’70s ROAD SPORTS STARS AT CROFT AS CLARK AND LEVERETT SHARE THE VICTORY SPOILS

The ’70s Road Sports series was easily the star of the Croft Retro & Classic Weekend. The inherent variability of roadgoing 1970s cars makes for a high degree of unpredictability and there were two different winners.

Defending champion Jeremy Clark won the first race in his Lotus Elan, ahead of Kevin Kivlochan’s Morgan and Will Leverett’s Martini-liveried Lotus Europa. Leverett’s father

Mark was also in the mix at the start, overtaking his polesitting son, who had a slide at the chicane. Leverett Sr’s supremacy was shortlived as he ran straight on onto the rallycross course in the early stages. It later transpired the Elan’s steering wheel had come off.

Leverett Jr won the second race, taking the lead from Clark early on and managing the advances of Kivlochan, who was second, with Clark third. Leverett Sr was fourth from the back of the grid, taking advantage of a spin by Howard Payne’s Europa. Leverett survived his own spin a little later and held his place.

Historic Road Sports was somewhat more predictable in that Kivlochan, driving an AC Cobra, kept his 100% win record this year, despite struggling with a suspension set-up that caused his car to hop alarmingly under braking. Jonathan Rose was second in a Lotus Elan and Roger Lee was third in a Lotus Seven. The second race featured an exciting cat-andmouse game between Kivlochan and Lee, who used the Seven’s better handling to catch up on the corners. The superior firepower of the Cobra won out in the end, while Rose was third. Further down, the Seven of Mike Leese was having a similar scrap with Adrian Gilbert’s Elan, and prevailed.

Historic Formula Ford had two predictable winners in the form of Cameron Jackson’s Winkelmann, but he was pushed very hard by

Callum Grant (Merlyn MK20A) in race one, before a red flag intervened. This was caused by third-placed Pierre Livingston’s Merlyn colliding with Ted Pearson’s 11A, which was running in fourth. Livingston’s team-mate Ed Thurston therefore finished third.

Grant elected not to race again and gave his car to Pearson for the second contest, as Pearson’s own car was seriously damaged. He was eighth, while Jackson sailed away to another win and the Merlyns of Thurston and Livingston squabbled for second, Livingston losing a nosecone.

The first Classic Clubmans race was also red-flagged and did not restart. Mark Charteris was another runaway winner, as second and thirdplaced Alan Cook and Clive Wood swerved to avoid a stopped car. Class B driver Martin Walker hit a barrier and triggered the flag. The second race was less dramatic, although Charteris’s car was smoking alarmingly and he did lose speed.

Cook and Adrian Holey claimed the other podium spots.

Formula Ford 2000 started off sensibly as reigning champion

Andrew Park won in his Reynard SF81. There was some shuffling between Ian Pearson’s Royale and Benn Simms’s Reynard but Pearson, who had started in second, prevailed. Race two featured a cursed second place, with first Pearson then Simms retiring from runner-up spot and promoting Paul Allen and Jason Redding’s Reynards to the remaining podium places.

The second-place curse recurred in the second Historic Formula 3/ Classic Racing Cars race. Jonathan Hughes won very comfortably in his Merlyn MK14A and Simon Armer was set to repeat his first-race second in his March 703, but car trouble intervened and he disappeared into the pits. This promoted Leif Bosson (Brabham BT28) and Steve Seaman (Brabham BT21) to second and third. Bosson had been third in the first race.

Hughes is an occasional racer and will probably not bring the Merlyn out again this year, much to the relief of the other Historic F3 drivers.

Benn Tilley secured his first outright win in the Guards Trophy, driving a Lotus 23B solo. He built up a sizeable lead, although Peter de la Roche in another 23B was gaining on him rapidly. Tilley inherited the lead from the Lenham GT of Peter Needham and Jon Waggitt. The orange prototype squandered a solid lead during the pitstops, losing 24 seconds and allowing Tilley to take advantage. They set some blisteringly fast laps in a vain attempt to catch up, but were just too far away.

A sideways Clark defeated Kivlochan’s Morgan in opener

The last time this Ford Anglia was seen on-track, its back end was bent around sideways like a paperclip after a crash at Cadwell Park.the yellow car has now had extensive repairs and is indistinguishable from the banana-shaped mess it once was.bob Bullen has had one new quarter panel and a new boot lid fitted, as well as significant repairs to the other quarter and a lot of panel beating.it returned from the paint shop last week.the front end was unaffected and Bullen briefly took the lead at the start of Saturday’s Historictouring Car race before finishing fourth.

Will Leverett seems too young to be a fan of esoteric ’70s sportscars, but he loves this race-winning Lotus Europa. “It’s crazy,” he said.“it’s pure Colin Chapman.the half-shafts are actually part of the suspension.there are 14 separate connections between the gear lever and the actual gearbox.you can wobble the gear stick around while you’re driving.”despite its intrinsic weirdness, the Europa is highly effective in Leverett’s hands. He won the second ’70s Roadsports race comfortably, using its 1600cc to fend off the more beastlyv8 3500cc of Kevin Kivlochan’s Morgan.

The Lola T492 was the only non-mallock on show in the Clubmans races, as the only representative of Sports 2000 entered.the car’s Can-am styling stands out against the skinnier, lower Mallocks.trevorwelsh has been racing the car, which came from the States, for just over a year. Previously, he raced in Formulavee for 15 years and it was this car that tempted him out of retirement. He was due to share with a friend who is recovering from a heart attack, so he is doing all the driving this year, normally inthundersports.welsh took a best result of fourth at Croft.

Hughes claimed a double in Historic Formula 3