BRANDS HATCH, 15th SEPTEMBER 2007

A lovely warm and dry Autumn day greeted twenty one rear engined cars at the popular 1.198 mile Indy Circuit. The front engined FJs were racing in the SeeRed meting at Donington, meanwhile.
We enjoyed spacious paddock conditions with an 8 race programme which gave not only space but a relaxed attitude all round ~~ well done and thanks HSCC.

Several of our chaps also entered in the Classic Racing Cars and thus gained some useful track familiarisation prior to the Formula Juniors, which were scheduled as the penultimate race.
Historic Team Lotus must have been having a recent recruitment drive because we made welcome David Grunberg with his Lotus 20 in correct Class C1 trim and Richard Smeeton with his C2 Lotus 20, David Crowther’s Lotus 22 and Jon Milicevic’s Lotus 18, as our newish faces & cars. We were also very interested to see Brian Mitcham’s new acquisition in the sharknose shape of a Wainer, only brought in on the Wednesday beforehand following last minute “negotiations” in Italy, when Brian even had it all but loaded onto the trailer.

Qualifying got underway at the very civilized hour of 11.30am and James Claridge Lola 5A threw down the gauntlet with a 55.890 secs. time on the very first lap. This proved to be a very astute move because almost immediately John Dowson’s Elva 200 spread nearly the entire sump full of oil all the way from the top of Paddock Hill, then down the dip, up and through Druids and down again to Graham Hill Bend where he slithered off in a huge cloud of smoke. The post marshals, and myself watching from the assembly area vantage, thought he was on fire but mercifully the smoke was from oil spraying onto the exhaust and nothing had ignited, quite !
The remainder pressed on but it wasn’t until the last lap (15) that Marcus Mussa found sufficient grip to put up 2nd place with a 55.939 in his Brabham BT2.
Steve Smith managed his best, a 55.099 on lap 13, in his Scuderia Filipinetti Cooper T59 to be 3rd and Michael Hibberd found himself in an unaccustomed 4th place, driving the ex Peter Arundel Lotus 27.  Simon Armer fought up to 5th in his Cooper T59 despite the occasional lurid slide at Clearways and he was joined on the 3rd row by Andrew Hibberd in his Lotus 22, fresh from his superb 6th place at the Goodwood Revival a few weeks previously in your scribe’s Cooper T56.

The four hours wait until the race seemed to flash by, but on my paddock perambulations I did spy one or two nodding heads slumbering in deck chairs.
Not so in the Denyer Motorsport camp where patron Colin was rectifying the oil escape from John Dowson’s Elva, whilst Brian Mitcham and crew busied themselves with sorting out the things that they would have liked to have had sorted out previously, but for the delayed arrival of the Wainer.

However, race time was called and the cars were pre-gridded in the assembly area ready for 4.45pm start.
The “quick start system” found Tim Bishop still reversing the Sauter into position when the lights extinguished and he had to really put the hammer down to regain his position, but as he now seems to have the 3 cylinder 2-stroke DKW engine finally sorted out he enjoyed a faultless race thereafter.
Anyway, at the front it was all go and Michael Hibberd dragged through to 2nd place behind Claridge who had established a clear lead on the opening lap.
Mussa was 3rd on lap 2 and then on lap 5 Andrew Hibberd deposed Smith on the run up to Druids to make the order Claridge, Hibberd M, Mussa, Hibberd A, Smith and Armer.
Whilst all this excitement was unfolding David Brown coasted into retirement, blipping the engine of his Brabham BT6 after just one lap, suggesting a complete transmission failure. Not only that but poor David Grunberg beached his Lotus 20 at the top of Druids the first time round and he hopped out to watch how it should be done from the marshal’s post.
The race settled thereafter but Mussa gradually faded as did Paul Davis’ Lotus 20.
Jon Milicevic Lotus 18 maintained his 7th grid place as Class B leader, although he was gradually hauled in and passed on lap 9 by Sir John Chisholm’s Gemini 3A who was clearly still buoyed up by his recent outright Goodwood race win.
John Dowson’s Elva contained its vital fluids for the duration much to his relief but sadly, although hardly unexpectedly, the Wainer succumbed to a piffling fault with the throttle cable on the 13th lap and caused Mitcham to run out of tarmac. His static location created minor concern and then when on the next lap Chisholm spun off into the dirt at Clearways, due to a misunderstanding with a back marker, the Clerk of the Course decided that, with two cars off and with less than 3 minutes remaining from our 20 minute race duration, it was time to call a halt
to the proceedings and out came the red flag.
Meanwhile Hibberd M had been pushing hard and having closed the gap to less than one second he scrambled past Claridge by taking advantage on the run into Clearways only to see that it was under the waved yellow flags, so he immediately ceded & eased off allowing Claridge to regain the lead before Paddock Hill Bend.

On the count back rule James Claridge was declared a very worthy race winner after 15 hard and fast laps and Michael Hibberd had to settle for 2nd place. Family honour was maintained by Andrew Hibberd securing 3rd ahead of Steve Smith who had passed Marcus Mussa, although the results sheet showed the reverse. Simon Armer completed the top 6 places of all C2 cars, but seemingly not able to ever close right up with the leading bunch.

Class C1 winner was Sir John Chisholm despite his not taking the chequered flag because he was off the course and 2nd place was given to John Tweedale in his Jolus, slightly miffed by the turn of events.
Jon Milicevic easily secured Class B and Tony Martindale continued to impress with the Skoda engined Essenkay for 2nd place.

Richard Smeeton did well to finish 10th ahead of Paul Davis, Tim Bishop scrapped mightily with Brian Arculus’ Emeryson and Rudolph Ernst had a good if lonely race in his Lotus 22. David Crowther had a steady race having now rectified a cylinder head problem, which sidelined him at the Oulton Park Gold Cup race.
Fastest in C2 was Michael Hibberd with 54.816, in C1 by Sir John Chisholm with 56.451 and in B by Jon Milicevic with 56.969.

Peter Jackson.