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FIA Lurani Trophy Round 6 - Brands Hatch - 1st - 3rd July

Qualifying took place at mid-day Friday in sunny and dry conditions. Topping the table was James Murray (Lola 5A) at 1’41.540”, just 0.1” faster than Stuart Roach with the Alexis Mk4. Pierre Tonetti (BT6) was a further 0.5” down, with a gap of 1.6 seconds to Philipp Buhofer (Lola 5A) and Pete Morton’s Lightning/Envoyette. In the classes James Hicks (Caravelle III) was ahead in D, whilst championship contender John Delane (Lotus 18) was fastest in C but only by 0.84” from Peter Mullen (Kieft). The front-engined classes saw, unsurprisingly, Andrew Tart (Bond) and solo class runner Jan Biekens (Stanguellini) to the fore.

Race 1 on Saturday was, again, held in sunny conditions. We lost Roger Ealand’s Koala with a broken lobe on the camshaft on the holding area and Peter Mullen (Kieft) on the green-flag lap with fuel pump failure, so 34 cars took the start. Murray was rather slow away from pole so at the end of the first lap Roach just headed Tonetti with Murray third, then a gap to Robin Longdon (Lola 5A), Marc Amez-Droz (BT6) and James Hicks (Caravelle). At the start of lap 3 Murray made a good move under braking for Paddock Bend to take second but he was two seconds behind Stuart and quickly pulled a second away from Pierre so it rather looked as though the leading places might be settled. However, nothing could have been further from the case and by mid-distance Tonetti was right back on James’ tail and in traffic they both closed on Stuart. On lap 9 Tonetti slipped by Murray and the next time round he took the lead going in to Paddock, but Roach almost immediately retook the place – this was really exciting stuff and the commentator was getting very enthusiastic! The gaps fluctuated as traffic played its inevitable part but the lead margin came down steadily - 2.0” on lap 12, 1.5” on lap 13 and 0.3” on lap 14. When they appeared off the Grand Prix circuit and into Clark Curve for the 15th and final time Tonetti was right on Roach’s tail and he pulled out as they came to the line but missed out by just 0.039”, with James Murray only 0.3” further back !

As if this wasn’t enough excitement, another good battle played out behind, with Amez-Droz eventually besting Morton but only after a coming together with Philipp Buhofer sidelined Robin Longdon out in the country. Buhofer rejoined behind Richard Smeeton, out this time with the Lotus 22 and Class D winner Hicks, who however incurred a 10 second penalty for starting from  an incorrect grid position. Perhaps of greater significance for the Lurani points table was that John Delane had gearbox problems and suffered a rare defeat at the hands of UK series regular Robert Barrie (Lotus 18). Andrew Tart backed up his qualifying with a fairly easy class win with David Hall (BMC Mk1) and Justin Fleming (Elva 100) next, and of course Jan was unopposed in Class A. Dick van Amsterdam (Belgica) was also solo in Class F. Noteworthy was John Dowson’s climb from 25th on lap 1 to 10th at the end. Our Australian visitors found the pace rather hot and best placed was Kim Shearn in 17th, whilst the Koala’s non-start prompted the commentators to speculate on the need to feed it more eucalyptus leaves.

Other than Longdon, the only casualties in a commendably incident free race, were Alex Morton (Ausper), Dietrich Merkel (Lola 2) and Peter Knöfel (Emeryson), who came to a stop with a half-spin at the entrance to Paddock Bend after the clutch exploded.

On Sunday the FJs opened the day’s racing at 11.15 in front of a much larger crowd, in fact one that must have brought a smile to the promoters faces. Yesterday’s cooling breeze was missing and it was, if anything, too hot – how often can you say that at Brands Hatch! Longdon and Knöfel did not re-appear but Mullen had the Kieft ready so we had a large and mixed field of 33 cars for Race 2.
Again James Murray made a rather slow getaway, as did John Delane who had his hand raised going into the first corner. The end of lap one saw Roach heading Tonetti, Murray, Buhofer, Amez-Droz and Pete Morton. But drama! Stuart ran wide on to the gravel at Paddock at the start of lap two. Happily he was able to avoid the bank using his HRG and Alexis HFIII Trials experience to keep up his momentum so he rejoined the track having only lost half-a-dozen places – 50 years ago the Alexis would have been another victim of the infamous Paddock Hill bank and Stuart might well have ended the day in Dartford hospital – not all progress is Bad!! By the end of lap 3 Stuart had already disposed of Amez-Droz and Buhofer but was 4.5” down on Pierre Tonetti. This gap rapidly shrank and on lap 6 he was back in second but again Tonetti fought back and retook second, some six seconds behind James Murray. Roach sat on the Brabham’s tail all round the circuit and slipped past again on lap 11 and started to close on James, taking Pierre with him. On the final lap the gap to the leader was still 2.6” but Tonetti retook second by 0.3”!  Some 34 seconds behind in fourth was Amez-Droz, having taken Philipp Buhofer on the final tour. Richard Smeeton was a further 10 seconds down, just holding off Morton in another very close finish. 

Down the field there was a splendid multi-car scrap involving David Hall (BMC Mk1), Andrew Tart (Bond), Anthony Goddard (Tojeiro), Justin Fleming (Elva 100), John Delane (Lotus 18) and James Owen (Elva 200), finishing in that order but only after numerous changes. It was also the Class B battle and Andrew Tart was beaten! Class D went again to James Hicks, from Alex Morton. In Class C Delane never recovered from a very slow start as the gearbox gremlins struck again and the class was a repeat win for Robert Barrie from Delane.

On aggregate the placings were Murray – Tonetti – Roach, with the class winners being Hicks, Barrie, Tart, Biekens and van Amsterdam.  Without doubt, FJ had provided the best race of the day on Sunday, and probably on Saturday too, although to be fair the Formula Ford race was typically close fought, yielding another win (by a hair’s breadth) for Benn Simms’ Alexis Mk 14 against much later opposition.  To complete the record Pete St Barbe (Elva 100) ran in the CRC race but pulled up when the oil pressure dropped and Sarah Hutchison (Lotus 18) was a non-starter due to a thrust bearing problem for husband John in the second Lurani which meant she did not wish to risk the gearbox. 

by Richard Page