Barter and 70s Road Sports impress at Mallory
MALLORY PARK 360MRC JUNE 10
The Historic Sports Car Club’s pair of 70s Road Sports races was the highlight of Mallory’s Classic and Modern Motorsport Festival thanks to two close encounters.
Charles Barter won from pole with his Datsun 240Z, but a poor start and traffic left him with work to do first time out. Barter’s very slow getaway from the grid as a result of being unfamiliar with his new gearbox handed Mark Leverett the lead in his 1974 Lotus Elan, while Leverett’s son Will spun off at Gerard’s, dropping from third to 19th.
A fine dive on lap six at Gerard’s enabled Barter to retake the lead, but he lost it again at the same spot just three laps later when backmarkers got in his way.
But the Dorchester driver used his car’s superior speed to lunge late on the brakes through the Esses to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. Further back, Will Leverett made a strong recovery to seventh.
Leverett Jr then played a starring role in the second race with a superb move through traffic at the Devil’s Elbow to pass Jeremy Clark (Lotus Elan S4) before taking second from John Williams (Porsche 911SC) one
lap later. But Leverett’s race came undone when an oil leak turned into an engine blow-up on the Stebbe Straight, parking his car for the afternoon and allowing
Barter to win untroubled.
John Davison did well to put his 1963 Lotus Elan S1 on pole among the mighty Morgan +8s for the first of the HSCC’S Historic Road Sports encounters but, despite having an excellent start, he wasn’t able to hold off the +8 pace of Kevin Kivlochan.
It emerged that on the second lap Davison had lost drive on the left-rear wheel, prompting a hasty lunch spent fixing it by cannibalising parts from the Lotus
Elan S3 racer of dad Barry. “I was in fourth gear everywhere except second gear in the hairpin,” the former Olympic and World Championship-level shooter said. “I was very, very pleased to see the finish – when it happened out of Gerard’s I didn’t think it would make it to the end.”
Davison made his father’s sacrifice worthwhile with a storming start to race two. But despite the quick getaway, he couldn’t make a move on Kivlochan, thanks to the Morgan’s stronger straightline speed.
Oulton Park winner Darrell Woods eased his 1953 Staride Mk3 to a straightforward lights-to-flag win in the first of the 500 Owners Association races, cruising across the line nine seconds ahead of Mike Fowler. Woods looked comfortable throughout the second race until a carburettor failure at the end of the penultimate lap forced him to pull off and back into the paddock.
Squabbling for second throughout were the Cooper Mk5s of Richard de la Roche and Fowler, that battle settling in favour of Fowler for the win after Woods’s retirement.
Ryan Edmonds may have cruised his Ariel Atom to a 7.2s win in the first Motorsports School Sports Saloon Challenge, but it was Tim Foxlow who provided the heroics to get second in his Ford Escort among the other Atoms. Foxlow diced with Darren Edmonds throughout, but held on when it counted.