The largest historic race meeting of the year comprised 3 days packed with activity. Friday is qualifying day, with races on Saturday & Sunday and all under the command of the HSCC. With so many races to fit in, some series have to be early birds and this year it was the turn of FJHRA, but this turned out to be a blessing because it meant that we were out on track each morning whilst the air was still cool even if spectators were few in number and could then relax for the rest of the day or repair cars if necessary.

However, Brian Mitcham might have preferred a rather later start on Friday. His U2 Mk2 had a gearbox malfunction during the Thursday free practice session so he drove home to Suffolk with the gearbox, fitted new parts and returned to the circuit to complete the reassembly at about 3.30am. Qualifying got underway at 9am and with 53 cars out on track, most of the experienced fast runners cunningly put in their best time on lap 3, before things got really strung out. Sadly, bad luck is still haunting Adam Sykes and his Lotus 20/22 expired with engine damage after only 2 laps and was withdrawn. Peter Mullen’s Kieft showed some oil smoke near the end of the session but afterwards Sid Hoole’s team quickly discovered a chafed pipe which was replaced.

There was a rather lengthy delay before the times were available but when they appeared it was clear that a battle royal was in prospect. The Class E Cooper T59 of Jon Milicevic made 2’05.937” for pole position but Richard Utley’s Class D Caravelle Mk2 driven by youngster Callum Macleod was in 2nd place with 2’06.259”. The second grid row comprised Michael Hibberd’s fabulous ex Peter Arundel Lotus 27 with Simon Diffey’s Lotus 20/22 in 4th. It was good to see Martin Walford out with his nice looking Lotus 22 although the modern sponsorship did detract somewhat and he had a significant grassy moment along Hanger Straight. Class C leader with a time of 2’10.101” was Benn Simms driving Stuart Rolt’s Elva 200 and Stuart Roach took Class B honours with a time of 2’13.241” in the Alexis Mk2, whilst Michael Ashley-Brown (M A-B), our superb auctioneer at the annual FJHRA prize giving/AGM luncheon, drove his lovely Volpini to lead Class A with a time of 2’30.787”.

Bringing a very welcome international flavour to the grid was Urs Eberhardt whose Lotus 27 has always been looked after by the long serving Urban Fasler, and in another Lotus this one a 20/22 we were also pleased to see Urs Müller. To have two Lotus 27s racing is wonderful, but to have three is a great privilege and for this we have to thank Roy Waltzer. Maybe one day Roy will honour us by bringing his ultra rare Cooper T67 over from the USA. The Monopole Panhard-Oliveira is an individual creation, by any standards, and Gilbert Lenoir is to be highly commended for bringing this twin cylinder front wheel drive machine over from France to run on the very fast Silverstone Historic GP Circuit (now renamed the Bridge Circuit, apparently). Another welcome visitor was Larry Kinch who brought his Lotus 20/22 and returning to the fold was David Drew in the RAM 04. Matt King of Racing Medics restored the Ausper T4 driven by Roger Woodbridge and this car differs from the one restored by Grant Wilson a few years ago inasmuch as the engine is vertical - the original installation was horizontal, but Matt has retained the sparking plug & distributor inspection hatch on the underside and also the, now covered, opening on the topside where the carburettors once sat. The car is painted in the correct pea green with gold nose band & flash and was a perfect match for Alex Morton’s treasured T3 when they were positioned together for a photo shoot outside of our very spacious and well located paddock pavilions.  

Steve Russell’s mid blue Lotus 18, now recovered from an off at the Dijon Lurani round barely a month previously, looked very nice as did Merrick Taylor’s Taraschi driven by Tony Steele. Gordon Wright’s beautiful blue Stanguellini usually takes the honours for top noise quality but on this occasion the Taraschi had the edge, probably due to the thin walled exhaust megaphone which is finely sculptured and tuned in accordance with the Vuvuzela acoustic principles. Notably good times were put up by Stephen Barlow whose diminutive Class B BMC Mk1 made 2’19.617” and also Crispian Besley’s ex Tyrrell Class C Cooper T56 enjoying at last its first trouble free run in 2’14.945” to place 20th on the grid. Crispian was uncertain of reliability so had also brought along his faithful Elva 100, but after a successful Thursday free practice session his decision was to race the Cooper.

Come Saturday morning there were still several reserves who were held back pending a restart which if necessary before 3 laps completed and resulting in cars unable to make the restart, then reserves would have been called forward in overall qualifying order and allowed to start from the back of the grid. In the event reserves were not called up and amongst those affected were Sid Hoole in his Brabham BT6 and also Larry Kinch. At start Milicevic made an astounding start emerging  from Copse with some 75 yards lead over Hibberd and Macleod in hot pursuit. Sadly, Woodbridge and Russell had an immediate coming together and both cars were out, then Diffey’s car stripped some gear teeth and he also was out after 2 laps, as was David Hall’s BMC Mk2 with engine bothers. Mike Gregory’s pretty DeTomaso ISIS lasted but 2 laps and Lenoir’s Monople kept going until ¾ distance but then came in with gearbox issues.

Meanwhile Eberhardt maintained his 4th place, despite very limited experience on this circuit, but Steve Smith really turned up the wick on his ex Scuderia Fillipinetti Cooper T59 and having started from 14th place he was up to 8th in short order, eventually finishing 5th which was a fine achievement. Sir John Chisholm dropped back in his Gemini Mk3A and Macleod finally got past Hibberd only to break a gear selector on the penultimate lap so he pulled up just after Copse, leaving Milicevic to win comfortably.

Simms in Rolt’s Elva 200 lost a few places on lap 4 but recovered quickly and without falling into the battle between Besley and his friendly Class C enemy Mullen who ran close for the duration but ending with advantage to Besley. For the front engine group Roach was in a class of his own although Mitcham fought up several places in vain pursuit, the last of the unlapped finishers. Roger Dexter’s crew had pushed his Elva-DKW backwards most of the way down to the assembly area - they are, of necessity, given to all sorts of measures to keep this sensitive machine on good form and they explained away this latest stunt as just keeping their feet away from the wheels! M A-B was never troubled by either Wright or Steele for Class A but Andrew Tart in the Bond fended off Stuart Tizzard’s Lola Mk2, keeping John Dowson’s Elva 200 between them for the early laps, but Tizzard closed up and was a mere 0.16 secs behind at the flag.

Sunday morning and there we were bright and early again and there was now space for all the reserves who didn’t race on Saturday to try their luck, which included Hoole thoroughly enjoying racing again with FJ. Those with long memories will recall Sid, a keen member of the Cooper Car Club, racing FJs with the HSCC in the 1970s and in fact his now wife Sue used to write the race reports. Pete Morton’s Lightning Envoyette had developed a cracked block on Saturday which was a great shame after his 8th place finish in this high quality field, so father Alex handed over his Ausper to Pete for Sunday (well that’s what dads do, don’t they).

When the red lights extinguished Milicevic again stormed away from pole position to lead from Hibberd, Macleod, Eberhardt, Walford and James Claridge in Geoff Richardson’s Lola 5A. However it was Smith who again caught attention by moving straight up to 7th place ahead of Muller and Simon Armer’s Cooper T59, who in turn led 2009 defending champion Chris Drake’s Brabham BT6 and Chisholm. Roach continued his outstanding Saturday form but his exhausted tyres gave his Class B Alexis some interesting moments especially at Copse and Stowe, but he still headed the front engine group comfortably from Mitcham and Andrew Tart’s front wheel drive Bond who had a race long scrap. Meanwhile Stephen Barlow’s BMC Mk1 had succumbed after just one lap and Wright followed into retirement on lap 5. Justin Fleming’s Elva 100 expired after lap 7 and came to rest in a compromising position and Hibberd, in his relentless pursuit of Milicevic, was unfortunate to come upon James Owen’s Elva 200 at an awkward moment whilst lapping. Chisholm put in his usual gritty performance to finish 9th ahead of no less than six Class E cars and first time racing the Ausper, Pete Morton worked up to midfield from the back of the grid but then rather overdid things on the last lap and spun down to 34th place, ‘though even this misfortune didn’t disturb Alex’s renowned cheerful disposition. Best of enemies Mullen and Besley battled for Class C leadership and Besley worked hard to keep ahead to his absolute delight, but Wright’s departure from Class A left M A-B to finish easily ahead of Steele, whose rarely raced Taraschi was somewhat off form.

Up at the front Macleod had been closing on Hibberd from lap 2, put in the fastest time of the race on lap 4 and went past to start chasing down Milicevic which he did with no small precision. Macleod’s determination finally paid off and taking advantage of a backmarker and some of the new tarmac run off area he was through on the penultimate lap and it looked to be all over, bar the shouting. Milicevic, though, was having none of this and didn’t let Macleod get more than a cars length ahead round the entire last lap and then he made a last moment lunge, having got a better run out of Woodcote, to draw alongside Macleod right on the finishing line. It looked to have been desperately close and there was divided opinion in the ranks but when the cars trundled into the pit lane it was Macleod’s Caravelle which was ushered into the winners box and he climbed, victorious at last, onto the top step of the podium where amid huge applause and cheering for Macleod, Milicevic and Hibberd, who had all put on the very finest display of close but safe racing, they received their Silverstone Classic commemorative earthenware Coffee Mugs - a most unusual type of trophy.

DCPR being away on other matters, Sarah Rabagliati brought the large crowd to order and immediately made the shock announcement that Callum Macleod had not in fact won the race - it transpired that his Caravelle had been placed into the winners pit lane box in error and the podium presentations had followed suit. Stunned silence for a moment as this news was digested followed by much animated discussion whilst the results sheets were handed round, indeed showing that Macleod had lost to Milicevic by just 0.013 seconds. Once calm had been restored Sarah presented awards for the race.

Peter Jackson