Event Information

Race Entries

DATE	DESCRIPTION	RACE RESULTS
July 4th/5th, 2009	Arbuthnot Latham Race for Pre’61 GP Cars RM Auctions Race for HGPCA Sports Cars

Race Report

A wonderful track, superb weather, fine facilities and good hospitality – everything members ask for when they go racing; sadly this was spoilt for one of our members by a first corner accident which eliminated his car.

We should all remember the first article of the FIA regulations for historic racing "Historic competition is not simply another formula in which to acquire trophies. It is a discipline apart, in which one of the essential ingredients is a devotion to the cars and to their history". Recommended reading is article four of the Association Race Invitation Guidelines. Remember, racing with the HGPCA is for fun, not for glory!

We had bought a race at the Spa Summer Classic event organised each year by Alain Defalle and forty single-seat entries were received, including two in an invitation class. For a number of reasons fewer took part in practice but, nevertheless, the sight of thirty plus Grand Prix cars together on the track was superb.

Klaus Lehr in his first race with the Association with his newly acquired Maserati 250F suffered transmission problems as did Stefan Schollwoeck with his very fast 4CL Maserati. Mark Piercy’s gearbox broke and had to be replaced overnight with parts driven across from Hoole Racing in Kimbolton (all before official practice). John Harper quickly established fastest lap in qualifying practice with Alan Baillie, Jon Fairley, Ian Ashley and Mike Grant Peterkin (invitation class Brabham BT21) close behind. With five minutes to go in practice, Mike was second fastest only for Ian to better this time on the last lap before the flag. Richard Pilkington led class two in his Talbot; Ian Nuthall was fastest in class five with the Alta; Nick Eden led class nine whilst Ian Ashley led class ten. John Harper was fastest by nearly five seconds, whereas less than a second covered the next four places.

With 25 minutes free practice and 30 minutes qualifying practice on the demanding circuit already completed, the number of cars fit to start race one was reduced to 29.

As the cars were about to be called to the grid for race one, Allan Miles suffered the same oil connector problems as had plagued him at Monza; these modern synthetic pipes just don’t connect like the old rubber ones! Marc Valvekens had worked all week to get the Gordini to the start of his local race only for the car to misfire due to finger problems with the fuel tap! The start of the race was not helped by it being ‘rolling’ rather than the more usual Grand Prix standing start, made double problematic by some of the front row drivers not remembering when they were allowed to press the ‘go’ peddle. The resultant first corner crash was stupid.

With ten minutes left in the race, Ian Ashley led with his LDS followed closely by John Harper in the Brabham, Sid Hoole in his trusty Cooper and the invited Brabham BT21 (on incorrect tyres). Jon Fairley was fifth with Alan Baillie up to sixth after being delayed at the first corner coming-together. On the next lap, John pulled into the lead to remain there until the chequered flag. Ian was second with Sid third, Mike G-P fourth, Alan fifth and Jon sixth. Further down the field, Hubert Fabri, Nick Eden and Brian Jolliffe raced together (rather too close on one occasion) whilst Brian Horwood (Cooper Bristol) and Richard Pilkington (Talbot) also had an exciting dice together.

Race 2 on Sunday morning caught a number of HGPCA competitors unaware. The pit lane closed before they were ready and they had to start after the grid had passed. This included two possible front runners, Alan Baillie and Mark Piercy (having suffered a broken gearbox in testing, broke a drive shaft in race 1). John Harper immediately went into the lead a position he held until the end. Mark, starting from the pit lane, was driving superbly and was up to 15th at the end of the first lap and 6th on lap two. Jon Fairley was holding third place behind Ian’s LDS only for a misfire to develop which caused him to drop back to sixth place. Further back, Hubert Fabri and Brain Jolllife were racing together – Hubert able to power away on the straights only for Brian to catch him in the corners! Another good race was developing between the Coper Bristols of Steve Russell and Brian Horwood.

The Association’s visit with sports-cars to the Spa Summer Classic in 2008 had not been good for our finances. This year, rather than try and fill the grid, we had combined with another organisation ‘Historische Tourenwagen und GT-Trophy’ who came to the circuit with a mixture of cars ranging form a couple of two-stroke DKWs to a replica GT40. The HGPCA made up 18 of the 43 car grid but with breakdowns in testing, this was reduced to fourteen car taking part in qualifying practice. Fastest was Peter Horsman in the Lotus 17 prototype, indeed he was fastest of the entire field. Michel Wanty’s Lotus 11 was some three seconds slower with Barry Cannell and the Willament third. Klaus Lehr had planned to race his Maserati in the Grand Prix race but when this developed gearbox problems, rather than spend the weekend as a spectator, he summoned up his Mercedes 300 SLS Special – a spectacular car.

Peter Horsman immediately moved into the lead of the HGPCA part of the race with Michel Wanty second and Richard Pilkington in the beautiful 300S Maserati third. Charles McCabe held fourth place with the Bianchi husband & wife team fifth in their MGB.

With a couple of laps to go, Brian Jolliffe’s Cooper spun, stuck in gear and caused the red flag to be displayed for race end. On the last lap, Charles had finally passed the Pilkington Maserati only for the results to be classified on the previous lap!

As is our custom, the grid for race two was the finishing order of race one but sadly Alan Bailie, co-driving with Charles McCabe immediately pitted with brake problems and the electrics failed on the O’Connell Cooper with Ed Cottam driving.

It had been decided that the Red Truck would not travel to Spa this year and that Saturday & Sunday lunches and food for the BBQ would be supplied by the circuit. Whilst the food was adequate, it was sadly not up to the standard of Red Truck offerings but it did mean that Stella had time to run a very satisfactory tea & coffee shop in an adjacent garage.