DOUBLE WINFOR BURGESS
The first part of a Silverstone MG Trophy victory double for Jason Burgess was clouded by controversy following a safety car restart.
Burgess summed it up: “It is not the most happy victory I have had. I don’t like seeing my competitors feeling hard done by.” The Stamford driver passed the napping Doug Cole marginally before the timing line when the safety car made a late dive for the pitlane. Cole, who had climbed from fourth on the grid to lead the race within half a lap, was shuffled back to third by Graham Ross at Brooklands three laps after the resumption.
Cole was also frustrated in race two: early contact put him well back, but he had raced back up to fourth when forced to retire. Up front, Ross tried to out brake Burgess at Brooklands but spun after door-to-door contact between the ZR190S.
Reigning champion Matthew Turnbull was immediately on the pace as he stepped up to the ZR170 division but he was twice denied class victory by last year’s runner-up Paul Luti. Tylor Ballard and John Booth shared the ZR160 spoils.
Mark Ashworth’s battle-scarred TVR Grantura clung on to victory in the main Equipe GTS race despite contact with Tom Andrew’s Elva Courier at Woodcote on the penultimate lap. This also brought Chris Ryan’s Triumph TR4 and Tom Smith’s MG B into last minute contention. The overflow race ended in a photo finish, with Babak Farsian’s MG B Roadster a nose ahead of Rob Cobden’s Elva Courier after erstwhile leader David Keers-trafford took a self-imposed drive-through penalty after misinterpreting a warning flag.
Martin Brewer drove his Aston Martin Project 214 copy to victory in the inaugural Pre-’63 race despite an off that briefly handed the lead to the Sarah Bennett-baggs/mike Thorne Big Healey. The spinning Elva of Paul and Tom Andrew, that Brewer had been trying to avoid, came back to finish second.
There was an impressive field for the BCV8 season-opener, but it didn’t include reigning champion Russ Mccarthy thanks to dramas during qualifying. Rob Spencer just about led throughout, but the challenge from Neil Fowler intensified in the closing laps. Ollie Neaves took advantage of a huge spin at Becketts for Andrew Young to win Class C.
Ray Collier was another to rotate at Becketts, the second corner of the Cocksoot Cup encounter. Within two laps he was back into the lead in his ZR and he pulled clear of Philip Standish’s bright orange TF and Peter Bramble’s B, after Ashley Woodward’s ZS blew its engine.
Rover products were to the fore in the pair of MG Cup contests, with the Tomcats of Matthew Simpson and Richard Buckley splitting the honours although the show was stolen by Metro champion Mike Williams. He has uprated his title-winning GTI to run an 1800cc engine, but even that did not give him enough puff down the straights. He chucked it through the corners well enough to spend plenty of time in the lead, until a leak took hold. In his own words: “It was stinking of fuel and then it just died.”
Buckley had already retired with drive flange failure, although he bounced back later when the Metro was affected by gearbox issues.
In the absence of Williams, the Ashton brothers resumed their Metro Cup rivalry. Jack left Silverstone with bragging rights as his sibling Andrew was edged back to third by Dan Balster three laps from the end.