Brands Hatch,  2nd & 3rd  May, 2009
Round 2 of the Formula Junior FIA Lurani Championship

FJHRA was invited this year to provide the historic single seater support races for the British, and final, round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport on the challenging Grand Prix circuit of Brands Hatch.
Thirty two drivers of eight different nationalities racing eighteen different makes of car produced a varied and interesting field for the thousands of spectators who were treated to two absolutely cracking races, which showed Historic Formula Junior at its very best.

Regardless of language barriers the A1GP national teams willingly offered our crews access through their pit garages and onto the pit wall shelters, despite being busy preparing for their own GP Feature race, which followed the Formula Junior race. This kindness was much appreciated by our pit crews and
during the course of the weekend a number of the A1 teams personnel visited our paddock to look more closely at our cars and it was good to share with them the differences and in some cases similarities between the formulae.

FJHRA was accorded the privilege of having cars inspected in situ by the team of FIA Scrutineers who operated speedily & efficiently, making this process as smooth as possible for us and we thank them for their understanding.
Grant Wilson, our FIA registered Technical Representative attended throughout and in Park Ferme he rigorously checked all competing cars for both weight and ride height compliance, after Qualifying and after each of our two Races.

Qualifying on Saturday commenced circumspectly and once everyone had done a couple of sighting laps things quickened noticeably, but John Delane having led the cars out succumbed to a gearbox malfunction with his Lotus 18 after just four laps. Despite an overnight rebuild and being ready for Race 1 his car moved forwards in the assembly area but then stopped abruptly and sadly took no further part.
Meanwhile qualifying continued and early to show form was Urs Eberhardt, Lotus 27, from Mike Hibberd in a similar model and Robin Longdon, Lola 5A . Sir John Chisholm, extracting every last ounce from his Gemini 3A, was very fast as was Hans-Jörgen Krag in his Lola 3A until an oil pipe union came adrift resulting in smoke redolent of the naval Battle of Jutland.
Others in early trouble were Vern Williamson whose Scorpion suffered engine problems, Jason Wright’s Stanguellini blew a head gasket and on lap four the Brabham BT2 of David Zurlinden broke a drive shaft. Marc Amez-Droz had terminal troubles with his Brabham BT6 despite a time good enough for 6th grid place and sadly, out of these last mentioned four cars, Zurlinden’s proved to be the only one which was repairable and subsequently fit to race.
Eberhardt, on an uncluttered track, put up 1:43.828 on lap 6 which proved to be the pole setting time despite Hibberd warming to the occasion with a 1:43.873 on lap 12. Serious stuff this, with battle lines clearly drawn!
Class D front man was Chisholm with 1:45.409 and Dan Collins’ Lotus 18 made 1:50.125 for Class C leadership but only just ahead of Brendan Roberts Class B time of 1:50.872 in his Lola Mk2.
The beautiful dark red Volpini of Michael Ashley-Brown, with a time of 2:02.703, became the sole representative of Class A, once Wright’s faster Stanguellini had expired.
In addition to Chisholm’s 4th grid place other notable performances included Alex Morton, Ausper T3, and John Dowson, Elva 200, who qualified 17th and 20th respectively in this strong international field.
The grid of varied cars was especially enhanced by the Emeryson of Peter Knöfel and also by Gilbert Lenoir’s Monopole-Panhard Oliveira Special with its 2 cylinder engine sounding quite different to the far more shrill 10k rpm of the faster Ford engined cars.

Formula Junior had two races during the weekend and the first of these was late Saturday afternoon but the grandstands remained pleasingly well populated with spectators and they were not disappointed.
Unfortunately after completing the green flag lap there was a long delay on the start line whilst presentations for the previous race were completed and during this time David Stevenson’s Mallock U2 was removed from the grid when fuel was seen leaking from the car. David smartly fixed the problem and started the race from the pit lane, with his dander well up in very determined fashion.
At last the red lights came on and were then extinguished very quickly, thankfully,  at which instant Eberhardt and Hibberd tore off the line hotly pursued by Longdon. Hibberd harried Eberhardt without mercy for lap after lap and reduced the lap time to 1:43.349 in the process, whilst canny Longdon sat back and waited expectantly.
On lap 7 Longdon’s patience was rewarded when Hibberd forced Eberhardt into a defending move at Paddock Hill, which resulted in Eberhardt going in just too deep and he irretrievably lost the car into the gravel from where it was quickly removed. Longdon was now in 2nd place but he was unable to make any impression on the flying Hibberd who romped away finishing 4 seconds clear.
Philipp Buhofer had started 5th in his Lola 5A and he passed Chisholm so they finished 3rd & 4th respectively. This was a typical Chisholm drive, finishing over a minute ahead of skillful James Hicks in the Caravelle, 8th.
Pete Morton continued to impress, driving the family Lightning-Envoyette into 6th place following Marcus Mussa’s Brabham BT2 closely, all the while learning from the very experienced Mussa.
Irrepressible Chris Drake placed his Elva 300 in 12th spot and continued to improve as the weekend progressed, despite an altercation with his electric kettle at 8am on Sunday morning during which interlude he warned all those close by in the paddock that he was not best pleased at being denied his breakfast cup of tea!
Zurlinden’s repaired Brabham rewarded him with 7th place, a superb result from an unpromising 16th on the grid and having had only 3 laps qualifying. Stevenson tigered up to finish an excellent 18th from his pit lane start, but things were not going so well for Dietrich Merkel with alarming noises coming from the final drive of his Lola Mk2. Although he finished the race Dietrich decided not to risk catastrophic damage and sadly withdrew the car from Race 2.
The remaining top10 and last of the unlapped finishers were Peter Anstiss in his Lotus 22 and finally Brendan Roberts Lola Mk2.
Unfortunately, Krag’s bad luck continued and after 6 laps his gearbox malfunctioned, so he pulled off having run 9th for a few laps.

Race 1 had taken place in hot afternoon sunshine but a weather front moved across during the night with periods of accompanying rain and on Sunday morning it was miserable with heavy dark clouds and a cold stiff breeze making a wet race a distinct possibility. However, brightening from the west, we were eventually bathed in sunshine once again although the breeze remained.

Race 2 was scheduled for 1pm, immediately ahead of the A1GP Feature Race and by this time the grandstands were very busy despite a £20 charge, which was not levied on Saturday. Your scribe had watched Race 1 from the excellent Paddock Hill grandstand but for Race 2 chose the grass bank at Clearways as a more cost effective location.
Start positions were the same as for Race 1 and after the A1GP celebrity grid walk razzmatazz had finished the Formula Juniors were away without incident.
Once again Eberhardt held his place into Paddock Hill but Hibberd looked to be even closer this time and now seemingly only inches behind, mostly.
Longdon resumed his waiting game in 3rd but lost ground gradually, especially so  when lapping slower cars cost him precious seconds in the closing stages.
However, in this race Eberhardt was having none of Hibberd’s close attentions and expertly parried every move.
This was Formula Junior at it best, just as in period ~~ fast and furious slipstreaming and it went on relentlessly every lap. Sometimes Hibberd would nearly be able to just pull partly alongside but no further before having to yield, so Eberhardt looked to have the measure of Hibberd and the race win sewn up.
But Hibberd wasn’t going to give up and on the final lap he contrived especially  good drive out of Clearways, then eased gently across and down the compound slope towards the pit wall and moved through alongside Eberhardt, who was taking his habitual slightly higher line in preparation for Paddock Hill, but this time on the final dash to the flag Hibberd just got his car’s nose in front of Eberhardt when it really mattered and he nabbed the race win by less than the thickness of a transponder in the very last yard of the 15 lap race from the astounded Eberhardt.
In so doing, Hibberd reduced the lap time still further, down to an impressive 1:42.784 this time.
What a spellbinding race this was and Longdon said in his podium interview afterwards that he had really enjoyed watching this cat & mouse game unfold.
Eberhardt was most magnanimous and full of praise for the winner and said that he couldn’t quite understand how Hibberd had managed it
In response Hibberd said that he too didn’t quite know how he’d done it, except that the only place where he felt that he held a marginal advantage was on the start/finish straight but he knew that he could play that card only once.
At the chequered flag the gap between Hibberd and Eberhardt was 0.048 of a second and Longdon crossed the line some 8 seconds later into 3rd place.
Meanwhile other drivers were having their usual battles and a three way action developed between Jeremy Deeley in his alternative Cooper T52, Michael Waller’s usual Kieft and Dowson’s Elva. Despite being down on engine power Waller prevailed and these three kept ahead of Stevenson who didn’t show quite the same bravura that he had in Race 1, his excuse being that he’s only 80 years old and he needs a bit more experience.
Pete Morton finished a very creditable 7th, ahead of his mentor Mussa and only just behind Krag’s repaired Lola.
Tony Steele’s Lola Mk2 suffered it’s habitual misfire but he finished 17th a little way back from Rudolf Ernst’s Lotus 22 and “BJ” Colaric brought his Elva 100 through to finish 23rd with a slightly better lap time than in Race 1.
Stephen Bulling also improved his lap time and he too thoroughly enjoyed racing his Sadler on the magnificent Brands Hatch GP circuit, but sadly our own DCPR pulled off after just 6 laps, retiring his famous orange Alexis up the assembly area service road.

Aggregate results.
1st overall & Class E,            Michael Hibberd, Lotus 27.              1:42.784
2nd overall & Class E,            Robin Longdon, Lola 5A.
3rd overall & Class E,            Philipp Buhofer, Lola 5A.

1st Class D & 4th overall,       Sir John Chisholm, Gemini Mk3A.  1:44.405
2nd Class D & 8th overall,      James Hicks, Caravelle Mk3.
3rd Class D & 11th overall,     Chris Drake, Elva 300.

1st Class C & 12th overall,      Dan Collins, Lotus 18.                    1:50.707
2nd Class C & 16th overall,     John Dowson, Elva 200.
3rd Class C & 17th overall,     Peter Knofel , Emeryson.

1st Class B & 10th overall,     Brendan Roberts, Lola Mk2.            1:48.476
2nd Class B & 15th overall,    Tony Steele, Lola Mk2.
3rd Class B & 19th overall,     David Stevenson, Mallock u2.

1st Class A & 22nd overall,     Michael Ashley Brown, Volpini      1:57.664

Having returned somewhat earlier than the remainder of the competitors, DCPR lost no time in establishing overall aggregate places before the timekeepers had even published the results and he duly announced the final places and awarded trophies appropriately to the large throng in our spacious, if sloping, paddock.
Despite the lack of Freedom beer, care of Crispian Besley, and equal lack of homemade Flapjack, care of Derek Walker, (surely their race appearances should be compulsory ?) much animated conversations continued long after the prize giving as many happy faces from home and abroad relived a wonderful weekend racing on what is oft regarded as Britain’s most magnificent circuit.

Peter Jackson, the ‘Cooper Cockpit Correspondent’