Historic Formula Junior Championship Rounds 7 & 8
August Bank Holiday, for Formula Junior it has to be Silverstone and the Festival held on the Grand Prix circuit with the Historic Vale corner. The Festival is one of the biggest events of the year for Classic and Historic Race cars. The 20 races encompassing all eras from Pre War Sports Cars to the Modern GT 3 & 4 cars of the Masters GT Trophy. In the single seater classes alongside Historic Formula Junior are the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association echoing each other in the evolution of Formula racing which graduated into the Formula 2, Formula 3 and F1 cars of the 70s and 80s.
Off track there are the Car Club displays, food and drink tastings and demonstrations along with live music during the day and evening. Weather permitting the evenings culminate with a balloon display into the dark. A great event to celebrate the closing of summer and the early shadows of approaching autumn.
The festival historically always presents a full if not oversubscribed entry, it would be 50 cars that assembled for the start of qualifying. Martin Halusa was present, as was the ex-Geoghegan ex-Fyda 22, but he had injured his back and was unable to participate, while Nathan Metcalfe had his gearbox explode on the ex-Andrew Thorpe Lotus 20 in Thursday testing, so father, Tim, stepped down to put Nathan in his Cooper instead.
A mixed bag of weather was promised for the weekend starting on the Thursday night with high winds that lasted into the morning leaving a wet track with a drying line appearing for the commencement of qualifying at 9.00 a.m.
There were several spinners in the opening laps as the conditions varied around the circuit. Jeremy Flann was into the gravel at Stowe, but the marshals had him out again. Richard Ferris pronounced his Donford a great car for the dry, but very skittish in the damp conditions of the qualifying. Richard and his mechanic working hard in the garage post qualifying to soften the car for the predicted rain for the Saturday race.
Clinton McCarthy in the Lotus 18 was another with issues following qualifying. He had a new set of tyres on and he found they were out of balance making for a very uncomfortable qualifying session.
On circuit the battle for pole position was in full swing, the continually drying track seeing the drivers see-saw up and down the order. Michael O’ Brien was the driver who held the top spot for most of the session. Samuel Harrison was showing great speed in the unique Rennmax of Adrian Holey at one time lying second in the standings. With other familiar names from previous epic Silverstone scraps coming to the fore, these included Alex Ames, Andrew Hibberd, Tim de Silva, Sam Wilson, Callum Grant in the ‘Magic Merlyn’ and Horatio Fitz-Simon in the Brabham BT6. Having got into the top 4 the throttle cable on Horatio’s Brabham broke and he retired with 8 minutes of the session still left.
Ray Mallock in the U2 Mk2 was easily heading the front engine runners, and for part of the session running just outside of the top 10. As the track dried he did slip down the timing sheets, with Charlie Besley in the Elva 100 setting the fastest time with his final lap with Ray Second and Charles Cook in the ex-Simon Goodliff Nike Mk1 in the third front engine spot.
Nathan Metcalfe claimed the class C2 honours with the Cooper T56, from Stuart Monument, again going very well in the Lotus 18, with Gary Thomas 3rd in the ex-Gil Duffy Kieft, despite an early pit stop after problems selecting top gear. Post qualifying, he resolved this by filing the gate to give a wider opening.
As the Chequered flag went out it looked like Michael O’Brien in the Nick Fennell ex-Ecurie France Lotus 27 would be on Pole. Many drivers were pushing hard to take advantage of the drying track. One of those pushing to the limit was Nick Fennell himself in his ex-Japan Lotus 22, completing his final lap with a 90 degree spin that had him briefly pointing at the pit wall, fortunately keeping it ‘all together’ to complete the slow down lap. As others took the flag, Alex Ames was setting purple sector times all the way around the circuit to snatch the pole position as he crossed the line.
The final top 10 order being Alex Ames Brabham BT6, Michael O’Brien Lotus 27, third Samuel Harrison Rennmax (the car being christened ‘Dolly’ by Tim, Samuel’s Dad, the car apparently having characteristics somewhat similar to a well-known singer rather than a cloned sheep); Sam Wilson Cooper T59 would line up 4th ahead of Andrew Hibberd’s Lotus 22, Callum Grant (Merlyn Mk5/7), Tim Da Silva ( BT2,) Horatio Fitz-Simon (BT6), Stuart Roach’s Alexis Mk4 and Peter de la Roche in the Hibberd family Lotus 20 completed the top 10 and headed the class D2 running order. Nic Carlton-Smith was2nd in class in his Lotus 20, 3rd place being Pierre Guichard in the Lynx T3.
It was an exciting qualifying with everyone returning safely despite the varying conditions. The one question would be, if he had run the full session where Horatio would have finished. Saturday could turn the grid on its head with rain forecast, and some who favour the wet conditions starting further down the order. The stage was set for Race 1
Race 1
As predicted the rain came for the Saturday morning. It would be a wet race with only the volume of race cars on the circuit to create a potential dryer line. Sam Wilson was feeling unwell, and would be a non starter, along with Sharon Adelman in the Ecurie France ex-Jo Schlesser Brabham, electing not to race in the conditions, making 48 starters listed on the grid. The race was abandoned on the warming up lap due to the track conditions with a very soggy group of drivers returning to the garages. Opinions varied upon whether they should have raced in the conditions but for the Festival all racing was delayed as the rain continued.
A second attempt to run race 1 was made. A gap in the weather appeared to give an opportunity for Race 1 to take place. As the race started the rain came again. There was a start in which Alex Ames led away with Michael O’Brien second with Samuel Harrison in third. On the entry to Wellington Straight Michael O’Brien took the lead with the cars going three abreast down the straight. These first trio had a gap to the pursuing pack of Andrew Hibberd, Callum Grant and Tim de Silva. Horatio was starting to move through following his problems in practice.
Jeremy Flann’s problems continued and he retired to the pit lane at the end of lap 1. As the intensity of the rain increased, both Alan Schmidt and Syd Fraser spun on Hanger Straight, and then John Timoney, making his debut in the ex-Alex Morton David Drew Ausper T3, spun into the infield at Vale: another yellow flag disappointingly became a RED! Meanwhile at the head of the field Michael O’Brien had been leading, as Alex Ames and Samuel Harrison duelled side by side. Behind them, Ray Mallock was using the advantage of his U2 to move up the order: too late, the race was abandoned, and a ‘no contest’ without points was declared.
Race 2
The rain cleared and the Juniors were first out again, on the Sunday. It was a full grid of 50 cars that formed for the green flag laps and the rolling start, with both Sam Wilson and Sharon Adelman assuming their grid positions from qualifying.
From the line it was again Alex Ames that took the initiative into Abbey, but Michael O’Brien quickly slipped past into the lead that he was not to lose. He extended his advantage to over 13 seconds when the chequered flag was shown. Callum Grant initially held second place with Alex Ames in third. Following close in Alex’s wheel tracks were Samuel Harrison from Horatio Fitz-Simon, and Sam Wilson, all slightly ahead of Andrew Hibberd.
By lap 2 Horatio had moved through to 3rd place opening a gap back to Ames, Wilson and Harrison, the trio dicing together allowing Andrew Hibberd to close. On lap 3 Samuel Harrison had a quick spin at Woodcote rejoining in 14th place. Horatio had moved into second place with the top three spacing out as they started lapping the slower cars. Sam Wilson was now 4th and Alex Ames 5th.
On lap 5 Callum Grant would retire after a tangle, lapping Ralph Carter’s Speedsport 22. Horatio was now in lonely pursuit of the rapid Michael O’Brien. With the order established, the result would be a clear win for Michael O’Brien in the HASU Racing Lotus 27, uncaught by Horatio Fitz-Simon, with Sam Wilson third in the Cooper T59, ahead of Alex Ames (BT6), Andrew Hibberd (22) with US visitor Tim de Silva next up in his BT2. Seventh and winner of Class D2 was Peter de la Roche. In 8th, having chased Peter down hard throughout that last lap was a recovering Samuel Harrison in the Rennmax, with the lotus 22s of Lukas Halusa and Nick Fennell making up the top ten.
Class C2 was a good win for Stuart Monument in the Lotus 18 from Nathan Metcalfe in father Tim’s, Cooper T56, ahead of Gary Thomas in the continually improving Kieft. Class B2 was won by Ray Mallock in the family U2 from Charlie Besley Elva 100 and Charles Cook in the Nike. The remaining class winners were Peter Fenichel, Richard Ferris and Andrea Guarino.
By Alan Jones