GILLIES SURVIVES THE RAIN TO DENY WATERFIELD
The annual Vintage Sports Car Club Formula Vintage race kicked off the Castle Combe Autumn Classic programme on a soaking track and quickly became a contest between Mark Gillies, in Dick Skipworth’s Aston Martin Speed, and the Frazer Nash Supersports of young Tom Waterfield. Though Waterfield led the opening lap, Gillies was soon ahead and pulling clear.
Later on, Waterfield closed in again during lappery but Gillies reasserted his authority by the flag. “The engine went flat and it wouldn’t really rev,” explained Waterfield. He dropped the revs and it cleared enough for him to close back in on Gillies, but the problem returned on the final lap.
“The conditions were changing every lap and you just had to drive by feel,” said race winner Gillies. Meanwhile, Christopher Mann completed the podium in his glorious Alfa Romeo Monza. Patrick Blakeney-edwards started the Frazer Nash Owlet saloon from pole but the Owlet became a drowned rat and misfired into a late retirement.
John Young showed his class with a wonderful performance in the Norman Dewis Trophy for Pre ’66 Jaguars, slithering his Mk1 Saloon to a fine victory on a treacherous track.
Julian Thomas worked wonders just to keep his E-type on the track, but was never able to get its power onto the road sufficiently to deal with Young. “I couldn’t touch him on the twisty bits,” said Thomas.
Young said: “It was very slippery to start with and I was sideways quite a lot. Julian was giving me a hard time!” Andrew Keith-lucas made fine progress from ninth on the grid in his XK150S to round out a suitably diverse podium, after Tom Butterfield spun his Mk2 at Quarry.
Bruce Montgomery was easily the class of a strong Austin Healey field, which raced in memory of photographer and journalist Phil Broster. “It wasn’t easy at all and I knew I’d got to build a bit of a lead if I could because of the quick people behind,” said Montgomery of a chasing pack comprising Oliver Chatham, David Grace and Mike Thorne. In working his humble four-cylinder 100M ahead of Grace and onto the podium, Thorne was a particular star, while Chatham nearly lost it all with a spin at Quarry when he went just off-line onto the wetter part of the track. He quickly regained his composure and was still less than five seconds down on Montgomery at the flag.
Nissan GT racer Richard Bradley spent just 28 hours in the UK between China and Japan but used it to good effect to dominate the Formula Junior race once he had overcome early leader and championship favourite Peter de la Roche. Bradley mastered the conditions in the family Brabham BT2 and then left for a dash to Heathrow for his next flight.
Stuart Roach led the chase of the fleeing Bradley once de la Roche had a time-consuming spin at The Esses. De la Roche, the reigning champion, just missed out on overhauling Adrian Russell for the final podium place but duly added another class maximum to his score. A gritty drive from Alex Morton to second in class from a lowly grid position kept his title hopes running to the Silverstone final.
Two separate safety car periods interrupted the flow of the hour-long GT and Sports Car Cup counter but a fabulous grid still delivered a race of outstanding quality. The first caution came when the Gilbern of Bob Binfield head-butted the barriers at Quarry with some force and the second safety car intervention soon followed when the flying Morgan SLR of Billy Bellinger/keith Ahlers could not avoid a spinning MGB at Folly.
None of this altered Gary Pearson’s dominance of the race with a virtuoso solo performance in his Jaguar E-type. “What a great place,” said Pearson on the podium on only his second race at the Wiltshire track. The previous time had been a quarter of a century ago in a Pre ’74 Formula Ford Hawke. Mark Williams, another local star, ran home second in his AC Cobra. “It’s not so good in the wet,” he said after qualifying back in fifth in the rain-soaked session.
Austin Healey racer Martyn Corfield jumped into his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica to score a classy FISCAR victory but could never relax too much as the battling Stephen Bond (Lister Flat Iron) and Marc Gordon (Jaguar XK150) were always in touch as they disputed second place.
Finally, as the light faded, Michael Squire’s Ford Mustang topped the Pre ’66 Touring Car race run in the memory of Terry Sanger ( see below). Julian Thomas, with his Ford Falcon patched up after an off in qualifying, led the chase and Steve Maxted topped the Mini pack.