Rainfailstodampen spirits at Castle Combe
Castle Combe’s Autumn Classic on 2 October was the event’s 10th running, and it continued its knack of catching the week’s worst weather. Nevertheless, the grids were large and the competition fierce, even if the F3 500s race that opened the programme was a runaway win for Tom Waterfield in his Cooper-norton Mk9. Waterfield (FN Super Sports) later chased down Dougal Cawley’s ‘Piglet’, which lost its fourth gear chain, to take Frazer Nash spoils.
The Vintage Sports-car Club’s Owner Driver Mechanic Pre-war
Sports Cars race was won from pole by Simon Blakeney-edwards (Frazer Nash Super Sports), but he had to resist Tim Kneller’s Riley TT Sprite to finish just 1.246 secs clear. The second VSCC encounter was won by Cawley in his by then repaired Gn-ford.
The Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club’s two-driver, 40-minute Norman Dewis Trophy was initially headed by Grant Williams (Mk2) and John Young (Lister Mk1), but Richard Butterfield and Peter Dorlin’s Mk2 led after the stops to take the flag, sideways, by more than 12 secs.
Oliver Llewellyn and his father Tim blasted from the back of the FISCAR Historic Intermarque field to win aboard their Allard J2, just 1.543 secs clear of David Alexander in a Lotus Elite.
The meeting closed with a 90-minute, safety-car-affected GT & Sports Car Cup race. The John Watson/dan Cox/matthew Watts Lotus Elan 26R held the lead from pole, but stints by Jeremy Welch in the two ex-works Austin-healey 3000s owned by Mark Holme and Doug Muirhead helped them to score a 1-2 respectively.