Silverline Championship Rounds 6 & 7
The Silverline Historic Formula Junior Championship travelled North to Oulton Park following their trip South to Thruxton in June. All of the podium finishers from the Thruxton races appeared in the entry. Nic Carlton-Smith and Nathan Metcalfe were both racing their Lotus 20s, whilst Stuart Roach forsook his Alexis Mk3 from Thruxton for his front-engined Mk2.
The initial entry of 38 cars reduced to 35 cars for qualifying. The entry was headed by the Brands Hatch Lurani Trophy double winner Callum Grant in the Merlyn Mk5/7. Callum and the ‘Magic Merlyn’ were racing on home territory. Richard Wilson (Brabham BT6) was another podium finisher from Brands Hatch.
Welcome additions to the entry were Philipp Buhofer in his Lotus 27, Jon Milicevic’s Brabham BT6, Katsu Kubota’s Lotus 20/22, Joao Paulo Campos Costa’s Lola Mk5 and Chris Porritt’s Lotus 18.
Qualifying
Philipp Buhofer was the first to top the timing screen in his Lotus 27 with Richard Wilson in his BT6 just 0.011” behind. Thruxton Sunday race winner Nic Carlton-Smith was 3rd and Nathan Metcalfe 6th, both in Lotus 20s. In fourth place was Michael Hibberd in his Lotus 22, with the favourite for topping the times, Callum Grant lay 5th at this stage
On lap 3 Callum Grant shot to the head of the timing sheet continually extending his advantage over the rest of the pack to be 2.588” ahead at the end of the 20 minute session. Philipp Buhofer along with the Brabham BT6s of Richard Wilson and Jon Milicevic got close to Callum up until lap 6 when he sped away.
Ray Mallock in the U2 was top of the front- engined runners getting himself into the top 10 qualifiers. The contest behind Callum Grant for podium honours was very close with Richard Wilson, Nathan Metcalfe, Jon Milicevic and Nic Carlton-Smith all being covered by less than a second. Nathan led the class D2 runners from Nic, separated by just 0.318”.
The top 10 was completed by Michael Hibberd’s Lotus 22, Katsu Kubota’s Lotus 20/22, Adrian Holey’s Rennmax BN1 and the aforementioned Ray Mallock in his U2.
Completing the top 3 in Class D2, was Robin Longdon in the Lola Mk3. Behind Ray Mallock should have been Stuart Roach in the Alexis Mk2 but unfortunately the car broke its differential after two laps and Stuart would start from the back of the grid in his Alexis Mk4. In class B 2nd and 3rd spots in class were the Condor SIIs of Alex Morton and Adrian Russell. Adrian was not having his usual successful run in, his qualifying being curtailed by a broken push rod.
Class C2 was headed by Chris Porritt in his Lotus 18. Keith Pickering in the Britannia was second and Gary Thomas in the Kieft third. Gary reported a return of the Cadwell Park misfire.
Mark Russell had a couple of pit visits with an electrical fault in his Gemini Mk2. George Christodoulou only managed one lap due to an electrical problem.
Race 1
Both Mark and Adrian Russell (not related) had repaired their cars and were able to take part in the race. At the start, Callum made a good start and led the pack into Old Hall corner. Further down the order Crispian Besley made a flying start passing several cars off the line whilst Adrian Russell’s weekend continued to be troubled. Struggling to hook up second gear from his 20th position on the grid he dropped even further down the order completing lap 1 in 27th place.
Nathan Metcalfe in the Lotus 20 had a superb first lap moving himself up to second place, just over half a second behind the leader. Following closely in his wheel tracks were Philipp Buhofer’s Lotus 27 and Richard Wilson’s Brabham BT6. Nic Carlton-Smith in his Lotus 20 completed the top 5. He had a gap back to 6th placed Michael Hibberd in his Lotus 22 who had a comfortable advantage over Jon Milicevic who had lost places on the first lap.
Katsu Kubota followed in 8th and behind him came Adrian Holey in the Rennmax with Ray Mallock in the U2 completing the top 10. On lap 2 Richard Wilson moved into third place, dropping Philipp Buhofer back to fourth. Jon Milicevic moved up to sixth place and Tony Lees passed Ray Mallock. Crispian Besley in his Cooper T56 had gained 4 places with his flying start and was close on the tail of Richard Bishop-Miller’s Caravelle Mk2 and Keith Pickering’s Britannia.
Chris Wilks retired with ignition problems on lap 1, whileon lap 3 Nathan Metcalfe started to slip down the order having done really well with the Lotus 20 but the more modern cars with their disc brakes all round were gradually overhauling him. By lap 4 he had slipped down to 5th and his class rival Nic Carlton-Smith was closing to within half a second, when on lap 5 Nathan crashed heavily at Druids following brake failure, fortunately without personal injury.
The order after 5 laps was Callum Grant leading by 10.5” from Richard Wilson, Jon Milicevic and Philipp Buhofer, 2nd to 4th places being covered by just one second. In 5th was Nic Carlton-Smith leading Class D2, 12th Ray Mallock leading Class B2 and 17th class C2 leader Chris Porritt in his Lotus 18. From the back of the grid Stuart Roach was now up to 8th.
On the following lap Stuart Roach passed Katsu Kubota into 7th place bringing Tony Lees onto Katsu’s tail. Adrian Holey following Lees completed the top 10. Adrian had been struggling with his clutch; going up the gearbox had been fine but coming down he was having problems with selecting a gear. The problem was suspected to be a bearing to be inspected after the race.
Lap 7 Katsu and Tony made contact at Druids which brought out the Red Flag and that signalled the end of the race. The final result was declared at the end of lap 6 and was a win for Callum Grant 11.897” ahead of Richard Wilson. Jon Milicevic in 3rd place was 0.398” behind Richard. Philipp Buhofer in 4th was 0.600” further back.
Nic Carlton-Smith was 5th and winner of class D2, 6th was Michael Hibberd, 7th Stuart Roach, 8th despite his clutch problems was Adrian Holey, Geoff Underwood in his Brabham BT2 9th with Ray Mallock class B2 winner 10th.
Chris Porritt in the Lotus 18 won class C2 and was 15th overall. After his terrible start, Adrian Russell finished 18th overall and 3rd in class B2 with Alex Morton finishing 16th and second in class B2.
Race 2
The second race for the Jim Clark Cup lined up on Sunday afternoon. Incidents in the Saturday race meant that Tony Lees, Katsu Kubota and Nathan Metcalfe were absent from the grid. Further, Philipp Buhofer and Joao Campos Costa were absent due to facing other priorities. This still left a grid of 29 cars for Stuart Roach to cut through along with George Christodoulou who had fixed a simple electrical problem.
Once again it was Callum Grant who took the lead, dominating the race in John Sykes’ ‘Magic Merlyn’. The local driver was supreme in front of a home crowd taking his second victory by over 17”.
Initially, Richard Wilson in the Brabham BT6 led the chase with Jon Milicevic’s BT6 in 3rd place. Nic Carlton-Smith in the distinctive liveried Lotus 20 was 4th and leading his class. Michael Hibberd was 5th in the Lotus 22, Adrian Holey 6th in the Rennmax and Jeremy Flann 7th in his Lotus 22. Jeremy later returned to his racing roots to compete in the VSCC Egerton Cup at the end of the meeting. Ray Mallock’s U2 was 8th leading his class and the front-engined race, 9th was Geoff Underwood who had finished 4th in the earlier HGPCA race. Chris Porritt completed the top 10 again leading Class C2.
Stuart Roach had worked his way up to 13th place by the end of lap 1 and George Christodoulou had taken 28th place from Peter Fenichel in the leading Class A car.
As the order settled, Richard Ferris was having to look all ways as his mirrors filled with battling cars behind him, headed by Alan Schmidt’s Brabham BT6 and Adrian Russell, who was having his best run of the weekend. The car was finally on song and Adrian was looking to make progress through the field but Richard Ferris in the Donford was not going to be easy to pass. Shadowing Adrian were Robin Longdon’s Lola and Alex Morton in the second of the Condors.
Lap 3 and Jon Milicevic was eager to pass Richard Wilson. Alan Schmidt had outfoxed Richard Ferris as Stuart Roach progressed up to 6th place. On lap 4 Jon Milicevic passed Richard Wilson to take 2nd place and for a few laps the racing was close down the order but with little change.
Nic Carlton-Smith looked like he could close on Richard Wilson for the final podium place, but towards the end of the race his Lotus[RP1] developed a misfire which slowed it but Nic was able to retain his 4th place overall position and the Class D2 win.
Lap 6 started a spate of retirements, with Robin Longdon pulling off and Mark Russell retiring on the same lap to the pits. Gary Thomas in the Kieft retired to the pits on lap 9 with the car still misfiring and Keith Pickering was the last retirement when his Britannia broke a pushrod. On this lap George Chrisodoulou managed to overtake Duncan Rabagliati in the Alexis HF1.
It was lap 7 before Adrian Russell was able to get past Richard Ferris, Adrian then going on to pass Chris Porritt in the Lotus 18 on the same lap.
As the race drew to its close two chases drew to their conclusion. Stuart Roach finished in sixth place just failing to catch Michael Hibberd, the narrow gap being 0.141” at the line. Geoff Underwood rounded off a successful weekend taking 7th place from Adrian Holey by 0.582” on the last lap.
The final result was a second win for Callum Grant in the Merlyn Mk5/7 and he was also awarded the Jim Clark Cup for being the aggregate winner. Jon Milicevic’s Brabham BT6 was 2nd and Richard Wilson’s Brabham BT6 3rd . In 4th place overall and Class D2 winner was Nic Carlton-Smith’s Lotus 20, 5th was Michael Hibberd’s Lotus 22, 6th Stuart Roach’s Alexis Mk4, 7th Geoff Underwood’s Brabham BT2, 8th Adrian Holey’s Rennmax, 9th Alan Schmidt’s Lotus 22 and 10th Jeremy Flann’s Lotus 22.
In 11th place and winner of Class B2 was Ray Mallock’s U2, followed home by second in Class Adrian Russell’s Condor S2, while 13th and Class C2 winner was Chris Porritt’s Lotus 18. Next and E2 winner was Richard Ferris in the Donford. In 15th place Alex Morton’s Condor S2 completed the Class B2 podium. Richard Bishop-Miller’s Caravelle Mk2 and George Christodoulou’s BMC Mk2 completed the class D2 podium. Crispian Besley’s Cooper T56 and Chris Wilks’ Deep Sanderson were 2nd and 3rd respectively in class C2, with Peter Fenichel completing the award winners taking 1st in class A.
The Sunday podium presentations were made by Marion of the Jim Clark Trust.
Alan Jones