Top drivers
Marcus Pye picks out the best exponents of the art
Pneumatic tyre pioneer Dunlop and historic racing are synonymous. For more than 30 years, specialist motorsport distributor HP Tyres – set up by Jaguar racer John Pearson (Sr) – has flown the yellow-andblack flag superbly, supplying and servicing a spectrum of categories on-event and from its HQ, now in Daventry.
The variety of Dunlop-shod cars, spanning towards a century of sport, showcases an enormous pool of driving talent. The following alumni are the pick of the crop, masters who wow enthusiasts at trackside or via TV streaming from monster events such as the Silverstone Classic or Goodwood’s Revival and Members’ Meetings.
Excluding, in the main, professional drivers, these skilled competitors can (and do) beat anybody in their field on Dunlops. Winning season after season is no coincidence. Eking every last ounce of performance from highly tuned machinery demands the ability to find the limit of adhesion. And often exceeding it, which guarantees spectacular, crowd-pleasing action.
Attempting to rank my subjective top 12 would be invidious. Having reported historic racing for 40 years, it’s safe to say that, where engine power far exceeds mechanical grip, in cars unfettered by downforce, Simon Hadfield, Martin O’connell, Gary Pearson and Martin Stretton are Dunlop’s ultimate prize guys, yardsticks who rivals should be proud to measure themselves against.
JULIAN BRONSON
Burly Bristolian fork-lift company boss Bronson, 67, cut his teeth on grasstracks in a £5 Hillman Minx but switched to circuit racing with the
Vintage Sports-car Club.
Ever the showman, he tamed a ferocious supercharged 1937 Riley Blue Streak Special fearlessly, once taking the chequered flag at Silverstone in a fireball when its engine exploded rounding Woodcote!
Bronson’s four Monaco GP Historique race victories in
ERAS (in 2002 aboard Donald Day’s ex-johnny Wakefield/bob Gerard R14B, then a hat-trick in Mac Hulbert’s ex-works R4D) are testament to his touch and tenacity. Equally adept in mighty Lister-chevrolet and Mclaren M1C sportscars, Julian currently campaigns a front-engined F1 Scarab-offenhauser – an outmoded failure for American financier Lance Reventlow in 1960 – in HGPCA events and always claims scalps in the wet.
OLIVER BRYANT
Eyecatchingly rapid in MGB, powerful Morgan +8 and AC Cobra as a lad brought up at circuits supporting father Grahame, Oliver Bryant, 32, has built his reputation entirely in closed-wheel competition, winning more than a quarter of his 500-plus races.
Omnipresent in historics, where he races thundering Lola T70s with distinction, he has been a force on the modern GT scene since 2004. Third in the 2015 Spa 24 Hours, he raced a Chevrolet Corvette to ninth at Le Mans in the GTE Am class in ’16.
Ollie has a superb record in the family Cobra, notably at Spa. But despite qualifying on pole twice, Goodwood’s RAC TT Celebration continues to elude him. His victory at that circuit came in the Members’ Meeting’s Gerry Marshall Trophy race in the ex-richard Lloyd Chevrolet Camaro.
DUNCAN DAYTON
Minnesota-born hobbyist Dayton, 58, has always been stunning round the streets of Monaco, where he tops the GP Historique’s all-time winners’ list with 11 victories, five clear of Martin Stretton. One was scored in a Formula Junior Cooper, two in a screaming 1500cc Brabham-climax BT11 V8 and four in a front-engined Lotus 16 – all on Dunlop tyres – and four in his Cosworth Dfv-powered Brabham BT33.
Dayton enjoys his extraordinary historic car collection to the full. Battling back to fitness following a fall in which he broke his neck, then returning to the cockpit of highdownforce sports-prototypes in the American Le Mans Series, remains his biggest victory.
MARK GILLIES
British-born motoring journalist Gillies relocated to the United States and is now senior
Product and Technology Communications manager with Volkswagen of America. Weaned on vintage racing – his late father Barrie was a renowned Riley specialist – he honed his fast and mechanically sympathetic racing skills in the beefy supercharged Brooke Special, developing rapidly into one of the world’s finest ERA and Maserati handlers.
Driving for such enthusiastic and focused owners as Dick Skipworth and (his late mentor) Rodney Smith, Mark has the best strike record of any ERA exponent in recent years. In addition to countless VSCC trophies, five wins in R3A, plus one in a Cooper T53, place him third on the Goodwood Revival’s car winners’ list behind Gary Pearson and Richard Attwood.
SIMON HADFIELD
Prolific winner Hadfield, 60, is a lifelong racing fanatic. Adrian Reynard’s first employee, an
ATS and Merzario mechanic at the poor end of F1 pitlanes in the 1970s, and a British F3 cameo racer of the mid-’80s, he knows better than most how not to go racing. Passion for detail and testing are keys to his preparation business’s success.
Son of Lotus 11GT racer George Hadfield, growing up at races fuelled Simon’s love for and profound knowledge of Colin Chapman’s marque. He debuted an Elan in ’81 and has won in many Lotuses, including Michael Schryver’s 72.
Hadfield and Schryver scored many wins in Michael’s Chevron B6, starting a record run of five Spa Six Hours victories in ’97 and ’98. In its subsequent pre-1966 era Simon prevailed in Wolfgang Friedrichs’s Aston Martin DP214 clone and twice in Leo Voyazides’ Ford GT40.
Hadfield, whose feel in the wet is sublime, relishes a chase. Hauling Friedrichs’s DP212 back from midfield, reeling in and then passing Anthony Reid (Lister-jaguar coupe) to win Goodwood’s 2013 RAC TT Celebration – in Aston Martin’s centenary – rates among the genre’s greatest drives.
A winner in just about everything, from Lotus Cortina to Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham BT49 at Brno in ’96, Simon has triumphed at Monaco, and in Elva Mk8 and Lola T70 at Goodwood, and has a superb Silverstone Classic record. He is equally happy, though, racing a Historic Formula Ford at Anglesey.
PHIL KEEN
His Formula Renault aspirations derailed by lack of budget in 2002, kart graduate Keen, now 34, took the bold step of jumping
into the Dunlop-shod TVR Tuscan Challenge, finishing third. The Reading racer has subsequently forged his career in GT and sports-prototypes. He finished second in last year’s British GT title race in a Lamborghini Huracan with Jon Minshaw.
Much of Keen’s historic success has also been earned with Demon Tweeks boss Minshaw, sharing his cars or racing them solo, as at Goodwood last year in the Lister-jaguar. Super-fast and neat, Keen’s skills have translated equally to Mike Gardiner’s Ford Falcon and a Porsche 934, in which he frightened rivals by trumping their prototypes in the wet at the Algarve Circuit in 2016.
ANDY MIDDLEHURST
Son of 1960s Austin A40 racer Phil Middlehurst, Andy was a Formula Ford frontrunner in the 1980s, when the class ran on Dunlop tyres. Having switched to saloons and developed the family Nissan dealership in St Helens into Britain’s foremost Skyline GTR specialist, Jim Clark fan Andy, now 54, discovered historics with
Lotus 23B and ex-works Ford
Lotus Cortina. But he realised a dream when Australian John Bowers invited him to race his Lotus-climax 25, Clark’s ’63 world championship winner, prepared by period mechanic Bob Dance at Classic Team Lotus. Five straight Glover Trophy wins at Goodwood and a Monaco GP Historique hat-trick from 2012 proves their class. As did defeating Peter Horsman’s 2.5-litre Lotus 18/21 with the screaming 1500cc V8 at Zandvoort last season.
ANDY NEWALL
Sometime Mallory Park
Formula Fordster Newall changed direction when he was preparing historic racing cars at Simon Hadfield’s emporium, building a four-wheel-drive
Land Rover-based Bowler Wildcat and becoming a champion off-road competitor.
Having co-founded Gelscoe Motorsport with Jon Brewin, to build Ford GT40 evocations to FIA HTP specification,
Newall returned to circuit racing through preparing cars for
Sir Anthony Bamford of
JCB Excavators. Andy raced Bamford’s rampant Can-am Mclaren-chevrolet M8F and Chevron-bmw B8, claiming the 2016 FIA Masters Historic Sportscar title in the latter.
Always a forceful frontrunner, Newall, 50, has also wrung huge speed from Jaguar E-types owned by British bakery baron Ross Warburton (ex-peter Lumsden/peter Sargent low-drag Le Mans coupe) and German equestrian ace-turned-race engineer Rhea Sautter.
MARTIN O’CONNELL
Lauded by his peers as probably the fastest historic racer over a lap – the Rene Arnoux of his era? – stocky West Midlands speed merchant O’connell, 45, opened eyes in speed events as a teenager, preparing cars and competing under the wing of his uncle Ray Rowan, winner of the RAC British Sprint championships in 1981 and
’85 and Hillclimb title in ’89.
Given O’connell’s racing pedigree his pace should be no surprise. British Formula Vauxhall Junior champion in 1992, he graduated to the two-litre Fvauxhall category with one victory, then won
Class B (for older-spec cars) in ’94. Runner-up to Jonny Kane in the main title race the following year, Martin suppressed Kane’s Paul Stewart Racing team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya to third! British F3 National Class champion in ’97 and ’99, he also showed form in sports-prototype racing, where his talent shone despite small budgets.
Historic racing has levelled the playing field in recent years. O’connell has racked up many wins in Swiss-domiciled
Scottish car recycling pioneer Sandy Watson’s Chevrons – the B8s (with two-litre BMW and 1600cc Cosworth FVA power), like various Jaguar E-types, on period-style Dunlops, although he is equally adept on slicks.
Always flat-out from the start lights, Martin has blitzed opposition in the Chevron GTS, adding spice to the HSCC’S Dunlop-supported Guards Trophy championship on spasmodic appearances. In 2015 he also won the Autosport Three Hours – a retrospective of the 1957-64 races – at Snetterton driving single-handed in an E-type.
GARY PEARSON
Synonymous with Jaguars, catalyst of the thriving family motorsport engineering business he runs from a base close to Silverstone, Gary Pearson has won in everything from C-types of the 1950s to wailing highdownforce V12-engined Group C cars of the ’80s.
Pearson tried his hand at Formula Ford with an elderly Hawke before broadening his competition CV. An ace mechanic, Gary was much in demand around dad John’s wide circle of friends as a young man, working on David Piper’s Ferraris, Porsche 917 and Lola T70s at circuits dotted around Europe and beyond. That experience was vital in evolving the race-preparation shop to serve an ever-wider client base, with Brazilian Carlos Monteverde’s diverse car collection providing many driving opportunities.
With his ultra-neat laid-back driving style and open-face helmet in early cars, Gary looks every inch the period racer. He
tops the car-race winners’ list at the Goodwood Revival Meeting with 12 victories, saddling Jaguar C and D-types, Cooper-jaguar, Lister-jaguar ‘Knobbly’, BRM Type 25 and Lola T70 Spyder.
A big favourite on home soil, you’ll get short odds on Pearson at the Silverstone Classic, where he’s taken MRL’S Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy chequered flag four times in Jaguar D-types – including Monteverde’s ex-jim Clark car – as well as won in an E-type with brother John Jr, Listers, XJR-11, Ferrari 250 GT SWB, 250LM and 512S, and Lola Mk5 and Brabham BT7A singleseaters. As you might expect, having tested them for tens of thousands of miles, nobody understands Dunlop tyres better.
FRANK STIPPLER
One of the few modern factory professionals who competes regularly – with an easy manner – in historic events, Audi development driver
Stippler, 42, appreciates the dynamics of the pre-war Maserati 6CM, iconic 250F and Birdcage sportscars better than most, mastering them with a beautifully fluid style that appears almost effortless from trackside. Simon Hadfield believes Stippler could be the best of all.
The 2003 Porsche Supercup and Carrera Cup Germany champion won both the Nurburgring and Spa 24 Hours in 2012 in Audi R8s, but is as happy in one of the key oldtimer festivals at Silverstone, Spa or the Nurburgring. Having started his career in an Alfa Romeo Alfetta, Cologne-born Stippler adores baiting Lotus Cortinas and BMW 1800Tis in a GTA too. He and Alexander Furiani won in one at Goodwood in 2013.
MARTIN STRETTON
Thwarted in his attempt to make the racing grade conventionally in the early-1980s Dunlopautosport Star of Tomorrow Formula Ford championship when he ran out of money, Worcestershire-based Stretton, 58, switched to vintage cars – in which family members were entrenched – where his natural speed brought success in chain-gang Frazer Nashes.
Having captured the attention of success-hungry car owners, Martin revelled in drives proffered in early GP cars, from a pre-war Maserati to Connaught and Cooper machinery of the ’50s and a 1500cc Lotus 25 V8 in which his artistry was a joy to behold.
A new three-litre F1 chapter opened in 1995 when Simon Bull – BBC TV’S Antiques Roadshow horology expert – put Stretton in his Tyrrell 006 for the inaugural FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix championship. He won the title and repeated the feat in a six-wheeler Tyrrell
P34 in 2000. In recent years, armed with his preparation team customer Martin Adams’s Tyrrell 012, the multiple Historic F2 title winner has won more races in what is now the FIA Masters Historic F1 championship.
A modern GT racing stint with Konrad Motorsport Porsches didn’t bring results, but Martin had plenty on his plate in his speciality. On treaded Dunlop tyres he has notched six Monaco GP Historique victories, four at the Goodwood Revival and won the Spa Six Hours four times – thrice in Jaguar E-types with Jon and Jason Minshaw, and once in Diogo Ferrao’s Ford GT40.
CHRIS WARD
When lack of finance dictated that his racing aspirations stalled
at Formula Vauxhall in the 1990s, Ward scaled back his activities but continued to win in the Supersports Vauxhall class. Chief circuit instructor at Silverstone for 20 years, Ward jumped ship to run Derek Hood’s JD Classics racing enterprise, a lucrative career move that has showcased his talent in some great cars.
Chris’s wheel-twirling prowess in Jaguar C-type, Cooper-jaguar T33 and Lister-jaguar sportscars have brought much success to the Essex-based equipe. An HSCC Autosport 3 Hours win with Chris Buncombe and two RAC TT Celebration victories (with triple BTCC champion Gordon Shedden) at Goodwood in E-types paved the way to last year’s big prize, a resounding Spa Six Hours triumph with Andrew Smith in a Ford GT40. His success is unlikely to stop there.
SAM WILSON
Nine successive Silverstone Classic Formula Junior victories in the ex-dave Charlton Lotus 20/22 and 11 from the last 14 distinguish Sam Wilson as the category’s quickest and most consistent driver. The last time he was beaten in the doubleheader was in 2013, having lost out to Jon Milicevic and David Methley the previous season.
A brilliant engine builder, the red-haired Leicester tiger won on his 500cc F3 debut in a Kieft-norton at the Goodwood Revival, and claimed FJ gold in his Cooper T59. Wilson has also won a Members’ Meeting race in Alan Baillie’s Cooper T71/73. Now enjoying F1 power, Sam dominated last September’s
Spa HGPCA races in Sir John Chisholm’s ex-jim Clark/innes Ireland Lotus-climax 18.