Donington Rendez-Vous for GTSCC
Following a triumphant 15th GT & Sports Car Cup season-opener on Silverstone’s Grand Prix circuit last month, we are delighted to extend our long association with the Historic Sports Car Club, which has negotiated extra track time to accommodate a one-hour race for us within its meeting at Donington Park on June 26/27. Our thanks to Andy Dee-Crowne and Alan Jones for facilitating this opportunity.
Once again, the lure of the exclusive ‘by invitation only’ GTSCC series - built on solid cornerstones of beautifully-prepared cars, exemplary driving standards and wonderful paddock camaraderie, with top class hospitality for competitors, teams, families and friends in the social hub as a vital component of this unique experience - had attracted a near-capacity field.
Donington first hosted car racing in 1931 and, 90 years later, on a shorter 1.957-mile circuit reopened by larger-than-life Leicester builder and racing car collector Tom Wheatcroft in 1977, continues to provide as challenging and enjoyable test of driver and car as there is in England. Indeed, under the stewardship of former F1 racer Dr Jonathan Palmer’s, MotorSport
Vision group, the well-equipped venue has never looked better.
Entries range from a Jaguar C-type (Julian Bronson/Barry Cannell) and a two-litre Coventry-Climax engined Lotus 15 with continental flavour - for Austrian logistics expert Stephan Joebstl/Andy Willis - in the early sports racing SP2 division to the ex-Peter Lumsden/Peter Sargent Costin-bodied Lister-Jaguar coupé, which competed at Le Mans in ’63, for American Fred Wakeman/Patrick Blakeney-Edwards in GT4.
Inter-marque competition will be fierce in each of the categories, with GT4 looking unusually open. Apart from the Lister - which in open form won the final race at Crystal Palace in ’72, driven by Gerry Marshall - Jaguar E-type drivers Mike Wrigley (low-drag coupé), Louis Bracey and William Paul face the rorty AC Cobra 289 of Chris Chiles Jr/Simon Garrad, the similarly Ford-engined Shelby Mustang GT350s of Bill Wykeham/Patrick Watts and Nick Sleep/Alex Montgomery and a host of Lotus Elans in 26R specification. Last year’s Castle Combe victors Andrew Haddon/Andy Wolfe and Anthony Hancock/Murray Shepherd (seasoned AC racer Andy’s son) could be giant-killers.
In GT3 multiple Austin-Healey 3000s square up to early narrow-wheeled Jaguar E-types. Among the Healeys are Dutchmen Karsten Le Blanc/Christiaen van Lanschot in DD300, which competed at Le Mans from 1960-’62, initially as a works-assisted car registered UJB 143 for Jack Sears/Peter Riley. Doug Muirhead’s TON 692, originally a 100/6 owned by BMC chairman Sir George Harriman, was a reserve at La Sarthe in ’61. Doug shares it with Jeremy Welch, on home soil. North Borneo’s top racer Chris Clarkson and David Smithies and Crispin Harris/James Wilmoth are rapid returnees too.
Quickest of the Jaguars should be that of Scottish perennial John Clark and Miles Griffiths, who has won several Historic Formula 2 races over the past two seasons in a 160 mph Ralt chassis, although former British Touring Car Championship racer James Hanson will dispute that in Paul Pochciol’s fixed head coupé. Opposition comes in the gloriously organic shape of John Emberson’s ex-Pip Arnold 2.1-litre Morgan Plus 4 SLR (one of three) and the Triumph TR4 of former HSCC Historic Road Sports champion Colin Sharp.
The GT2 contest is always wide open. On paper at least the original short-wheelbase two-litre Porsche 911s with their legendary flat-six engines should be quickest. David Clark, Richards Cook and Tuthill (the latter a renowned rally man) and Lebanese charger Tarek Mahmoud are representing the German powerhouse. The most photogenic contender is Simon Orebi Gann’s ex-Gordon Spice Morgan SLR, motivated by a two-litre Triumph engine and co-driven by Calum Lockie.
Good old MGBs are the most numerous in the class, with stalwarts Brian and Barbara Lambert, Scottish father and son Laurence and Tim Jacobsen and young Formula Ford hotshoe Henry Chart co-driving Josh Barnett’s example among their exponents. Nevertheless, the giant-slaying TVR Grantura of Malcolm Paul/Rick Bourne - with the same BMC B-series engine as the MGs, in a nimble tubular chassis - has often come out on top.