Donington Park, 4th June 2006

Round two of the mini series of three races for front engine Formula Juniors attracted 20 entries this time, slightly up on round one, which was held at the same track at the end of April.

All twenty were beautifully presented and resplendent in a wide variety of colours enhanced by very welcome glorious sunshine and warm temperatures.
The track surface was as good as one could wish for and the Juniors were accorded the rare privilege of the fine new pit garages. It augured well for a good day racing.

Qualifying at just after 12 noon allowed a relatively leisurely start for most, whilst some had arrived the night before and the relaxed paddock, though busy, was not overcrowded.
The usual long queue for sign-on & inspection was suddenly shortened when the Juniors turned up and more scrutineers appeared as if by magic, clearly keen to see our cars.

Derek Walker threw down the gauntlet with a pole time of 1:26 in his Terrier but Stuart Roach, Gemini also showed that he meant business at merely 0.6 secs behind him. Crispian Besley’s Elva was on 3rd spot alongside Robin Longdon’s Lola, which developed a misfire bringing him back to the pits after 7 laps. Bill Grimshaw’s Moorland, BMC powered as is Crispian’s Elva, made 5th spot and only 1.6 secs covered these five men.
Sadly, trouble ensued for Rob Manger when a rear suspension problem caused his Elva’s retirement and also for David Grant’s Elva due to head gasket failure The sump gasket failed in Ian Scott’s Volpini but Gordon Wright generously came to his rescue and Ian spent a hot, very oily, but successful afternoon under the car.

There being not a lot of gossip to be had in the paddock, your scribe spent much of the afternoon watching races from the upper balcony of the Millers Suite. This was a fine vantage from which to observe the armada of XJS Jags tyre-howling round Redgate in their one model race and the subsequent Ferrari race executed in relative quiet, save for the lovely engine tone of the V12 engined models amongst them.

A late qualifying generally means a late race so the Juniors didn’t get away until 5.45pm.
But what a get away it was.
Robin Longdon stormed away from the line and was comfortably ahead of Derek Walker going into Redgate. Bill Grimshaw had also made a lightning start into 3rd, nipping past arch rival Crispian Besley and dropping Stuart Roach back to 5th who was wondering what had happened!
Unfortunately Robin’s misfire returned with a vengeance and he pulled out on the first lap.
Crispian was past Bill by the time they came round for the second time, Derek holding a slight lead over them. Stuart had recovered his composure, setting about catching Bill which he eventually did by lap 8 and once ahead he pulled out a modest gap. However, it all came undone shortly afterwards when a spin allowed Bill to nip through to retake 3rd at the flag. Crispian kept his head well down and drove a superb race into 2nd place behind Derek Walker who admitted that he “really had had to drive hard to win that one”.
David Stevenson qualified his U2 ahead of Tony Steele’s Lola but Tony prevailed in the race coming home 5th. A good race-long battle between the Elvas of David Watts and Paul Smeeth came out in favour of David

Keith Roach, this season driving the family Alexis, finished 9th ahead of Paul Hewes, whose  Lola rose well from 16th  on the grid. Michael Waller brought his BMC up from 14th on the grid with a late surge to finish ahead of DCPR’s “Flying Carrot” now running on corrected tyre pressures. A few seconds before our leader was about to go out to qualify he signalled your scribe to check the Alexis pressures and unaccustomed to the gauge and in some haste, 1.6 bar was read instead of 16psi. All that can be said in defence, is that with his preferred pressures restored for the race, he dropped from grid place 11th to finish 12th, although a missed gear passing the pits, which allowed Paul Hewes in front, may be the explanation! In fact the orange Alexis put in a faster lap than Smeeth, Roach K et al, so its engine problems were definitely a thing of the past

Bernard Brock brought up the tail of this little group, his clutch giving him trouble and he dropped well back in the closing stages to finish 14th. He had been nursing this problem right from the start when he was unable to make a clean get away and was actually last off the line from his 5th row grid place, but climbed up the field before the problem became insurmountable.

Ben Taylor-Roberts Gemini kept in touch with Duncan’s Alexis ahead of Bernards’s stricken Elva and Steve Russell’s Elva  had an enjoyable day, a little off the pace, finishing 15th ahead of steady running Gordon Wright’s Stanguellini who was very happy to have finished a race for a change. Not so happy was most disconsolate Ian Scott who retired after 6 laps when the camshaft drive sheared. A poor reward for all his effort in repairing the sump problem and posing him some difficulties , but still planning to be ready in time for Misano only a couple of weeks away.

Crispian’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of Cobra was most welcome during prize giving when Duncan introduced James and Daniel, the two grandsons of Alex Francis, co founder of Alexis and they enjoyed learning more about the cars and seeing them race.

So can Derek Walker, the Altringham Wizard, make it a hat-trick in the final UK round at Mallory on 23rd July.
Your scribe will not be there to see fair play because of a prior engagement concerning the small matter of celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the very first appearance of a Cooper; at Prescott Hill Climb on 28th July 1946.
As part of a huge array of Cooper racing cars of every description many of the FJ Coopers will be at Prescott on the 23rd July.
Your scribe’s car will be shared with Richard “Woody” Neale, President of the Cooper Car Club and with John “Smokin” Rhodes, MRP FJ Team Cooper T56 driver, Formula 1 Cooper driver and subsequently famous for his exploits with Mini-Coopers.

Peter Jackson, the Cooper Cockpit Correspondent