SPECIAL SALOONS/MODSPORTS MARK 40 YEARS AT MALLORY PARK
The Classic Sports Car Club celebrated 40 years of the Special Saloon and Modsports championship at Mallory Park, which appropriately provided the most frenetic action.
Wayne Crabtree won the first race on Saturday in slippery, changing conditions driving a Ford Escort BDA, claiming after the race that the track surface felt different every lap. Crabtree’s Escort and Ian Wilson’s TVR Tasmin kept this season’s regular winner Andy Southcott off the top step of the podium. Southcott (MG) pushed hard after making a slow start and being unable to capitalise on polesitter Tony Paxman spinning his Ford Escort on the first lap but fought back to fifth.
Southcott returned to business as usual for Sunday’s first race, winning by a large margin. Crabtree started 11th due to his earlier win and ended up retiring on the first lap due to a lack of grip. Wilson’s TVR was less suited to the dry track and could only manage eighth.
The warmer weather favoured the lighter, lower sports-derived models. Ian Hall (Darrian) took advantage of a safety car period at about half-distance to catch up with the leading group from sixth place and sprinted his way to second, followed by Paul Sibley’s Lotus Elan. This race marked the long-awaited debut of the Vauxhall Mega Bertha, driven by Ric Wood. He was 14th after taking it steady.
Hall was the winner of race three, which was curtailed by a lengthy safety car period and stopped early when the stranded MG Midget of Ian Staines/rob Griffith had to be hoisted off the Hairpin. Southcott was second and had been right on the tail of Hall, with Sibley third.
The main theme of Saturday’s programme was tin-tops. The opening Modern Classics/new Millennium race was won by Karl Cattliff in a BMW M3 from Tom Brenton’s Ford Sierra XR8.
The New Millennium class was won by Nigel Ainge and Danny Cassar in a Honda Integra. The pair started from the back due to a necessary car change but worked their way through the pack and won overall by a comfortable margin. But a one-minute penalty for not switching the engine off during a pitstop dropped them to fourth.
Another theme on Saturday was red flags. The first race was halted twice, and the Tin Tops race did not even get a lap in before the Integra of Angela Jones and William Jarman spun and triggered a restart. The red flag appeared again after one lap and the race was shortened to 20 minutes. Tom Mensley was the eventual winner in his Renault Clio, after a long and tense scrap with Martin Addison’s Peugeot 106, which was second. Shaun Ely was third in a Peugeot 205.
Paul Dingle (Porsche 944) won the Future Classics race on the line from Tony and Aston Blake’s 911.
Sunday had more of a historic flavour with the two Swinging 60s races. Ian Staines was the winner of the Group 1 race. His MG Midget was locked in a close battle with Tim Cairns’s Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite in the later stages. Cairns led briefly a couple of laps from the end, but Staines took the place back at the Hairpin and Cairns was unable to get back round at the Esses, despite his best attempts. The Sunbeam Alpine of Timothy Kemp/ Sam Loughnan was third. Chris Watkinson’s Mini looked very strong at the beginning and even led, but a mechanical problem ended its challenge on lap five.
In the bigger Group 2 cars the fastest of them was Malcolm Johnson’s yellow Lotus Europa, which won comfortably. The real battle was for third, with Dean Halsey in a Datsun 240Z and Jon Ellison (Triumph TR4) both in contention until Halsey pushed a bit too hard at Gerrards and went across the grass twice. He was fourth. Jon Wolfe was a solid second, having run his own race in his TVR Tuscan.
Nigel Reuben had been on course for a podium despite stalling on the startline from pole, but his TVR Griffith developed problems and he retired.
James Ramm and Colin Philpott won one Jaguar race apiece after tussling with each other throughout the weekend.