Formula Junior Golden Jubilee Series around the World – 8th and Final Round

It was late Thursday evening before the big Game hunters arrived from Zambia and Botswana; in the meantime the cars had arrived safely in their containers from Johannesburg, Iain Rowley had flown back from a snowy UK with spare driveshafts for Brian Mitcham’s Wainer, and a new upright for Marc Amez-Droz’s BT6, courtesy of some speedy work by Peter Denty. Some drivers were out for testing and acclimatisation, whilst others attended the lunchtime party given by Irvine Laidlaw. The customary Killarney braii @ Dickon Daggitt’s house at Hout Bay was rescheduled this year at their new workshops near the track, with splendid  fare that evening : sadly, perforce, FJ were a little thin on the ground, but the full team of Western Australians, as well as John and Alison Boyes were there to enjoy it.
Killarney was the home of the non Championship F1 Cape Grand Prix in ‘61/2, but it would not be too unkind to describe it as a large paperclip, a sort of Grand Prix version of Croix-en-ternois! The corners were certainly quite technical !!
 There were three scheduled practice sessions on Friday. New arrival to the tour was Joe Colasacco in the Lawrence Auriana Stanguellini, now with FJHRA compliant 4 speed gearbox, and other appendages removed. Joe had been taking Killarney lessons earlier in the week, so great things were to be expected, while Brian Tyler’s Cooper turned out to have more serious maladies in the gearbox, so he brought his Hawke DL 17 for the Historic Single-Seater race instead, as the LDS still awaited a new head. Mark Palmer from UK was scheduled to drive Dickon’s T 56, the Scorpion-DKW also being on hand for new owner, Howard Robinson, but it was not to turn a wheel, Howard preferring to stick to his regular Titan Mk 5 FF for the mixed race. Most cars did a couple of the sessions, but the afternoon outing came to an early halt when the Richardson motor in Brian Mitcham’s Wainer had a piston failure, and a hole in both sides of the block, requiring, as Brian was subsequently told at his “court marshal”, 14 men and two bags of cement to mop up the slick of Torrey Canyon proportions. In the event, Brian was absolved from blame, but sadly his South African outing was at an end, but he and Vanessa stayed on hand to enjoy the rest of the tour.

An early briefing on Saturday morning, was followed by Qualifiing for the Historic single seaters, both the newly repaired BT6 of Marc, and Philipp Buhofer electing to join this grid also, at least for the extra practice . Alas, the time keeping was not working for this session  [and the subsequent grid was set by Brian Tyler], and then Marc, who had seemed to be going well, came in covered in oil, and a suspected piston failure, perhaps having overreved at the time of the original Zwartkops accident.

Qualifiing was interesting: Having been warned that the time keeping was off, and no times would be recorded, it transpired afterwards, that it was fixed as the FJs set off! Philipp managed one searing lap for pole, ahead of a remarkable John Chisholm, with Mussa, Drake, Mockett and Longdon spread well behind. Joe was only 9th, the gearbox breaking after 3 laps, while Mark Palmer was tail man, having a guest drive in Dickon Daggitt’s T56. A big midfield drum braked group looked like giving Bill Hemming a tough call to get the six points needed for the Topham Trophy.

Philipp ran off with a comfortable lead in Race one, that is until two corners from home when he tangled with David Reid’s T 59 Cooper  as he was about to be lapped, both cars ending on the grass, out of the race, leaving a surprise but no less deserved victory for the drum braked Chisholm, after an entertaining early race dice with Mussa, these two followed by Mockett and Drake. Joe was only 7th, but still heading for 10 points in the front engined class, while “Millers” own Robin was an early retirement with fuel problems.
Race 2 was on Sunday, so time for  repairs. After the morning Non Denominational Service, there was a short FJ test session, allowing Mussa, and repaired Buhofer and Amez-Droz another run. Marc seemed to be going OK, but, perhaps unwisely, the Team elected the major job of changing the head. It was a tight call, as Race 2 was summoned early, but time was allowed to stand still, till Marc was ready to go.

With Buhofer, Longdon and Amez-Droz starting near the back, it looked for some exciting lappery, and so it proved. Mussa got an early lead, but Chisholm started to draw him in, only for a drive shaft to fail on the last lap, without damage , but the many spectators deprived of a grandstand finish. Longdon drove very well up to second, with Buhoffer right on Mockett’s tail in 3rd and 4th, ahead of Drake and Colasacco, who had been enjoying a race long battle with  Paul Smeeth in the 22. Poor Amez-Droz, still found the engine to be gutless, so wisely called it a day before half distance. Chisholm’s demise brought Bill Hemming up to 4th in class, but it was fellow Australian, Roger Ealand who was to deprive him of two vital points for the Topham Trophy, and in the end a carefully measured drive by Ned Spieker in the Lola Mk 2 brought him to 31 points and a well deserved winner of the Trophy, supported across four continents, and not least as Formula junior will long remember, at Monaco with the party on “MV Passion” , one ahead of Colasacco and Drake with 30 and Bill Hemming with 29. What could be closer after 14 months !! and it was to much acclaim that all four were greeted at the evening’s prizegiving, with Mussa, Mockett and Drake taking the aggregate honours for the weekend itself.

DCPR