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Qualifying – 15 Minutes – Circuit dry

An entry of 18 cars lined up to qualify, an improvement on last year, when only 13 entered. The weather was dry, but not very warm. As usual, Roger Godfrey was first out on track.

Following his win at the opening round at Donington, Dan Cox was, unsurprisingly, the man to beat, setting the fastest time of just below 1:48. No one else could get close to that, with Peter Hore the only other driver to get below 1:50, on his final qualifying lap. However, although it looked as if Dan would be able to win the race with ease, there were 4 other cars in the low 1:50’s so the race for second would be close. Peter Hallford only completed 5 laps before engine problems stopped his qualifying early. Simon Benoy was running in a replacement motor after his Donington problems, but still set the fastest class E time, by some margin. Mike Smith pipped Roger Godfrey to top class E qualifier and Mark Garritt topped class B from James Fuller.

Race – 20 minutes - Circuit dry

Peter Hallford’s engine problems were terminal, so he packed up and left early. The two Lotus Cortinas of Dan and Peter led away from the line, with Dan getting the best start. At the end of lap 1, Dan had already opened up a lead of over 2 seconds over Peter, whose second place was far from secure, with the two Alfas and two Mini Coopers in close attendance closely followed by Simon’s Imp, with Mark leading James and Mike leading Roger. Roger got past Mike on lap 3 to move into 5th behind the two Alfas who had closed up to within 0.5 second of Peter’s Cortina.

Meanwhile Dan continued to pull away from the field at 2 seconds a lap, entertaining the crowd in his usual fashion. The battle from second to seventh continued, with Peter able to maintain a sufficient gap to Mark to be reasonably comfortable in second, with the following five cars covered by less than 3 seconds. On lap 8 Simon’s Imp came through sounding rough and he immediately dropped away from the battle ahead, ultimately allowing Andy Jones to pass him on lap 9 to take the class E lead. Roger managed to find a way past James Fuller on lap 8 to move up to 4th, but lost the position on the next lap when James got back past him. On the 10th lap Mark had a spin, dropping him down to 6th. This allowed James to move into 3rd and he set about catching Peter for second spot, but with only one lap left he could not get close enough to look for a way past.

Dan ultimately finished 18 seconds clear of the rest, with Peter just 0.3 seconds in front of James and Roger just 0.5 seconds ahead of Mike. In spite of his sick engine Simon managed to get second place in class E. Although Dan had an easy win, the battle behind him was excellent, keeping the crowd entertained throughout the race.

Championship Points

Dan leads overall with two class (and overall) wins. Roger has two class wins, but with only two class D entries at Cadwell, he gets 6 points for his win.

Class leaders

Class A Colin McKay 8

Class B James Fuller & Mark Garritt 10

Class C Dan Cox 18

Class D Roger Godfrey 15

Class E Tim Cox & Andy Jones 9

Class K1 Peter Hallford 9

Class K2 Richard Cross 4

Class K3 Paul Hopkinson 8

Class K4 Andy Harrison 10

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Circuit Limitations

As a result of the ongoing work to prepare Donington Park for Formula 1 next season the track from Starkeys Bridge through McLeans up to Coppice was subject to a permanent yellow flag limitation, i.e. no passing allowed within this section of track.

Qualifying – 15 Minutes – Circuit dry

In excellent field of 31 cars lined up to qualify in the 15 minutes session, with at least one car in each HSCC and FIA class except K5. The weather was a huge improvement on last year, being dry with sunshine throughout the day. As usual Roger Godfrey was first onto the track and set a series of laps below 1:30 to be by far the quickest class D car. Last years champion, Dan Cox, took a couple of laps to settle in then got down to business to ultimately set the fastest time of 1:25.892. Mark Jones, in his Lotus Cortina, set the second best time with a lap of 1:27.160 and Roger Godfrey came in third on 1:28.245. James Fuller continued his good form from last season to post 4th fastest in his Alfa, with James Dodd 5th in his Mustang. Graham Dodd had problems during qualifying in the 2 litre Alfa Guilia Sprint, so was unexpectedly down in 13th having completed only 4 laps. Simon Benoy was fastest class E runner, on 1:30.145, not far in front of Andy Jones in his Singer Chamois. Richard Cross only completed 3 laps in his Triumph 2000. Following qualifying, for the first time in many events, Roger Godfrey was not repairing his drive shaft couplings, as he had converted to Hardy Spicer units over the winter break and was expecting much better reliability this season.

Race – 15 minutes - Circuit dry,

Mark Jones got the drop on Dan Cox and led the first lap by just 0.2 secs from Dan. These two quickly pulled away from the rest of the field, with a gap of 3 seconds over James Fuller who led a group comprising Roger Godfrey, Peter Hore, Graham Dodd, who had quickly moved up from his 7th row starting position, series sponsor Mark Garritt and Peter Hallford in his Mustang. James Dodd, Chris Hunter and Shaun Hazlewood all failed to complete the first lap. Dan took the lead on lap 2 but could not shake off Mark who continued to pressure him throughout the race. Simon Benoy’s Imp was not showing his usual pace and was headed by Andy Jones in the class E battle.

The battle from 3rd to 6th continued, with James holding off Peter and Graham until lap 6 when they both got past at the chicane. Graham had passed Peter on lap 5 but did not have the pace to do anything about the leading pair, who by the 6th lap had a lead of 14 seconds. Roger Godfrey got past James on the next lap to move into 5th and closed in on Peter to try to get 4th. Close behind this group, Roger Ebdon, in his class D Mini battled with Mark Garritt’s class B Alfa, Peter Hallford’s class K1 Mustang and Mike Smith’s class D Mini in the fight for 7th to 10th.

Andy Jones easily led class E until lap 7 when he retired, leaving Tim Cox to take the class lead in his Austin A40. Simon’s Imp was sounding increasingly sick and he failed to make the finish, retiring on lap 10.

At the front Dan and Mark continued to open up the gap to the rest of the field, with Mark able to stay within one second until 2 laps from the end, when Dan managed to eke out a lead of nearly 2 seconds. Graham held a good 3rd to the end, with Roger Godfrey pushing Peter Hore very hard for 4th spot, in the end Peter held him off by just over ½ second. James Fuller had an off on the final lap, dropping him down the field from 6th to 13th place. Roger Ebdon got past both Mark Garritt and Peter Hallford to finish in a good 6th place. Mike Smith finished just behind Peter in 9th.

22 cars were classified as finishers, with the top 15 cars being on the lead lap. The yellow flag limitations between Starkeys Bridge and Coppice did not seem to have any adverse impact on the outcome of the race. Dan set the fastest lap of 1:26.338 on lap 8, while Mark improved on his qualifying time with a 1:26.671. An excellent start to the season with good battles all the way down the field.

Championship Points

Neil Wood still leads the way with 53 points with Dan Cox on 51. Although he did not race at Combe, Simon Benoy remains 3rd on 39.

Class leaders

Class A Colin McKay 4

Class B Graham Dodd 9

Class C Dan Cox 9

Class D Roger Godfrey 9

Class E Tim Cox 9

Class K1 Peter Hallford 9

Class K2 Richard Cross 4

Class K3 Tomas Lacosta 6

Class K4 Andy Harrison 6

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Championship Positions

Coming into the final race of the season, 3 drivers could potentially win the overall championship this year: - Dan Cox leading on 78 points, followed by last year’s champion, Simon Benoy on 75 and Neil Wood on 72. Two weeks ago, Dan had a big off at Donington in the second race, damaging his Lotus Cortina, so his car was looking a bit second hand when he arrived at Silverstone. To be sure of winning the championship he needed to win Class C. Simon could only win if Dan had a bad day and finished 3rd or lower in class. Neil needed both Dan and Simon to have problems.

Qualifying – 15 Minutes – Circuit dry

Graeme Dodd put in a rare appearance this season in his Mk2 Jaguar 3.8 but was up to speed straight away, getting down to 1:11.407 very closely followed by James Fuller going very well in his 2 litre Alfa on 1:11.428. Dan qualified 3rd and Bob Bullen 4th, both recording times below 1:12. Steve Shuttleworth, Peter Hore and Neil Wood qualified in the next 3 positions all lapping in the 1:12 bracket. Peter Hallford was next, not up to his usual pace, with a down on power engine. As usual, Roger Godfrey led class D runners, faster than Michael Steel’s Galaxie, and Simon Benoy led Class E by 1.5 seconds.

Race – 15 minutes - Circuit dry,

Graeme and Dan led away with James in 3rd followed by a gaggle of class C runners comprising Neil Wood, Mark Jones, Bob Bullen and Peter Hore, with Steve Shuttleworth not far behind. Peter Hallford pulled into the pits at the end of the second lap to retire. Although he only needed to win his class to take the championship, Dan was looking for a way past Graeme to take the overall win, getting to within 0.2 secs on a number of laps. James could not maintain the pace of the leading pair, but was able to stay in a comfortable 3rd in front of the chasing bunch. Bob went into the gravel at Beckets and fell back behind Steve on lap 4 and following that off he did not appear to be able to maintain the pace he had showed in qualifying. Initially, Neil held 4th, but on lap 5 both Mark and Peter got through to demote him to 6th.

Roger looked to be in a secure class D lead with Simon leading Class E by a decent margin from Adrian Oliver. However, Roger’s class lead only lasted until the 4th lap, when he stopped with lack of drive. By the 5th lap, James had dropped back from the leading pair by about 5 seconds, but was in no immediate danger from the chasing bunch. Peter Hore was pushing Mark Jones hard for 4th place and finally got past on the 8th lap to try to chase down James, but it was to no avail as his gear selector gave up at Becketts on the 9th lap leaving him stranded. Neil was now very close to Mark and he got past on lap 9 to regain 4th place. Steve and Bob also closed in on Mark and on lap 10 Steve got past, with 4th to 7th places covered by just over 1 second.

Up front, Graeme continued to hold a tenuous lead from Dan who had not given up ideas of an overall win, but as hard as he tried, he could not find a way past the powerful Jaguar. With around 5 minutes to go, it was clear that Simon’s class E lead over Adrian was reducing significantly, and on the penultimate lap Adrian passed to lead the class, with Graham Martin following through to take second. Simon’s car was clearly sick, having a repeat of the intermittent misfire he had experienced at Brands earlier in the year. On the final lap Bob got back past Mark, who was suffering from tyre problems, to salvage 6th overall and 4th in class. Behind Mark came Roger Cope and Steve Read who had a race long dice for 9th and 10th places, never being more than a second apart throughout the 15 minutes.

In the end Graeme held off Dan to take the overall race win, but the class win was all that Dan needed to win the overall championship again – well done!

Final Championship Points

Overall

Dan Cox, with 9 pts for the class win buttoned up the championship, on 87 points, which he last won in 2005 in his 1500 Anglia. Despite finishing only 3rd in class in the final race Simon Benoy held on to second on 79 points with Neil Wood third just one point adrift on 78.

Over the season, 63 drivers scored championship points. Neil was the most consistent finisher, failing to score at only one race, Brands Indy Circuit, where he suffered a gear selection failure.

Steve Shuttleworth only failed to get in the points on 2 occasions; he must be congratulated on his consistency and also for racing at all the circuits throughout the season despite having to travel such long distances to most of the circuits. Oulton Park is his ‘local’ circuit, with only a 120-mile journey!

Class Winners

Class K1 Peter Hallford 37

Class K2 Richard Cross 38

Class K3 Roger Wills 14

Class K4 Daniel Ward 18

Class K5 Tim Bishop 16

Class A Adam Gittings and Graeme Dodd 4

Class B James Fuller 45

Class C Dan Cox 87

Class D Roger Godfrey 56

Class E Simon Benoy 79

Written by Hugh Shortland

September, 13th 2008

Qualifying – 15 Minutes – Circuit dry

21 cars lined up to qualify in the 15 minutes session, an improvement on last season when only 15 cars entered. The quickest cars would be aiming to lap in under 1 minute. This proved to be one of the closest qualifying sessions of the season. Dan Cox led the field with a time of 58.663 with Bob Bullen back on form, after some pre-race testing, on 58.939. Neil Wood was quickest of 7 drivers in the 59’s, including the Jim Chapman’s Mustang and the Minis of Roger Ebdon and Roger Godfrey. Once again Roger Godfrey suffered from driveshaft problems in qualifying, but it did not seem to affect his time. Simon Benoy took top class E spot, with Jim Burrows second in class in his Mini. Richard Cross had some real opposition at Brands, with Roger Cope in his BMW 1800 entered in class K2. Richard’s car was not running well with an engine misfire coming in around 5000rpm. Paul Richards, in his first race for over 20 years, qualified in 15th place, driving Steve and Liza Read’s Anglia.

Race – 20 minutes - Circuit dry,

Dan made a good start and led the pack into Paddock on the first lap, Neil got the drop on Bob and took second place, with the rest of the front 3 rows all trying to get around Paddock together. Dan held a good lead at the end of lap one of 1-1/2 secs, from Neil with Bob only .017 secs behind him. Jim Chapman was in 4th from Roger Ebdon, Steve Shuttleworth and Peter Hore. On lap 2 both Bob and Jim passed Neil, who did not seem able to quite match the pace of the front 3. Bob closed in to within 0.5 secs of Dan and harried him throughout the race, putting in a performance much more like last year, when he was a consistent front-runner. Bob’s pre-race testing had obviously been worthwhile. Bob’s Anglia was clearly quicker than Dan’s Cortina on some parts of the circuit, but not enough to make a pass.

Steve Shuttleworth pitted on lap 2 with what sounded like gear selection problems, leaving Peter Hore in 6th who then set about trying to close in on Roger Ebdon, who was holding a good 5th spot not far behind Jim and Neil. Surprisingly, Neil was unable to stay with Jim, and it transpired that he was having gear selection problems, which would ultimately lead to his retirement on lap 16. Roger Godfrey was down in 7th place around 2 seconds behind Peter Hore. Simon Benoy held a good lead in Class E and Roger Cope easily outpaced Richard’s misfiring Triumph 2000 in class K2.

Dan and Bob were consistently lapping under one minute and were pulling away from the field by over a second every lap. Until lap 18, the gap was never more than one second, but on the 18th lap, Bob had one slow lap, giving Dan a lead of nearly 3 seconds. After Neil’s retirement on lap 16, Roger Ebdon moved into 4th, with Peter Hore finally closing in and taking the place on lap 18. Roger Godfrey retired on lap 19 (with drive-shaft failure!). Having passed Roger Ebdon, Peter quickly closed in on Jim’s Mustang, but did not have enough time to try a pass. Bob continued to lap in under 60 seconds and managed to get back to 2 seconds behind Dan at the end of the 21st and final lap. Dan was not at Brands last year, but Bob had averaged 72mph this year compared with 71 last year, when he finished second, 1.3 seconds behind Nigel Vaulkhard’s Mustang. Jim and Peter were 20 seconds back in 3rd and 4th with Roger 5th and Andy Yool 6th. Roger Cope was the final un-lapped runner in 7th. Paul Richards finished 9th, just in front of Simon who won class E by 7 secs from Shaun Hazlewood.

Overall Championship Points

Dan Cox, with 69 pts, now has good lead over Neil Wood and Simon Benoy who both have 57. Despite his retirement at Brands, Roger Godfrey is still 4th overall. With a double header at Donington and the final race at Silverstone there are still 27 points available, so the overall championship is far from over.

Class leaders

Class K1 Peter Hallford 27

Class K2 Richard Cross 30

Class K3 Roger Wills 14

Class K4 Daniel Ward 12

Class K5 Tim Bishop 12

 

Class A Adam Gittings 4

Class B James Fuller 29

Class C Dan Cox 69

Class D Roger Godfrey 38

Class E Simon Benoy 57

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Written by Hugh Shortland

August, 25th 2008

Qualifying – 30 Minutes – Circuit dry, weather strong winds, cloudy but dry

A good turnout of 31 cars lined up to qualify in the 30 minutes session, giving enough time for both drivers to qualify for the 40 minute race. In fact, only 6 cars were entered with 2 drivers. Last years race winners, Graham Dodd and Les Ely topped the times with a lap of 2:05.131, very slightly down on last years pole time of 2:05.006. Dan Cox only managed one flying lap before his differential cried enough, however his time was good enough for 10th place on the grid. With Dan unable to improve on his time, Peter Hore was the top class C runner in 3rd, behind the Harding/Warburton shared Ford Falcon. Mark Jones again put up a strong show, finishing in 4th, only 0.028 seconds shy of Peter’s time.

The Anglias of Neil Wood and Bob Bullen were next up closely followed by Peter Hallford in his Mustang. Joe Gomm made a welcome return to the championship after his major engine blow-up in the first race at Donington, sharing his car with Louis Bracey, who had sold his 2 litre Lotus Cortina during the off season. As usual Roger Godfrey was the quickest class D runner in 9th overall and again spent the period between qualifying and the race rebuilding a drive shaft! At the tail of the field, Richard Cross was pleased to see Arthur Smith-Fitchett, in his Sunbeam Rapier, had qualified with almost the same time, so was looking forward to a good race between the two. Unusually, Simon Benoy was not the quickest class E car, Andy Jones taking the honours with a good lap of 2:12.597.

Simon’s car had electrical problems, requiring some rewiring between qualifying and the race. Dan Cox borrowed a spare diff from Peter Hore and set about stripping his rear axle to fit it, with a little help from other drivers and finished the swap with time to spare.

Race – 40 minutes with 1 minute Pit Stop - Circuit dry

The Falcon and Lotus Cortina of Mark Jones rocketed away from the line to lead into Old Hall corner, closely followed by Peter Hore and Graham Dodd. Dan Cox made a good start and moved quickly up to 5th, which became 4th when Graham and Peter had a coming together going into Cascades, resulting in Graham retiring with a broken steering arm. Peter was able to continue, albeit with a number of tyre marks and BMW red paint on the O/S rear corner of his Cortina. The Falcon finished the first lap in the lead from Mark and Peter but dropped back down the field on the second lap and retired in the pits at the end of the lap. Meanwhile Dan had passed Peter to take second and began closing in on Mark, taking the lead on lap 5. Neil Wood moved into 4th with the Falcon’s demise, with Peter Hallford in 5th, but surprisingly, Peter was unable to stay with the lead group. It transpired that he was experiencing problems getting second gear, so after a few failed attempts decided to stick with 3rd and top, not too much of a problem with a 4.7 litre V8, however it took the edge off his performance. Joe Gomm began well, running up to 7th place on lap 3 but was forced to retire on the next lap with an ominous cloud of smoke coming for the car. Apparently the problem was that a breather pipe had come loose, fortunately no major mechanical failure had caused the smoke.

Once Dan had passed Mark to take the lead, both Peter Hore and Neil quickly followed, to take 2nd and 3rd places. Neither could stay with Dan, however, and he gradually pulled away to lead by over 6 seconds. On one lap Neil managed to get past Peter going into Old Hall, but Peter got the place back going into the Knicker Brook chicane. Peter Hallford’s gear selection problem allowed Bob Bullen to close in and pass on lap 8. Roger Godfrey led class D and Simon Benoy, having sorted out his electrical gremlins, class E.

Vince Frost was the first to take his pit stop on lap 8, with most cars stopping between laps 9 and 12. Peter Hore and Bob Bullen came in at the end of lap 10 and Dan and Neil on lap 12. Dan had a slow stop and when he returned to the track he was just behind Peter. Steve Shuttleworth stayed out until the end of lap 14, so led the race for 2 laps. Dan lost no time in passing Peter and Neil was closing in to try and grab second place, lapping consistently quicker than Peter, but unable to quite get close enough to pass, with lapped runners getting between them. All three lead cars were lapping around 2:08, a good pace on a track that had become slippery in places. In the end Dan won by just over 2 seconds from Peter, with Neil less than a second further back. The next 4 finishers were well spaced, with Bob bringing his Anglia home in 4th, from Mark Jones, Steve Shuttleworth and Andy Yool. The first 7 finishers were all from class C. Peter Hallford finished 8th in his 3 speed Mustang. Roger Godfrey won class D, ending in 10th overall and Simon Benoy won class E in 12th overall. Richard Cross, in his Triumph 2000, easily got the better of Arthur Smith-Fitchett. Liza and Steve Read were the final classified finishers but with such a strong entry in Class C, got no points for their efforts.

 

Overall Championship Points

Dan Cox, with 60 pts, has taken over the lead from Neil Wood on 57, with Simon Benoy still 3rd overall on 48. Roger Godfrey has moved past Roger Ebdon in class D and is now 4th overall.

Class leaders

Class K1 Peter Hallford 27

Class K2 Richard Cross 26

Class K3 Roger Wills 14

Class K4 Daniel Ward 8

Class K5 Tim Bishop 8

Class A Adam Gittings 4

Class B James Fuller 29

Class C Dan Cox 60

Class D Roger Godfrey 38

Class E Simon Benoy 48

 

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Written by Hugh Shortland

August, 3rd 2008

Qualifying – 15 Minutes – Circuit dry, weather overcast.

A good lap for HRSR cars in dry conditions at Combe would be around 1:23, and following his win in Vince Woodman’s Cologne Capri on the previous day, and with no Mustangs entered, Dan Cox would be expected to be the front- runner in his Lotus Cortina. Neil Wood, however, had other ideas and posted the best time of 1:23.737, just 0.022 seconds faster than Dan and 0.164 faster than Roger Godfrey in his very swift Cooper S. Bob Bullen finished 4th fastest, just ½ second slower than Neil. Peter Ergis was also going quickly in 5th place, but his qualifying ended when a front wheel came off going into Camp Corner on his 5th lap. This resulted in a red flag and an early end to the qualifying session. Peters’ car hit the barrier and suffered significant front-end damage. Mark Jones, in his first race in his Lotus Cortina, qualified an excellent 6th place with a time of 1:26.232. In the absence of Simon Benoy, Shaun Hazlewood was the quickest Class E runner, almost a second quicker than Graham Martin.

Race – 10 laps– Wet with rain throughout

The conditions for the race were very different to qualifying, with rain and standing water on the circuit, so 2 green flag laps were allowed for drivers to acclimatise to the conditions.

Dan led away from the start finishing the first lap over a second in front of Roger, with Neil 3rd and Thomas Seckel up to 4th in his Mini, from 11th on the grid. On the second lap Roger was visibly closer to Dan, and Thomas passed Neil for 3rd spot, with the conditions clearly more suitable to the fwd Minis. Andy Yool spun on lap 2 and continued at the tail of the field. Shaun Hazlewood had also made an excellent start in his Imp holding 5th place in the early laps. On lap 3 Roger passed Dan and pulled away, with Dan unable to stay with the Mini in the wet conditions. Roger did his quickest lap on passing Dan, in 1:45.239, around 20 seconds slower than the dry qualifying times!

Most drivers were experiencing traction problems, changing up early to try to restrict wheel-spin, some were more successful than others at achieving this. With 3 laps to go, Steve Shuttleworth passed Neil Wood and Shaun Hazlewood to move into 4th place, Neil also going past Shaun into 5th. Meanwhile, up front, Roger had pulled away to a comfortable lead in front of Dan and won by around 14 seconds. On the final lap, Neil Cunningham, in his Mk1 Jaguar, passed Shaun into 6th place. Mark Jones continued his good qualifying showing by finishing in 8th place. Bob Bullen and Peter Hore were unable to come to terms with the conditions and finished much further down the field than expected in 9th and 14th positions. Despite the conditions, all cars finished the race, with all but 4 on the lead lap. Roger was obviously delighted with first place, especially as he had spent the afternoon rebuilding his N/S front drive shaft, for at least the 3rd time this season! Unfortunately, Roger only gets 4 point for his win, as he was the only Class D runner, a poor return for such an excellent drive.

Overall Championship Points

Neil Wood still leads the way with 53 points with Dan Cox on 51. Although he did not race at Combe, Simon Benoy remains 3rd on 39.

Class leaders

Class K1 Peter Hallford 18

Class K2 Richard Cross 22

Class K3 Roger Wills 14

Class K4 Daniel Ward 8

Class K5 Tim Bishop 8

 

Class A Adam Gittings 4

Class B James Fuller 29

Class C Neil Wood 53

Class D Roger Ebdon 30

Class E Simon Benoy 39

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Written by Tom Hornsby

July, 15th 2008

A selection of the country's finest historic racing machinery attended last weekend's British Grand Prix where Neil Cunningham followed in Lewis Hamilton's footsteps to triumph at the wheel of a Ford Mustang in the Historic Saloon Car Challenge on Sunday afternoon.

A full compliment of 48 cars had made the trip to form part of the official Formula One support bill. Denied their usual practice session on Friday afternoon, the drivers wouldn't sample their first taste of the daunting 3.2mile GP circuit until late on Saturday evening, leaving some to err on the side of caution as a string of smaller cars mixed it with their American Muscle counterparts.

Dan Cox and Bob Bullen had looked especially impressive in their Lotus Cortina and Ford Anglia's to grab second and seventh respectively amongst a gaggle of Mustangs and Nick Whale's Mercury. Silverstone's fast and flowing layout though has traditionally favoured the powerful V8 machines and Cunningham was able to top the times by over 0.7sec from the Cortina and John Young's Mustang, a further 0.8sec back.

But if conditions for qualifying had been relatively straight forward then Sunday's race would be an entirely different matter. The day's changeable weather had forced drivers to gamble on their set-ups as a soaking track began to dry.

With a greasy surface negating the V8's brute power, hopes were high for a competitive race. Cox in particular looked strong having finished third after starting eleventh during last season's Silverstone Classic and it was he who reacted quickest at the start to pass Cunningham on the long run down into Copse for the first time.

Behind, Jackie Oliver made good use of his superior traction to haul his BMW up from eighth to fifth with Graeme Dodd jumping three places to sixth. Bullen's excellent qualifying effort would go unrewarded though after his Anglia's driveshaft broke at the start.

Roger Godfrey was even less fortunate. Having spun at Abbey, he was collected by John Chapman's Mustang in an accident that retired both cars and sent the Mini driver to the medical centre with a jarred back.

As expected, the tricky conditions were providing a level playing field that enabled Cox to pull out a 2sec advantage over Cunningham by the end of the opening lap. Maintaining a watching brief in third was John Young, the man stripped of victory in last year's Classic after a pitlane infringement. Clearly intent on making up for that disappointment, he took second on the fourth lap before setting about reducing his 1.7sec deficit to the leading Cortina.

With the track now drying, it took less than a lap before he was within touching distance of Cox. The Mustang’s raw pace was beginning to tell and having reeled in the Cortina down Hanger Straight, dived up the inside into Stowe.

Cox wasn’t done yet though and as the leaders exited Club, he took advantage of Young’s under-steering Mustang to retake the lead with the now fully up to speed Cunningham following him through into second.

With the top three running nose to tail, it was inevitable that something had to give as Cox began feeling the full pressure of his pursuers. Lacking their brute horsepower on the straights, he had to rely on the Cortina’s agility in the bends if it was to maintain the lead.

And on lap seven the pressure finally told. With traffic in front and a pair of marauding Mustangs behind, he misjudged his entry speed into Club as the car pitched sideways and span across the grass. Such was their lead over the rest of the field that he rejoined third, albeit some 10sec back.

Fourth was now Jackie Oliver who had James Dodd for company piloting the third Mustang inside the top five. Father Graeme was seventh in his MkII Jaguar with Nick Whale’s Mercury sandwiched between them.

Dodd Jnr’s progress had been so rapid in fact that by the end of the ninth tour he’d passed Oliver and was chasing down Cox for third whose own chances of victory had evaporated as soon as the circuit began to dry.

Up front, the battle continued to rage. Cunningham at one stage built a gap of over 2secs back to Young who was saving his big effort for the race’s final quarter. A succession of quick laps put him within touching distance of the Kiwi as the pair entered the final lap, Young testing his opponent at every opportunity. Cunningham continued to resist though and with time running out Young made a mistake into Abbey, extending the gap and relieving the pressure for Cunningham to coolly reel off the last few corners to win by 4.6sec.

“What a Fantastic race,” he said, savouring victory. “Dan and John have great car control so it was great to race with them round here. We were three abreast down Hanger Straight once or twice so it was very exciting.

Cunningham was thankful though that conditions improved as the race progressed.

“The track was coming to us.” he revealed. “If it had stayed wet Dan would have won, simple as that. But as a dry line appeared we were able to catch him.

Cox agreed.

“Those guys were always going to be hard to beat around here.” he said, having fended off James Dodd in the latter stages to take third. “If the rain had come it would have been easier for me. I gambled on a full wet set-up but as the track dried out my tyres went away from me. I’m happy with third though.”

The teams move onto Mallory Park next weekend for the latest round of the championship.

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