Inaugural round of the Formula Junior Junior race series.

A biting Northerly breeze, rain squalls and hail storms were nothing compared to the storms of protests from frustrated drivers as the ever growing problem of noise at this circuit descended into sheer farce.
The root of the issue was a difference of opinion, between the officials of the meeting and the drivers, over the actual maximum noise level permitted.
The drivers’ final instructions seemed to be at odds with the officials’ understanding.

First to be affected was the 500 F3 race, for which all the cars were individually noise tested, given an approved sticker and sent into the assembly area ready for practice,
but when they all started up en masse there was no small consternation and immediately they exited the gate than they were directed up the pit lane and straight back to the paddock.
A “Ways and Means Committee” was hastily formed and after much consultation it was agreed that having now completely missed their practice session they could go out in the Juniors’ session, after having to be individually tested again.
However, when the Juniors arrived most of these cars also failed the inspectors’ test and despite much argument many were sent away to reduce their noise levels.
The practice session was fragmented with just 3 cars out at first but then the remainder were immediately held back. When these were eventually allowed out some were even given conflicting information and were actually turned out of the assembly area at the last minute after having been given provisional clearance.
As a consequence a number of cars missed the sessions completely and argument & counter argument continued unabated.
Much later a way was found to allow some cars out by having them follow the pace car for 3 laps during the interval, but not all those affected were made aware of this.
Sarah Hutchison was in the rather difficult position of trying to wear two hats without a conflict of interests and certainly was instrumental in getting the cars out on track and for this stalwart effort we thank her very much. Two other drivers were also eventually allowed to start the race with Clerk of Course authority.

The net result of all the procrastination and fragmented & combined qualifying sessions was that on a dry and almost empty track Brian Mitcham emerged on pole in his shark nose Wainer with a time of 1;23.303, rather to his surprise and certainly to that of Simon Diffey, Lotus 20, who was nearly one sec behind. Brian put this down to being on his home track but the wheezing “super trap” on Simon’s exhaust may possibly have had a bearing on this.

Mike Lyons was driving Prof John Monson’s Lotus 20 and he was 3rd fastest ahead of Kevin Musson’s Lotus 18, in turn ahead of young Jack Woodhouse who was driving the family Elva 100 in his maiden race.

Richard Utley was 9th in his Caravelle and had to do a lightning car swap mid session because he was also racing his JBS in which he qualified 25th. It’s unusual these days for the same person to appear twice on one results sheet in a single seater event, but these were very unusual circumstances.
Clive Temple’s Cooper T56 endured a single lap “noisy” lap and was then bundled onto its trailer and taken home, as was Len Selby’s Lola 5 which had boiled dry during all the prior kerfuffel without turning a wheel. Len was one of those ejected from the assembly area and was extremely disgruntled about the whole thing.

After more rain and hail squalls had rushed through it was time for the FJ race and the assembly area looked a trifle strange with some clearly potent cars lurking at the back because of not having done a proper qualification session to set a time.
As mentioned, Mitcham and Diffey were on the 1st row, Lyons and Musson on the 2nd with Woodhouse and Utley on the 3rd.
Sarah Hutchison in her Lotus 18 was joined on row 4 by John Dowson’s Elva 200 and following them were Peter Hughes’ Tojeiro and David Grunberg’s Lotus 20.
Then came the crop of non qualifiers led by James Claridge ~ Lola 5A, John Boyes ~ Lotus 20, Dr Mark Green’s Lotus 18 and finally Paul Hewes’ Lotus 18.
Amongst this untimed batch we welcomed Sam Wilson driving Roger Daniell’s Cooper T59, emerging for the first time after the restoration had been delayed by lengthy litigation and so Roger was very relieved to have the car out at last.

The track was now damp and slippery and as the red lights extinguished so did Brian Mitcham’s hope of a victorious maiden win when the Wainer spun at Sears and was consumed by the pack of cars led by Diffey from Lyons from Musson. Claridge found himself boxed in at the start and crossed the line dead last but with astonishing bravura hauled himself up to 3rd place by the end of the opening lap. So a battle was on and over the next few laps Claridge bested Diffey and was leading. Then Mike Lyons let his Lotus get away from him at Sears and he spun to a stop in a difficult position so inevitably out came the red flags.
Because of timetable delays the organizers had reduced the race time and although fearful that there would not be sufficient time remaining we were very grateful that they cleared the track and got the grid away for a restart with exemplary swiftness.
Claridge made no bones about it and stormed away from the front line this time to
win after four more laps. Diffey kept him honest and was ahead for one lap, but he admitted in the podium interview that Claridge’s set up was unbeatable that day and James was just that bit more hungry for the victory than he himself was.
Wilson hauled Daniell’s Cooper up to finish 3rd, a very fine effort indeed, and Mitcham’s Wainer recovered to 4th at the flag followed by Musson’s Lotus 18.

However, the largest grin no doubt was on the face of Jack Woodhousewho acquitted himself splendidly bringing the Elva into 6th place, despite a minor half spin at Sears when making an ambitious move on Musson, in this his first ever race and proudly cheered on by his family & friends.

Photo by Peter Jackson

Winner ~  James Claridge, Lola 5A, fastest lap 1:31.900
2nd ~ Simon Diffey, Lotus 20
3rd ~ Sam Wilson, Cooper T59
Class awards were also given out by the CSCC

                                         Peter Jackson, The Cooper Cockpit Correspondent. 07.04.08

In text photos by Pat Arculus