuit. The HSCC Historic Saloon Car Championship is open to cars that were in series production before 1966.
Dan Cox, leading the championship, put his 1964 Ford Lotus Cortina on pole position from Graeme Dodd Jaguar Mk II by 0.069 of a second. At the start of the race Dodd grabbed the lead in the Jaguar with Neil Cunningham in the Ford Mustang coming from the second row into second place and Dan Cox dropped back into 5th place. By the second lap Cox was up to 3rd and chasing the Jaguar and Mustang hard. The first three were joined together for the first 7 laps after which they began to lap back markers.
Cunningham then used the power of the mighty Mustang to take the lead from the Jaguar of Dodd with Cox’s Cortina still right behind in 3rd place. By Lap 11 Cox got round the Jaguar for 2nd place and set off to try and catch Cunningham’s Mustang. The red and gold Cortina was sliding the tail round Luffield lap after lap as he closed in on the Mustang, but Cunningham was in control and took the victory by just 0.431 of a second after 13 laps, with Dodd a more distant 3rd about 3 seconds adrift by the end.
All three winning their respective classes seemed only fitting after such a close and exciting race. Special mention should also be made of Roger Godfrey who finished 5th overall and winning his class in his little Austin Mini Cooper S, keeping ahead of a lot of more powerful cars.
Other class winners were Roger Cope in his BMW 1800, Simon Benoy in a 1967 Hillman Imp, Andy Harrison in his Mini Cooper S, David Densham’s Ford Lotus Cortina, Mark Garritt in his Alfa Romeo Guilia Sprint GT and finally Gregory Thornton in his MG 100.
HSCC Historic Saloon Cars Final Results
1. Neil Cunningham – Ford Mustang, 15 minutes 43.885 secs (13 laps)
2. Dan Cox – Ford Lotus Cortina, 15minutes 44.316 secs
3. Graeme Dodd – Jaguar MkII, 15 minutes 47.426 secs
4. Peter Hore – Lotus Cortina, 16 minutes 00.257 secs
5. Roger Godfrey – Austin Mini Cooper S, 16 minutes 21.323 secs
6. Roger Cope – BMW 1800, 16 minutes 25.626 secs
HSCC Historic Saloon Cars Photo Gallery (Click image for larger picture)
[Source: Simon Wright]
