GT & Sports Car Cup Race Report: Castle Combe Autumn Classic 2025

GTSCC - Castle Combe Autumn Classic
Castle Combe - 20th September, 2025

“Déjà vu” as Tilley comes good on Lotus 15 debut

Anybody present on the GT & Sports Car Cup invitation series’ Castle Combe Autumn Classic debut in 2017 might have experienced “déjà vu” as an orange Lotus 15 flashed under the chequered flag on Saturday, September 20. US-domiciled Briton Kyle Tilley, whose ERA Motorsport team’s UK base is situated nearby, only collected the sports racer in which Philip Walker and Miles Griffith won eight years ago earlier in the week, but after a shakedown test at Donington on Thursday, was confident enough to enter our third race of the season.

For much of the 90-minute race - pared back from last year’s 120 - the advantage swayed between previous victors Chris Chiles Jr (AC Cobra 289), Gary Pearson (sharing a Jaguar E-type with Christian Albrecht) and John Spiers - partnered this time by Nigel Greensall in a Lister-Jaguar Knobbly, as opposed to last year’s winning Costin version, shared with Chris Ward.

But after Chris Chiles Sr was hoist by his own petard for misinterpreting a warning flag for a stop and go, a flat battery stranded the Lister after Spiers spun in the rain and an obstinate misfire slowed the Anglo-German pairing’s Jag, Tilley was able to hound down Albrecht and snatch the lead two laps from home. “I didn’t know what to make of the Lotus in the wet,” said Kyle. “Sitting on the back axle it didn’t seem to have much front end feel when I turned the wheel. I felt a podium might be on but we were close enough when it mattered. To have won at the local circuit I visited as a kid, and with my dad [1970s’ single-seater racer Charles, now the proud owner of an FIA spec MGB] is amazing.”

Pearson/Albrecht finished second and won the GT4 division from the Chiles family’s Cobra, which placed third overall, back on the lead lap after a stellar chase by Junior. Fourth was the Cooper T49 Monaco of Nick Finburgh/Ollie Crosthwaite.

Fifth and sixth were the E-types of John Clark/Karl Jones/Ben Mitchell, third in GT4 after a brilliant chase by finisher Mitchell, and debutants Will Garrett/Tim Crighton who deservedly earned GT3 gold in Hilton & Moss’ stunning early roadster. Mitchell and his co-équipiers were awarded the coveted Baltic Watches timepieces as Drivers of the Day.

GT2 went down to the wire, for a 20-second penalty for a yellow flag infringement, left local husband-and-wife Mike Thorne/Sarah Bennett-Baggs (Austin-Healey 100M) a scant 0.695s ahead of the fast-closing Olly Bryant, finishing Michael O’Sullivan’s Ecurie Shirlee Lotus Elite. Had not a Cobra, off at Quarry corner, brought the chequered flag out two laps early, Bryant would surely have wriggled past.

Top of the SP1 set were Doug Muirhead/Jeremy Welch, classified 17th in the former’s Lotus 11.

Having received the MGB they sea-freighted 12,000 miles from Australia weeks ago only four days before the event, and completed their qualification out of session, Melbourne brothers Paul and Michael Cruse were honoured with the Royal Automobile Club’s Family Award over a remarkable turnout of 10 rivals. And, from a record entry of 11 female racers, Niamh Wood - who shared a Lotus Elan 26R with husband Tony and GT stalwart Ian Stinton - won the Coupe des Dames prize.

QUALIFYING

An unprecedented 43 entries arrived for qualifying on Saturday morning, late additions including Tilley with the Lotus and Tom Dark with his ex-George Pitt/Chris Bristow Cooper T49 Monaco - powered by a two-litre Coventry-Climax FPF engine - which bolstered the Sports Car set to five across its two capacity splits. Rebuilt by Tom over the past seven years, the red and yellow Cooper had not been raced since 1982 when Californian Art Valdez put it into hibernation in his collection after one event.

More remarkable was the family aspect of the entry. No fewer than five husband-and-wife teams (the Philips squad again augmented by their son), four father and son equipes, a mother and son combo and pairs of sisters and brothers. Their participation made for a wonderful ambience in the hospitality unit within the Strawford Centre and on track as our HP Tyres-supported raceday evolved in the circuit’s 75th Anniversary year.

On an overcast morning, Chris Chiles Jr was first onto the 1.85-mile track in the hope of getting a clear early lap. Indeed, he maxed a new set of Dunlop tyres to put the CRC Cobra on pole - matching his 2022 and 2024 efforts - with a 1m16.086s (87.53mph) shot, half a second inside his 1:16.612s race record, set in 2023.

Tilley’s 1:17.905 (85.46mph) not only secured the other front row grid slot but was inside Miles Griffiths’ SP2 record of 1:17.941, set en route to victory in 2017. Post qualifying, Kyle was looking to the dark grey skies, with the thought that he might not race an unknown quantity should it rain.

The Jaguar E-types of Pearson/Albrecht and John Clark/Karl Jones/Ben Mitchell [have you heard the one about the Scotsman, the Welshman and the Englishman?] sat third and fifth, sandwiching the Lotus Elan of Steve Jones and Ben Tinkler, third in the race for the past two seasons.

Reigning champion John Spiers’ Lister Jaguar was next, not the blue Costin as expected but the black Knobbly he has raced extensively. A conservative best lap of 1:19.160 augured well for the team, with Nigel Greensall - Castle Combe’s pre-chicane lap record holder in perpetuity, driving an F1 Tyrrell 022 - due to take the middle stint.

Tom Dark and Charlie Martin’s Cooper Monaco, shaken down, like Tilley’s Lotus, at Donington on Thursday - “nothing fell off, so we brought it,” smiled Tom - was the first of seven cars in the 1:20 bracket. The Shelby Cobra of Charlie Allison/Jon Payne joined it on row four of the grid, ahead of the Elan of Historic F2 racer Graham Ridgway/Tom Smith and the hulking Cobra Daytona coupe of local veterans David Smithies/Chris Clarkson.

Top of the GT3 tree was the pristine 1963 E-type of Garrett/Crighton. Crighton’s 1:20.595 (82.63mph) time was three tenths swifter than Jeremy Welch’s in the top Austin-Healey 3000 - Christian van Lanschot’s fabled DD300, none the worse for its light engine bay toasting at Goodwood the previous weekend.

Between them sat Tim Ross’ Cooper T39 Bobtail, driven by regular Combe 500cc F3 and Frazer Nash race winner Tom Waterfield, co-piloted on this occasion by his mum Jo Blakeney-Edwards, a seasoned chain-gang Nasher. Despite getting stuck in gear when Jo was aboard, Tom was delighted with his SP1 class leading 1:20.647 (82.58mph), within striking distance of Ben Adams’ record of 1:18.554, set in 2017 in the ex-Tom Hart Lola Mk1 BR32, currently for sale.

Soloist Bruce Montgomery’s contrasting red Healey sat alongside its illustrious green sister, three times a Le Mans 24 Hours starter, albeit almost a second slower on its first outing for a while. The diminutive Lotuses of Paul de Havilland (11 Le Mans S2) and GT2 pacesetters Michael O’Sullivan/Olly Bryant (Elite), both powered by 1216cc Climax FWE engines, were closely matched, Bryant’s 1:22.384 (80.84mph) securing class pole, almost two seconds inside Rick Bourne’s TVR Grantura class record.

Also in the 22s were the vivid green Elan of husband and wife Tony and Niamh Wood and Ian Stinton and its stablemate the Tony Wood/Stinton Cobra 0.120s apart. Malcolm Paul/Bourne in the former’s long-serving TVR and the Healey of Paul and George Ingram - destined not to start - rounded out the top 20, with the earlier Lotus 11 Le Mans S1 streamliner of Doug Muirhead/Jeremy Welch 21st, on the field’s fulcrum point.

GT3 battlers Allan and Daniel Ross-Jones (Triumph TR4), Mark ‘Pangio’ Pangborn (A-H 3000) and clutch-troubled Rob Newall/Oliver Marçais (Jaguar XK120) qualified next, ahead of the gunmetal Healey 100M of Thorne/Bennett-Baggs, third in GT2.

Last year’s TC1 winners Alice Locke/Matt Green claimed class pole with the ex-works Broadspeed Mini GTS on 1:25.300 (78.07mph), just shy of their 1:24.957 class record. Canadian Read Gomm (E-type low-drag coupe) and Marc Gordon (Elite) were close behind.

Best of seven MGBs in the family-orientated GT2 pack were those of dad and lad Nick and Chris Thompson and husband and wife Brian and Barbara Lambert, a fifth of a second apart in 29th and 30th places. Morgan Plus 4 Super Sports duo Simon King/Will Plant separated them from Beverley, Chris and Olly Phillips - whose MGB has contested all eight Combe GTSCC events - and Scots Tim and Laurence Jacobsen.

Sisters Emily and Arabella Welch completed the B teams who qualified, after Ian Beattie/Tom Poulton’s broke after a lap. The Cruse brothers didn’t get out at all, but the long-distance commuters did their requisite three laps separately to join the grid. Between the Jacobsen and Welch MGBs were the Elite of Ben Tarlow/Mark Hamilton-Peters, the Morgan Plus 4 SS of Sharlie Goddard/Graeme Smith, Robert Rawe’s TR4 and the red MGA Twin-Cam - Dick Fitzwillian and Robin Carnegie’s period racer - of Alpine’s UK brand manager Nicola Burnside, husband Neil and the versatile Matt Moore. Ellie Birchenhough and Nick Topliss’s Dorset Racing Mini Cooper S completed the regular qualifiers.

Nick Finburgh/Ollie Crosthwaite’s Cooper Monaco stopped half a lap into the session when a distributor wire detached, stranding Nick, whose fears that he’d broken its gearbox were unfounded. Ironically, the remnants of a pop rivet punctured a tyre as he was being towed back to the paddock. They would go from the back on familiarity, having successfully competed here as recently as last September, 364 days previously. They were joined by the ‘Cruse Missile’ MGB and Clark/Jones/Mitchell MG Midget - first time out following John’s recent test run at Knockhill - the dizzy drive of which sheared while the engine was being warmed-up. A replacement was kindly loaned by Jack Williamson of Dorset Racing, and as all had qualified John’s E-type they brought the final grid back to 41.

RACE

Alas the weather turned for the afternoon, but the race - the 100th in Autumn Classic history since the event, brainchild of the late Rodney Gooch, was inaugurated with circuit saviour the late Howard Strawford’s blessing in 2012 - got off to a thunderous rolling start with rain falling at 14.45.

Tilley led at the end of the opening lap from Chiles Jr, Spiers, Albrecht, Jones and Smithies, up from 10th in the Ford France tribute Cobra coupe. Allison, Clark, Stinton in the Woods’ Elan, Ridgway and the contrasting Coopers of Dark and Waterfield rounded out the top 12.

Garrett led Montgomery and van Lanschot in GT3, but Christiaen’s lairy spin out of Camp corner onto the infield on lap five triggered a couple of avoidances and dropped the Dutchman almost to the back of the field. Meanwhile, Thorne hit the ground running in GT2, climbing from 24th to a class leading 16th on the opening lap, then forging his four-cylinder Healey ever higher. Ninth by lap six, ahead of Dark’s Cooper, but behind Waterfield, Mike reached fifth by dint of not stopping under a brief safety car period around 15 minutes into the 90.

Star of the opening stanza was Finburgh who, from 39th on the grid, threaded the white and blue Noddy Coombs team Cooper T49 up 13 places to 26th inside a lap, then onward to ninth in seven busy circuits. Lap 8 was memorable for one of the Morgan drivers who had the Monacos of Finburgh and Dark overtake on either side at Old Paddock. Crosthwaite took over from Finburgh during the safety car period, then handed it back after a solid 19 lap stint.

Up front, Chiles Jr had gobbled up Tilley on lap two and Albrecht grunted past the Lotus to go second a couple of laps later. Spiers, running fourth but concerned about a battery light glowing on his dash, was second to stop during the caution period - Welch having taken over DD300 from van Lanschot nine laps in - sending Greensall on his way after 11. Already out were Tim Jacobsen’s MGB after seven laps and de Havilland’s Lotus next time round.

Albrecht put Pearson into the dark green Jag at the end of the hiatus, ceding second to Tilley who made his first stop three circuits later after 15. Chiles Jr, keen to work the maximum 40-minute stints in his teams favour, did 23 laps before putting his father in to bat. Pearson duly became the pacesetter, although Stinton in the Wood Elan relinquished its wheel a lap later. That brought Greensall up to second, ahead of Chiles and Tilley, whose orders reversed when Senior returned to the pits after three laps. He’d been given a black and white warning flag - for rejoining the track over the exit blend line - for a black and come in, an error which cost a lot of time. Chris was obliged to make his handover stop five laps later, from ninth, a lap behind leader Pearson.

But Greensall caught and passed the E-type on lap 32, and Tilley regained second when Pearson put Albrecht back in. At this point the sports racers were 45 seconds apart, each needing to stop again, which they did on successive laps, Greensall ceding to Spiers, promoting Tilley briefly. John powered ahead, but with a misfire blunting his engine’s throttle response was unable to prevent the Lister from spinning at Old Paddock on lap 40. When the straight six refused to refire his race was run. Albrecht was now the leader, with Tilley 28 seconds adrift, but the E-type was hobbled too and the Lotus eroded the German’s advantage lap after lap.

After a relentless chase the ‘clockwork orange’ Lotus had the misfiring Jag in sight. On lap 54 - with the sun putting in a welcome appearance to greet them - Albrecht was powerless to keep Tilley behind. All the while, Chiles Jr was gaining ground hand-over-fist, and with customary bravado underpinned by a fine damp set-up by crew chief Gary Spencer’s team unlapped himself on lap 50.

When the chequered flag was waved two and a half minutes early, with a car off at Quarry, Tilley acknowledged it with right hand raised aloft. Albrecht crossed TSL’s timing beam 4.322s later as GT4 winner, with the Chiles Cobra a further 73 seconds behind.

Finburgh/Crosthwaite’s superb run was rewarded with fourth overall and SP2 victory, with Ben Mitchell filling Nick’s mirrors only 0.253s behind in

Clark’s gorgeous blue E-type. Quickest of all in the later stages, Ben set the car’s best lap last time round, on a spectacular 25 lap charge from 27th to fifth and third in GT4.

Crighton, finishing Garrett’s E-type with aplomb, completed a brilliant GT3-winning run to sixth, having passed Smithies’ Cobra Daytona, struggling for grip, then Jones’s Elan on the penultimate lap. Dark/Martin, third in SP2, were less than 10 seconds behind the V8 monster, Tom ruing a big spin at Quarry, while running ahead of Finburgh’s sister car which cost them fifth and class silver! The Coopers finished 37 seconds apart, a lap behind Tilley.

Of the competitors who covered 53 laps, Montgomery’s Healey and the Ross-Jones TR4 were second and third in GT3, separated by 11.539s, ahead of the Ridgway/Smith Elan and DD300 finished by van Lanschot.

GT2 winners Thorne/Bennett-Baggs had a close shave. Classified 15th, behind the Wood/Stinton Cobra, they hung on to beat the white Elite of double-stinter O’Sullivan and mentor Bryant by a whisker once their 20 second penalty was factored in. Muirhead/Welch, Waterfield/Blakeney-Edwards, Rawe, Allison/Payne, King/Plant - a meritorious third in GT2 in the Morgan - and Gomm also did 52 laps.

Gordon’s Elite and the Wood/Wood/Stinton Elan were next home, ahead of the battling Aussies Michael and Paul Cruse whose challenging day ended at top MGB in 25th place and proud winners of the Royal Automobile Club’s family award. A lap and four places down, the Thompsons were second of the Bs. Between them were the TVR Grantura - five times a GT2 winner here, but not in the hunt this time - Alice Locke/Matt Green who repeated 2024’s TC1 win in the Valoroso-run Broadspeed and the Newall/Marçais XK120, still with clutch woes.

Thirty seven of the 41 starters were classified as finishers, the others to fall being the Clark team’s MG Midget to a misfire and the similarly afflicted Pangborn/Woods Healey which Harvey was bringing into the pitlane when Welch in DD300 passed him on the grass.

ENDS - MARCUS PYE

ALGARVE CLASSIC FESTIVAL - 24/25/26 October
Entries remain open for the ever popular 2-Hour Endurance GTSCC End of Season race at the Algarve Classic Festival. We have an excellent entry to date, with over 35 cars, to include 6 minis, several Sports cars and a great variety of Pre-66 machinery. Don't delay, enter today if you have not already done so!

See Entry Form link below.

**11 Lady Drivers helped to form the grid at the Autumn Classic!**

**2nd Overall - Gary Pearson & Christian Albrecht - Jaguar E-Type**

**3rd Overall - Chris Chiles Jnr & Chris Chiles Snr - AC Cobra**

**GT2 Class Winners - Mike Thorne & Sarah Bennett-Baggs - Austin Healey 100M**

**GT3 Class Winners - William Garrett & Tim Crighton - Jaguar E-Type**

**SP1 Class Winners - Doug Muirhead & Jeremy Welch - Lotus 11**

**SP2 Class Winner - Kyle Tilley - Lotus 15**

**TC1 Class Winners - Alice Locke & Matt Green - Mini Broadspeed GTS**

**'The Royal Automobile Club Family Award' Winners - Michael & Paul Cruse - MG B**

**Baltic Watches 'Drivers of the Day' - John Clark, Karl Jones & Ben Mitchell - Jaguar E-Type**

**GTSCC Winner Kyle Tilley, 2nd Gary Pearson & Christian Albrecht, 3rd Chris Chiles & Chris Chiles Jr**

**GT4 Class Podium - Winners Gary Pearson & Christian Albrecht, 2nd Chris Chiles & Chris Chiles Jr, 3rd John Clark, Karl Jones & Ben Mitchell**

**GT3 Class Podium - Winners William Garrett & Tim Crighton, 2nd Bruce Montgomery, 3rd Allan & Dan ross-Jones**

**GT2 Class Podium - Winners Mike Thorne & Sarah Bennett-Baggs, 2nd Michael O'Sullivan & Olly Bryant, 3rd Simon King & William Plant**

**SP1 Class Podium - Winners Doug Muirhead & Jeremy Welch, 2nd Tommy Waterfield & Jo Blakeney-Edwards**

**SP2 Class Podium - Winner Kyle Tilley, 2nd Nick Finburgh & Ollie Crosthwaite, 3rd Tom Dark & Charlie Martin**

**TC1 Class Podium - Winners Alice Locke & Matt Green, 2nd Ellie Birchenhough, Nick Topliss**

**Coupe des Dames - Niamh Wood - Lotus Elan 26R**

**The Royal Automobile Club Family Award, presented by Jeremy Vaughan, Head of Motoring, to Michael & Paul Cruse, MG B**

Drivers of the Day presented by
@balticwatches
John Clark, Karl Jones & Ben Mitchell

**Fabulous timepieces by Baltic Watches @balticwatches**

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE RACE WINNERS
GT2 - Mike Thorne & Sarah Bennett-Baggs, Austin Healey 100
GT3 - William Garrett & Tim Crighton, Jaguar E-type Series 1
GT4 - Gary Pearson & Christian Albrecht, Jaguar E-type
SP1 - Doug Muirhead & Jeremy Welch, Lotus 11
SP2 - Kyle Tilley, Lotus 15
TC1 - Alice Locke & Matt Green, Mini Broadspeed GTS

Coupe des Dames
Niamh Wood - Lotus Elan 26R

The Royal Automobile Club Family Award
Michael & Paul Cruse, MG B

Baltic Watches 'Drivers of the Day'
John Clark, Karl Jones & Ben Mitchell, Jaguar E-type & MG Midget

GTSCC - Castle Combe Autumn Classic Results Here

E-Mail - cars@automobileshistoriques.com for entries

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