Unstoppable Wilson doubles up in Holden Monaro
Andy Wilson’s seven-litre Holden Monaro came out on top of both Classic Thunder races, held in vastly different conditions, on Silverstone’s International layout.
In a wet opener, he blasted well clear on the first lap, leaving the Ford Sierras of Dan Brown and Bradley Gelman to fight Andy Robinson’s Ford Falcon for second. But their battle allowed James Janicki (Nissan Skyline) to close and, by the end of lap four of 12, he had passed all three and consolidated second place.
Robinson briefly dropped to fourth but, after retaking Brown, he had reduced Janicki’s hold on second to only 0.301 seconds at the flag, with Gelman demoting Brown to fifth a lap from home.
It was another lights-to-flag win for Wilson in the dry race two, but Robinson was just inches away over the final laps. Brown had an early battle for third with Gelman, before leaving his rival to fend off Janicki’s challenge for fourth, until Gelman retired to the pits after nine of 13 laps.
There was a double winner in the Pre-’66 & ’83 Touring Cars too, with Simon Jeffs’s Volkswagen Golf GTI in command. While Jeffs led the opening race, Mike Luck (BMW E21) and Stephen Primett (Ford Escort Mk1) had an intense duel for second, before Luck almost lost it at Stowe and Primett crashed heavily in avoidance.
That promoted the Escort Mk1 of Mark Lucock to second, and he headed a sevencar train from which David Howard’s Jaguar XJ12 battled through to clinch the runnerup spot a lap from home, ahead of Lucock and Stuart Caie’s Ford Capri, with Luck recovering to fifth.
Howard made an early break in race two as Jeffs and Lucock battled over second but, once Jeffs had made his move stick, he reeled in Howard and led from lap six. After losing out to Luck on the following lap, Howard had a duel with Lucock for the final podium spot, which was settled in the Escort driver’s favour on the last lap.
A double National Formula Ford victory for Neil Maclennan (Spectrum KMR) gave the Scot the title. Initially, he had to hunt down Ross Martin and Rory Smith in race one, and passed Smith’s Medina JL18 into Stowe on the fifth lap.
Martin’s lead began to decrease, and on the penultimate lap they came out of Club side by side, before Maclennan made the decisive move on Martin’s Van Diemen RF99 down Hangar Straight. Smith retained a solitary third, while a four-car train for fourth featured Matthew Cowley (Van Diemen JL15) getting the better of Jamie Sharp (Medina) a lap from home.
The second race was split into two groups of three by the second lap, with Maclennan, Martin and Oliver White ((Medina) heading the Low Dempsey Rays of Jonathan Browne and Bryce Aron along with Joey Foster’s Firman RFR20.
Just after White had tried for second at Club, Martin successfully challenged Maclennan for the lead, only to run wide and hand it back. It remained nose-to-tail to the flag, but it was Maclennan’s race and title, while White fell back into a lonely third as Browne broke clear from the chasing pack to claim fourth.
The Praga R1T of Danny Harrison and Jem Hepworth won the first Britcar Endurance race, despite Hepworth causing chaos with a spin at the first corner. Steve Burgess and Ben Dimmack finished second
in their Radical RXC after ousting Garry Townsend and Jack Fabby (Praga), who settled in fifth behind Ross Wylie/paul Bailey (Ferrari 488 Challenge) and Mike Moss/andy Schulz (BMW 1M).
Dimmack had the lead of the second race after Hepworth ran wide at Village on the opening lap, and Burgess retained their advantage after the driver swap, but was being caught by Harrison until brake failure left the Praga sidelined. Townsend/fabby secured second from Wylie/bailey.
All three Caterham Graduates races featured race-long duels between Harry Senior and Jamie Ellwood. Senior just won the first two, Ellwood dropping to third behind Stephen Clark in the opener, but Ellwood finally got his win in the third.
After snatching a last-lap victory over Chris Davison’s Dallara F301 in the first Tiedeman Trophy Monoposto race, Chris Woodhouse (Jedi) was never headed in race two as the Dallara F304 of Tony Bishop claimed a late second.
Dave Mellor came out on top of the first MG Owners’ Club contest after charging past Fergus Campbell’s similar MG ZR on Hangar Straight, but couldn’t breach Campbell’s defence in the second.
Both Britcar Trophy races were dominated by the BMW M3 of Adam Howarth and Chris Boardman.