‘GT series debuts at Castle Combe’
The circuit debut of the GT and Sports Car Cup capped an excellent Autumn Classic at Castle Combe and provided victory for the Lotus 15 of Philip Walker and Miles Griffiths.
On paper, a winning margin of 53 seconds suggests an easy run for Walker and Griffiths but that does not tell the full story of an absorbing contest over the hour-long race for pre-’66 GT cars and pre-’63 sports-racers. Had Ben Adams not gone solo in his Lola Mk1, thus accruing a mandatory one-minute pitstop, the outcome could have been far closer.
The 39-car field represented the best quality grid in the history of this tremendously popular event and it was Walker who set the early pace as the grid, shuffled by a wet qualifying session, sorted itself out. Through to second came the charging Mark Williams in his AC Cobra and Adams in the diminutive Lola. However, both elected to drive alone and take the 60s pitstop hit while Walker duly handed over to Griffiths as the best driver changes cost around 20s.
Williams went ahead but dropped time with a quick spin and when they pitted on the same lap Walker had only a second in hand over Adams. Once installed in the Lotus, Griffiths had a useful margin and could reel off the remaining laps for victory as only Adams stayed on the lead lap. “We like this car a lot,” said Griffiths. “Philip made my life very easy.”
Williams was in the first GT car home in third while up to fourth came the Chris Milner/nigel Greensall Jaguar E-type. Milner turned in a strong opening stint and Greensall then delivered a virtuoso performance to fend off the more developed E-type of Martin Hunt and Patrick Blakeney-edwards for fourth.
Steve Boultbee Brooks continued his winning form at the event by taking a brace of victories in his glorious Aston Martin DB3S. The first strike came in the Jon Gross Memorial Aston Martin race as he stretched clear of a pack headed by the invited Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica of Martyn Corfield. Up to a class-winning third went marque expert Chris Woodgate in the DB MKIII formerly raced by Gross.
At the end of the afternoon, Boultbee Brooks was back out at the head of a strong FISCAR field and had to keep pressing on as Robin Ellis never stopped chasing in his Lotus Elite. Through heavy traffic over the final few laps Ellis hunted the leading Aston and pared the margin back to just three seconds at the flag. Over the first half of the race, the pace and experience of Richard Fores took the Elite of Barry Dye up to and then past BoultbeeBrooks. But after the driver change Dye could not match the pace of his co-driver.
Teenage rising star Ben Tilley was the class of a large Formula Junior field in the Lotus 22 of Paul Smeeth and was never headed with a sure-footed performance. However, early on Westie Mitchell had his De Tomaso on the leader’s gearbox until a time-consuming spin onto the grass on the exit of Quarry put him out of contention.
Peter De La Roche took over in second place in his BMC and was always close enough to keep Tilley on his toes while Richard Smeeton rounded out the podium in his Wainer. Stuart Roach was mighty on his way to fourth overall and leading front-engined car in his Alexis Mk2 while Mark Woodhouse could have been up there but for a spin at Quarry in his Lotus 20/22. On wet and slippery grass, Woodhouse avoided the tyre wall by inches as he rotated before rejoining to finish eighth.
Harry Wyndham topped an entertaining Pre-’66 Jaguar race for the Norman Dewis Trophy but it came down to a very close finish when E-type debutant Grant Williams almost caught the leading E on the line as Chris Milner chased from not too far adrift.
There was a rare Staride one-two in the 500cc Formula 3 race when Darrell Woods overhauled and then pulled away from the similar car of Xavier Kingsland. Hunched over the wheel of the forwardcockpit design, Woods took control to win by nearly 10s.
The racing opened with the now traditional race for Pre-war Sports Cars from the Vintage Sports Car Club and Patrick Blakeney-edwards over-steered his Frazer Nash Super Sports to another win over the similar car of Edward Williams. Trevor Swete was fortunate to be unharmed after his Invicta charged the tyre wall at Camp on the opening lap.