Vintage Sports Car Club Silverstone
23rd
April 2005
Come April, and
the supporters of Vintage racing descend on Silverstone for the traditional
curtain-raiser to the track season, and this year there was more reason than
usual for VSCC stalwarts to attend as this would be the only opportunity for
the club to host a meeting at the venue which has, for 56 years, been their
spiritual home because, for the first time in many a year the second, June,
event has been scratched from the calendar, the Hawthorn Trophies having been
transported to Oulton Park on the second May Bank Holiday - a welcome return to
the club's northern home.
The programme
remained much as usual, opening with a 30 minute high speed trial and included
three handicaps and two short scratch races - disciplines traditionally
inseparable from VSCC meetings, but now being eased out from some higher
profile events. However, a paucity of entries resulted in the Patrick Lindsay
Trophy (for pre-war racing cars) and the Amschel Rothschild Trophy (for the
post-war equivalent) being combined - and not a 4CL or 250F Maserati to be
seen!
For a change,
there were no circuit developments to contend with this year (surely the F1
brigade haven't been satisfied?!) with races being run over the now-familiar
national circuit.
TOPS members were
out in force in the Lindsay and Rothschild Trophies race, with Seb Welch and
Tania P enjoying a spirited scrap with their Cooper T45 and T43 respectively,
Seb finally gaining the upper hand to finish 6th overall, closely followed home
by Tania in 7th. Charlie Dean picked up where he had left off last year and
finished second pre-war car (after Mark Gillies in Rodney Smith's ERA R3A) with
his unbelievably quick Bugatti 51, some 12 seconds adrift in 8th, having
trounced Alex Boswell's glorious Ferrari 625. Further down the order, Graham
Burrows dazzled spectators (and fellow-competitors) with his freshly repainted
ex-Bob Gerard Cooper Bristol ("....it'll be good for another five
years....") albeit one lap down, and heading home Richard P, this time
giving the 1937/8 Talbot T26 SS an airing. Rothschild Trophy honours were taken
by Anthony Hancock in Neil Twyman's Cooper T45 by a scant 0.58 seconds after a
race-long battle with Andrew Smith (Cooper T43) while the closest win of the
meeting fell to Julian Bronson, fighting his mighty Lister-Corvette - and
falling fuel pressure - across the line a mere 0.26 seconds ahead of Anthony
Wood (Lister Knobbly) to take 50s Sports Car honours. A stirring drive from
Barry Cannell with his fleet 2-litre Willment-Climax earned third place at the
flag, having ousted early pacesetter Anthony Ditheridge (Cooper Monaco).
Spike Milligan was
adapting to a new, much lower seating position in his HWM, having fabricated a
new seat mounting over the winter, and now felt as though he was "in"
the car rather than "on" it, an added benefit being that he could now
read all of the instruments! It also sported a much more stylish roll-over bar
in place of its former full-width "bed-head". 16th place was the reward.
Blockley tyre
supremo Julian Majzub completed a hat-trick of wins in fine style in the Itala
and Lanchester Trophies with his Pacey-Hassan Bentley, from Michael Rudnig and
that man Bronson picked up his tenth Fox and Nichol Trophy with the Riley Blue
Streak. Alex Hince (running under her 'nom de course' of Mrs Alex Pilkington
?!) epitomized the spirit of vintage racing, leaving husband David at home to
marshal the children, while she went off to Silverstone to compete in a couple
of handicaps with her Alfa 6C 1750, driving home again afterwards. Three
cheers!
A.S.C.