SILVERSTONE 28TH MARCH 2010

The season opener has been at Mallory Park for several years but this year the honour fell to Silverstone and we found considerable changes ongoing as part of their multimillion £ upgrade.
Although the actual track layout of the National circuit remains unchanged much alteration on the outside of bends & curves means that many of the familiar visual references are gone and some of flag marshals’ posts now seem to be miles back from the track.
This is most apparent on the start/finish straight where the left side wall has given way to a rumble curb, a strip of earth, a tarmac road and a vast expanse of gravel, beyond which are the relocated grandstands. The Complex is also quite different now where the gravel trap in front of the BRDC grandstand has been replaced by tarmac.
These are just some of the changes being made and may have contributed to the fact that most of the 35 runners set their best laps near the end of the Qualifying session.

Only 3 seconds covered the 10 fastest men and without the benefit of a stopwatch your scribe thought Michael Hibberd looked quickest with his Lotus 27, now finally cured of the fuel pick up issues, which dogged him last season.
Callum Macleod in venerable Richard Utley’s Caravelle Mk2 also seemed to be going very fast despite tongues of flame at times from the carburettors.
However it was Jon Milicevic in his Cooper T59 who finally got in a lap at 1:05.820 to take pole position leaving Hibberd and MacLeod with 2nd & 3rd spots respectively.
Next up were Cooper T59 friends & rivals Steve Smith & Simon Armer followed by Sir John Chisholm with a time of 1:07.766 for 6th place in his Class D Gemini 3A.
John received a well deserved special mention by DCPR at prize giving because his car had only been unloaded from the NZ container on Thursday, taken to Silverstone test on Friday and broken the gearbox.  So the previous day he burnt midnight oil to rectify this and turned up ready to race looking pretty shattered. 
Simon Diffey took 7th in his familiar gold Lotus 20 but he did just 9 laps in order to preserve new tyres and James Claridge carefully worked up his speed to take 8th place in Geoff Richardson’s Lola 5A. Andrew Hibberd’s Lotus 22 was clearly not as fast as normal and he pulled in early to discover the catch tank almost full of oil so he retired the car immediately with a suspected cracked block to avoid serious damage, rather disappointed with his 9th place.
Defending Champion Chris Drake brought his Elva 300 into 10th place ahead of the Lotus 22 string of John Rees, Paul Smeeth, Rudolf Ernst and Adam Sykes in his 20.
David Hall’s California built BMC, appropriately with BMC engine, was the best non Ford engined car and surprised to be 15th ahead of Robin London’s Lola 2, but the Lola was continually jumping out of gears leaving Robin fishing in a box of neutrals.
Despite this setback Robin’s 1:12.248 was good enough to head the six other Class B cars of Brian Mitcham now racing the ex “Speedy” Stevenson U2 Mk2, followed by Andrew Tart’s front wheel drive, monocoque Bond, Crispian Besley’s Elva 100, Stuart Tizzard’s Lola Mk2, Bill Grimshaw’s Moorland, and lastly Peter St. Barbe’s Elva 100.
Sadly there was a coming together between Tizzard and Richard Smeeton’s Lotus 22 on the outlap. Richard pitting after just 5 laps finding the Lotus with chassis damage and it was withdrawn.
Anthony Goddard was still getting used to his Tojeiro but with 24th spot he closely headed Jeremy Deeley’s Cooper T52, Simon Hamilton’s Lotus 18 and John Dowson’s Elva 200. DCPR’s Alexis was ahead of Michael Ashley-Brown’s Volpini who was the fastest Class A by some margin with a 1:17.632.
The Elva 200s of Sue Spence and James Owen were separated by several seconds in Sue’s favour but the ever determined Roger Dexter pushed on in his Elva-DKW to head three FIAT engined cars, the first of which was Jan Biekens’ Stanguellini. The other two being Michael Waller’s delectable PM Poggi from the Tec-Mec design studio, now with normal final drive ratio in place of the previous Monza gearing and finally Mike Gregory’s stunning De Tomaso ISIS which although resembling a Cooper T52 and indeed sharing some similar technical features and ideas was constructed entirely from original De Tomaso designed components.

We were grateful for the accommodation of pit garages because although the weather was dry the wind was chill and the sky gloomy.
It was very gratifying to find no cars undergoing serious paddock rebuilds after the first outing, a testament to excellent winter preparation.

So it was then that thirty three of Formula Juniors finest lined up in the Brooklands assembly area ready for the 5pm start. However this was delayed by some minutes whilst a considerable oil trail from the previous race was dealt with. It also forced an extra green flag lap to be run and this caused some confusion resulting in the safety car coming round ahead of three racing cars before all finally lined up on the grid with its start line now further down the straight.
Marcus Pye’s knowledgeable commentary rose in excited pitch to inform that Hibberd made a text book start to head Milicevic into Copse but that Milicevic came back at him at once, having moved off the oily line. Hibberd moved ahead slightly but Milicevic fought back and there was jockeying to and fro between them right around the circuit and down the Club Straight where Hibberd shot under the bridge on the racing line and braked perfectly for Brooklands, but Milicevic drifted his Cooper to great effect on the outside and was fractionally ahead as they went through the complex more or less side by side.
This was Formula Junior racing at its best from two of the best drivers and there were huge roars and gasps of approval from the well populated BRDC tribune.
Lap 2 and it was the same, no quarter given and none taken, tight racing with Hibberd yet again with his nose in front only to loose it to the drifting technique of Milicevic at the complex and this thrilling close fought battle went on for several laps until Hibberd caught a bunch of battling back markers at the most inopportune moment for him whereupon Milicevic darted past to open a 20 yard advantage but Hibberd fought back and on lap 5 set the fastest lap time 1:05.752 and was right up on Milicevic’s gearbox again.
This time Hibberd looked set to finally nail his opponent but almost unbelievably yet again some back markers disadvantaged him but also caused Milicevic to have to alter his line and consequently bury himself so deep into Brooklands that everyone watching was totally convinced that he had really, really overdone it this time.
But astonishingly, with his Cooper literally broadside on, Milicevic swept right round the outside and was again 20 yards clear of Hibberd’s Lotus.
Almost as one, the spectators shouted “How did he do that?” or words to that effect.
Subsequently, Hibberd gradually lost ground and unfortunately was never again in a position to challenge for the lead and within a few laps of the end he realised the position and backed off for Milicevic to win by 9 seconds.
A lap time differential of over 20 seconds between the leading Milicevic-Hibberd battle and the slower back marker cars meant that very soon into the race the pack became jumbled but quick to show form was Diffey who moved up to 3rd with Smith chasing hard. They led Armer who struggled for a few laps to get past Drake and Chisholm but when he did so he drew away comfortably. Smith rather overdid things and spun out of contention whilst trying to catch Diffey and Claridge moved into 4th place despite squealing brakes.
Meanwhile McLeod’s gearbox had failed and he retired on lap 3, but poor Dowson didn’t even complete the opening lap when ignition failure sidelined him.
Sykes did well to finish inside the top 10 despite two spins and the relentless fast pace of Milicevic and Hibberd meant that Smeeth was the last unlapped finisher in 10th place.

However, all the action was not just at the front of the pack, but also with the front engines, with Brian Mitcham and Robin Longdon having a real battle until the latter spun, and Tizzard and Besley having the race of their lives, behind. Quite a satisfying debut for the experienced Mitcham in his (only) 95% rebuilt U2.
Dexter’s pit crew had kept the DKW engine cover off until the last possible moment in the assembly area, but whatever the reason was for this it did the trick because Dexter’s lap time improved by some 4 seconds, but not so fortunate was Owen who was noticeably slower than in qually.
At two thirds distance Ernst suffered battery failure which was a great shame after he had started so well in 14th on the grid and Grimshaw & Smith ran out of fuel after 15 & 16 laps respectively of the 18 lap race.
Sadly, apart from Ashley-Brown’s the other three FIAT engined cars of Biekens, Waller & Gregory did not show any great speed, although as DCPR mentioned at prize giving they are exceedingly beautiful creatures (the cars not the drivers!)

In our customary fashion, prize giving was conducted in the lee of Crispian Besley’s red van where he dispensed the very welcome range Freedom beers & lagers and DCPR presented the awards.

1st overall and 1st Class E. ~ John Milicevic, Cooper T59.
2nd overall and 2nd Class E ~ Michael Hibberd, Lotus 27. Fastest lap 1:05.752.
3rd overall and 3rd Class E ~ Simon Diffey, Lotus 20.

1st Class D ~ Sir John Chisholm, Gemini Mk3A. Fastest lap 1:08.460.
2nd Class D ~ Chris Drake, Elva 300.
3rd Class D ~ David Hal,~ BMC-Huffaker Mk2.

1st Class C ~ Jeremy Deeley, Cooper T52. Fastest lap 1:13.196.
2nd Class C ~ Simon Hamilton, Lotus 18.
3rd Class C ~ Sue Spence, Elva 200.

1st Class B ~ Brian Mitcham, Mallock U2. Fastest lap 1:11.291.
2nd Class B ~ Stuart Tizzard, Lola Mk2.
3rd Class B ~ Crispian Besley, Elva 100.

1st Class A ~ Michael Ashley-Brown, Volpini. Fastest lap 1:17.661.
2nd Class A ~ Jan Biekens, Stanguellini.
3rd Class A ~ Michael Waller, PM Poggi.

DCPR asked if anyone was running a one litre engine and although many hands suddenly shot up amid much mirth & humour, none of the claims were successful and so the award was not made.

It was a spell binding race to watch and the turnout of cars and driving standards was a demonstration of Formula Junior racing at its best.

Peter Jackson, The Cooper Cockpit Commentator. 29th March 2010