FULL REPORT FROM THE HSCC FINALE AT SILVERSTONE
Among five championships resolved on the HSCC 50th anniversary finals weekend, the Guards Trophy fight was the most dramatic. As table-topper John Davison (Lotus Elan ‘26R’) failed to complete a second successive round, MGB stalwart Martin Richardson coolly equalled his score. With four wins and a second apiece, honours are shared.
A carburettor fire frazzled Davison’s electrics on the grid, but he limped to the pits where his crew changed the visible wiring. A finish was still on until a melted wire in the distributor stranded him. With John Spiers’s overheating TVR Griffith his only class opponent, 2015 champion Mike Gardner (who relayed Dan Cox after a scrap) couldn’t repeat, but Richardson beat three rivals for nine crucial points.
Up ahead, Martin Stretton had shot Simon Durling’s Elva MK7S past the Chevrons of Will and Michael Schryver, Mark Colman and Daryl Taylor but retired with its brakes ablaze. Colman drove beautifully to defeat the Schryvers with Taylor third, stuck in fifth gear for three laps.
Julian Barter won his second 70s Road Sports title, piloting Iain Daniels’ Elan to a scintillating cat-andmouse victory over Richard Plant (Morgan +8) in a huge field. Defending champ Jim Dean fielded his white Europa – lent to Barter in alternate early rounds – instead of the green one but engine problems ended slim retention hopes. Charles Barter (Datsun 240Z) made the best getaway, but slipped back to third place.
After a qualification heat, won from the back by normal frontrunner Simon Toyne, Lancastrian Callum Grant nailed his second Historic Formula Ford title, his ninth victory of the campaign putting it beyond sixth-placed Rob Wainwright’s grasp. Triple champ Benn Simms battled his misfiring Jomo to second ahead of ecstatic teenager Ed Thurston.
Sidelined from sixth by a broken throttle cable in the first points race, Benn Tilley, 17, rocketed from 21st to win the second repechage, then drove brilliantly from 13th to third behind 2013 champ Sam Mitchell and Grant, whose order changed countless times in the finale.
Mark Jones (Lotus Cortina) and Mike Gardiner (Falcon) won a Touring Car round apiece. Jones ambushed Jon Milicevic’s Mini as conditions improved in the opener, but lurched wide at Copse benefiting the V8 later. Heroes of the day were Simon Benoy, who landed his third title with a first and second in class – behind David Heale – on the return of his trusty Imp, and 2006 champion Mike Hanna, who rebuilt it following the massive Oulton Park start shunt in August, in which Benoy was the punchbag.
Barry Webb needed to finish the Classic Clubmans race to wear the B-sport crown. His conservative plan so nearly failed at the first corner when Andrew Colley’s spinning Royale – one of five Sports 2000 invitees – clipped his Delapena U2, which felt odd thereafter. Webb soldiered home as rival Clive Wood rotated on Dave Facer’s oil while leading narrowly at Becketts, rewarding Facer’s son-in-law Adam Wheeler. Mark Charteris completed a seasonal A-sport clean sweep but it took eight laps for him to unseat John Harrison.
Julian Stokes scorched his F2 Tecno ahead in Classic Racing Cars but arrived at Becketts backwards. While John Murphy’s Crossle 22F was just beyond reach, Stokes stormed back to second. Behind the Bda-powered cars, Mark Goodyear (Castrol Lotus 69) drove the race of his life in the twincam split to land third, staving off the Pallisers of series winner Andy Jarvis and Steve Worrad. Andrew Hibberd thrashed Historic F3 opponents.
Lotus Cup ace Adrian Hall (ex-keith Holland F5000 Trojan) starred in the morning Derek Bell Trophy race, pursuing Mark Dwyer’s F2 March after poleman Jamie Brashaw chose wet tyres for his ex-clive Baker F5000 March on a drying track. Later, Brashaw and Dwyer flew Yorkshire’s white rose to a one-two, the F5000 tussles in their wake adding to a great spectacle. Martyn Donn (Fatlantic Lola T760) pipped Neil Glover (F5000 Chevron B37) in the internal series.
Ian Pearson won the damp Classic F3/URS FF2000 race from the latter set, pursued by Dave Shaw (ex-nelson Piquet Ralt RT1), Marc Mercer and Andy Jones, whose ex-gabriele Tarquini Dallara 382 demonstrated big potential before fuel pick-up problems slowed it. The sequel was a cracker in which Shaw, CF3 champion Simon Jackson (ex-quirin Bovy Chevron B43) and Keith White (ex-elio de Angelis Ralt RT1) filled the podium.
Reynard-mounted Charlie Kemp scored an accomplished Historic FF2000 debut win, harassed by the bold Tom White in his voluptuous Osella. Class B titlist White punished Kemp’s missed gear second time out, a hugely popular victory – a first for the Italian rarity – netting second in the table. Graham Ridgway (Royale) and Andy Storer (Reynard) were in the running for silver, but Ridgway spun at Luffield in the opener when he had 2015 champion, team chief and tailgunner Tom Smith – who started a patched-up RP27 from the pits following Jennifer Ridgway’s URS off – bearing down on him.
Poleman Will Mitcham dropped quintuple front-engined champion Mark Woodhouse (Elva) in Formula Junior’s opener. Andrew Hibberd (Lola) led into Becketts but spun on oil. His charge back past Andrew Tart and Mike Walker (a late spinner at Becketts) onto Woodhouse’s tail was sensational. Later, in his familiar Lotus 22, Hibberd won a tight rearengined dice with Cameron Jackson.
Outgoing Historic Road Sports champion Kevin Kivlochan nervously wriggled free from Richard Plant’s sister Morgan +8 to win Sunday’s closer as Peter Shaw (Elan) split four Malvern missiles. Shaun Haddrell had new champion Dick Coffey beaten in class when his Turner jumped out of third gear on the last lap, buzzing its Climax engine. John Davison’s wretched late season ended in another early bath when his Elan S3’s engine died on lap one.