Greensall and Milner star at Historic Tourist Trophy
SILVERSTONE MRL/MSVR 25 OCTOBER
Nigel Greensall converted Lister-chevrolet owner Chris Milner’s brave start into a sensational Stirling Moss Trophy victory, which set the tone for Motor Racing Legends’ new RAC Historic Tourist Trophy event on Silverstone’s Grand Prix circuit.
Organised in five weeks – the logistics of getting to Portugal for its regular Algarve
Classic Festival finale under COVID-19 conditions made the trip unviable – the meeting attracted a superlative entry and Royal Automobile Club patronage.
Greensall and Andrew Smith (Listerjaguar) locked out the front row for the one-hour SMT/RAC Woodcote Trophy race, but the owners started. Smith’s co-driver Mark Donnor did a brilliant job, shaking off hard-charging Rudi Friedrichs’s Jaguar C-type, 2002 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Mark Cole (debuting a 1500cc Lotus 11) and John Spiers (Listerjaguar Knobbly). Despite pressure from Spiers, it was soloist Cole who chased Donnor into the pits after nine laps.
Friedrichs stopped from the lead next time round and Milner – running behind Justin Maeers (Cooper Monaco), Spiers and Fred Wakeman (Cooper-jaguar T38) – relayed Greensall, who hared after
Smith. The Scot had a half-spin at Club, then ran wide exiting Becketts on lap 19 of 22, where Greensall struck.
“I had wheelspin in top gear down the Hangar Straight,” he said after taking the chequered flag by just 0.214 seconds. Cole was third, clear of Patrick Blakeneyedwards, in Wakeman’s Cooper.
Ford Sierra Cosworth turbo cars finished 1-2-3 in the Historic Touring Car Challenge event, David Tomlin having outbraked
Julian Thomas to lead into Club, where his rival’s brake-troubled machine subsequently visited the gravel trap. Post-stops, Tomlin repassed Mark Wright twice in short order and survived a bash from James Hanson (Group 1 Capri) at Luffield. As Wright’s brakes wilted, he kept second as handling issues slowed Calum Lockie in Thomas’s car.
In glorious sunshine, 58 starters made an unforgettable sight in the Historic TT feature, before dark clouds gathered. As showers made the going treacherous, the contrasting Shelby Cobras of Thomas and Andrew Jordan (in Adrian Willmott’s) slugged it out. AJ pulled alongside the Daytona coupe a couple of times, rounding
Stowe abreast, but there was no way past.
On Dunlop M-section tyres, while the opposition were on Ls, the Cobras exploited superior grip, but Thomas’s pit call under a convoluted safety car hiatus gifted Lockie a handsome one-minute lead. A devastating series of fastest laps extended it as the track dried and, when Thomas clambered back in after the second mandatory five-minute stop, he was still way clear of Richard Kent (Jaguar E-type), whose partner Chris Ward had demoted Willmott. Jordan chased Kent to regain second on the penultimate lap.
Grahame and Olly Bryant’s four-stopping AC Cobra (two of them for pit infringement penalties) was still fourth, ahead of Jon Minshaw and son Jack (E-type).
Best sports-racer was the ex-bruce Mclaren Lotus 15 of Roger Wills/david
Clark in seventh, after James Cottingham’s Tojeiro-jaguar threw a rod when lying fourth.