BRYANT DENIES AHLERS MORE MORGAN WINS
Both Morgan Challenge races, guesting at the Bentley Drivers Club’s long-running Silverstone meeting, were won by Oliver Bryant making a one-off outing, triumphing after battles with Keith Ahlers in his fellow +8.
Bryant led all of race one, holding former co-driver Ahlers at arm’s length to win by 3.9 seconds. But race two was less straightforward. Bryant dropped to fourth at the start after feeling his clutch “wasn’t great” on the warm-up lap. He then had his progress checked by a lengthy safety car period caused by Richard Fearn’s crashed +4 Club Sport at Woodcote.
Bryant quickly took the lead from Ahlers after green flag racing resumed but Ahlers stayed close, including taking the lead back briefly late on.
“Most years, if it doesn’t clash, I try and come out in the old family Morgan [to this meeting],” Bryant said, “It’s a car that my dad’s owned since the ’70s.
“It’s always good fun racing against Keith; we shared the Aero 8 together in British GT in 2005-2006. He’s had over 100 wins in the Morgan Challenge now so it’s nice to come and prevent him doing more now and again! [The car was] as fast as we’ve ever been with it.”
Dean Cook looked well on his way to claiming the Allcomers Race, his TVR Sagaris GTF roaring past Simon Ray’s ADR Sport 2 at the start of the second lap. However, after four laps, he pulled off on the Wellington Straight with no revs. This let Ray through to win by 31s.
“I couldn’t really do much about the TVR,” Ray said, “but once he pulled off I just drove my own race; I didn’t really see anything behind me.
“It’s a fun car to drive. It doesn’t have a huge amount of downforce but it’s light and bike-engined cars are always fun with the paddleshift. It’s a bit like the Playstation except that my son always beats me on the Playstation!”
Cook was denied another win as he was first across the line in the Allcomers Sealed Handicap Race, with an on-track advantage of over 30s over the runner-up. However, the post-hoc handicap revisions put him fourth, with victory awarded to Michael Blake’s TVR Griffith.
In FISCAR and Classic and Modern Motorsport Club’s Pre-’64 Challenge race Richard Woolmer was another to be denied a comfortable win by unreliability. He established a 40s lead in his Elva Courier Mk1 but, with just minutes left of the half-hour race, dropped down and then retired with a suspected fuel pump problem.
This left a frenzied victory fight between Richard Tyzack’s fast-onthe-straights Kellison J4R and Brian Arculus’s fine-handling Lotus Elite. Tyzack prevailed by half a second after some late lead swapping.
Richard Plant won the Sports Car Challenge in his Morgan +8, beating runner-up Geraint Owen in his Lister Knobbly by 27s. Plant took the lead with a fine early pass of Owen, when they went either side of a backmarker between Brooklands and Luffield.
Michael Higginbotham in his
Bentley MKVI Special won the Scratch Race by 48s. He prevailed in an early fight with Tim Llewellyn in his 3/8 before edging clear. Llewellyn gave chase but pitted late on as a water leak caused temperatures to rise. Paul Carter took the sealed handicap win. Llewellyn later won the Bentley Handicap Race in a Bentley 4½.