Eastick finally finishes his father’s Bentley job

SILVERSTONE BDC

7 AUGUST

Ben Eastick finally achieved a lifetime ambition at the Bentley Drivers Club’s 73rd race meeting at Silverstone last Saturday.

Eastick’s father Barry started his incredible Bentley T Type special from pole in the 1977 running of the Times Trophy, but crashed in the race, halted development on the low-line special, and later sold it. At the time, young Eastick Jr made a promise to one day get it back and prove it to be a winner.

Forty years on, Ben finally acquired the car and started having it rebuilt with the prime target of winning the Times Trophy and, 44 years on from his father’s accident, he concluded a piece of family business.

Despite a major penalty at the start of the handicap race, Eastick had little trouble in scything up the order and taking control from long-time leader Chris Mann in his glorious Alfa Romeo 8C Monza and Clive Morley’s Bentley. “It’s taken three years to get it up and running,” said Eastick after a very emotional result. “On the day he sold it, I promised my dad that one day I’d buy it back and prove that it works.”

As ever, Morgans played a big part in the programme, with a double-header for the Morgan Challenge as well as a strong contingent in the Classic Challenge. In a car that has been in the family since before he was born, Olly Bryant won the Morgan Challenge opener in the +8 that his father Grahame bought new from the Morgan factory in 1977. On a rare race outing for the car, Bryant had to work his way around Bill Lancashire before easing clear for victory.

Later in the day, the story was much the same. Lancashire made the running over the first couple of laps and then, after an exploratory foray on the previous tour, Bryant made it stick into Copse and edged away, despite a lot of traffic over the second half of the race. Lancashire did well to stay within six seconds of the winner.

Roger Whiteside rounded out the first podium, while Oliver Pratt charged to fourth after starting at the back of the grid. When a mechanical disaster struck his ex-matthew Wurr +8 in qualifying, he borrowed his brother William’s +4 for the races. Pratt went one better to take a podium in the second race.

This was the day when Ecurie Classic Racing really came of age as a mighty

36-car field raced for 40 minutes and delivered fine entertainment. It was a great advert for the series for pre-66 sports, GTS and saloons as it heads towards the conclusion of its debut season.

Allan Ross-jones set the mark in his Triumph TR4 and was able to pull clear for a stylish win. But in his wake things were far from settled, and a great battle raged over the podium places for much of the race. Over the final laps, the oversteering Austinhealey 100/4 of Oliver and Nicholas Harris tigered ahead of Tom Andrew in his even more sideways Alfa Romeo Giulia.

The MG BCV8 contenders put on two good races as the V8 brigade fought at the head of the pack. In the opener, series dominator Ollie Neaves asserted his authority as he established a 10s advantage over the second-place battle between Neil Fowler and Robert Spencer.

Later in the afternoon, Neaves did it again, but it took him a couple of laps to

depose early leader Spencer. Fowler dropped back and Spencer later retired, so Ian Prior moved up to second from Russell Mccarthy, who had charged up from the back of the grid after failing to finish the opening race.

Jack Bellinger had a scare on the opening lap of the Classic Challenge when a rain shower caught him out. But he had such a big lead when he arrived at Becketts that he was able to spin and get going again without losing the lead for more than a few yards. Bellinger’s Morgan +4 then kept the later Morgan ‘Babydoll’ of Craig Hamilton-smith at arm’s length, before young Jack Smith was the first non-morgan in third in the family MGA.

T Type Bentley was on pole for BDC event in 1977 and Eastwick Jr has now delivered a win

There was no stopping Bryant (right) once he had breached Lancashire’s defences in each Morgan race

WALES’S FINEST There are few Gilberns racing these days, and one of only three currently active in the UK is the 1964 1800GT of Mike Lamplough. The Welsh-built low-volume sportscar was based heavily on MGB running gear, engine and gearbox, while the rear wings were developed from the Austin A40. Lamplough bought his car as a box of bits and rebuilt it as a 2020 lockdown project. “This is its fourth race meeting,” said Lamplough, who finished sixth in class in Ecurie Classic at Silverstone.

A VERY SPECIAL BENTLEY The stunning Bentley T Type Special developed by Ben Eastick’s father Barry in the 1970s is the most advanced racing Bentley of the era, although it’s based on a prototype Rolls-royce Silver Shadow chassis. “Dad liked the look of the Lister Monza Jaguar, so he based it as an offset single-seater but he also, obviously, liked D-types, so the fairing at the back was like a short-nosed D-type,” said Ben of the six-litre V8 Bentley supercharged device.

DEAN’S ONE-OFF MG Back in 1954, former works MG racer Dick Jacobs decided to build an MG special for sportscar racing. He took the last MG YB saloon chassis and developed a one-off, using a tubular spaceframe to support the body. There were plans to build more, but only one was ever finished, Jacobs racing it at Goodwood and internationally. The Dick Jacobs Special has a near continuous racing history and is now owned by Stuart Dean, who finished third in class in FISCAR.