Ferraris Prance into Silverstone GTSCC: Silverstone GP Circuit - Sunday 12th June
Photo Copyright: Charlie B Photography
The return of Ferrari to the GT & Sports Car Cup is to be celebrated at our second event of the season, which has attracted a stunning 30-car field for the huge MG Live festival’s eagerly anticipated return to Silverstone’s Grand Prix circuit on June 11/12. Widely regarded as the finest cars to emerge from Enzo Ferrari’s hallowed stable in Maranello, two of the legendary 250 GT Berlinettas - SWBs in racing parlance - enhance a photogenic representative entry of magnificent Pre-1966 machines spanning 10 marques for our two-hour endurance race.
Star of the Paris Salon in October 1959, the gloriously curvaceous Pininfarina-styled, Scaglietti-bodied “passo corto” (2400 mm wheelbase) model, with its 3-litre V12 engine, soon found its way into competition, Belgian Willy Mairesse and German Wolfgang Seidel scoring its first international victory in the 1960 Spa GP. Later that summer, 250 SWBs dominated the Le Mans 24 Hours’ GT contest, finishing fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh overall. In Great Britain Stirling Moss won the ’60 and ’61 RAC Tourist Trophy races at Goodwood in different SWBs entered by Rob Walker and Dick Wilkins. In the latter year, Ferrari also claimed the World Sports Car Championship’s prestigious manufacturers’ prize.
Driven by Alexis de Beaumont and preparer Kevin Jones of GTO Engineering and Niall Dyer paired with ambitious Historic Formula Junior champion Nic Carlton-Smith, the Ferraris run in the GT3 category. An eight-strong phalanx of rorty and regularly exercised straight-six Austin-Healey 3000s and pairs of Morgan Plus 4 SLRs and Triumph TR4s powered by Standard Triumph’s ‘four,’ provide strong opposition. Based in Warwick, less than 50 miles from Silverstone in England’s industrial heartland, Donald Healey’s BMC-rooted concern celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. Crispin Harris is on sparkling form, having scored a splendid solo victory at last month’s Oulton Park’s GTSCC season-opener. He is rejoined by regular partner James Wilmoth in the Crispy Moth Racing 3000.
Seasoned big Healey ace Jeremy Welch - our loyal series supporter through the family Denis Welch Motorsport business in Staffordshire (www.bighealey.co.uk) - partners Doug Muirhead in the TON 792, aka The Chairman’s Car, run by BMC boss Sir George Harriman from new. Dutchmen Christiaen van Lanschot/Karsten Le Blanc bring DD300 (originally registered by the factory as UJB 143), the three-time Le Mans starter once raced in a Brands Hatch clubbie by Jim Clark. James Haxton and the spectacular Jack Rawles, Mark Holme/Welch, Mark Pangborn/Harvey Woods and father and son Paul and George Ingram underpin a promising Healey challenge.
Two of the three mighty Sprinzel Lawrence-tune Racing Morgans, with their aerodynamic aluminium bodies, are entered. John Emberson shares his highly-polished ex-Pip Arnold car with HGPCA Lotus ace Peter Horsman (who cut his racing teeth racing powerful Plus 8s), while the red ex-Gordon Spice example of marque veteran Simon Orebi Gann is co-driven on this occasion by the rapid Billy Bellinger, who usually prepares and races Keith Ahlers’ British Racing Green ex-Chris Lawrence version. We all wish Keith well and a return to the grid soon. The Triumph TRs are those of long-time GTSCC racers Allan and Daniel Ross-Jones and former HSCC champion Colin Sharp.
With 60 years of the MGB as the central theme of the event, it’s no surprise that at least six will head GT2. Husband and wife Brian and Barbara Lambert overcame brake issues to top the sub-set at Oulton Park, but newcomers Mark Hope/James Bilsland gave them a run for their money. Father and daughter Richard and Alice Locke are back in action, while Nigel Batchelor/Nick Ruddell and David and Matt Green join the fray. Also back is Oliver Marçais, whilst Nick Finburgh partners Marc Gordon in the latter’s 1.2-litre Coventry-Climax FWE-engined Lotus Elite, the smallest but possibly best handling car in the race.
The battle for overall honours on the fast 3.66-mile circuit, though, will almost certainly be between the Jaguar E-types, AC Cobra 289s, Cobra Daytona Coupes and Sunbeam Tiger in the GT4 division. Jaguar aces John Pearson [Dunlop’s ever-supportive competition tyre distributor] and brother Gary and father and son Graeme and James Dodd are both local pairings, but vastly experienced Scots John Clark - the former British Saloon Car Championship BMW racer - and Gordon Mutch are always competitive in the former’s roadster. Motor group scion Clark’s GTSCC campaign started well with second place at Oulton Park, with his young protege Mutch as co-driver.
The Oulton-winning Cobra of Chris Chiles/Chris Chiles Jr is not entered at Silverstone, nonetheless the illustrious marque - based on the opposite side of the River Thames to Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace - is well represented. Richard Cook and Banbury rallyman Richard Tuthill will run in the former’s AC Cobra 289, Richard Hywel-Evans is campaigning his car and Hong Kong’s Philip Kadoorie returns to the circuit for a second race this season with his silver Moto Historics-run version.
Fresh from third place at Oulton Park, David Smithies and Chris Clarkson saddle the former’s Daytona Coupe - resplendent in ’64 Tour de France tribute livery - with the sister car of dad and lad Paul and George Pochciol for intra-class competition. West countryman Neil Merry showcases another Anglo-American hybrid in the form of his Sunbeam Tiger, motivated by the same 4.7-litre Ford V8 as the Cobras. Graphics guru and renowned historian/journalist Julian Balme shares driving duties.
