Historic Formula 2 stars at Silverstone

Inaugurated in 1949, the Daily Express International Trophy non-championship Formula 1 race was a staple of Silverstone’s calendar until ’78. The HSCC’S homage has long showcased the event’s classes, but 2018’s brought stunning F1, F2,

F5000, F3 and Formula Ford action, plus stirring Sports Racing and GT enduros.

F2, last run as a stand-alone race here as the ’84 International Trophy – when Mike Thackwell (Ralt-honda) won in the European championship’s final season before F3000 arrived – took centre stage with a magnificent 28-strong entry spanning 1967-78.

Mark Dwyer and Richard Evans set Saturday’s pace in March-bdg 742s, before Dean Forward bustled his Hart 420Rpowered 782 ahead. Alas, Forward buckled a front wheel when he tangled with Luciano Arnold’s Brabham BT36 – which led quintuple champion Robert Simac (March 712) in the Jochen Rindt Trophy 1600cc division – and half-spun at Village. Evans darted past to win as he recovered quickly. Jamie Brashaw (Chevron B25/27) wrested third from Dwyer. Behind the same trio on Sunday came James Murray (Chevron B25) as Simac beat Arnold by 1.252 seconds, his fifth class victory from six starts.

Recalling the wonderful 1000cc

‘screamer’ years of 1964-70, in which

Jackie Stewart, Piers Courage, Peter Westbury, Roy Pike, John Miles and

Dave Walker won International Trophy supports, Historic F3 demonstrated the slipstreaming art and pack hunting anew as Brabham aces Jon Milicevic (ex-mike Keens BT21B) and Andrew Hibberd (ex-chris Irwin BT18) scrapped it out. Defending champion Milicevic extended his unbeaten streak to six races this term. “I’m 50, so what I lack in stamina I have to make up for with technique,” he grinned.

They traded the lead constantly on Sunday, when Milicevic had to dig deeper still. “Once I arrived at Brooklands with every wheel locked and no grip. I just threw it in, but Andrew is a brilliant driver, one of the few you can race that closely with,” he said. Hinwil hunter Christoph Widmer (ex-wal Donnelly BT18) started feistily, but lost bronzes to Steve Smith (Jolly

Club Chevron B15) and Mike Scott

(ex-erkki Salminen BT28).

Following Saturday’s atypically quiet Historic FF round, in which Cameron Jackson (Lola T200) scarpered from the rolling start as poleman Ben Mitchell (Merlyn Mk20) wriggled back past double champion Callum Grant – sidelined when a water pipe burst – for second, Sunday’s sequel featured an epic fight between the table-toppers. “The lead yo-yoed, but our strengths were different,” said Jackson, having lost out by 0.228s. “It was counterintuitive, the short-wheelbase Lola quicker in the fast stuff – Becketts, Club and Abbey – whereas the Merlyn had better traction in the slower corners,” added Mitchell.

Mitchell’s fourth win from eight maintained the status quo, thus 12 points still split them going to Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix Circuit, but breaking 2013

champion brother Sam’s lap record and emulating Rob Cooper’s and Chris Woodcock’s Silverstone wins in the car from 1971-73 were feathers in his cap.

Max Bartell was with them until he “missed a couple of gears”, but a second third place, ahead of a squabble that embroiled the next eight, was another good result. As at Thruxton, Grant shot from the back to sixth, while Jackson’s Neil Fowler Motorsport team-mate Brian

Morris claimed ‘Over Fifties’ honours, won by Switzerland’s Ghislain Genecand (Crossle 16F) on Saturday.

David Shaw (ex-nelson Piquet Ralt RT1) pipped Richard Trott (Chevron B43) for Classic F3 pole by 0.001s, but Anthony Hancock was on sizzling form. From fifth, the gastropub guru bolted his ex-arie Luyendyk Sr/mike Blanchet works development Lola T670, in familiar SDC colours, to win the opener from Shaw and Andy Smith (March 783). Hancock withstood immense pressure from Shaw in the finale until he “chose the wrong side” as they caught two slow FF2000S at Village and Shaw gleefully dived past to win. Ian Pearson (Royale RP30) dominated the URS FF2000 section, twice beating promising debutant Ben Stiles (Van Diemen RF82).

Michael Lyons’s Derek Bell Trophy victories in the ex-al Unser Lola T400 reminded onlookers of F5000 savagery. Even he was shocked when James Hadfield – saddling the Hexagon Trojan T101 on an impressive class debut – “almost had me

at the start” on Saturday. Third qualifier Hadfield was out when his front-left tyre deflated through Woodcote on lap three, but he blasted from the back to a fine second on Sunday, lapping within 1.7s of Lyons’s best while staving off David Shaw’s ex-rolf Stommelen Eifelland March 721.

Leo Voyazides won both Pre-’80 Endurance races at a canter in his Dfvpowered Lola T282, having shaken off the Lola T290s of Mark Richardson and Robert Oldershaw, then on Sunday 1989 Group C2 world champion Nick Adams, sampling Richard Dodkins’s throbbing March-chevrolet 717 Interserie monster.

Voyazides’s fifth Silverstone GT & Sportscar Cup win (a fourth in his black AC Cobra, and with Simon Hadfield) was tougher, achieved when they outran Gary and John Pearson in the latter’s Jaguar E-type by 35s. Philip Walker/miles Griffiths were third in the former’s startling orange Lotus 15, clear of Martin Hunt’s E-type – in which son Theo, 20, set its best lap on his first shot in it – and the Chiles family’s Cobra, shared with Simon Garrad.

Jeremy Welch anchored Martyn Corfeld’s Austin-healey 3000 to GT3 honours as the class hare, the Chris Milner/nigel Greensall E-type, broke. Tim Jacobsen was within metres of Malcolm Paul’s Gt2-leading

TVR Grantura, gaining fast when his

MGB “lost drive” on the Hangar

Straight three laps from the chequer.

Soloist Martin O’connell blitzed the HSCC Guards Trophy round in Sandy Watson’s 1600cc Chevron-fva B8, with Paul Ugo and the race’s star Ben Rushworth gobsmacked to be second when Simon Hadfield/michael Schryver (B6) and Julian Thomas/calum Lockie (B8) were penalised 30s for stopping outside the pit window. Outqualified in tricky damp conditions by Singapore commuter Oliver Ford, debuting his 26R-spec Lotus Elan, points leader John Davison reversed the order in the dry race, scooping class gold in his Elan as he chased GT winner John Spiers’s TVR Griffith.

With father Graeme unwell, James

Dodd raced their E-type to Jaguar Classic Challenge victory over the Pearson brothers and Ben Short/nick Riley, the latter overjoyed with his first podium. Milner/greensall took advantage of conflicting pit-window regulations to land Class D from Martin Melling and a disgruntled Jason Minshaw.

Hibberd (25) made Milicevic (1) work for double win

MURRAY’S MINT CHEVRON James Murray debuted his ex-peter Gethin 1973 Chevron B25 in the Historic Formula 2 feature races, finishing fourth from the back of the grid on Sunday, after a rideheight issue. Back in its works livery, the B25’s appearance delighted HSCC director Grahame White, who left his long-term BARC race-management role to become Chevron’s sales manager at the time.

ANTIPODEAN STAR Two second places on his UK racing debut in Classic FF2000 with the ex-paul Burt Van Diemen RF82 – acquired from Ken Thorogood of series sponsor Universal Racing Services – were superb results for Ben Stiles, who now aims to close the gap to past master Ian Pearson. New Zealand-based Stiles is son of long-time Brands Hatch FF1600 favourite farmer Trevor.

AUSTRALIAN SPORTS RACER One of four Elfin 300s built by Garrie Cooper in Adelaide, this 1967 chassis was uniquely fitted with an ex-team Lotus 1500cc Coventry-climax FPF Formula 1 engine stretched to two litres and mated to a Hewland FT200 gearbox by Garth Mcgillewie in South Africa. Owned by Briton Will Walker, it was shared by Bentley 3/4½ veteran Randal Stewart.

Evans (yellow car) prevailed in F2 opener after scrap with Dwyer (22) and Forward (13)

Hancock (32) and Shaw (3) duelled in Classic F3

Voyazides’s Lola (1) was class of Pre-’80 Endurance field