HSCC International Trophy Silverstone GP 27th May 2023
The HSCC’s International Trophy meeting took place on the Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone over the weekend of the 27th and 28th of May, with the venue celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2023.
Historic Formula Two: A 22-strong entry of the stylish two-litre single-seaters was headed by Andy Smith‘s ex-Eddie Cheever March 782 in qualifying, scorching to pole 2.868 seconds clear of Matthew Wrigley’s Toleman Group 782. The older March 742 of Mark Charteris lined up third and next came the first driver not at the wheel of a March, Marc Mercer aboard his Ralt RT1 in fourth. Charteris made the best start in his Elf-liveried March from the inside of the second row to grab the lead into Copse for the first time, ahead of the Smith and Wrigley's March 782s. Not wasting any time, poleman Smith took the lead into Stowe and straight away started to build a small lead, Wrigley also deposed Charteris for second before the first lap was done. Smith's early advantage was quickly negated by the deployment of the Safety Car on lap two, after the March 782s of Martin Wood and Brian Morris, plus the Chevron B27 of Mike Bletsoe-Brown, tangled at Abbey,. The orange March of Morris was able to continue but the other two were stranded. Having followed the Safety Car for three laps, the field was released with nine of the scheduled twenty five minutes remaining and Wrigley didn't let Smith get away at the restart. As the pair screamed down the Wellington Straight, Wrigley moved out of the tow and took the lead down the inside into Brooklands, Smith tried to make the cutback towards Luffield but wasn't able to make it work on the outside so Wrigley finished the lap in front. The Toleman 782 couldn't shake off Smith's Yardley car and having probed Wrigley's resistance for a lap, Smith breached his defence into Stowe around the outside to take up the lead again. Having none of it, Wrigley fought back at Club to reclaim the spot but carrying more momentum onto the Hamilton Straight allowed Smith to finally make the place his own at Abbey. Further back, Marc Mercer's misfiring Ralt RT1 and David Thorburn's March 762 demoted Charteris' black 742 to fifth, whilst a recovering Morris was reeling in Greg Audi's Ralt RT1 for sixth. Leader Smith was now into his stride and took a 2.349-second lead onto the last lap and had stretched his advantage to 4.230 seconds when he greeted the chequered flag. Wrigley came home second after a spirited drive, ahead of the flat-sounding Ralt of Mercer in third. Charteris took fourth after Thorburn retired, whilst Audi hung on to fifth just ahead of Morris, who'd made a great recovery from the lap one tangle at Abbey.
Historic Formula Two: A 22-strong entry of the stylish two-litre single-seaters was headed by Andy Smith‘s ex-Eddie Cheever March 782 in qualifying, scorching to pole 2.868 seconds clear of Matthew Wrigley’s Toleman Group 782. The older March 742 of Mark Charteris lined up third and next came the first driver not at the wheel of a March, Marc Mercer aboard his Ralt RT1 in fourth. Charteris made the best start in his Elf-liveried March from the inside of the second row to grab the lead into Copse for the first time, ahead of the Smith and Wrigley's March 782s. Not wasting any time, poleman Smith took the lead into Stowe and straight away started to build a small lead, Wrigley also deposed Charteris for second before the first lap was done. Smith's early advantage was quickly negated by the deployment of the Safety Car on lap two, after the March 782s of Martin Wood and Brian Morris, plus the Chevron B27 of Mike Bletsoe-Brown, tangled at Abbey,. The orange March of Morris was able to continue but the other two were stranded. Having followed the Safety Car for three laps, the field was released with nine of the scheduled twenty five minutes remaining and Wrigley didn't let Smith get away at the restart. As the pair screamed down the Wellington Straight, Wrigley moved out of the tow and took the lead down the inside into Brooklands, Smith tried to make the cutback towards Luffield but wasn't able to make it work on the outside so Wrigley finished the lap in front. The Toleman 782 couldn't shake off Smith's Yardley car and having probed Wrigley's resistance for a lap, Smith breached his defence into Stowe around the outside to take up the lead again. Having none of it, Wrigley fought back at Club to reclaim the spot but carrying more momentum onto the Hamilton Straight allowed Smith to finally make the place his own at Abbey. Further back, Marc Mercer's misfiring Ralt RT1 and David Thorburn's March 762 demoted Charteris' black 742 to fifth, whilst a recovering Morris was reeling in Greg Audi's Ralt RT1 for sixth. Leader Smith was now into his stride and took a 2.349-second lead onto the last lap and had stretched his advantage to 4.230 seconds when he greeted the chequered flag. Wrigley came home second after a spirited drive, ahead of the flat-sounding Ralt of Mercer in third. Charteris took fourth after Thorburn retired, whilst Audi hung on to fifth just ahead of Morris, who'd made a great recovery from the lap one tangle at Abbey.
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Thundersports/Guards Trophy: A low entry of the 1970s Thundersports sports prototypes saw them combined with the Guards Trophy for their one-hour race on Saturday. Gwyn Pollard’s rare and pretty Royale RP6/17 beat the Chevron B8 hordes to pole position late in the restarted session, with Steve Nutall lining up as top B8 in second. The Lenham P69 Spyder of Ben Tusting/Neil Fowler set the third fastest time as the next three spots were all filled by Chevron B8s, the Christian Pittard, Dan Balfour and Charles Owen/Ben Tinkler examples. The pretty Group 6 Osella PA2 of David Alborough qualified seventh but would be a non-starter, Ross Hyett’s Chevron B16 taking his spot on the fourth row. Hyett headed the new Apsley House Trophy for Chevron B16s, which were now permitted to compete in the Guards Trophy, and four of the beautiful coupes would turn out. Pollard converted his pole position into the race lead at the start but his time in front would be short as Nuttall passed the Royale before lap one was complete. Whilst the gunmetal grey B8 gradually stretched away from the white Royale during the early stages, the battle for third was much more fluid. Firstly, the Pittard Chevron relieved the similar car of Owen of the place on lap three and then the white B8 was pushed back another position by Hyett's upwardly mobile B16 a lap later. Another two laps and Hyett moved up to third at Copse before a momentary hiccup around the twenty-minute mark for Pollard's Royale saw the red B16 close in. A temporary truce was called when the Safety Car was required for a stricken Lotus Elan after 23 minutes and all the top four immediately peeled into the pitlane as the pitstop window opened during the lull. When the stops shook out, the Nuttall B8 still headed the queue but the Pittard B8, the Tusting/Fowler Lenham plus the Dan Balfour and David Forsbrey's B8 had all leapfrogged Hyett's B16, the theoretically faster Chevron was required to stop for twice as long as the competition as part of the agreement to allow the model into the Guards Trophy. Pollard's Royale lost out the most in the stops and fell to ninth. After the restart, Nuttall carried on where he left off and serenely drove away at the front of the field but Pittard's second place was coming under threat from Neil Fowler's Lenham, that Ben Tusting had started, and an advancing Hyett. Pollard was also clambering back up the leaderboard and moved into fifth with twelve minutes to go. Into the last ten minutes, Pittard got boxed in behind a lapped Morgan at Luffield and Fowler drove around his outside for second, with Hyett following the Lenham past towards Copse. The B16 was quickly onto the tail of Fowler and made an attempt at Stowe but ran wide, Hyett finally made a move stick a couple of minutes later. The order settled down in the remaining few minutes so Nuttall took the victory by 7.706 seconds from Hyett on-the-road but the Chevron was penalised 31.85 seconds for leaving his pit 1.85 seconds too soon. The Tusting/Fowler Lenham therefore took second place ahead of Pittard's Chevron in third. Hyett was reclassified fourth by less than a second from Pollard's Royale. There was late drama in the sixth place tussle as the B8 of Balfour was caught going onto the last lap by the similar Owen/Tinkler car, Tinkler got past during the lap but he threw the place away with a spin at Brooklands so trailed in eighth behind Forsbrey's B8.
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Aurora Trophy: A mix of 23 F5000, F2, Atlantic, F3 and FF2000 single-seaters contested the Aurora Trophy encounters, Rory Smith’s Formula Atlantic Ralt RT4 sped to pole position from Ross Allen’s F2 March 762 by 0.665 seconds. Christian Pittard aboard his VDS-liveried Chevron B28 was the fastest of the F5000 cars in third and would share the second row with Mike Bainbridge’s smaller Chevron B29 F2 car. Mike Bletsoe-Brown’s pretty Chevron B27 F2 car qualified in fifth from late entry Tom Smith’s debuting Formula Atlantic March 74B. Another interesting entry came in the shape of ex-Donington GT racer James McAughay’s Toyota-engined Swift DB4 Formula Atlantic car, in which he qualified seventh. Frank Lyons was in his ex-Tony Trimmer Lola T332, whilst his wife Judy was at the helm of the First National Bank-liveried Lola T332 F5000 car. A couple of earlier F5000 cars were in the field too, namely John Murphy's Crossle 15F and Matthew Wurr's Sid Taylor Racing McLaren M10B. At the rolling start, the extra 3400cc of Chevrolet V8 brought Pittard alongside Smith towards Copse but the Formula Atlantic Ralt swept around the outside to claim the race lead. Smith cleared off up the road to a dominant victory, ahead of a long-running dispute for second. Pittard's Chevron B28 took the place ahead of his race-long shadow Allen in third, the nimbler F2 March 762 unable to combat the F5000's superior grunt. Mike Bainbridge took fourth just ahead of a closing Mike Bletsoe-Brown in all-F2 Chevron squabble. James McGaughay came home sixth despite a tangle with John Murphy's F5000 Crossle at Brooklands after the pair interlocked wheels, both continued with tyre marks covering their steeds. Mike Coker’s Lola T300 defeated former Morgan racer Matthew Wurr and Frank Lyons in a battle of the F5000s for eighth, ninth and tenth, as 1.272 seconds covered the thunderous machines.
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Historic FF1600: A typical Silverstone slipstreamer for the Pre ‘74 cars was fought out amongst a pack of seven combatants, headed by the double-champion polesitter Callum Grant's Merlyn Mk20A. Having lost out to Benn Simms's Jomo and Linton Stutely's Royale at the start, Grant worked his way back to the front on the opening lap whilst Matt Wrigley moved up to fourth at Simon Toyne's expense through Club. The jostling soon started with Grant, Stutely and Simms draughting back and forth at the head of the pack, whilst Wrigley, Simon Toyne, Sam Mitchell and Spencer Shinners weren't out of it either. The fighting only got more intense as the race wore on and Grant, Simms and Stuteley were regularly three abreast into Copse, Stowe and Brooklands. Starting the sixth tour, Stutely was lined up in the tow of Grant past the pits and the leading three were quickly abreast as Simms went to the inside of Grant, who was sat in the middle and had Stutely to the outside but it was the Royale out wide that swept into the lead. Their scrapping allowed Toyne, Mitchell and Shinners to close back in, the group having lost Wrigley on lap four. The squabbling continued as Simms led into Brooklands, whilst Mitchell moved past Toyne for fourth. The top three were abreast again towards Copse starting lap seven as Simms defended the inside, with Grant the meat in the sandwich and Stutely to his outside. The trio were at it once more as they went three-wide down the Hangar Straight but the order remained Simms, Grant and Stutely. Using the slipstream, Grant sliced into the lead at Brooklands ending the seventh lap and took the early chequer with three minutes to go, as the 18:30 curfew loomed. Grant won a brilliant display of clean racing by 0.060 seconds from Simms, Stutely, Mitchell and Toyne, with the top five covered by a mere 0.795 seconds.
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Other Highlights
75-year-old FF1600 veteran Rick Morris rolled back the years with pole position for the Classic Pre '82 machines aboard his Royale RP29 but the race would be dominated by Simon Toyne's Lola T200. Morris led initially but Toyne would get ahead at Abbey for the first time and flew to a 7.738 seconds victory from Ben Tinkler's Van Diemen RF80. Morris had been battling with Joseph Ahrens' Royale RP26 for second place but a last-lap tangle at Brooklands saw them trail home in fourth and fifth behind Andy Gosling.
The huge array of machinery from the combined 70s Road Sports, Historic Roadsports and Historic Touring Car entries made up a grid of fifty competitors and was headed by a phalanx of Morgan Plus 8s. Will Plant’s example topped the times as four of the top five qualifiers were at the wheel of the Malvern-built machines, Antony Ross' TVR the interloper in fourth. Come the race and the Plus 8s made hay to fill the top five places, led home by Plant’s example 9.304 seconds in the clear. Robin Pearce took a similarly comfortable second but the battle for third had less than half a second splitting Simon King from John Shaw. Topping the Historic Touring Car runners was the Ford Mustang of Mark Watts from the Singer Chamois of Steve Platts.
The Monoposto single-seaters made a guest appearance at the meeting and it looked as though pole starter Tony Bishop would win with ease in his Dallara F307. However, a late Safety Car eradicated his 24.633-second advantage and allowed the similar Dallara of Karl O'Brien to steal away the win at Stowe during the one-lap dash to the flag.
75-year-old FF1600 veteran Rick Morris rolled back the years with pole position for the Classic Pre '82 machines aboard his Royale RP29 but the race would be dominated by Simon Toyne's Lola T200. Morris led initially but Toyne would get ahead at Abbey for the first time and flew to a 7.738 seconds victory from Ben Tinkler's Van Diemen RF80. Morris had been battling with Joseph Ahrens' Royale RP26 for second place but a last-lap tangle at Brooklands saw them trail home in fourth and fifth behind Andy Gosling.
The huge array of machinery from the combined 70s Road Sports, Historic Roadsports and Historic Touring Car entries made up a grid of fifty competitors and was headed by a phalanx of Morgan Plus 8s. Will Plant’s example topped the times as four of the top five qualifiers were at the wheel of the Malvern-built machines, Antony Ross' TVR the interloper in fourth. Come the race and the Plus 8s made hay to fill the top five places, led home by Plant’s example 9.304 seconds in the clear. Robin Pearce took a similarly comfortable second but the battle for third had less than half a second splitting Simon King from John Shaw. Topping the Historic Touring Car runners was the Ford Mustang of Mark Watts from the Singer Chamois of Steve Platts.
The Monoposto single-seaters made a guest appearance at the meeting and it looked as though pole starter Tony Bishop would win with ease in his Dallara F307. However, a late Safety Car eradicated his 24.633-second advantage and allowed the similar Dallara of Karl O'Brien to steal away the win at Stowe during the one-lap dash to the flag.
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