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FJHRA/HSCC "Millers Oils" UK Championship
R1 Donington Park - 17th March 2013

Such was the volume of entries received for this the opening round of the Championship that we had two grids, one for the front engine classes (A, B1, B2) plus C1, and another one for rear engines and following a few prior withdrawals due to unready cars  and driver illness, we had a respectable twenty one show up for each.

First to go were the front engines and Roger Dexter’s Elva-DKW was sporting a newly contrived reverse thrust exhaust system to pass the noise test at the entrance to the assembly area, up on the old Melbourne Loop part of the circuit as usual.
At this time the track was dryish on the racing line but cold & slimy elsewhere, however this didn’t seem to deter Stuart Roach who put the pale blue Alexis Mk2 into pole position with a time of 1.26.698 nearly 4 seconds faster than Mark Woodhouse out again in his Elva 100 BMC  after a number of years in his Lotus 20/22, having swapped cars with son Jack this season.
3rd up was Crispian Besley’s similar Elva 100 and he was joined on the 2nd row by Derek Walker’s Terrier Mk4, all these being Class B2 cars.
Very pleasing it was to see Italian cars making five in total for Class A and fastest of these was Jan Bieken’s Stanguellini with a time of 1.46.723. Jan placed 14th on the grid, one spot ahead of Pat Barford’s EFAC. 
Stephen Bulling’s Class B1 Sadler achieved 1.50.759 which bettered Mike Fowler’s Class B2 Gemini Mk2, wrongly listed in the times as B1, but who unfortunately had a differential break up after only 3 laps and Jon Gross, the sole representative of Class C1 in his rear engined Envoy Mk1 took a midfield start with a time of 1.41.744.
Keith Roach’s Gemini Mk2 engine blew up without warning leaving the remains of a con-rod poking out through a large hole in the block so he and Fowler were DNS for the race ~~ a great shame for them both.

Then it was the turn of the rear engined cars to go out for Qualifying and by now it was raining steadily and growing colder by the minute. The rain turned to sleet and then to snow in which atrocious conditions Sam Wilson’s Cooper T59 put up the fastest time of 1.41.706 to claim pole position from Jonathon Hughes’ Brabham BT6, reportedly suffering from carburettor icing. The 2nd grid row comprised firstly Mark Pangborn’s Lotus 20B and then Andrew Hibberd’s Lotus 22. The leading four cars were all Class E1 but defending Champion Robert Barrie’s Lotus 18 led Class C2 with 1.51.986 and placed 9th on the grid immediately ahead of Class D2 leader Alex Morton’s Ausper on 1.53.608 and David Hall’s BMC-Huffaker Mk2 claimed Class D1 with 2.02.589 to start 16th.
At last Mike Gregory’s FIAT engined deTomaso-Isis had someone to play with and we were very pleased to see Pierre Guichard’s beautifully presented Faccioli-FIAT.
James Claridge’s Lola Mk 5A dived into the pit lane on his second lap to be set upon by father Ian and Geoff Richardson who struggled, seemingly forever, to rectify a throttle issue. With time running out rapidly James jumped in and just managed to complete another lap before the session ended, his official fastest time shown as over 12 minutes, which placed him almost beyond last on the grid! 

Mercifully it had stopped snowing well before the front engine race and under a watery sun and on a drying track Roach momentarily lost traction at the start allowing Woodhouse to bag the lead and he was followed through by Besley and Walker as they rounded Redgate and then went out of sight down the Craner Curves towards the Old Hairpin. However, Roach got his act together, regained the lead going up the rise towards McLeans and then raced away to an imperious win, by nearly one minute, from Woodhouse ~ but of course there was rather more to it than that.

To begin with Gordon Russell had trouble keeping his Gemini Mk2 on land on the green flag lap and arrived at a deserted grid as the field were past the Craner Curves!! - but he managed to get past  Michael Waller’s PM Poggi and Bulling after 3 laps. Next lap he went by Richard Pugh’s Stanguellini and Michael Ashley-Brown’s Volpini and then by dint of continuing excellent driving gradually made his way up to finish 8th .
Ash Waller in his Sadler, back on track after an 8 month bare chassis rebuild by father Michael, new panels by Stuart Roach and an engine rebuild by Stuart Rolt, lost a couple of places at the start and then sadly was a DNF due to a £2 rotar arm, although not before having had a good scrap with MA-B’s Volpini. Up at the front Walker had the perfect line into Redgate and took 3rd place from Besley and then they both benefited when Woodhouse very uncharacteristically dumped his Elva into a swamp at the Old Hairpin, completely plastering the car and himself with mud.
This put him behind Besley but not for long because within the next two laps he was back in 2nd place with Besley now 3rd when Walker’s Terrier developed a misfire and he retired. Unfortunately Barford’s EFAC and Andrea Guarino’s Lola Mk2 had a misunderstanding at the Chicane which caused Barford to retire his damaged car, losing him his Class A leadership which Biekens inherited, whilst Guarino continued for a couple of laps before himself retiring his, now uncertain handling, car.
Stephen Barlow’s BMC-Huffaker Mk1 chased Richard Ellingworth’s Gemini Mk2 very hard and he got past on lap 9 to take a very worthy 4th place overall. David Brand kept his BMC-Huffaker Mk1 ahead of Dexter until lap 7 but he regained the place to finish 6th and Anthony “Taff” Smith pedalled the ex Fleming Elva into 9th at the flag.

On with the motley. By the time of the rear engined race the sun was actually shining and its warmth was certainly welcome as the cars formed up in good time, except for Hughes and Guichard who were delayed in the paddock but took their correct places. On the green flag lap Linden Brand’s Lotus 22 suffered an ignition malfunction and peeled off into the pits and although he started off alright as the last car went by he didn’t complete the opening lap.
Once again the right side pole position didn’t offer good grip and Wilson was slow away and although A.Hibberd was forced to take the long way round Hughes and Pangborn at Redgate he, in the words of the commentator, “was off like a robber’s dog” down Craner with Hughes, Pangborn, and the recovering Wilson in hot pursuit. Claridge ripped through the tail enders making up eight places on the opening lap and then a further three next time round but Hibberd, bedevilled by intermittent power delivery, slipped behind Pangborn, Jack Woodhouse’s Lotus 20/22 and Pete Morton’s Lightning Envoyette. Michael Hibberd was racing Rudi Ernst’s ex Marcus Mussa Brabham BT2 and despite gaining four places on the opening lap he retired at mid distance with a severely baulking gear change. At the start Barrie immediately fell prey to Besley’s Cooper T56 and although they exchanged places several times during the race it was Besley who took the Class C2 win. Redgate was the scene of some excellent passing manoeuvres and P. Morton had taken J.Woodhouse and Pangborn to lie in 4th place by lap 5 as they swept by Guichard who was taking things very steady.
Andrew Robertson’s Crossle 4F had grabbing brakes which made life very difficult and he gradually fell back down the order but Andrew Hayden’s Lotus 22 had some good racing with Chris Wilks’ Deep Sanderson, which has obviously benefited from the suspension adjustments performed by Stuart Roach over the winter. Hayden had  bested Wilks by the finish and also put Class D1 winner David Hall’s BMC-Huffaker Mk2 between them at the flag. The ever smiling Alex Morton took his beloved Ausper to the Class D2 win and 12th place overall after some very close fought exchanges firstly with Richard Smeeton’s Wainer and then for the majority of the race with Andrew Garside’s Lotus 20/22. Gregory and Guichard’s FIAT engined cars ran steadily at a relatively modest pace but Steve Jones’ Cooper T67 had to be retired after 11 laps because the water temperature was fluctuating wildly and Steve was very anxious for his new engine.
Meanwhile after his tardy start the mercurial Wilson had quickly regained the lead and steadily drew away from Hughes who had no answer at all. A.Hibberd’s fortunes had improved to 3rd after taking P.Morton on lap 8 and then they were all over each other until in the Chicane and with the chequered flag in sight they came to lap another car. P.Morton pounced and looked to have stolen 3rd place by less than a gnat’s unmentionable but actually it was A.Hibberd who crossed the line 0.002 ahead !
By this time though Wilson was long gone, in fact nearly 12 secs up the road from Hughes and 18 secs ahead of A.Hibberd & P.Morton ~~ a masterful victory.

The race meeting was Donington’s 80th anniversary and to mark this splendid occasion the HSCC trophies were rather fine. This presentation was followed by the usual FJHRA prizegiving conducted by DCPR who welcomed our new drivers and then the entire party raised a bottle of Crispian Besley’s “Freedom” sponsored beer to loudly toast the indefatigable Roger Dexter who had celebrated his own 80th birthday earlier in the week.

L to R:
Mark Woodhouse, Stuart Roach, Crispian Besley

L to R:
Andrew Hibberd, Sam Wilson, Jonathon Hughes

 

Peter Jackson - 20th March 2013