BRILLIANT WINSTANLEY WIN REWARDS GRAFT
Danny Winstanley needs no introduction to Caterham and TVR racers, but the Lancastrian privateer’s sensational
Jaguar Classic Challenge victory over E-type racing grandees Pearsons Engineering and Valley Motorsport in a 1963 Fixed Head Coupe built with father Craig was the talk of the paddock.
Winstanley’s pace in the broadshouldered machine was no surprise to those who witnessed the soggy E-type 60th Anniversary celebration at last July’s Silverstone Classic. The double Caterham 420R champion finished second on the road to fellow FHC debutant Ben Mitchell, only for both to be controversially nobbled on countback after a premature stoppage.
Evoking memories of northern Modsports aces Bryan Litherland, Brian Mills and Brian Murphy’s exploits in the 1970s, and John Quick’s WOO 11 FHC in the south, Winstanley’s machine now has a pukka engine – from the car crashed by Charles Gillett in the 2018 Spa Six Hours – but participation at Donington could have been derailed by gearbox failure and a massive oil leak on Wednesday’s trackday.
Team technician Martin Slingsby explained: “The gearbox failed in the last session and I knew we needed a clutch, so I shot down to Silverstone [for one], while Danny took the car back to Preston to replace the main crankshaft oil seal.
By the time I got to the workshop, the engine was out! Following repairs, I got home to Scunthorpe at 0100!”
Fast forward to qualifying and Winstanley gridded third on 1m19.313s, behind the semi-lightweights of Jon Minshaw – in which Phil Keen cut 1m17.703s – and Gary Pearson/alex Brundle. “Realistically, we were looking for third,” said Slingsby. Winstanley, however, had higher aspirations.
Minshaw led boldly from the start, extending a three-second advantage over Winstanley within six laps. Gary Pearson was a conservative third, his tactic to stop when the window opened to relay hotshoe Brundle and take over brother John’s E, destined to fall to half-shaft failure.
VMS hopes dived when Minshaw reported a burst exhaust box, sapping power. “We’re an injured soldier,” said Jon, who sent Keen out just behind Winstanley, who had pitted on his tail. But Keen’s race lasted three laps before a steering mount broke and he parked by the pit exit. Already out was Chris Ward with an oil leak on Richard Kent’s Pearsons-tended car.
Brundle, with diff smoking, was unable to catch Winstanley, who finished 25s clear after a short safety car, triggered when oil from Nick Finburgh’s E (John Burton’s car) sent Marc Gordon spinning into team-mate Peter Adams’s machine at Hollywood.
“The first I knew was seeing a bonnet spinning upside down in the track,” said Simon Hadfield, who had growled Joaquin Folch’s fabulous ex-bruce Mclaren Lightweight up from 10th to fourth, catching Jonathan Mitchell. With Matt Wrigley on his tail, Hadfield pounced on Mitchell for third on the final lap. Guy Ziser/chris Ward won the early division from Katarina Kyvalova/rob Hall.