SILVERSTONE 14TH APRIL 2007.
Formula Junior race for front engine cars.

The BRSCC are clearly a well connected club because very warm sunny weather was the order of the day after early mist had cleared away.

Principally this was a round of the mini-series for front engine Formula Junior cars but a few modest performance rear engine cars were invited to make up the numbers.
After accounting for a few post programme alterations, 17 front engine cars toed the line with 3 rear engine and one F3 500 in support.

It was excellent to see Merrick Taylor’s Taraschi, newly restored by Tony Steele who was entrusted with its shake down race. Other Italian cars were Peter Mullen’s lovely  OSCA and Gordon Wright’s wonderful sounding, and looking, Stanguellini.
BMC engined Elvas were prominent from Crispian Besley, David Watts, Rob Manger, Paul Dixon, BJ Colaric all with BMC, plus the DKW engined version of Roger Dexter.
Geminis came from Dr Tony Goodwin and David Noble who was having his first race in the car for many years having finally bought it back and Bill Grimshaw brought his Moorland, forerunner of the Gemini.
Defending 2006 FJ Champion John Truslove had his Lola Mk2 as did Clive Wilson.
David Stevenson’s Mallock U2, Steven Bulling’s Sadler and Duncan Rabagliati’s ever present Alexis rounded out the nicely varied marques on display.

A few minutes ahead of published time the qualifying session got underway and immediately it’s clear that there is determination all round to make to best of the fast track in perfect condition.
Those making an early showing were John Truslove, although bedevilled by a high speed misfire which curtailed his efforts, Crispian Besley fighting hard as usual and super smooth Tony Goodwin.
Clive Wilson was also in the thick of it and in fact when the times are published it is he who is shown as pole man with a 1:11.87 with Tony Goodwin so close at 1:11.88.
John Truslove is fractionally behind on1:11.92, sharing 2nd row with Crispian Besley.
There were a few mechanical casualties and Rob Manger, who earlier had put his Elva on a final written warning, expired in a cloud of steam when a core plug blew out at Copse after just 3 laps. Roger Dexter retired the Deek-Elva after 6 laps with severe carburation problems. This was very upsetting for him because the car was fresh from the rolling road where all seemed fine and one can only surmise that the forces & vibrations etc of racing conditions were responsible.
Paul Dixon’s Elva also succumbed after just 2 laps and Gordon Wright came in early with a grabbing front brake, which he resolved during the afternoon. Rob Manger sent out a scout to nearby Towcester who came back with a genuine BMC core plug and John Truslove’s party scoured the FJ paddock for various ignition components, all to no avail unfortunately. Things looked good however for JB Jones’s fascinating Cousy 500. He put in 11 trouble free laps and was thus at a complete loss as to what to occupy himself with for the whole afternoon.

However there was “trouble at mill”. The published time sheet omitted Steven Bulling, Bill Grimshaw and David Stevenson completely because they recorded to times electronically, so a representation was made to the timekeepers who promised to redress the situation. Unfortunately the fruit of their deliberations resulted in an amended grid chart with obvious mix ups and several leading drivers clearly misplaced, to their considerable disadvantage.

The arguments etc were still being debated in the assembly area a few minutes before race time and the marshals were busy shuffling many cars into order which included putting David “Speedy” Stevenson on pole. Once out onto the grid the marshals there set about yet more car shuffling but eventually we had a green lap in good order and a quickly executed start after minimum wait for the red lights to extinguish.
Most cars got away cleanly but Peter Mullen’s OSCA was seen to have terrible axle tramp with the offside rear wheel bouncing many inches clear of the ground, even continuing after he had changed up to 2nd gear. First time into Copse is always a tight affair and it was made even more interesting when John Truslove spun his Lola due to gearbox problems but after a few phenomenal avoidances everybody was clear away up the rise to Becketts. John recovered his composure and dashed off in hot pursuit but continuing ignition problems and worsening gear difficulties caused him to retire only a few laps from the end. Roger Dexter struggled for just one lap before admitting defeat and not wishing to risk his DKW engine retired the Elva. Bill Grimshaw burned up the electrodes on two spark plugs and he gave up on his 4th lap followed shortly by the Sadler of Stephen Bulling. Sadly JB Jones’s luck didn’t hold and the ignition points on the Cousy 500 welded themselves together and he stopped with only a few minutes of the race remaining. He is struggling to collect sufficient licence signatures to enable him to race at Pau so he was naturally disappointed at the outcome. (However, I can reveal that the next day at Donington all went well and he managed a finish and obtained a cherished signature to prove it, with much cheering from the FJ crowd.)
Meanwhile the race at the front was frantic all the way from lights to flag with “Speedy” leading the whole time very determinedly fending off unremitting challenges from Tony Goodwin and Clive Wilson who were side by side on many occasions and they finished in that order. Crispian Besley was initially with this lead group but gradually lost touch to come home 4th. David Watts was very happy with his 5th place and so was Peter Mullen with 6th. Ignoring the few rear engine interlopers, the next front engine finisher was Duncan Rabagliati ahead of David Noble, these two posting the same best lap time down to the last thousandth of a second. Rob Mangers Elva secured a stay of execution and he finished ahead of BJ Colaric’s similar car and Gordon Wright & Tony Steele followed them home to finish a really hot race again demonstrating FJ close racing at its most exciting. John Truslove nabbed the fasted lap with a 1:10.7 from Tony Goodwin’s 1:10.8.

At the prize giving Duncan Rabagliati pointed out that Speedy has been racing now for 59 years and Tony Goodwin for not much less.
They finished 1st and 2nd ~ what a fine achievement and an inspiration for the rest of us.
Congratulations and merry bottle clinking of Crispian’s extremely welcome cool Cobra beer and much applause greeted race winner David “Speedy” Stevenson Class A2 and Peter Mullen Class A1 winner.

Peter Jackson, the Cooper Cockpit Commentator, (a rear engine interloper)