BRDC Bulletin Winter 2016

BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH RACING DRIVERS’ CLUB

/ VOLUME 37 NO 4 / WINTER 2016

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BRITISH RACING DRIVERS’ CLUB President in Chief HRH The Duke of Kent KG President Derek Warwick

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Directors John Grant (Chairman) Nick Adams Lord Beaverbrook Harry Handkammer Jason Plato Gordon Shedden Philip Walker

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CONTENTS VOLUME 37 // WINTER 2016

Club Secretary Gillian Carr Tel: 01327 850926 Email: gillian.carr@brdc.co.uk

4 PRESIDENT’S LETTER

BRDC Bulletin Editorial Board Ian Titchmarsh, Gillian Carr, David Addison

7 FROM YOUR CIRCUIT

Derek Warwick

Stuart Pringle looks at life at Silverstone

Editor David Addison BRDC Jimmy Brown Centre Silverstone Circuit Northamptonshire NN12 8TN

8 THE RETIRING TYPE 56

13 UP TO THE NINES

A ninth BRDC Gold Star for Lewis Hamilton

Advertising William Jones Tel: 07880 254161 Email: william.jones@brdc.co.uk

15 SILVER SUCCESS

Colin Turkington’s BTCC season netted a third BRDC Silver Star

Patronage and Sponsorship Mark Brown Tel: 07957 555063 Email: mark.brown@brdc.co.uk

16 TOP DOGS!

BRDC Members have won a variety of titles in 2016

Production Damion Chew Tel: 01723 871500 Email: bulletin@damionchewdesign.com www.damionchewdesign.com © 2016 The British Racing Drivers’ Club. All rights in and relating to this publication are expressly reserved. Nothing in this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without prior written permission from the BRDC. The views expressed in the Bulletin are not necessarily those of the editor, the BRDC, the Editorial Board or the publishers.

www.brdc.co.uk

Martin Brundle looks at the F1 decider and events after the flag fell

20 STARRING ROLES

BRDC SuperStars have been racking up successes

22 A SUCCESSFUL UPRISING 62

The Rising Stars have…well, risen!

More title success went their way

24 MAKING HISTORY

Members in historic racing have enjoyed a varied end-of-season calendar

COVER CAPTIONS FRONT Nico Rosberg celebrates his 2016 Formula One World Championship title win. Little did we know it was the last time we’d see him drive an F1 car in anger… (Photo LAT)

BACK Another driver to bow out of Formula One in 2016 is 2009 World Champion Jenson Button, seen here in Baku, a new addition to the F1 trail (Photo LAT)

30 SUCCESS RECOGNISED

The BRDC Awards recognised the efforts of the Membership, which swelled by two by the end of the afternoon

34 WELCOME ABOARD The latest Full Members

42 LANDO HOPE AND GLORY

46 SCHOOLBOY TALES

Peter Windsor looks back at when his heroes came to town

56 THE FIRST COMING

Andrew Marriott looks back at Haas in Formula One. The first Haas entry, that is

62 SCENE AT SILVERSTONE

A pictorial look back to the 2016 Silverstone season

69 SECRETARY’S LETTER Gillian Carr

70 BEHIND THE LENS

The full stories of this edition’s archive images

72 OBITUARIES

Remembering Members

77 HERITAGE, RIGHT HERE AND NOW

There is great news to report about the Silverstone Heritage Experience

78 AUTUMN SUCCESS

Rising Star Enaam Ahmed scooped the BRDC British F3 Autumn Trophy

80 SHELF LIFE

More books for you to consider

86 MEMBERS’ NEWS

Now, this is a really varied crop!

90 WHAT’S ON AND WHO’S HOT

The calendar of events for early 2017 as well as points tallies for the BRDC Gold and Silver Star as well as the BRDC British F3 Autumn Trophy

Meet Lando Norris, 2016 BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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President's Letter

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As you all are aware the deal with JLR has

EAR MEMBER It’s been another busy end of the year and particularly December with the BRDC and Autosport Awards – both

stopped. I personally am very disappointed with losing this deal. It was nothing like the first deal that was presented at the EGM – it was simpler and we have kept in

were great fun as a chance to catch up with old friends. There’s

control of SCL. So, where are we today? Your Board has decided to

also pressure as well because you want to present the best you can.

step back from all deals and evaluate what is best to do for the Club

I thought Nico Rosberg coming to our Awards was very special.

and SCL. We do need to do something and I’m sure our Chairman

He didn’t need to and had to change many things to fit it in. He’s a

will update you soon.

real gentleman, funny, gracious and represents our sport very well. I

Great news with the Heritage Project: Sally Reynolds and Stuart

know that many Members left the Awards as big fans of Nico. I was

Pringle have worked extremely hard to get the funding from the

very proud to present both Nico Rosberg and John McGuinness

Heritage Lottery Fund and we have funding guaranteed by various

with Honorary Membership to the BRDC. They were both very

local bodies. We should be seeing some building works at the old

honoured to receive it and both put on the badge straight away.

hangar quite soon.

It’s been a great year for British racing drivers and particularly for our young drivers who between them have won five races

May I wish you a great Christmas and a very healthy and prosperous New Year?

in GP2, 10 races in GP3, six races in F3, 15 in Renault Eurocup and NEC, 17 in BRDC British F3 and 14 races in MSA F4.

Congratulations to everyone and let’s beat those numbers in 2017.

OPPOSITE: For his second Formula 2 season Derek has joined Brian Henton, ‘Super Hen’, with BP backing at Toleman to drive the Rory Byrnedesigned Toleman-Hart TG280 and is still looking for his first F2 victory when the teams arrive at Silverstone for the sixth round of the European Formula 2 Championship. Pipped for pole position

by Brian by 0.02 of a second, Derek smokes into the lead by Copse and has a clear advantage as the 29-car field pours through Maggotts into Becketts.

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WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

Derek PRESIDENT, BRDC

Directly behind him is the Marlboro-liveried March-BMW 802 of Andrea de Cesaris with Brian in the Toleman-Hart TG280B alongside. In fourth place is the March-BMW 802 of Mike Thackwell #2 with the green and yellow March-802 BMW #13 of Chico Serra next ahead of Huub Rothengatter’s Toleman-Hart TG280 #14. Derek will lead all 47 laps to take his first F2 victory, Brian will be delayed with an electrical problem, returning to the race to set a new F2 lap record and Andrea and Mike

will complete the podium. Making its debut is the Ralt-Honda RH6 V6 in the hands of Nigel Mansell which will finish 11th with a persistent misfire.

Nigel is little more than two months away from his F1 debut for Team Lotus at the Österreichring while Ralt-Honda will win the Championship with Geoff Lees in a year’s time (Photo LAT)

President's Letter

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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News from your circuit

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AM WRITING AS I SPEED SOUTH back from a most enjoyable Scottish regional BRDC lunch, which, while not exactly my local region, was easy to attend thanks to the 0623hrs from Milton Keynes to Glasgow and full of friends that I have made through the Club.

The date of the Scottish lunch is also ‘Black Friday’, an increasingly important retail day in Great Britain. Thanks to fantastically reliable wi-fi on the train I have been regularly updated by our Head of Ticketing on the progress of this retail bonanza and I am relieved to say that it has been very positive. I have to say that I am not a massive fan of us British adopting American trends, but that is altering. Black Friday serves Silverstone Circuits Limited very well, bringing much needed cash into our business at a time when that critical business lifeblood is in short supply. The months of November, December, January and February are particularly tough for SCL as traditionally our core business of track rental drops right off. Actually, this year we have had a strong November with the works Porsche team putting some discreet miles on next year’s 911 RSR and the major F3 teams testing into the first couple of days of December, but the issue nonetheless remains. We have cars using one piece or other of the ‘black top’ 90% of the available time between the beginning of March and the end of October and then we contract massively. These two facts together illustrate very well one of the key issues that we have to address at SCL.

We have very little further growth possible in our core business, yet we have one third of the year where we have a glaring void and very low demand for our key asset.

We should have started to diversify some time ago, but we absolutely have no option now. We simply cannot grow revenues from track use alone with so little headroom to grow into and, as I said in the last edition of the Bulletin: “We simply have no choice but to diversify, innovate and continue to work jolly hard”.

My personal view on Americanism being adopted into British life is immaterial when one looks to examples such as Halloween to illustrate how we can try innovate our way to success. It is a good example of where I think we should be looking to diversify our business away from our stretched core asset. Critically, Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas are all in our quiet period. The Silverstone of the future must, of course, be first and foremost recognised for its traditional business of motor racing. We have an enviable heritage and we must try and maintain the best possible motor racing events at Silverstone for as long as it makes financial sense to do so; they underpin our brand.

However, when you analyse who is paying us to come to the events that we put on and when, therefore, they are visiting Silverstone, the demographic is very one-dimensional (looking quite a lot like the Membership of the BRDC) and anniversaries such as those listed above are examples of the opportunities that exist

to diversify, and critically in the months in which we are quietest (and therefore cash is tightest).

It is this need to diversify away from our core business that makes the landing of the £9.1m Heritage Lottery grant all the more important. The money has been awarded to Silverstone Heritage Limited, the charity that sits behind The Silverstone Heritage Experience, but the positive effects that it will bring to the wider Silverstone will be felt well beyond the world-class educational visitor attraction that SHL intends to build at the circuit’s main entrance. Critically, it will deliver a new audience, a different audience and one that will come more regularly than the peaks of the key event weekends as is currently the case. The promise of this new footfall in two years’ time has piqued the interest of hotel investors and operators and it is that that I am particularly excited about. The need for a hotel at Silverstone has been known for a long time, but the business case has been impossible to make with such high peaks and low, long troughs in our attendance. If we can get a good hotel built (and quickly) we can start to get the conference and exhibition business in The Wing working properly that will have a marked and very immediate impact upon our financial fortunes. The case for The Silverstone Heritage Experience – in addition to being entirely the right thing for the Club to protect and showcase the remarkable history of Silverstone and the BRDC – has always been about what it can do

to help re-shape the circuit business and help us build a new, sustainable future.

I would like to put on record my thanks and admiration for the job done by our Circuit Manager, Lee Howkins, and his hard working team for the remarkable way in which they have kept the whole venue in such good condition this year. The presentation – thanks in large part to a perfect British growing summer, a new mowing machine attached to our grounds contractor’s tractor and some cracking TV pictures from the helicopter-mounted camera – attracted much praise over the Grand Prix when the eyes of the world were upon us, but the place still looks amazing, even at the end of November. Given how tight money has been this year, and the amount of use that the circuit gets, this typifies the determination that we have within the SCL team to pull ourselves out of the depression we have been in. I am constantly impressed by the buoyant morale in the whole team and the ability to focus on the task in hand and ignore the wider business concerns that loom over us. Everyone here deserves a good break over Christmas and they leave for the festive period with my thanks for the huge commitment shown over yet another trying Silverstone year.

Hannah Irving, Finance Director, joins me in sending you best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Here’s to the progress continuing in 2017!

Stuart Pringle SPORTING DIRECTOR, SCL BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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Martin Brundle on F1

Clash of the Titans The FIA Formula 1 World Championship went down to the wire and was resolved in favour, finally, of Nico Rosberg.

Martin Brundle looks at another spectacular season.

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ONGRATULATIONS TO Nico Rosberg, the new World Champion! He has dedicated most of his life to enjoy that moment with his family and team, winning races and championships along the way, combined with a huge amount of work, dedication, risk, stress, elation and abject despair.

He joined the Mercedes team in 2010 and has played a fundamental role in the development of the team and this dominant car. During that time he has had two team-mates who are undoubtedly two of the greatest racing drivers of all time in Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, albeit in Michael’s less competitive phase two.

He can’t match Lewis’s “A game” and, as Nico puts it: “He has always edged me” since they were kids in karting. So he learned to come at it in a different way, through application and by keeping total focus and

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WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

a calm head. When Lewis hit mechanical trouble, especially in Malaysia where he lost a net 28 points, Nico’s natural speed and application was enough to seize the chance and take the title. He kept his head well under extreme pressure in the last race, and made a decisive and risky move stick on Max Verstappen.

Lewis had three cards in his hand going into the Abu Dhabi championship showdown and he played all of them. Try to destabilise Nico psychologically. Win the race. Back his rival into the pack and hope that he got into mischief or finished fourth.

Lewis spent the race going as slowly as possible where practical, and speeding up around pit stops and anywhere near the two long straights with DRS zones.

It wasn’t pretty, but nor was it ultimately successful as the team increasingly urged him to drive faster.

I wouldn’t have done it, just like I didn’t want to

Martin Brundle on F1

The bombshell

Lewis Hamilton congratulates Nico Rosberg on the Abu Dhabi podium, far left, after Nico’s spectacular leap from his car. Earlier in the season, Mercedes had issued a statement confirming it wished to have Nico in the team for 2017 and Nico’s postseason announcement surprised everyone (Photos LAT)

Five days after his victorious donuts on the pit straight in Abu Dhabi, Nico Rosberg announced the bombshell decision he had made a few days earlier. He was retiring from Formula One with immediate effect.

He explained that he had reached the summit of being World Champion and now he wanted to spend more time with his young family. I very much admire that he has the courage of his convictions to make such a bold decision at just 31 years of age.

Most described it as brave, but I would have thought that when you reach the summit you’d want to take in the view for a while before enjoying a jubilant descent.

Brave would have been to take on the rest of the pack in the aggressive new 2017 cars as reigning champion and show them who is king once again. It seems that Nico’s mighty effort and intense focus to finally defeat his lifelong nemesis Lewis Hamilton had drained him. I hope he didn’t rush the decision because, God willing, he now has another 50 to 60 years to not be an F1 driver.

Farewell to a very intelligent and personable man – it’s a pleasure to know you.

You have a lucky family.

have Ayrton Senna off at Thruxton in 1983 to win the F3 championship. But history tells us that Senna would have had me off, and that’s why these multiple champions are winning machines. They can’t compute anything else, and they can’t understand when others don’t see it their way.

I feel that Lewis would have delivered a stronger and more positive message to the world by winning in dominant style yet again. But he did steal the post-

race headlines, which fitted in with his determination to minimise Nico’s title if he couldn’t win it himself.

Instead his relationship with the team that has given him such a magnificent car is heavily fractured, and it remains to be seen if that is repairable.

I’ve enjoyed this season of Formula One. I accept it’s been another Mercedes walkover but at least the championship went down to the last race, and without the help of double points. It’s been a rollercoaster

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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Martin Brundle on F1

between Lewis and Nico, and even though they won 19 races, it was all fits and starts as they each won tranches of races. Nico’s championship lead swung from 43 points ahead to 19 behind, eventually finishing just five ahead.

Talking of starts, Lewis had some awful launches.

He’d be amazingly fast as a bank robbery driver, but this year you’d be concerned about getting underway with the gold bullion. It improved towards the end of the season with fine tuning of the systems and some simulator work, but Monza and Suzuka in particular were woeful and cost points.

It’s been a long hard year with 21 races. It seems a random number but in my experience 18 races

are perfect. Two a month for nine months, shuffled up a little to make a summer break. But only at the greatest venues which generate frequent excitement and crowds.

I would also cut Friday practice to two one-hour sessions, given that the simulation tools they have now are so effective for drivers and teams alike. Then the regular qualifying format on Saturday morning with a point for pole position. Saturday afternoon would be a 45-minute thrash to establish the main Sunday GP grid with some points for the top three and other incentives like points for most places gained and fastest lap. There would be one mandatory pitstop. We are always trying to find ways to mix up the grid, so let’s do it with a race.

Jolyon Palmer’s maiden season in Formula One wasn’t the easiest at Renault but he has retained his drive for 2017 and will be eager to move up the grid after being quicker than departing team-mate Kevin Magnussen (Photo LAT)

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WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

On Sunday I would have a defined 90-minute race.

At present, 78 minutes in Monza is too short, 120 minutes in Singapore is too long.

I accept that the championship may be decided on a Saturday but I remember commentating on Michael Schumacher winning the title in August and we got over that easily enough.

In between times fans need more access to the pit lane, the paddock (correctly fenced), the track, and the drivers. After hours the paddock should be ‘party central’ and ‘product launch’ essential. It’s like a morgue when the mechanics head off.

We wait with bated breath to see how the 2017 cars look and perform. We know they will be much more racy in terms of looks and pace, but will they generate side by side and nose to tail action?

The real stars of 2016 are the young drivers. Max Verstappen has lit up the scene with his confident, aggressive manner both in and out of the car. What a sublime touch he has on the brake pedal particularly.

In Brazil he re-wrote the textbook on how to race in the rain.

In the third of a century I’ve been hanging around F1 I can only think of a handful of drivers who can

Martin Brundle on F1

Manor ran rookie Pascal Wehrlein, the reigning DTM champion making people take notice, while Felipe Massa (left) bowed out of Formula One after a 15-year career.

Max Verstappen, one of the next generation of Formula One stars, impressed mightily in the Brazilian rain (right), but Ferrari and McLaren both struggled despite the efforts of Sebastian Vettel (below) and Fernando Alonso (below left) in seasons that didn’t deliver expectations (Photos LAT)

consistently fill grandstands and switch TV sets on with the fans around the world. Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and now Max Verstappen will too. That’s not to say others haven’t had a strong following such as Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen, Alain Prost, Jenson Button and Damon Hill particularly with their fellow countrymen.

And Max is ably supported by the likes of the highly impressive Carlos Sainz in the junior stakes, and established hot-shoes like Daniel Ricciardo.

Strong Red Bull theme there but there’s a lot of talent around and the future looks bright despite the budgets required. The cost of junior formulas still deprive us of lots more super talents though.

Have a great Christmas break and I hope your own 2017 plans are coming together nicely.

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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Past. Present. Future. Combined in one single moment.

Porsche wins the 24h of Le Mans. For the 18th time.

For the second time running the 919 Hybrid wins the 24h of Le Mans. The dual hybrid system with its innovative exhaust recovery concept proved that it was capable of delivering the ultimate performance. One of many insights that can inform our series models for the future.

After 24 hours of close racing, Porsche would like to thank Toyota for a thrilling fight and our team for another historic victory.

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BRDC Gold Star

A fine nine Another BRDC Gold Star success brings Lewis Hamilton’s tally to nine, says Ian Titchmarsh.

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EWIS HAMILTON MAY NOT HAVE WON a fourth World Drivers’ championship this year but he has ended it with another BRDC Gold Star, his ninth since the first in 2007, and he is closing in on the record 10 Gold Stars won by Sir Stirling Moss, who never won the World Championship but was able to compete in a wide variety of races which are simply unavailable to a 21st century Formula 1 driver. Daniel Ricciardo’s run of good results towards the end of the season, including his victory for Red Bull-Renault in the Malaysian Grand Prix, brought him up to second place in the Gold Star, albeit some way behind Lewis.

Behind two of our Formula 1 Members, it was close for third, and the Richard Seaman Trophy for the bestplaced Member outside F1, between Welshman Jann Mardenborough and New Zealander Nick Cassidy.

Both raced in Formula 3, Jann in the All Japan Championship in which he finished second just three points behind Kenta Yamashita after leading going into the final weekend at Sugo, and Nick in the FIA European Championship in which he had a mixed season with Prema Powerteam as team-mate to the European Champion Lance Stroll. Having won the All Japan Championship in 2015 for the TOM’S team, Nick was able to secure a drive in a TOM’S Lexus RC F as team-mate to experienced Japanese driver Daisuke Ito in the Japanese Super GT Championship.

Although they did not win a race, there were a couple of podiums, which brought them fifth in the

championship. Jann, who has been a factory driver for Nissan since winning the PlayStation GT Academy in 2011, also had an experienced and successful Japanese driver, Kazuki Hoshino, as his team-mate in the GT300 class of the Super GT Championship in which they finished fourth including a category win at Fuji. In the end Jann pipped Nick by 20 points for third place in the Gold Star.

The 2014 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year and BRDC SuperStar, George Russell, had a good second season in Formula 3 with the re-formed Hitech GP. Against the powerful Prema team, wins were hard to come by but George was first past the chequered flag at Pau and Spa Francorchamps, and was otherwise rarely far from the podium, if not in fact on it. Finishing third in Europe, George capped his year with a sensational pole position in Macau on his first acquaintance with the demanding road circuit.

In the USA, Ed Jones enjoyed a second season with Carlin in the Indy Lights Series, emerging as champion by just two points from Uruguayan Santi Urrutia.

Assuming Ed moves up to IndyCars next year, he should be one to watch.

It has been good to see Euan Hankey back in racing after several years on the sidelines. Joining forces with Turkish driver Salih Yoluc, and armed with a TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage, Euan won the opening round of the GT3 Le Mans Cup at Imola and the last at Estoril but they were not quite able to take

Another BRDC Gold Star for Lewis Hamilton, but Jann Mardenborough (below left) and Ed Jones both shone too (Photos LAT and courtesy Russell Atkins)

the championship despite a sequence of third places mid-season. They also contested the International GT Open series, tasting victory in one of the two races at both Silverstone and Monza. After a couple of years in the Lada, 2012 World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff moved to Honda and won the opening round at Paul Ricard. Although Rob took the chequered flag first in Marrakesh later on, his car was then excluded for technical reasons. A few podiums but no further victories came his way and Rob finished the year sixth in the standings.

Dean Stoneman, in his first season in Indy Lights, was the other main challenger to Ed Jones, winning two of the races at Indianapolis and finishing on the podium on five other occasions in the 18 round series.

The last three races at Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca were unkind to Dean who finished the year fifth in the points for Andretti Autosport. Rising to 10th in the Gold Star points, thanks to an impressive victory at Fuji in the World Endurance Championship, was Mike Conway who, with team-mates Kamui Kobayashi and Stephane Sarazin, were the best-placed drivers for Toyota in the Championship after finishing second at Silverstone and Le Mans and third at Mexico City and Austin.

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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BRDC Silver Star

Colin collects BTCC drivers headed the BRDC Silver Star with Colin Turkington coming out on top.

Ian Titchmarsh reports.

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HEN COLIN TURKINGTON WON HIS first BTCC title in 2009, he was pipped to the BRDC Silver Star by championship runner up, Jason Plato. When he won his second BTCC championship in 2014, his eight wins ensured that the Silver Star went his way. In 2016 Colin has finished only fourth in the BTCC with the new Subaru Levorg GT in its first season but, in a dramatic end to the season on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, while Gordon Shedden was busy winning his third title in his Honda Civic Type R, Colin took two race wins to pip ‘Flash’ to the Silver Star by just two points on the traditional best of 12 results basis. Also in contention was Mat Jackson in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST who won the third and last of the final weekend’s races at Brands Hatch. Like Colin, Mat won five races during the year but, with one less visit to the podium, ended up one point behind Gordon and three behind Colin.

Just two points behind Gordon in the BTCC standings is Sam Tordoff thanks to a very consistent season in his Team JCT600 with GardX BMW 125i M Sport but, on a best 12 basis, Sam winds up fifth behind Dino Zamparelli from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB. Dino headed for Brands Hatch still with an outside chance of winning the Silver Star but, although he finished on the podium in both races, his chance slipped away. The remainder of the top 10 places are

filled by familiar BTCC faces, Jason Plato, Matt Neal, Rob Collard, Andrew Jordan and Adam Morgan driving Subaru, Honda, BMW, Ford and Mercedes respectively which underlines the competitive variety which the UK’s premier championship now provides.

Just outside the top 10 in 11th place is Stephen Jelley, back for a full season in the Carrera Cup GB. Although victories eluded him, Stephen had a good season and finished fifth in what was a very strong year for the Porsches. As ever, British GT Championship competitors had fewer, albeit longer and shared races – just nine in 2016. Jonny Adam, winner of the title in 2015 with Andrew Howard

in the Beachdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage, joined forces with Derek Johnston in a similar car from Tom Ferrier’s TF Sport team. Only in the Silverstone 500 did they fail to finish, but clearly less than 10 available races will never be enough to win the Silver Star. One thought is that, if Jonny’s and Derek’s score of 102 points was to be doubled, they would win the Silver Star quite comfortably. A perhaps more relevant point to ponder is that, had Dan Cammish been a Member all season, his 12 race wins in the Carrera Cup GB would have given him an unbeatable maximum score. And Dan will be back next year!

Colin Turkington topped the BRDC Silver Star (top left) but BTCC rival Gordon Shedden ran him close, while Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam teamed up to win the British GT crown (Photos Jakob Ebrey)

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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Racing Members

CHAMPIONS ALL! Members have been racking up title success in sports cars, touring cars and single-seaters in the UK, Europe, Asia and America. Ian Titchmarsh looks at who won what.

Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam

BRITISH GT CHAMPIONSHIP AND BLANCPAIN GENTLEMAN DRIVER TROPHY Jonny (pictured right) and Derek (left) enjoyed an excellent season with their TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage, winning the first two rounds at Brands Hatch and Rockingham and finishing second in the last two at Snetterton and Donington Park. Reigning Champion Jonny was invariably one of the quickest drivers in the series while former GT Cup champion Derek showed himself to be one of the fastest and most consistent Gentlemen, deservedly winning the Blancpain Trophy.

Rob Bell

BLANCPAIN GT SERIES ENDURANCE CUP AND ASIAN LE MANS SERIES GT CUP In January, Rob clinched the Asian Le Mans Series GT title with the Clearwater Racing McLaren 650S, with team-mates Keita Sawa from Japan and Malaysian Weng Sun Mok, before embarking on both the Endurance and Sprint elements of the Blancpain GT Series with a Garage 59 McLaren. With New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen and Frenchman CĂ´me Ledogar, Rob secured the Endurance title, with Alvaro Parente finished sixth in the Sprint Series, and was classified second in the overall GT standings. He also found time to contest the British GT Championship, winning the final round with Alasdair McCaig at Donington and shared a Ferrari 458 Italia at Le Mans with his Asian team-mates.

Chris Alford

16 Racing CLASS C2 FJHRA/HSCC SILVERLINE HISTORIC FORMULA JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP Members - Ian After spending a yearTitchmarsh or two racing an MG Midget, Chris Alford returned to singleseaters and enjoyed a very successful season in a 1960 Formula Junior Elva 200 with which he not only won his class but also finished second overall in what continues to be a very well-supported and competitive championship.

Alex Brundle

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES LMP3 A superb season for Alex Brundle in the United Autosports Ligier-Nissan JS P3 brought him a welldeserved LMP3 title with Christian England, returning to racing after an absence of 13 years, and experienced American gentleman driver Mike Guasch. After winning the first three races against a very much stronger field than in 2015, Alex and his team-mates were able to wrap up the championship in the penultimate round at Spa Francorchamps. Alex was also able to show his mettle in the LMP2 class of the WEC, sharing the LMP2winning G-Drive ORECA-Nissan in the last three races at Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain.

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Racing Members

Dan Cammish

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB When Dan dominates, he dominates. In 2013 he took the British Formula Ford Championship by winning the first 24 races. Last year he won the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with 11 wins from 16 races and was never off the podium. In 2016 he won 12 races from 16 in another totally convincing display of his talents. In 2017 Dan is aiming for the hat-trick with Redline Racing and will also be heading into the Porsche Supercup full time.

Oliver Gavin

IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP GT LE MANS After a season-long battle with the Ford GT ’16 of Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe, Oliver Gavin clinched another GT title for Corvette Racing for whom he has never missed a season since 2002. It was Olly’s fifth championship success in American sports car racing and his second with Tommy Milner, his teammate since 2012.

Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES LMP2 After coming close in the last three seasons, Simon Dolan achieved his ambition of winning the European Le Mans Series joined, for the third year in succession,

by Harry Tincknell, now firmly established as one of the outstanding young talents in endurance racing, and by former Caterham F1 driver Giedo van de Garde.

The trio came from behind to win the final race and the title at Estoril, having also won the opening round at Silverstone with the G Drive/Team Jota Gibson 015S.

Andrew Howard, Alex MacDowall and Darren Turner

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES LM GTE Three BRDC Members in a British car, the Aston Martin Vantage V8, pulled off the unexpected by winning the GT category in the final race at Estoril after starting at the back of the grid to overhaul the fancied Ferrari 458 Italia of Rory Butcher, Rob Smith and Andrea Bertolini. For Darren this is his first championship victory in his 12th successive season with Aston Martin whilst ice cream magnate Andrew, the 2013 and 2015 British GT Champion, deservedly took another GT title. For Alex it was only his third year in GT racing, but his drive at Estoril played a major part in the team’s success.

Ed Jones

INDY LIGHTS In his second season with Carlin in the Indy Lights Series, Ed took just two victories, compared with his hat-trick in 2015, but his consistency ensured that he scored good points in nearly all of the 18 races and he was able to clinch the title by just two points from his Uruguyan rival Santi Urrutia in the very last race. As part of his prize Ed will be racing in the Indy 500 in 2017.

Andrew Jordan

BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP INDEPENDENTS’ TROPHY Although Andrew Jordan finished below Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST team mate Mat Jackson in the overall championship standings, his four wins, 11 second places and three thirds in the Independents’ category, as against Mat’s 11 wins, three seconds and four thirds, enabled Andrew to clinch his third Indy title by just three points.

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Racing Members

Michael Lyons

FIA MASTERS HISTORIC FORMULA 1 PRE ’78 CHAMPIONSHIP Despite having to miss some races which clashed with his endurance racing commitments, and various mechanical gremlins, Michael Lyons won the pre-’78 class of this always spectacular series, often contesting the overall lead against more recent machinery in his Hesketh-Cosworth 308E although for the final races at Jarama Michael borrowed James Hagan’s ex-James Hunt 308.

Lawrence Tomlinson

V DE V PFV ENDURANCE SERIES Using one of his own company’s GinettaChevrolet G57-P2s, Lawrence Tomlinson secured the PFV category of the V de V Series of four- and six-hour races, taking overall race wins at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit, Motorland Aragon, Magny Cours and Estoril.

Gordon Shedden

BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP If it wasn’t a mountain it was certainly a big hill which Gordon Shedden and his Honda Civic Type R had to climb heading for the final round of the BTCC on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit 11 points adrift of BMW’s Sam Tordoff and with six other drivers having various prospects of taking the title. Sam started ahead of Gordon for the last of the season’s 30 races and it was not until the seventh of the 18 laps that Flash found a way past Sam into third place to secure his third BTCC crown in five years by just two points.

Mike Wilds

CLASS 2 DUNLOP ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP In his 51st season of racing Mike won Class 2 of the Dunlop Endurance Series, sharing an immaculately-prepared FF Corse Ferrari 458 Challenge with his son Anthony. At 70 years of age, former Formula 1 driver Mike shows no sign of retiring any time soon and vows to be back in action in 2017.

James Winslow

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES CUP LMP3 James already has five motor racing titles to his credit, all in single-seaters. He has now added his first, and almost certainly not the last, sports car championship to his impressive record by securing the LMP3 category of the Asian LMS Cup in a DC Racing Ligier-Nissan JS P3, in the process winning two races in this Sepang-based series. James’s principal rival was BRDC SuperStar Charlie Robertson’s GinettaNissan LMP3.

Alex Yoong

AUDI R8 LMS CUP Alex Yoong secured the closely-contested South East Asia-based Audi R8 LMS Cup for the third successive year by just one point after a clash with his main championship rival, Belgian Alessio Picariello, on the penultimate lap of the last of the 12 races which forced Alex into retirement. Although Alessio finished the race at the Shanghai International Circuit in eighth place, a 30-second penalty dropped him out of the points, leaving Alex to take the title with wins at Buriram, Sepang and Korea.

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BRDC SuperStars

Super Men! The BRDC SuperStars have enjoyed a great season, reflects Tim Harvey.

T

HIS HAS BEEN AN INCREDIBLE YEAR FOR our BRDC SuperStars who have achieved wonderful results in the very highest echelons of the sport. They have also represented the Club with dignity and flown the flag for the BRDC in every corner of the world.

Thanks, firstly, must go to SuperStars Ambassador Alexander Sims who continues

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to set a fine example to all our young drivers. Alexander, now a full factory driver for BMW, has once again shown his versatility by competing in the Blancpain GT Series Sprint and Endurance Cups, British GT, Macau F3 Grand Prix and numerous other GT races during the year. Winning the 69th edition of the Spa 24 Hours in July in the Rowe Racing BMW M6 was the highlight of his year

after a fine drive. Alexander is a model of professionalism both on and off the track and all young drivers can learn from his fine attitude and demeanour.

In looking to emulate former BRDC SuperStar Jolyon Palmer in graduating to Formula 1, Alex Lynn and Oliver Rowland headed into the GP2 season full of confidence. Alex took three fine victories including the very last race of the year in Abu Dhabi whilst Oliver was leading the points standings initially but ultimately they would both lose out to team-mates Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi and the all-conquering Prema Racing team. However, Alex was in demand and, looking at future options, he proved his speed with three outings in the final WEC endurance championship races.

Driving the Manor Racing LMP2 car Alex proved fast and safe and will be much in demand for 2017. Oliver meanwhile finished his year with some stunning test times in the DAMS GP2 car and looks set to remain in GP2 for a second full season.

Also on the Grand Prix support programme, this year’s GP3 season proved to be the most competitive ever. With three SuperStars in the championship it was no surprise to see Alex Albon, Jake Dennis and Jake Hughes all at the sharp end and in the title fight. All three drivers proved to be winners during the year but it was Alex’s four wins that took him to the brink of the title, just losing out at the final meeting in Abu Dhabi and finishing runner up to Charles Leclerc.

Nevertheless, it was an exemplary display by all three drivers throughout the year and all should be proud of their efforts. Jake Dennis also made a strong impression in sports cars

this year. He made his debut in the Spa Six Hours for Jota Sport in the LMP2 division and his first ever Le Mans 24 Hour event in June.

Alex looks likely to remain in single-seaters and set some impressive GP2 test times at the concluding Abu Dhabi test. Jake Hughes, having won the last GP3 race of the year after starting the weekend’s races from the back of the grid, also raced in F3 at the Macau GP and ran strongly on his debut. A season of FIA European F3 could well beckon for Jake in 2017…

Speaking of this year’s FIA F3 European Championship, SuperStars Ben Barnicoat and George Russell lined up as team-mates in the Hitech GP team. Both drivers were twice victorious against the mighty four-car Prema Powerteam and champion Lance Stroll who has now graduated to F1 with Williams for 2017. George ultimately finished a hugely creditworthy third overall in the standings and then went on to set pole position at the Macau GP with a stunning performance. Ben finished ninth overall and, but for some poor luck and consistency, would have finished much further up overall.

Will Palmer has had a busy year in Formula Renault 2.0 both in the Eurocup and in the NEC championships. In a year where Will gained valuable experience racing in Europe, finishing on a high with a win and fastest lap at the final event at Estoril, the highlight was his Formula 1 test at Silverstone with McLaren, his prize for winning the 2015 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award. Will stunned onlookers with his immediate pace and feedback and this will only serve to fuel his desire, and that of this year’s watching finalists, to succeed in 2017.

BRDC SuperStars

A record-breaking 12 wins let Dan Cammish retain his Porsche Carrera Cup GB crown by some margin. In what was another dominant year, Dan had the championship won prior to the last event and has now been given the opportunity to compete in 2017 in the international Supercup series. He will dovetail this with an attempt to win a record third successive Carrera Cup GB title but it will be his full-time Supercup programme which will take priority.

In the BTCC Jack Goff found himself taking the vacant BMW seat at West Surrey Racing

as Andy Priaulx departed for a Ford GT programme. Despite never having driven a rear wheel drive BTCC car before, Jack set several fastest laps during the season and was looking increasingly at home in the car. Sadly, sponsor cutbacks have put Jack’s programme for 2017 on hold but he has proved he is a match for anyone on the BTCC grid.

The British GT Championship proved highly competitive once again and Ross Gunn certainly made his mark this year.

Always fast, and often matching the factory

Ross Gunn (far left) impressed in British GT as did Oliver Rowland in GP2 (top left) who looks set to continue in the category in 2017. George Russell (left) took third in the FIA F3 European Championship in addition to pole at Macau, whilst Alex Lynn (top right) had a frustrating season in GP2. In British Porsche racing, it was all about Dan Cammish who took back-to-back titles and raced in the Silverstone Porsche Supercup round as well (Photos LAT and Jakob Ebrey)

drivers, Ross drove in both the Beechdean Aston Martin GT3 and GT4 cars alongside Andrew Howard and Jack Bartholomew respectively. Ross took one win in GT4 at Snetterton but has also tested this year for the factory team and looks towards an international programme in 2017.

Perhaps the SuperStar with the most air miles is factory Ginetta driver Charlie Robertson! Charlie has been driving all over the world for Ginetta in the Asian Le Mans Series, the VdeV Sports endurance championship and many other events. Now established as one of the fastest young prototype drivers Charlie has also had a hand in the development of the G57 prototype car.

We can be justifiably proud of what our BRDC SuperStars have achieved this year and I know they are very proud to be associated with the Club. The growing readership of the Starpower newsletter shows the interest in their results from Members and I look forward to an even better 2017. 

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BRDC Rising Stars

Magnificent Seven Seven BRDC Rising Stars have won championships in 2016, one of them having won numerous titles. Ian Titchmarsh has been keeping track of them all.

T

HIS YEAR SEVEN BRDC RISING STARS HAVE WON THEIR championships although to be exact one of them has won three in addition to the Henry Surtees Award for the most outstanding performance by a Rising Star during the year.

Step forward Lando Norris, who followed up his first car racing title as 2015 MSA Formula Champion by first heading for New Zealand in January and February to secure the Toyota Racing Series, winning six of the 15 races and finishing on the podium on five other occasions. Back in Europe, Lando embarked on two Formula Renault 2.0 series, the Eurocup and the NEC, at the same time fitting in as many rounds of the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship as possible. Lando has emerged from the season with five Eurocup victories, six in the NEC, both of which championships he won by large margins. In addition he won four of the 12 BRDC British F3 races which he contested with numerous other podiums across all three series.

Lando rounded off the year by finishing 11th from the back of the grid in the Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix just seven days after his 17th birthday. He then capped his year by winning the BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award.

A couple of steps ahead of Lando is Canadian Lance Stroll, winner of the 2015 Toyota Racing Series, the 2014 Italian Formula 4 Championship in his first year of car racing, and now the FIA European F3 Champion with 14 race victories and six other podium finishes from the 30 races. His winning margin over Prema Powerteam team-mate Maximillian Günther was a massive 185 points. In 2017 at the age of 18 Lance will join Valteri Bottas in the Williams F1 team. How long before Lando

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WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

is up there with Lance and, of course, Max Verstappen as the new teenage generation of Formula 1 drivers?

And Jack Aitken, Max Fewtrell and Callum Illot may well be on their way to joining them. Double Formula Renault 2.0 Champion in 2015 Jack, a member of the Renault Sport Academy, had as his main objective the GP3 Series with Arden International. By the second half of the year his results became increasingly impressive with a win at SpaFrancorchamps and a podium place in just about every other race to the end of the year which brought him up to fifth in the final standings. If he stays in GP3 in 2017, Jack should start as one of the favourites. Callum moved straight from an outstanding karting career into the cauldron of the FIA European F3 Championship in 2015, coming away with one third place at the Nürburgring and plenty of experience.

Moving from Carlin to Van Amersfoort Racing for 2016, 17year old Callum won at Paul Ricard at the start of the year, and later at the Red Bull Ring, which, together with other good results, brought him sixth place in the Championship.

Perhaps his best performance of the year came at Macau where he was a match for just about anyone, including winners Antonio Felix da Costa and Daniel Juncadella. Max had quietly gained experience in the MRF Challenge in India and arrived on the British scene with Carlin in the MSA Formula 4 Championship, immediately making his mark by qualifying third and finishing second first time out. His first win came a few weeks later at Donington Park and, although he only won twice more, he was a consistent podium finisher and

kept his cool going into the final weekend at Brands Hatch to emerge as champion by just seven points from fellow BRDC Rising Star Sennan Fielding after 30 races. Sennan’s season with JHR Developments showed what could be achieved with ability on a tight budget. He won more races than Max but in the end was thwarted by the variable wet conditions at the final weekend.

Sennan was selected to be one of the four finalists for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award as was Ricky Collard who, for so much of the season looked to be the probable BRDC British Formula 3 Champion. However, as we reported in the Autumn Bulletin, Ricky came unstuck at the final weekend at Donington Park and the Championship went to the promising Brazilian Matheus Leist. As reported on page 78 of this issue, the BRDC British F3 Autumn Trophy was won by Enaam Ahmed, who finished fifth in the main series.

Just two years ago Ash Sutton was finishing third in the 2014 UK Formula Ford Championship. However, it was always Ash’s aspiration to race in the BTCC so, rather than pursuing single seater opportunities, he turned to the Clio UK Cup, and emerged as the 2015 Champion after an impressive season.

This paved the way for Ash to move into the BTCC itself this year with the MG Racing RCIB Insurance team where he was immediately on the pace, taking pole position for the first race at Donington Park on only the second weekend of the season. His first overall win came mid-season at Croft and he won on the road later in the year at Silverstone only for his MG6 GT to be excluded for technical reasons beyond his control. In a very promising first season Ash won the Jack Sears Trophy for the best placed Rookie in the BTCC. Tom Ingram’s third season in the BTCC was again in a Toyota Avensis run

by Speedworks Motorsport and brought him his first two victories, one of which was the very first race of the year at Brands Hatch. For various reasons the momentum was not maintained; although Tom took a second win at Silverstone towards the end of the year, and was a regular visitor to the podium throughout, his ultimate 10th place in the standings does not really reflect what he is capable of.

Ant Whorton-Eales could well be the next Clio UK Cup

BRDC Rising Stars

Jack Aitken (top right) took a win at Spa on his way to fifth in GP3, whilst Ant Whorton-Eales (above) won a typically rowdy Clio UK Cup season. Lance Stroll (left) was hard to beat in the FIA F3 European Championship and will graduate to F1 for Williams next year, while Max Fewtrell won the MSA British F4 crown (Photos Jakob Ebrey and LAT)

Champion to progress to the BTCC. Ant has been a frontrunner in Clios since his first full season in 2012 and this year, with new team JamSport with AWE, he used his pace and experience to see off a strong challenge from 2014 Clio Cup Champion Mike Bushell, returning to the series after a year in the BTCC. With nine wins, Ant was a deserving champion.

Ollie Chadwick was utterly dominant in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge. Having been third and then second in his first two seasons in the series, Ollie won 14 of the 19 races in 2016 and only twice failed to finish on the podium. He secured the Championship during the penultimate British GT weekend at Spa-Francorchamps and at 20 years of age surely has a bright future in GT racing. A previous Ginetta Champion, Seb Morris, made the switch from GP3 to GT racing in the British GT Championship, sharing a Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 with Rick Parfitt. Seb was immediately on the front-running pace to take second place in the opening round at Brands Hatch and a win at his home circuit, Oulton Park, in the fourth round. Heading into the final race at Donington Park, Seb and Rick still had an outside chance of taking the title but ended up third both in the race and in the Championship itself.

Seb’s success has earned him the Sunoco Whelen Challenge prize drive in the 2017 Daytona 24 Hours, following last year’s winner Jonny Adam who finished sixth.

Another young driver to move away from single seaters at 20 years of age is Charlie Eastwood who, after two years in BRDC Formula 4 and then Formula Renault 2.0, was awarded the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholarship for 2016 and ’17. Armed with a Redline Racing Porsche as team-mate to Champion Dan Cammish, Charlie was soon finishing on the podium on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in the races supporting the World Endurance Championship. Whilst he could not realistically expect to overcome the dominant Dan on a regular basis, Charlie did take his first win at Brands Hatch at the end of the year. In addition to finishing third in the championship behind Dan and Dino Zamparelli, Charlie convincingly won the Rookie Award; with a year’s experience under his belt, is likely to be one of the biggest threats to Dan’s quest for a hat trick of titles in 2017.

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Historic Racing Members

Historic travellers As Marcus Pye reports, UK historic racers are busy across the globe at the end of a long season.

H

ISTORIC RACING HAS BECOME an all-year-round activity, with UK-based competitors increasingly looking towards events in Australia, New Zealand and the USA to bolster their European programmes and, pleasingly, some reciprocation from like-minded racers from far-flung nations. BRDC Members certainly carried their shields proudly into battle at home and further afield as winter 2016 began to bite.

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Th e F I A M a s t e r s H i s t o r i c Fo r m u l a 1 championship’s Pre-’78 division went to the wire in Spain’s Espiritu de Jarama finale on October 15/16, where Michael Lyons – driving the ex-James Hunt 1974 Silverstone International Trophy-winning Hesketh 308-1, sportingly lent by Irishman James Hagan after the Cosworth DFV engine in his regular 308E blew in practice – landed the title, just reward for the division’s quickest driver who missed some rounds

Martin Stretton was busy in domestic and international historic events, seen here at the HSCC Championship Finals event in an Elva Mk7S (Photo Paul Lawrence)

due to modern racing commitments.

For the second successive year, Masters’ transatlantic arm again ran races supporting the F1 World Championship’s US Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in October and Mexico’s round the following weekend. Aaron Scott was the only Member in the Tex-Mex mix, driving an ex-Arturo Merzario March 761 mightily to a pair of second places at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, beating many younger cars.

The ever-gracious Andy Wallace was the Club’s ambassador at the Castle Combe Autumn Classic on October 1. That the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours winner still adores his driving was evident as ‘AWAL’ twitched Nigel Webb’s Jaguar Mk1 round the Wiltshire circuit in a delightful flurry of tailslides, setting up a class victory in the exceedingly wet HRDC Coy’s Trophy race for Touring Cars of a type raced between 1958-66.

Michael Schryver was the BRDC’s top scorer in the HSCC Championship Finals, staged over two days for the first time on Silverstone’s National circuit on October 15/16. Sharing his long-serving ex-Dr Tony Goodwin Chevron B6 with son Will, Michael finished runner-up to the ex-David Good B8 of Mark Colman in the Guards Trophy race. Martin Stretton set fastest lap before a seized brake calliper ended his Elva Mk7S outing.

David Mercer (Reynard SF78) bagged a couple of early-class URS FF2000 wins in races run concurrently with Classic F3 in which Richard Piper saddled a Chevron B43 to 11th. Among many cars in original liveries, the Chevron B38 in which BRDC President Derek Warwick competed in 1977 earned a strong following in the Clubhouse each time Hugh Price passed by. Pipped to Historic Formula Junior’s frontengined crown, period F5000 and F3 ace Mike Walker was out of luck in Jon Goddard-Watts’s Bond.

The Algarve Classic Festival took runners and riders to sunny Portugal on October 29/30. Simon

Historic Racing Members

Hadfield picked up a large trophy haul, anchoring both Iberian Historic Endurance race victories in a Ford GT40 1-2-3 in Leo Voyazides’s car. The pair also won the opening leg of the Algarve 200km together in Leo’s Lola-DFV T282, having switched between it and his second-placed T70 Mk3B at mid-distance.

Philip Walker double-stinted in his Lotus 15 before relaying Miles Griffiths to victory in Motor Racing Legends’ long-distance race, a charismatic mix of Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy Pre-’56 and Stirling Moss Trophy Pre-’61 regulars, which finished in darkness. The pair also finished fourth in the Historic Touring Car Challenge opener in Philip’s Ford Capri RS2600, the Gerstmann team’s entry in period. Nick Whale’s BMW M3 E30 placed second in both outings.

Gary Pearson had a wonderful weekend,

Robs Lamplough (above left) raced in the Walter Hayes Trophy in the Winkelmann WDF2, whilst Aaron Scott raced to a brace of second places in the Mexican Grand Prix-supporting races for Masters Historic Formula One cars (Photos Jakob Ebrey and Masters Historic Racing)

demonstrating his seasoned versatility by landing a trio of thirds in Carlos Monteverde’s newly-built Lister-Jaguar Costin and ex-Ford France AC Cobra in the MRL and GT & Sports Car Cup races respectively, and guesting in Ric Wood’s rasping Ford Capri-GAA in Saturday’s leg of the HTTC competition.

The HSCC was in charge as ever for the 16th Walter Hayes Trophy Formula Ford season-closer on November 5/6 at which three-time F1 World

Champion Sir Jackie Stewart honoured the Ford visionary’s memory by presenting the prizes. Making his FF1600 debut at the event was Robs Lamplough who, having competed since 1962, thoroughly enjoyed himself in the Historic race. Robs drove a Winkelmann WDF2, a US-spec version of the Palliser chassis, made in the UK by pilot Hugh Dibley’s South London-based concern, in which brother Peter won Castle Combe’s third Formula Ford title in 1971.

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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Gislaved Kurvan, Scandinavian Raceway, Anderstorp, Gislaved Grand Prix of Sweden, Round Seven Formula 1 World Championship, Sunday 13 June 1976

Becketts Corner, Silverstone, Istel RAC Tourist Trophy, Round 10 FIA Touring Car Championship Sunday 7 September 1986

BRDC Annual Awards 2016

A Grand Day Out The Club’s annual awards lunch was another huge success with the Grand Connaught Rooms packed with Members, guests and some surprises during the afternoon.

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A standing ovation welcomed Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg (left) who was delighted to receive Honorary Membership of the BRDC from the President. Alex Albon received the Graham Hill Trophy from Damon Hill (bottom far left) as Mike Conway took home the ACO Plate, presented by Derek Warwick. Harry Tincknell and Simon Dolan (below) won the John Cobb Memorial Trophy, while Rob Bell (top right) won the ERA Club Trophy. George Russell (middle right) was rewarded with the Spencer Charrington Trophy) and Colin Turkington (bottom right)was presented with his third BRDC Silver Star (Photos Jakob Ebrey)

BRDC Annual Awards 2016

Clockwise from far left: Ed Jones was presented with the Earl Howe Trophy as Oliver Gavin, with the Fairfield Trophy posed with Darren Turner. Jann Mardenborough won the Richard Seaman Trophy and Paddy Lowe took the Sir Jackie Stewart Trophy. Lando Norris, a day after winning the BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award, was presented with the Chris Bristow Trophy, as Darren Turner took the Colin Chapman Trophy. Tom Ferrier displays the Nigel Moores Trophy while Nick Leventis and Jonny Kane scooped the Woolf Barnato Trophy along with the absent Danny Watts. Nico Rosberg was presented with the Wakefield Trophy by Sir Stirling Moss (top right) and Honorary Membership was given both to motorcycle star John McGuinness and to Nico Rosberg (Photos Jakob Ebrey)

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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BRDC Annual Awards 2016

BRDC Annual Awards 2016 Winners THE JOHN COOPER TROPHY

THE ERA CLUB TROPHY

BRDC SILVER STAR

Lance Stroll

Rob Bell

Colin Turkington

Awarded to a competitor within the GP3 Series or FIA European F3 who has shown potential to become a future World Champion

Awarded to the British driver, who, driving a British car, established the most meritorious performance of the year outside the UK

Awarded annually, the BRDC Silver Star is the domestic equivalent of the BRDC Gold Star

THE SPENCER CHARRINGTON TROPHY

THE HENRY SURTEES AWARD

THE GRAHAM HILL TROPHY

George Russell

Lando Norris

Alex Albon

Awarded to the highest-placed British driver in the FIA European F3 Championship

THE RICHARD SEAMAN TROPHY

Awarded to the best placed Member in Gold Star points outside F1

Jann Mardenborough

THE NIGEL MOORES TROPHY

Awarded to the private entrant who has established the most meritorious performance(s) in international motor racing

TF Sport (Tom Ferrier)

THE FAIRFIELD TROPHY

Awarded for an outstanding performance by a BRDC Member

Oliver Gavin

THE EARL HOWE TROPHY

Awarded annually for the most outstanding performance by a Rising Star

THE SIR JACKIE STEWART AWARD

Awarded to a motor sport engineer who has shown brilliance during the course of the season

Paddy Lowe

THE BRUCE McLAREN TROPHY

Awarded to the Commonwealth driver who has established the most meritorious performances in international motor racing

Daniel Ricciardo

THE JIM CLARK TROPHY

Awarded to the winner of the BRDC British F3 Championship

THE INNES IRELAND TROPHY

THE JOHN COBB MEMORIAL TROPHY

THE SILVERSTONE-LE MANS CHALLENGE

Awarded to a British driver, driving a British car, who has achieved success or successes of outstanding character

Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell THE WOOLF BARNATO TROPHY

THE JOHNNY WAKEFIELD TROPHY

Awarded to the driver setting the fastest race lap of the season on the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit

Nico Rosberg

Awarded to the driver/s who achieved the highest combined finishing record in combined results of the Silverstone LMS race and the Le Mans 24-Hour Race

Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb

THE COLIN CHAPMAN TROPHY

Mike Conway

Darren Turner

Lewis Hamilton MBE

Josef Newgarden

THE ACO PLATE

A BRDC Special Award presented to an individual who has shown great team spirit, be it a driver, team owner, engineer or similar

First presented in 1929. The BRDC Gold Star is the Club’s premier annual award. It recognizes the strongest performance of the year by a Member in International motor sport. Points are awarded according to a set formula

Awarded to the driver who best displayed the qualities of courage and sportsmanship epitomized by the late Innes Ireland

Awarded to the highest-placed British and/or Commonwealth driver, in a British car, in the Le Mans 24-Hour Race, classified as a finisher

Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jonny Kane

BRDC GOLD STAR

Matheus Leist

Awarded to the highest placed British driver in the Indy 500 race or to the British driver who has established the most meritorious performance of the year in North America

Ed Jones

Awarded to the British driver for the most meritorious performance in single-seater racing

Presented on behalf of our friends at the ACO, the award is presented to the highest-placed British driver finishing the Le Mans 24-Hour Race

THE CHRIS BRISTOW TROPHY

Awarded to the BRDC McLaren AUTOSPORT Young Driver of the Year

Lando Norris

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New Members

NEW MEMBERS Ian Titchmarsh introduces you to recent new Members of the BRDC.

DAN CAMMISH Member No: 1328 WEBSITE: www.dancamracing.com

@DanCammish

A

DRIVER WHO QUALIFIES AT THE FRONT OF THE grid and finishes on the podium in his first ever car race on a circuit as challenging as Oulton Park and in as competitive a category as Formula Ford is certain to catch the eye. Dan Cammish has been doing just that since the opening round of the 2009 British Formula Ford Championship. By the end of the season, Dan had secured the Scholarship award for rookie drivers, finishing sixth overall. A second season of Formula Ford involved a switch to Nick Tandy’s JTR team and a Mygale SJ09 which enabled Dan to take his first race wins, at Zandvoort and Donington Park, and finish third in the championship behind Scott Pye and Scott Malvern. For the next two years Dan struggled to move further up the junior single seater ladder partly due to budgetary constraints, an incomplete season in Formula Renault UK in 2011 being rewarded with several third places and sixth in the

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Championship in which the front-runners were Alex Lynn and Oliver Rowland, both now in GP2.

The plan to move up to the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup in 2012 came badly unstuck when Dan was involved in a high-speed accident at the Spanish Motorland Aragon circuit early in the year which laid him up with a fractured pelvis. He bounced back in the best possible way by returning to, and utterly dominating, the 2013 British Formula Ford championship with JTR. Dan won the first 24 rounds of the championship from 22 pole positions and set 19 fastest laps. By now a BRDC Rising Star, Dan deservedly won the Henry Surtees Award for this outstanding season.

Even this success was not enough to enable Dan to progress further up the single-seater ladder and so, at the age of 25, he decided to see what GT racing had to offer by sharing a Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 with gentleman driver Barrie Baxter in the GT4 class of the British GT Championship. In a category dominated by Ginetta G55s and Aston Martins, Dan was as competitive as the 911 would allow. Although the race results were not particularly remarkable on paper, his efforts in the Porsche had not gone unnoticed by Tim Harvey who helped secure Dan the chance to drive the guest car in the final rounds of the Carrera Cup GB. Much in the way that his Formula Ford team boss Nick Tandy had

A familiar sight in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB has been Dan Cammish on the top step of the podium: 12 wins went his way in 2016 alone (Photo Jakob Ebrey)

converted such an opportunity into a major career boost in 2008, Dan qualified on pole position for both races and won one ahead of season-long championship contenders Josh Webster and Michael Meadows.

In the last two years with Redline Racing, Dan has displayed a similar level of dominance in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB as he showed a couple of years earlier in Formula Ford. Eleven victories in 2015 and 12 in 2016, and only twice finishing outside a podium position, have enabled Dan to emerge as a very convincing champion. He has also ventured into the Porsche Supercup for the race supporting the British Grand Prix, finishing ninth

Dan has been a regular in the Silverstone round of the Porsche Supercup (far left) and will tackle a full season next year, while he has tested a BTCC car as a result of his dominant Formula Ford season in which he notched up 24 wins! He tackled a British GT4 season in a Porsche 911 (bottom left) and drove the Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan in the Silverstone Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup round this year (Photos Jakob Ebrey and SRO)

in both years whilst a link with Konrad Motorsport has allowed him to take in a couple of rounds of the Carrera Cup Deutschland and share a GT3 Lamborghini Huracan in the Silverstone round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Series.

Although contemplating the possibility of a move into the British Touring Car Championship, Dan has opted to continue in the Carrera Cup GB in a quest for an unprecedented hat trick of titles and also has plans to race in the ultra-competitive Porsche Supercup full time in 2017. 

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F1 LEGEND JOHNNY HERBERT’S EAGERLY AWAITED AUTOBIOGRAPHY ‘WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU...’

TAKES A HUMOROUS, HIGH OCTANE LOOK AT AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE BEHIND THE WHEEL

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From his earliest track exploits and the horrific Brands Hatch pile-up which nearly ended his career, right through to his stunning GP career, it’s an essential read for motorsport fans.

“Johnny’s enthusiasm for speed and for driving is boundless...

I think he was one of our lost World Champions.” DAMON HILL “For Johnny to come back and score points in his first ever F1 race, I have to say I really cried. There was something extra special about Johnny that’s hard to put into words.” EDDIE JORDAN AS CHARMING AS EVER, JOHNNY IS A PIVOTAL MEMBER OF THE SKY SPORTS F1 TEAM AND REGULARLY WORKS WITH BRANDS AS AN AMBASSADOR AS WELL AS BEING A PROMINENT FIGURE ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPEAKING SCENE. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH JOHNNY PLEASE CONTACT BENOÎT LAWRENCE AT CHAMPIONS CELEBRITY TALENT MANAGEMENT

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New Members

GARY EASTWOOD Member No: 1329 WEBSITE: www.lkm.org.uk

@GaryEastwood18

G

ARY EASTWOOD WAS WELL INTO HIS 40S before he started racing in 2003 in Formula Palmer Audi which, although primarily aimed at young drivers, also offered gentlemen racers the opportunity to compete in and enjoy a state of the art single-seater. After two seasons in the category, Gary switched to GT cars in which he has competed ever since.

Through 2005 and 2006 Gary raced Porsches in the British GT Championship, first with Team Parker Racing and later with Motorbase with a variety of team-mates, notably driver coach extraordinaire Rob Wilson. Benefiting from this experience, Gary opted out of British GT to spend the next few years in the Pirelli Ferrari Open and GT Cup series with FF Corse-prepared Ferraris. In 2010 Gary won a round of the GT Cup Championship at Oulton Park in a Ferrari 430 Challenge and notched up seven victories in the 2012 Ferrari Open Series with a 458 Challenge. Gary returned to the British GT Championship for four races in 2012 to win the GTC category each time out with team-mate Ryan Hooker, enough to secure the class in the Championship despite missing all the other rounds.

For 2013 Gary stayed with FF Corse, now armed with a full GT3-spec 458 Italia and with Rob Barff as co-driver. After an early fifth place at Rockingham, for which Gary was awarded the Mobil Service Centres Master of the Weekend award, the season ended with three podium places in succession in

the two Zandvoort races and the final round at Donington Park. Joined by South African Jacques Duyver, Gary and Rob also ran in the end of season Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi, finishing 11th overall.

Gary and Rob stayed together into 2014 for another season of British GT, which began well with victory in the Rockingham two-hour race. Rob was replaced

by Adam Carroll for the second half of the season which produced second places in one of the two races at the Norfolk circuit and at Donington Park and third place in one of the two races at SpaFrancorchamps.

Continuing into 2015 with Adam as team-mate, the opening event at Oulton Park was encouraging with Gary and Adam qualifying on the front row for each of the two races which produced second and sixth place finishes but some unfortunate situations in later races meant that the early promise was not fulfilled.

Gary is the owner of London and Kent Metals, a materials recycling company based in Sittingbourne which he has built up over nearly 40 years into a multi-million pound business after starting with a £100 loan from his grandfather. Well known for his charitable activities, in 2009 Gary was featured in Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire programme, going under cover in Blackpool among the destitute and drug addicts since when he has helped to raise substantial sums for the Royal Marines Benevolent Fund and other deserving causes.

Porsches and Ferraris have been staples of Gary Eastwood’s racing diet since he came out of Formula Palmer Audi, with spells in British GT, GT Cup and the Ferrari Challenge (Photos Jakob Ebrey)

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New Members

ALEX ALBON Member No: 1330

@alex_albon

Alex Albon has shone in Formula Renault and Formula 3 on his way to GP3 in which he fought hard for the championship title in 2016 (Photos FIA Formula 3 European Championship and LAT)

A

LEX ALBON CAME TO CAR RACING IN 2012 after an illustrious career in karting, winning no less than seven karting titles between 2006 and 2010 including both the CIK-FIA KF3 World Cup and European Championship. Such was his success that he immediately became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team and, from 2013 until 2015, a member of the Lotus F1 Junior Team.

First with EPIC Racing and then with KTR, Alex spent three seasons in Formula Renault 2.0, culminating in third place in the 2014 Eurocup on the back of which he was chosen to be one of the six finalists in the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year competition. A BRDC Rising Star in 2014, for the last two years Alex has been a BRDC SuperStar.

At the end of 2014 Alex tested a Formula Renault 3.5 for the Lotus team but decided to take the Formula 3 route to contest the European Championship with Signature. After an encouraging weekend across the three races at Silverstone’s opening round, Alex’s results were mixed but, after taking his first podium at Spa-Francorchamps, there were four more, including second places at the Algarve circuit and in the final race at Hockenheim and a couple of pole positions which brought him seventh place in what had been a very hotlycontested series.

For 2016 Alex moved to GP3 with ART Grand Prix and in an impressive season he has finished second in the championship with four wins including

the Saturday feature race at the British Grand Prix.

In fact, Alex went into the final event at Abu Dhabi recently with an outside chance of snatching the title from the highly-rated Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc.

Alex’s father Nigel Albon finished fifth in the Renault Clio UK Cup in 1993 and spent the following year in the Independents’ category of the British Touring Car Championship with a Renault 19, in which he also finished fifth, before moving to the Far East where he raced successfully for several years in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. Alex was born 20 years ago in London and has dual British and Thai nationality since his mother is from Thailand.

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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New Members

NICK LEVENTIS Member No: 1331 WEBSITE: www.nickleventis.com

@nickleventis

N

ICK LEVENTIS’S FATHER, HARRY, HAS BEEN involved in historic racing for many years so it is perhaps not surprising that his son gravitated towards the sport. Unlike a significant number of collectors of historic cars, Harry Leventis has always been keen to see some of the most valuable cars in his collection being raced regularly, in particular the 1959 Le Mans-winning, Roy Salvadori/Carroll Shelby Aston Martin DBR1/300 and the Ferrari 246S Dino which finished second in the 1960 Targa Florio in the hands of Phil Hill and ‘Taffy’ von Trips, both of which have been seen in recent times driven by Peter Hardman, Tony Dron and Bobby Verdon Roe. It was in these cars that Nick was able to start his racing career in 2006 at the age of 26 whilst at the same time sampling modern machinery with a BMW M3 GTR and an Aston Martin DBR9 in various European events.

In 2007, Nick set up Strakka Racing, a distinctive name which derives from the family farm in Greece which, amongst other products, produces Strakka olive oil. Two years later, the team graduated from the GT1 category of the European Le Mans Series to LMP1 with a Ginetta-Zytek 09S achieving a best result in 2009 of fifth place in the opening round in Barcelona after Danny Watts had claimed pole position. For the following year Strakka switched to the very competitive LMP2 category using a Hondabased HPD-ARX 01C, and with Jonny Kane joining Nick and Danny as the regular drivers. First time out

Nick Leventis began racing with the family stable of historic sports cars before moving into GT cars and then sports-prototypes in which he has become an increasingly rapid driver (Photos Jakob Ebrey and LAT)

in the 2010 ELMS, they won the LMP2 category at Paul Ricard, finishing seventh overall and capped this a few weeks later by winning the LMP2 class of the Le Mans 24 Hours, finishing fifth overall. The trio won the Hungaroring round of the ELMS outright from pole position but lost out in the championship by just six points to the ARX-powered Lola B08/80 of Mike Newton and Tommy Erdos.

The following year did not quite match the success of 2010 with the same driving team, the best results being third places in the ELMS LMP2 category at Paul Ricard and Spa. In 2012, Strakka returned to LMP1 as one of the non-manufacturer teams in the World Endurance Championship and invariably finished in one of the top three places among the LMP1 privateers, most outstandingly at Bahrain where it finished third overall behind the two works Audis. Strakka’s results earned it second place in the World Endurance Trophy for privateers.

Only Silverstone, Spa and Le Mans were tackled in 2013 with a particularly satisfying sixth place in the French classic behind the factory cars from Audi and Toyota, winning the LMP1 Privateer category.

Nick did not race in 2014 but returned to the

cockpit with the same team-mates, Danny and Jonny, but with first a Nissan V8-powered Dome S103 and then, after Le Mans, the Gibson 015S. The best result came in the Silverstone 6 Hours with eighth overall and third place in LMP2. This year, Strakka has continued with the trusty Gibson 015S in LMP2 although it opted out of the last three WEC races. After the first three races, Danny was replaced by Lewis Williamson, like Jonny a past winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, but the team did not participate in the final three WEC races. As can be seen, Nick is a great believer in supporting British motor racing by using as much as possible British drivers and British cars.

Having been a competitive skier until one back injury too many led him into motor racing, when not racing Nick indulges in extreme sport activities such as skydiving over Mount Everest, in the process raising £100,000 for charity, and abseiling down the Shard. He rates flying in a Buccaneer jet as his ultimate thrill to date and has been contemplating the possibility of involving Strakka in a land speed record attempt.

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BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year

The next big thing Meet Lando Norris, the 2016 BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year. Scott Mitchell tells the tale of a remarkable career for a 17-year-old.

B

EING REFERRED TO AS A FORMULA 1 DRIVER IN the making by a man of Derek Warwick’s esteem is one thing. Being referred to as a future Formula 1 world champion by the British Racing Drivers’ Club President is on another level entirely.

Plaudits come naturally to Lando Norris, who has stood out from the masses of F1 hopefuls for what seems like an eternity, despite being only 17. His latest accolade is his most significant yet, for the high praise received from Derek came moments after Lando was named the latest recipient of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.

“It definitely means a lot, what he (Derek) said,” says Lando. “My dream is to be a champion in Formula 1, and someone who knows so much and goes to so many F1 races makes you trust and believe in the things he says.”

The Glastonbury-born driver’s prize list is enviable: the customary McLaren Formula 1 test, Full BRDC Membership, an Arai GP-6 RC carbon crash helmet, the BRDC’s Chris Bristow Trophy, the James Hunt Trophy… and a place on McLaren’s young-driver programme.

Lando is the first beneficiary of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award’s facelift, for which the legendary British team has replaced the £100,000

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cash prize with a simulator, fitness and media training package similar to that used by 2017 McLaren F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne.

“I’m not just excited, but motivated as well,” says Lando. “I don’t just want to get to F1, I want to win.

Having access to the training facilities and simulator, and the guys there that have the knowledge of the other Formula 1 drivers, I’ve got resources I need to get to that point.”

Lando’s reputation from the karting world immediately marked him out as a driver to watch. The titles flowed; from Formula Kart Stars in 2012 to European KF Junior and International Super Cup in 2013, to the World KF Championship in 2014. And that final honour came alongside a maiden car-racing programme in the Ginetta Junior Championship, which ended with four wins and third in the points alongside more experienced opposition.

That Ginetta campaign also introduced Lando to a wider audience thanks to its slot on the British Touring Car Championship package, but it was the following year in which he really started to make his mark. The then-15-year-old’s graduation to singleseaters in the MSA Formula category was one of the stories of the season. He duly won the series’ first-ever race, after a combination of Carlin’s racing

BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year

nous and his own savvy to bring home the title at the first attempt. That season Lando also contested a handful of other FIA Formula 4 races, winning at Spa on his first appearance and finishing on the podium in Italy. A starring one-off, race-winning appearance in the BRDC Formula 4 Autumn Trophy finale – in the brand new Tatuus-Cosworth that formed the basis for the British F3 revival this season – capped an impressive campaign.

If 2015 was important in making a mark on the national scene and getting a feel for European single-seater competition, 2016 was firmly Lando’s breakout year.

Lando started the season by winning the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series, held across January and February. He then moved into a dual Formula Renault Eurocup and Northern European Cup campaign, winning 11 races across the two championships on his way to both titles.

He also won four of the 11 BRDC British F3 races he contested, then made his FIA Formula 3 debut at the end of the year in the European Championship’s Hockenheim finale, before charging from 26th on the grid to 11th in the Macau Grand Prix.

That impressive range of categories over one year on his CV is not lost on Lando’s critics, but nor is it lost on him. Lando does not pretend he has not been given opportunities by his privileged upbringing, but that does not mean he should be written off simply as someone with bags of money and many hundreds of miles in the bank.

“You hear what people say, how I’m only good because I’ve done X amount of testing or I have the best equipment,” he says. “To come into this, in my first year and when others have come back for a second time, when you don’t know anything and can’t test different things, it says something a bit more about me. I’m not just a guy who does a lot of testing, it shows I’m kind of a good driver. That

was definitely satisfying.”

Lando is a bright, composed and confident young man, but arrogant is something he is not. His actions out of the car and his personality impressed the judges as part of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award process, but ultimately it was his sheer speed that turned the most heads.

“I’ve seen many drivers come into our Award as the favourite and they come out not that way,” says Derek. “There’s people that cope with the pressure and people that can’t. What I also like is he set out a plan during the two days and he didn’t deviate from that. He knew he was good enough, in an understated way – he wasn’t brash.”

Double British Touring Car champion, BRDC Director

He set out a plan during the two days and he didn’t deviate from that.

Jason Plato, is a member of the Award judging panel.

He describes Lando as, “A superstar in the making.

“There was anticipation just to see for ourselves just how good he is. Could it be because he’s always in the best car, with the best budget? What this process did is made those doubts disappear. Everyone has the same chance. There’s no better barometer than this. It became obvious fairly early on that this young lad had some real star quality.”

Already on the way to proving that point, now Lando has more momentum than ever. After impressing in his European F3 cameos at the end of 2016, a fully-fledged attack on the title is on the cards for 2017. Emulating the likes of rookie F3 sensations Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc will be a tough ask, but Lando will reunite with Carlin for the assault – and that potent combination has worked wonders in the past.

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Photo credits: Column 1 - (top & bottom) © Jakob Ebrey Photography; Column 2 - (top) © George Gottlieb, (bottom) © Marc Brenner; Column 3 - (top & bottom) © Jakob Ebrey Photography; Column 4 - (top) © Nick Valdez, Siyan.

Hailwood Hill, Brands Hatch, 25th BRSCC Formula Ford Festival, Sunday 20 October 1996

Peter Windsor on…

Tasman Tales The Tasman Series was a popular end-of-term competition, and it gave Peter Windsor an early chance to rub shoulders with his heroes.

I

T RESTS ON A DELICATE BURMESE table next to my Dad’s big desk. I may use it only with special permission.

Today is one of those days. Outside, under a blistering January sun, I can hear the kids shouting near the beach. Probably they’re billy-karting down the hill or maybe they’re on land-surfers. In the background: the constant hiss of the waves and the squawking of seagulls. ‘I’ll get out there a bit later on,’ I think to myself.

But first this.

I tip-toe to the corner of the living room. I place the scrap of notepaper on the table, the one with the enquiries number for Qantas. I pick up the receiver of the black Bakelite phone with the silver, rotational dialler. I put my finger in the hole for nine and arc it round to the stop. I let it go. Then a 7, then a five and then a two. Then a seven again and then a one.

It rings.

“Good afternoon. Qantas Enquiries. Can I help you?”

“Yes,” I stammer, relying on my rehearsals. “I’d like to know if there is a Mr J Clark arriving in Sydney on any Qantas flights soon.”

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Denny Hulme, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart look like any bored passenger in an airport would, with no suggestion of their fame. Peter Windsor knew differently, however (Photo Paul Hobson)

“Do you know where he’s arriving from? Do you know the day?”

“Ah… not really… maybe from Melbourne?

Maybe from South Africa?”

“South Africa, eh?” says the Qantas guy, realising he’s talking to a very nervous kid. “That’s a long way from Melbourne. Where in South Africa?”

I scratch my brain, trying to recall if I know the location of Kyalami.

“I think Johannesburg,” I say, trying to sound authoritative.

A pause and then: “Yes… there is a Mr Clark arriving at Mascot on Wednesday. He seems to be travelling in a group with a Mr Hume, and a Mr Stewart.”

Hume! I think. He must mean Hulme! Denny Hulme! That’s it! They’re arriving Wednesday!

“Thank you,” I say, trying to sound calm. “What time does the flight arrive?”

“10:10 Wednesday. Anything else I can help you with?”

“No… no thanks. That’s great.”

IT IS SIMPLE AS THAT. A FLICK THROUGH the phone book and then a nervous call on a hot Australian Saturday, when most of the kids I know are out surfing or hanging around in milk bars, listening on trannies to the Beatles or Sonny and Cher. I don’t remember the rest of my day: I may have watched some cricket, I may have even gone for a surf. None of it was important next to my new, solid reality: I am going to see Jim Clark! What I do remember is visiting my best buddy, Paul Hobson, on Sunday, to give him the news. As we raced slot-cars together – me with the Lotus 30, Paul with the Ferrari 250LM – we hatched the plan. A Manly ferry and two buses. We should make Mascot in just over an hour.

As it happened, we are there early. I stand uncomfortably in the Arrivals lounge in my school

Peter Windsor on…

uniform, Box Brownie around my neck, Globite suitcase in hand. There is no air-conditioning; there is no need for it: cool air flows through the open doors facing the runways. We stand nervously just outside the terminal building, on the Tarmac, watching the aircraft come and go.

“Hello Peter! What are you doing here?”

I turn with a start. It is Geoff Sykes, Secretary of the AARC (the Australian Automobile Racing Club) and the man behind Warwick Farm, Sydney’s international circuit. I know Mr Sykes from the part-time work I’ve put in at the AARC offices and from flag-marshalling.

He is dressed immaculately, as ever: checked shirt, AARC tie, cream chinos, suede shoes, cloth cap.

“Mr Sykes! Hello… I think Jim Clark is going to arrive soon and we’ve come out to see him.”

“You’re absolutely right. I’m here to welcome him and Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme. They’re flying in from South Africa en route to New Zealand. Would you like to meet them?”

Below, Jim Clark (left) and Jackie Stewart, sitting on the new Lotus Type 48 F2 car, at Warwick Farm in 1967. Jim Clark (above right) is pictured in the Lotus Type 33B, while (below right) Denny Hulme’s Brabham BT19-Repco gets a push in the Warwick Farm paddock (Photos Paul Hobson)

“Er… would that be possible? I mean, I don’t want to intrude or anything… I’m sure they’re very busy…”

“Of course. I’ve booked the VIP lounge here.

You’re both very welcome…”

I feel myself going faint. I rush to the bathroom. I rush back to the lounge, where Geoff has now been joined by John Stranger, the AARC’s accountant and assistant Secretary. I stand tentatively beside them, still clutching my school suitcase, heavy with English and Economics books. Paul, who is a little older, is less tense.

Passengers come and go; the sun is bright. I think about loosening my tie but then think better of it. My Mum has told me I have to “look smart” if I am going to meet Jim Clark. I go to the bathroom again to check my jacket and tie. Now, with a six o’clock breakfast long forgotten, I am starting to feel faint with hunger.

Or is it nerves? I am too anxious to think. I am going to meet Jim Clark…

“Is that it?”

John’s voice is silky-calm; it always is. He is pointing towards the Qantas Electra that is nosing towards a white-overalled bat-man. Geoff and John join us by the open doors, shading their hands from the glare.

The four turbo props cough to a halt. A stairway is wheeled to the nose. The plane is only a hundred yards away…

The door opens inwards. A stewardess steps out, then a steward. I’m on tip-toes…

One passenger. Two. Then an older couple. Another person, a woman, travelling alone. And then… a welldressed man with dark hair, a sun-tan, sun-glasses and a black leather briefcase. He looks towards the terminal. He waves at Geoff. Geoff waves back.

“Jimmy!”

Suddenly I feel an urge to run towards the Electra.

I turn to Geoff.

“Can I go over there? Shall I help him with his bags?”

“Sure. Why not?”

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Peter Windsor on…

Paul and I sprint towards the plane, the Globite bashing my knee as I run. Jim is now at the bottom of the stairs and is looking up, joking about something with… yes… Jackie Stewart, who is in a silver-grey suit. Denny Hulme follows him down the stairs in shirt sleeves and tie.

We’re there, right by the stairs. Jim looks towards us.

“Hello Mr Clark,” I stutter. “Can I carry your bag for you?”

“Well that’s very kind of you. Thank you.”

Jim hands me his briefcase.

“Welcome to Sydney again,” says Geoff. “Great to see you. Let me introduce my two helpers here. This is Peter and that’s Paul.”

“Where’s Mary?” he laughs, shaking hands with both of us.

I’m now standing in a small group with Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme. Geoff ushers us towards the stairs in the terminal and up into the Qantas VIP lounge. The sun’s beating down. And I’m carrying Jim Clark’s briefcase.

The lounge is cool from air conditioning. Australian summer flora dominate a coffee table in the far corner.

Six or seven red and cream chairs. A kitchenette.

Geoff sits down opposite the three drivers. “So how was the trip? How was South Africa?”

“Very good,” says Jim, speaking for all of them.

“The Electra made it! A bit of a trek, though. How many stops was it? Five?” Jim looks to his left. Jackie concurs.

“Amazing race, though,” adds Denny. “Everyone tried to lose it but eventually Pedro Rodriguez got it right. No-one ever imagined that smokin’ CooperMaserati would last the distance. John Love nearly won in it in an old Cooper!”

I sit there, enraptured. Could this really be happening? Am I really in the same room as Jim Clark as he sits there, talking casually with Stewart and Hulme about a Grand Prix that has taken place only a

Am I really in the same room as Jim Clark as he sits there, talking casually with Stewart and Hulme about a Grand Prix? couple of days before?”

A hostess, cool and very pretty, offers drinks and nuts. The drivers make it clear that they’d like to move on quickly to the hotel for a quick shower and change before the flight to New Zealand. Geoff agrees.

“We’ve got cars waiting downstairs. Let’s see you down there and we’ll pick you up later.”

ATOP THE 388 BUS TO ROSE BAY, GLOBITE BY my side, I’m thinking only of what has happened. I’m trying to sustain the image of Jim Clark in white shirt and tie. I want it to stay real, even though it’s now past.

Jackie Stewart’s BRM P261 V8 at speed at Warwick Farm in 1967 with Jim Clark’s Lotus Type 33B pictured in the paddock at the same Tasman Series event (Photos Paul Hobson)

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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The bus fights through the traffic at King’s Cross then lumbers downhill towards Rushcutter’s Bay. As we pull into the stop there, I look over to my left to the park by the water and across at the new Travelodge hotel.

My heart leaps again. Just as the bus pulls away, Jim emerges from the hotel in shorts and checked shirt, striding towards the car park. I jump from the seat but then pause. Should I jump or should I stay?

“Don’t pester him,” I hear my Mum’s voice saying in my head. “Don’t be too pushy.” And so I sit back again, straining my neck as the Travelodge disappears behind us. It’s another vision, locked in time.

THE HISTORY BOOKS WILL TELL YOU THAT that 1967 Tasman Series was all about Clark vs Stewart in those beautiful 2.0-litre Lotus and BRM F1 cars, with Denny and Jack Brabham opposite-locking their Brabham-Repcos around in tyre-smoking celebration Above, Jim Clark’s Lotus Type 49T at Warwick Farm in 1968 and (below left) at speed the same year. Below, Jim Clark is pictured with Paul Hobson at Warwick Farm in 1966. Paul’s images grace this feature, but that particular photo was taken by Peter Windsor

of Jack’s world titles. Warwick Farm, specifically, also marked the debut of the new F2 Lotus 48-FVA, driven

by Graham Hill. A year later, Jim and Graham in the Gold Leaf Lotus 49s would delight the Aussie fans while Chris Amon’s Scuderia Veloce Dino Ferrari V6, Piers Courage’s F2 McLaren M4A, Denny’s F2 Brabham BT23C-FVA, Pedro Rodriguez’s BRM P133 V12, Chris Irwin’s BRM V8 and Frank Gardner’s Mildren-Maserati V12 would provide rich depth. Then, in 1969, without Jim, Jochen Rindt would initiate his Lotus career in the Tasman, winning in the wet at Warwick Farm with car control born of the gods.

History will say that those F1-based “Tasman” years, starting in the late 1950s and finishing in 1969 (the actual Tasman Cup was not inaugurated by Geoff Sykes and New Zealand’s Ron Frost until 1964), and also featuring such drivers as Stirling Moss, Jean Behra, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, Roy Salvadori, Innes Ireland, Ron Flockhart, Derek Bell, Tony Maggs and Lorenzo Bandini, were as good as motor racing can be.

By 1967, though, the results of a race were for me no longer about mere names or numbers or cars or engines. They were about a Jim Clark who had suddenly become a real person in real colour. They were about a new frontier for which I ached, a world I wanted – if I was lucky, give or take a few more years at school, some short-lived holiday jobs in a factory and a golf course and a filling station, more help from Geoff Sykes, a chance meeting with David Phipps and friends in England like Nigel Roebuck, Ray Hutton, Frank Williams, Matt Bishop, Anthony Rowlinson and plenty more besides.

My life changed that day – the day of the phone call, the day Jim Clark flew into Sydney. I found a benchmark, you see, a gold standard that never tarnished under that golden Australian sun, regardless of where I would travel, regardlesss of the motor racing I was about to see.

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The Chute, Watkins Glen, United States Grand Prix, Round 8 Formula 1 World Championship, Sunday 2 October 1966

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The Start, Japanese Grand Prix, Fuji International Speedway, 16th and Final Round Formula 1 World Championship, Sunday 24 October 1976

ARMchair Comment

May the FORCE be with you Andrew Marriott handled PR for the original Haas Formula 1 team and explains why it still helps him get a hire car upgrade.

I

T SEEMS THE OLDER I GET the more of these tales start: “A long time ago…” Well, a long time ago together with the CSS Promotions team, I handled the launch of a brand new Formula 1 team called Haas. “Hold on a minute,” I can hear you say, “surely this is the Haas team’s first year, you have finally lost the plot!”

Well, actually, no because as older Members will know, this is the second Haas Formula 1 team to grace the Grand Prix grids. The first one was the brainchild of the late US racing entrepreneur Carl Haas, completely unrelated to Gene Haas, the machine tools magnate behind the current Gunther Steiner-led team.

The cigar-chomping Carl not only ran winning teams in Formula 5000 and CanAm, but later went on to huge success in Champ and IndyCar racing together with backer Paul Newman and drivers like Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell.

Along the way he also sold countless Lola racing cars, Hewland gearboxes and other racing parts.

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WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

Jim Dutt (above) was the man who brought the Beatrice empire into Formula One

Back in 1984 Carl had the very good fortune to meet a man called Jim Dutt, the car-collecting, race-loving Chief Executive Officer of a huge corporation called Beatrice, which had started life as a small food processing company in Chicago in 1894. Jim was determined to aggressively expand the company. Already in the portfolio were such well known brands as Tropicana orange juice, Butterball turkeys, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and Danone yoghurt. Possibly less well known were such American delicacies as Becky Kay’s cookies, Big Pete’s specialty meats, Milk Duds (whatever they are), Ma Brown jams and jellies and the never-to-beforgotten Binkers cat treats.

Beatrice had also expanded out of the food arena and the empire included Avis Car Rental, Playtex bras, Samsonite luggage, the World Hand Dryer Corporation and countless others. I promise you, I have not made any of this up.

Imagine the conversation at a $500 a plate dinner for some worthy Chicago charity when Carl has the good fortune to sit next to Mr Dutt. The conversation

must have gone something like this: “Yeah, I’ve got all these great products to promote around the world, Carl.” Quick as a flash, I imagine, came the response.

“Jim, I have this great idea. All the racers use rental cars, need luggage, have to wash and dry their hands, eat turkey, doughnuts, drink orange juice and a few even wear bras – you need a FORMULA 1 RACING TEAM.”

“Jim, I have this great idea… you need a FORMULA 1 RACING TEAM.” “Great idea, my new friend Carl, let’s do it.” So it came to pass and Carl was always good at budgets. He carved a deal – and this was in 1984, remember, for $30 million to cover the F1 and IndyCar teams.

So he hired former McLaren grandees Teddy Mayer and Tyler Alexander to run the F1 team. To design the car he enlisted the established John Baldwin and Neil Oatley plus an aspiring up and coming race engineer called Ross Brawn. Later Adrian Newey was added to the line-up.

ARMchair Comment

While the new Formula 1 outfit was officially known as Team Haas (USA) Ltd, the cars were built by FORCE, short for Formula One Race Car Engineering. But just to further confuse everyone the cars were to be called Lolas, to help promote the racing machinery Carl sold in the States. In fact Eric Broadley was officially a consultant, but I don’t think he made many trips to the factory Mayer had set up in Colnbrook, close to the original McLaren headquarters and just a few miles from Heathrow.

We are talking late 1984 here. The 1000 bhp turbo era was upon us, and Haas also pulled off a major deal by signing a three-year exclusive for a new Cosworth designed Ford four-cylinder motor to power the

Watched over by Teddy Mayer, Alan Jones waits for the start of the 1985 Italian Grand Prix (left) at Monza as a young Ross Brawn leans on the rear wheel of the car. It retired after just six laps, missed the following race at Spa, but returned at the European GP at Brands Hatch where Alan retired after 13 laps (below) with radiator damage (Photos LAT)

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ARMchair Comment

Oatley/Baldwin/Brawn chassis. It was going to have more horsepower that even BMW. Ultimately Keith Duckworth and his team, after the huge success of the DFV, completely failed to get the motor to work and decided to switch to a V6 instead. This delayed everything and compromised the design of the car.

Alan Jones, by then a World Champion of course, was tempted away from his dairy herd in Australia and out of retirement for a considerably large sum.

The plan was to race in the latter events of 1985 with just one car and, because of the Cosworth delays, the power would come from a Hart turbo engine, as already used by Toleman.

Although CSS Promotions was handling the sponsorship and PR affairs for Williams at the time, we were approached by Teddy to look after the Beatrice team and, after discussion with Frank Williams, it was agreed there was no conflict. Secretly I suspect Frank probably thought we could later persuade Mr Dutt to switch his sponsorship allegiance.

Anyway we weren’t complaining and we set to work on the launch of the car with what you would describe as a “decent budget”. The launch was planned for Brands Hatch and the idea was that the car would start round the back of the GP track, burst through a big paper sign as it entered Clearways and then stop in front of the amazed press and TV cameras on the grid, where Alan would climb out and wave to the crowd.

Do you know what? That’s what actually happened, but not before a couple of amusing incidents.

Firstly, Mr Dutt was worried from where he and his high-rolling executives were going to watch this extravaganza. At the time we already had a hospitality box at Brands Hatch and that was suggested. But it was decided that it wasn’t up to the Beatrice standard and so we acquired the lease on another one – which was then stripped out completely and built to reflect an English pub with no expense spared. The wine glasses were the finest crystal, Fykker’s beer on tap

and so on. It would also be perfect to entertain at that year’s late-season European Grand Prix. After that I don’t believe Beatrice ever used it again, but I can assure you we put it to good use.

Meanwhile Carl was worried about the condition of his finest Cuban cigars, so we arranged for a humidor to be installed in the Brands garage the team would be using on launch day. Subsequently this was part of the pit equipment and went round to all the races, so Carl’s favourite cigars were always in top condition.

However, because of the fuel – and remember what that turbo jungle juice was like – he never smoked them at the race track, just sucked on them.

As the launch approached, I was summoned to Colnbrook to meet with Teddy Mayer to discuss the press kit which I would be writing. Back in those days, of course, there were no electronic storage devices or downloads. Instead there would be a shiny folder, even shinier black and white photographs and reams of releases, profiles plus a car technical specification.

It was here that Teddy, who wasn’t always a laugh a minute, caught me by surprise with his wry sense of humour.

In 1986, the team fielded two cars. Patrick Tambay, pictured heading for fifth at the Österreichring (below left) teamed up alongside Alan Jones who is shown (below right) heading for another retirement in Spain (Photos LAT)

He had a general disdain for the majority of the journalists and explained that they never really read this stuff properly, just printed it verbatim. So he insisted that on the technical specification we included something completely outrageous – I think it was the wheelbase of the car and we quoted it at whatever was the length of a London bus.

“They’ll all print it,” he said. And they did.

The team made its debut appearance at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. AJ qualified 25th out of 27 and in the race retired when the engine failed after six laps.

We’d invested in our own photocopier for the garage – imagine that – because I was keen that the first press release to hit the press room would be the Beatrice one. In those days, the smattering of PRs used to have the press room print the releases. If you weren’t on the ball, or friendly with the girl behind the counter, this might have to wait an hour or so. Well, it wasn’t exactly a problem winning the press release race that day with the car out so early. I only I wish I still had a copy of it, because I suppose I put some outrageous positive spin on what was a disastrous debut.

The rest of the season wasn’t really much better

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ARMchair Comment

although in Australia, Alan had the honour of being the first to drive on to the then brand new Adelaide street circuit. He managed to qualify 19th, stalled on the grid and carved though the field up to sixth place after 20 laps, when it blew up again.

For the second season there was a new car but the promised Ford motor was still not ready. Alan Jones was joined by Patrick Tambay in the second car. I won’t go through all the trials and tribulations, but suffice to say when it came the Ford engine proved a disappointment, both Mario and Michael Andretti almost drove for the team and Eddie Cheever did, and ultimately Alan scored four points and Patrick two. The team finished eighth in the Constructors Championship. Funny the Haas team finished eighth in this year’s series as well – some things never change.

By the time the season was half through Jim Dutt, the Beatrice CEO was gone, his extravagant spending both corporately and on the racing had caught up with him. He had taken Beatrice to a position where, for a

short period, it was one of the biggest conglomerates in the World. In fact he was ousted in a boardroom coup while he was entertaining some 600 employees at an IndyCar race at Road America. He went on to run a rather smaller company called Mailboxes Coast to Coast – who didn’t sponsor anything. Beatrice was subsequently sold to the US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts who broke it up and sold off the likes of Avis and even Big Pete’s meats.

The new CEO was, you have guessed it, not a racing fan and Carl Haas found himself without a sponsor for the upcoming 1987 season. Unfortunately a replacement backer could not be found, while Ford was disillusioned with the engine, so the team was wound up and FORCE was sold to Bernie Ecclestone.

The stripped down organization went on to build the Alfa 164 Procar which never raced and I suspect the workshop is now a DHL depot.

But during the two years or so that Beatrice was in Formula 1 it certainly used the sponsorship to good

1986 was the final season, and only full season, for the Beatrice-backed team and it was full of disappointment. At Brands Hatch (below), Alan Jones retired once more, this time with throttle problems.

The Haas F1 Team of 2016 (right) has been a more competitive proposition with Romain Grosjean scoring points first time out (Photos LAT)

effect and a number of the brands really embraced it.

I seem to remember journalists had deals to get cheap bottled water, discounted turkeys and hams although I don’t remember any deals on Playtex underwear.

At the time I was issued an Avis Platinum card, which for some reason I still have and use regularly.

When I first got it I told people that Jim Dutt, Carl Haas, Alan Jones and myself were the only people that had them. That was obviously an exaggeration but it was pretty exclusive and qualified me for a 30% discount and a double upgrade. When I plonked it down at Avis car centres around the world it definitely got their attention. These days it doesn’t have the same cachet but I still get some great upgrades.

In a sad end to the story, in November 2002 Jim Dutt, aged 77, committed suicide at his home. Just this year Carl Haas joined the Victory Circle in the sky after a great motor sport career. Formula 1 was the only category in which he wasn’t a winner.

I only hope the Gene Haas Formula 1 team can go on to greater things. The team has certainly made a good start. But somehow I think it might not be quite as much fun as we had back 30 long years ago.

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Scene at Silverstone

Fernando Alonso presses on through the early-race rain at the British Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton heads for victory. Aside from the traditional Grand Prix air displays, the BRDC Farm was the centre of attention, housing a tribute to James Hunt (Photos Jakob Ebrey and LAT)

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WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

Scene at Silverstone

Jordan King (top left) heads for GP2 honours at the Grand Prix, whilst Alex Albon (bottom left) won Saturday’s GP3 race.

In the June rain, Ricky Collard’s BRDC British F3 Championship hopes took a knock (top right), while Ben Barker and Tom Sharp did battle in the Porsche Supercup race at the Grand Prix. Alex Quinn (left) was part of the MSA British F4 grid in September (Photos Jakob Ebrey and LAT)

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

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Scene at Silverstone

There was much to enjoy in historic racing at Silverstone in 2016. A vast FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship grid raced at the Classic (far left), while Jamie Brashaw’s March 73A took the fastest lap of the season on the National Circuit. Rain affected the final of the Walter Hayes Trophy (middle column, top) while Philip Walker (middle) and Bas Leinders enjoyed themselves at the VSCC and Walter Hayes Trophy events. Mark Webber was a welcome guest to a BRDC Trackday while Kevin McGarrity joined John Village and Dario Franchitti at the Walter Hayes Trophy. Clublevel motorcycle racing featured, including those brave souls on sidecars, a far cry from the historic McLaren M26 (bottom right) of Michael Lyons (Photos Jakob Ebrey and LAT)

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Scene at Silverstone

Valentino Rossi was a crowd-puller at MotoGP (right), while the BTCC brought a big crowd to witness some cracking racing. Moto GP continued to be the highlight of the two-wheeled fan’s season, while the World Endurance Championship joined the Silverstone 24 Hours on the long-distance event calendar (Photos Jakob Ebrey and LAT)

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WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

Scene at Silverstone

A massive Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup field blasted away in May, while Valentino Rossi headed a MotoGP pack in September. Jazeman Jaafar took second in the Mercedes AMG GT3 in the Blancpain race (bottom left) while that enormous Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo grid (bottom left) includes Member Steve Tandy! (Photos SRO, LAT and Lamborghini Squadra Corse)

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The Paddock, Silverstone, British Grand Prix Round 6 Formula 1 World Championship, Friday 13 July 1956

Scene at Silverstone

D

Lando joins at the same

know that so many British and

we go into 2017 positive in the knowledge

The curtain will shortly fall

time as some distinguished

Commonwealth competitors are

that our Archivist, Stephanie Sykes-Dugmore

on 2016 and in reflection it

company, motorcycle road racer

has been a highly successful

John McGuinness, who becomes only

EAR MEMBER

achieving the results required. Once

has had her four-year aspiration for The

enrolled they can then contest the

Silverstone Heritage Experience supported

year for the Club despite various turbulences

the second person in the Club’s history

illustrious Gold and Silver star points awards

by the Heritage Lottery Fund realised – it is

along the way. It gives me great pleasure to

to be made a Member for their two-wheel

and to see a staggering 91 Members contribute

great news for the circuit and the Club and the

report that this year Club Members have once

performances alone (including Valentino

to the Gold Star points this year reminds

next stages of constructing a bespoke archive

again produced championship-winning results

Rossi) receiving Honorary Membership at the

us all that there is a wider-reaching BRDC

for the BRDC will be a stimulating period.

across the globe and at the early December

Club Awards. Given the reception he received

world beyond Silverstone with our Members

Enjoy your Christmas break with your

Club Awards in London, we were humbled to

from the audience, this was a universally

achieving great success on a weekly basis.

friends and family, but can I remind Members

reward them on their various successes. A full

popular decision and I am sure that he will be

Lewis Hamilton MBE won his fourth Gold

to put Autosport International into your 2017

pictography of the event is included earlier in

a great attribute to the Club and Silverstone.

Star in succession and his ninth in total and

diaries, to join us at the Gold and Silver Star

this Bulletin and my short contribution cannot

Many Members commented to me that it was

Colin Turkington won his second Silver Star.

points scorers forum.

do justice to the wonderful company that we

a stirring moment to see this year’s Formula

Jann Mardenborough was our highest scorer

Since the last meeting there has been an

welcomed, but I am sure that this year’s event

One World Champion, Nico Rosberg receive

in the Gold Star outside Formula One and he

extensive review of the points scoring system

will stand out in history thanks to a series

the Johnny Wakefield Trophy (for the fastest

impressed the audience at the Awards with his

and we’ll present our findings to you. It is also

of highlights, one being, “Were you there

lap on Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit) from

eloquent acceptance of the Richard Seaman

the opportunity for you to share with us what

when Lando Norris was crowned McLaren

fellow Silver Arrow racer, Sir Stirling Moss.

Trophy – another young Club Member with a

the Club could be doing to better support

Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year

Nico was clearly touched to be presented with

bright future lying ahead of him.

and represent racing Members in their global

2016?” Our President made a brave statement

an Honorary Membership and we were very

I would like to take this opportunity

activities. If you cannot make it, please send

when he presented Lando with the Chris

privileged to enjoy his company for a generous

to thank the office staff at the Club. You

any points you would like raised to me by

Bristow trophy saying: “I’m sure that we’ll see

period of time. We look forward to welcoming

would struggle to find a more loyal group

email. It is so important that you express your

Lando in a Formula One car in a few seasons’

him back to Silverstone to enjoy his retirement

of individuals, they work exceptionally

ideas of what the Club could be doing to better

time”, and I fully agree with him having been

from the sport.

hard through the demanding events season

represent and support the competing Members.

I hope you can make it.

lucky enough to work closely alongside him

The tally of new Members for the year is a

and have true passion for the Club and the

at the competition at the end of October. His

total of 22 which is the highest for some time

Members. We in turn are surrounded by

demeanour and performance were sensational

and positive evidence that the desire to join the

an excellent support network and I would

and I eagerly look forward to following the

Club is as strong as ever. Of course, to join, a

like to acknowledge the friendly faces that

progress of one of our newest Members.

driver must first qualify and it is satisfying to

contribute throughout the year. In addition,

Gillian Carr CLUB SECRETARY

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

69

Archive image captions

ARCHIVE CAPTIONS

by Ian Titchmarsh

Gislaved Kurvan, Scandinavian Raceway, Anderstorp, Gislaved Grand Prix of Sweden, Round Seven Formula 1 World Championship, Sunday 13 June 1976 The unorthodox design and appearance of the TyrrellCosworth P34 are readily apparent as Jody Scheckter negotiates the tight left-hander leading on to the Pits Straight on his way to giving Derek Gardner’s six-wheeled creation the first and only victory of its two-year life in contemporary Formula 1. Two years earlier, in the conventional Tyrrell 007, Jody has won his first World Championship race here, going on to take third place in the title race, the same position in which he will also finish in 1976, a year so dominated

by James Hunt and Niki Lauda for the title that the achievements of others will be too often overlooked.

The Cosworth engine in early leader Mario Andretti’s Lotus 77 fades then fails after 45 of the 72 laps enabling a charging, oversteering Jody to take over the lead and go on to win by nearly 20 seconds from team mate Patrick Depailler. In this atypical race for 1976, reigning World Champion Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312T2 comes home third with James Hunt fifth in his McLaren-Cosworth M23.

Two years later, the short-lived Swedish Grand Prix (1973 to 1978) will be the setting for another unique success with Niki Lauda and John Watson finishing first and second in the Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT46B ‘fan cars’.

27 70

WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

Becketts Corner, Silverstone, Istel RAC Tourist Trophy, Round 10 FIA Touring Car Championship Sunday 7 September 1986 Jeff Allam bends his TWR Rover Vitesse through Becketts as he chases after the leading Eggenberger Ford Sierra XR4Ti of Steve Soper in the opening phase of the Silverstone round of the FIA European Touring Car Championship. Equipped with a development engine, Jeff has the legs of his championship-leading team-mates Tom Walkinshaw/Win Percy and the best of the rest from BMW, Volvo and Holden. Waiting in the pits to take over from Jeff is the 1967 Formula 1 World Champion 50-year-old Denny Hulme who has retired from F1 at the end of 1974 but has been enticed back into racing touring cars.

After the mid-race pit stops, Klaus Niedzwiedz, replacing Steve, will continue to lead the Rover until the Sierra’s engine fails which will leave Denny to reel off the remaining laps in a master class of smooth racedriving to take the flag first, the best part of a minute ahead of the BMW 635CSi of Dieter Quester and Roberto Ravaglia with Tom and Win third.

It is the 50th running of the RAC Tourist Trophy, of which Denny has won three in 1965, 1966 and 1968 in Sid Taylor’s Brabham-Climax BT8 and Lola-Chevrolet T70s, and the third win for Rover. Jeff will describe this as the biggest win of his career while Denny will continue racing touring cars and trucks down under until suffering a fatal heart attack at Bathurst in 1992.

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Hailwood Hill, Brands Hatch, 25th BRSCC Formula Ford Festival, Sunday 20 October 1996 On his first visit to the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival a year earlier, Mark Webber, the new kid from Australia, has finished third to Kevin McGarrity and Mario Harbefeld. Now he has a full season of British Formula Ford racing under his belt and has finished second (to Kristian Kolby) in the Slick 50 British Championship in his Duckhams/Yellow Pages Australia-backed factory Van Diemen RF96.

Numbers in this Zetec 1800cc engine era are not as great as when the Kent engine reigned supreme, but the Festival is still attracting drivers from Continental Europe including Dutch teenager Jacky van der Ende who, from pole position, has led Mark briefly in the second semi-final only to be passed on lap two.

For the final the track is awash. Mark makes an average start to be led again by Jacky’s Mygale.

Exuding supreme confidence in his car’s grip in the treacherous conditions, Mark’s first bid to pass his rival into Paddock Hill Bend is thwarted by yellow flags but he wastes no time in taking the lead into Surtees on the same lap. After 10 laps the race is red-flagged. At the re-start it is Mark’s Brazilian team-mate, Vitor Meira, who jumps into the lead but he is soon off the road at Paddock and the race, now to be decided on aggregate, is Mark’s for the taking. The win paves the way for 20-year-old Mark into Formula 3 for 1997 and the start of a 20-year career at the top of the sport.

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Archive image captions

The Chute, Watkins Glen, United States Grand Prix, Round 8 Formula 1 World Championship, Sunday 2 October 1966

The Start, Japanese Grand Prix, Fuji International Speedway, 16th and Final Round Formula 1 World Championship, Sunday 24 October 1976

The Paddock, Silverstone, British Grand Prix Round 6 Formula 1 World Championship, Friday 13 July 1956

This is the first year of the 3-litre Formula 1 which has caught several teams unprepared including Team Lotus, dominant winners of both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships a year earlier. CoventryClimax has withdrawn so Colin Chapman turns to BRM and its heavy H16 engine. For much of the season Jim has preferred to use a Type 33 fitted with a Coventry-Climax V8 stretched to 2 litres. However, by the Italian Grand Prix the Type 43 is considered raceworthy and shows considerable pace enabling Jim to qualify on the front row at Monza.

The Type 43 is taken to the USA for the penultimate round of the World Championship. Jim qualifies second to the Brabham-Repco BT19 of Jack Brabham, who has already clinched his third world title, but engine failure means that Team Lotus has to borrow BRM’s well-used spare unit. From the start Jack, John Surtees (Cooper-Maserati T81) and Lorenzo Bandini’s Ferrari 312 dispute the lead until John is delayed after tangling with Jim’s team mate Peter Arundell in the Type 33. Lorenzo leads before his engine expires with Jack’s Repco V8 untypically following suit at half distance. Jimmy reels off the remaining 54 laps as the BRM H16 stays in one piece to give him and Team Lotus their only World Championship victory of the year.

The race which will decide the outcome of the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship is underway. James Hunt has qualified his McLaren-Cosworth M23 on the outside of the front row, just three-hundredths of a second slower than Mario Andretti’s Lotus-Cosworth 77 in dry conditions. More importantly he is three points behind season-long leader Niki Lauda who has qualified his Ferrari 312T-2 with the Penske-Ford PC4 of John Watson alongside.

Incessant rain has delayed the start by 90 minutes and even now conditions have hardly improved with mist still swirling around and restricting visibility.

Knowing the importance of keeping all the spray behind him, James is making one of his best starts to keep Mario, Wattie and a charging Vittorio Brambilla in his wake. Niki meanwhile will pull into the pits to retire.

For 61 of the 73 laps James will lead as the rain gradually eases and the track dries out. Eventually with his wet weather tyres worn to the canvas and shredding James will have to stop for fresh rubber after being passed first by Patrick Depailler’s TyrrellFord P34 and then Mario’s Lotus who will win the race from Patrick with James third, enough to give him the world title by one point.

The informality and accessibility of a Grand Prix paddock is admirably illustrated by this evocative image of the five works Lancia-Ferrari D50s lined up in the Silverstone paddock before the 1956 British Grand Prix, watched over by just one mechanic and two interested spectators with a backdrop of trade support vehicles comprising the Mintex Commer mobile workshop and the Hepolite caravan with its Ford V8 Pilot tow car.

Nearest the camera is the #1 car of reigning World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, flanked by #2 for Peter Collins, who has arrived at Silverstone as leader of the World Championship in his first season as a Scuderia Ferrari driver after winning the Belgian and French Grands Prix. Next are #3 for Eugenio Castellotti, #4 for Alfonso de Portago with #5 intended for Olivier Gendebien but the Belgian will not be present.

After the retirement of early leader Mike Hawthorn’s BRM P25 and, later, the Maserati 250Fs of Stirling Moss and Roy Salvadori, Fangio will finish first in his ill-handling car following an untypical spin at Becketts, Peter Collins will be second in de Portago’s car while the Spanish nobleman will bring home Castellotti’s D50 in 10th. It will be the only occasion when the great Argentinian will win the British Grand Prix in seven attempts.

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Obituaries

Obituaries THOMAS MONTAGUE ‘TOM’ MEYER CBE 3 August 1919 – 26 June 2016 Tom Meyer CBE, one of the oldest Members of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, passed away peacefully on Sunday 26th June. He was 96 years of age and had been a Life Member since 1976, having originally been elected to Full Membership in 1950.

Tom was the younger son of Montague Meyer whose eponymous company prospered during World War One as the result of being appointed as the official Government Timber Buyer. Educated at Sherborne School, Tom became a director of Montague L Meyer Ltd. He saw service as a Second-Lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade in World War Two but was captured and became a prisoner-of-war in 1941.

Tom Meyer raced some distinctive cars, beginning with the Alta-based Streamliner which he acquired from its constructor, John Heath, in time for the 1950 season. A third place at Castle Combe was followed by an entry in the Paris 12 Hours at Montlhèry in which he finished seventh with Philip Fotheringham-Parker as co-driver. For the following year, Tom acquired one of the HW-Altas, as raced previously by a young Stirling Moss, and finished third at Gamston and second, to the Simca-Gordini T11 of Johnny Claes, in the Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay in Belgium.

The HW-Alta was attractively converted into a

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Tom Meyer at the Goodwood 9 Hours in 1953 (below) in his unique Aston Martin DB3 Coupe and leaving the starting ramp for the 1952 Mille Miglia in his HWM Alta converted to sports car specification (Photos Ferret Fotographics)

sports car to enable Tom to take part in both the Mille Miglia and the Goodwood Nine Hours in 1952 although the car retired on both occasions. A plan to share an Aston Martin DB2 in the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours with Peter Clark failed to happen but Tom did contest the Spa 24 Hours a few weeks later in the special-bodied Aston Martin DB3 Coupe which he commissioned and which was later owned by David Brown’s daughter Angela. Again FotheringhamParker was Tom’s co-driver but the car was forced to retire. Tom and the DB3 Coupe did enjoy better luck in the Pescara 12 Hours, on this occasion with the late Tony Gaze as co-driver; they finished sixth overall and third in the over 2-litre sports car class. Back with

Fotheringham-Parker as co-driver, Tom finished 12th in the Goodwood Nine Hours.

In 1954, a second attempt at the Mille Miglia, this time with the DB3, almost ended in disaster when Tom crashed on a wet road near Ferrara, the whole incident being graphically recorded by Denis Jenkinson in his report for Motor Sport, Jenks being the passenger in George Abecassis’s HWM-Jaguar following directly behind. Rendered semi-conscious in the impact, Tom came round to find himself gazing into the eyes of the film actress Dawn Addams, who lived nearby. By the evening, Tom had sufficiently recovered to dine with Enzo Ferrari. After the Mille Miglia, Tom raced twice in Sweden, at Skarpnack and Karlskoga, where he

Obituaries

finished fifth and fourth respectively.

Once described as, “A dapper timber tycoon”, Tom had been on a flight back from a business trip to Iran when he met Fleur Cowles (nee Freidman), the legendary American expatriate writer, painter, philanthropist and socialite. In 1955 he became Fleur’s fourth husband with Cary Grant as best man. They divided their time between a large flat in the Albany, a Tudor farmhouse in Sussex and a castle in Spain. Fleur, who was some 11 years older than Tom, died in 2009 at the age of 101. In 1986 Tom was honoured as a CBE for his services as chairman of the National Chest and Heart Hospitals, London.

Ian Titchmarsh

PETER RILEY 6 October 1930 – 7 July 2016 Peter Riley was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham where his father and mother, William and Catherine, lived. William was primarily a glass manufacturer and later became involved with the film industry.

After schooling at Rugby, when 19 Peter became an undergraduate at Cambridge University, achieving a degree in mechanical engineering. He travelled extensively during his life and when a young man went to Jamaica for about two years working as an engineer on a sugar plantation.

Interested in motor sport, he acquired a Healey Silverstone whilst at university, a rather desirable car of the period. In 1950 he entered his first event, a CUAC (Cambridge University Automobile Club) speed trial held at Bedwell Hey, an old RAF airfield near Ely, driving an MG TC. Two cars in front of Peter in the scrutineering queue was an HRG 1500 driven

by Jack Sears. The two started talking and soon found out they were both on their first event. Jack and Peter were to become lifelong friends but, at that time,

neither could have foreseen sharing an Austin Healey 3000 in the Le Mans 24 Hour race 10 years hence.

Peter’s first international rally was the 1951 LiegeRome-Liege after his friend Bill Lamb suggested they should enter Peter’s unmodified Healey Silverstone, the two youngsters imagining an idyllic sojourn across Europe. Despite running a big-end a few days before departure, and with the help of mate Archie ScottBrown, the car was repaired just in time. With 126 starters, this proved to be an epic adventure resulting much to their surprise in winning the 3-litre class from the three works Lancias and finishing eighth overall his subsequent career speaks for itself!

Peter was making quite a name for himself racing GT cars including for example MG, Lotus Mk VI, Lotus Eleven, Lotus Elite, Porsche Carrera, and Fairthorpe Electron. It was with Bill Frost’s Lotus Elite WUU2 and co-driver Peter Lumsden that Peter came to prominence with class wins in the Nürburgring 1000 Ks in 1959 and 1961 and in the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours finishing eighth overall, first in the 1500 cc class, runner up in the inaugural Index of Thermal Efficiency and fifth in the Index of Performance.

Also in 1959 Peter was invited to join the BMC rally team by Marcus Chambers and even took a flat An MG Midget-mounted Peter Riley at speed

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Obituaries

in Abingdon to be with, and learn as much as possible about, the team. Peter was a very likeable, wellrounded man (in the physical sense too) and soon earned the nickname “Bear” due mainly to his close cropped fair hair, mild manner, and shaggy clothing.

In 1961 he went into partnership with David Hiam, who had been Dunlop rally manager, in a business selling motor accessories and promoting Britax seat belts in the Midlands. In March 1962 Peter married Ann Wisdom with the rallying vicar, Rupert Jones, officiating (their wedding car was a full-blown works Austin Healey 3000 rally car).

In addition to his time as a BMC works driver, Peter also drove for the Ford team and latterly in Sunbeam Tigers for Rootes. His last works drive was in the 1965 Tulip Rally in a Tiger. He entered an ex-works 997cc Morris Mini Cooper in the 1964 Tulip Rally with Ann as his co-driver – possibly their only event together. Even after retiring from international motor sport, Peter continued for many years to compete in club events with an Austin-Healey 3000 and an Aston Martin DB2/4.

In 1969 Peter joined up with Paddy Hopkirk as a director of the successful Mill Accessory Group based at Eaton Bray which specialized in the manufacture of alloy road wheels as well as various motor sport accessories; they remained in partnership for approximately 20 years.

Peter never lost his enthusiasm for rallying and was often seen out marshalling on club events. When Philip Young invented the Classic Marathon, Peter was often a member of the marshalling team running controls all over Europe. He later supported his wife Ann in various farming enterprises with commercial and pedigree cattle at their home Kirby Grounds near Towcester.

Sadly, Ann passed away in October last year.

We express our deepest sympathies to his children Jenny and Tim and their families.

Bill Price

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JOHN HENRY THORNBURN 13 February 1938 – 25 May 2016 Associate Member John Thornburn passed away in June at the age of 78 after a long and painful illness.

John was a wine merchant in partnership with the late Alan McKechnie, for whose Formula 5000 racing team he had been team manager when he was approached by a near neighbour and aspiring young driver, Nigel Mansell. John arranged for one of his team’s mechanics to have a look at Nigel’s secondhand Formula Ford Hawke DL11 and saw that it had a seriously twisted chassis. There was no time to fix it for the following weekend when Nigel won his race, much to John’s amazement. After watching Nigel in action at Thruxton he was so impressed that he offered to help Nigel through Formula Ford into Formula 3, becoming a close friend and mentor. When, many years later, Nigel’s sons Leo and Greg, started racing John was always on hand in an advisory role.

John started in team management with the successful Team Elite 62 from its formation until 1965.

One of the principal drivers for Team Elite was Jim Clark’s Formula 1 team-mate, Trevor Taylor, whose family set up Aurora Gears Racing for Trevor to compete in Formula 2 and sports car racing from 1965 to 1967 with John as Team Manager. Team Elite was revived in 1967 for GT racing with a Lotus 47 and Lola T70, again with Trevor as the main driver and John as Team Manager. After Team Elite closed its doors, John joined Alan McKechnie Racing, managing the team to the ShellSport Formula 5000 title with Bob Evans driving a Lola T332 in 1974 when this spectacular series was at its height. With Richard Scott as driver in 1975, the team won the Formula 5000 race supporting the Daily Express International Trophy at Silverstone with Durex sponsorship resplendent on its Lola T400

to the dismay of the BBC, which withdrew its coverage of the race! It was at this time that John was elected as an Associate Patron BRDC Member.

The association with Nigel Mansell began in 1976 and the following year Nigel fully justified John’s faith in him by winning 33 of his 42 Formula Ford 1600 races and taking the BRDC Brush Fusegear Championship. After 1979 Nigel was established as a Formula 1 driver so John’s role became less prominent

The final round of the 1974 F5000 championship at Brands Hatch. Bob Evans in the McKechnie Racing Lola T332, for which John Thornburn was Team Manager, on pole position with Peter Gethin alongside (Photo LAT)

Obituaries

but he remained behind the scenes providing advice and guidance. Later in 1986 John was team manager for Bromley Motorsport in Formula 3000 and in 1990 managed a Formula Vauxhall Lotus team. A shrewd and passionate motor racing enthusiast, John continued to attend as many race meetings as possible at Silverstone during his illness.

To his wife Jane and their family the BRDC offers its sincere condolences.

Ian Titchmarsh

Left: Ian Titterington at Dundrod in 1954 when he was competing in the RAC Tourist Trophy race as a member of the Triumph team Below: Ian Titterington with his BMW 328

IAN HUGH TITTERINGTON 16 June 1932 – 11 November 2015 Sir Henry Birkin’s Full Throttle and Prince Chula’s books on his cousin Prince Bira encouraged Ian Titterington to take up his hobby of motor sport.

By 1950, with the help of his father, Ian was able to purchase a 1934/5 Singer Le Mans, a car that had been used in the 1935 Le Mans and Tourist Trophy races and then converted for Stanley Barnes (one of the three members of the Autosports team) for trialling purposes. Ian was then able to take part in the short circuit Curragh races in 1951.

In 1952 Ian raced at Phoenix Park, then the Dundrod Ulster Trophy races and the Champion Trophy Handicap.

After this event Ian competed at Wicklow in the Leinster Trophy race, but during the following winter sold his Singer and was without a competition car for 1953 until his cousin Desmond Titterington generously allowed him to drive his Allard for a few practice laps at Wicklow and also to drive at the Craigantlet hillclimb.

In 1954 Ian managed to get a friend, Dennis Wilkins, to allow him to participate in a few hillclimbs in his Lotus Mk6 and also the races at Wicklow and

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Cork where unfortunately the car broke down both times! Ian drove Desmond’s Dellow at Phoenix Park where they managed to get a place. Ian bought a Triumph TR2 and was asked to co-drive with Johnny Johnstone of the Clarence Engineering Company in the TT where they finished sixth in the 2-litre class.

This led him to join the BRDC which was his aim and of which he was a proud Member.

In 1955, Ian was fifth at the Ulster Trophy races at Dundrod, and partnered Wilbert Todd in a TR2 in the TT in which they took second in class.

In 1956, Ian drove in the Production Car Championship (for the Clarence Trophy) made up of five races at Kirkistown and Cranfield. He won three of these and finished second in the other two, to win the championship.

At the end of 1956, Ian turned to building a special Formule Libre-type car consisting of a Grand Prix Alta chassis and a 3-litre ‘Black Prince’ Invicta engine.

This proved a bit of a failure as the resulting car was too heavy. A 1767 Coventry-Climax engine was fitted instead but success was equally limited.

Ian joined Ronnie Adams and Ernest McMillen in the 1958 Monte Carlo Rally. A wrong turning in the night regularity section compromised their result but Ian and Ronnie teamed up again for sixth in class on the Alpine Rally.

Just prior to the ’59 season, Ian was approached by the Ford factory to partner Robert Glenton of the Sunday Express and Lord Montague as co-drivers on the Monte Carlo rally. For 1961, Ian purchased a 328 BMW for post-vintage thoroughbreds (PVT) classes.

He competed at Shelsey Walsh and Prescott hillclimbs and at Oulton Park, Thruxton, Cadwell Park, Donington Park and Silverstone. Ian also took part in the 50th anniversary races at Le Mans and at the Nürburgring.

To Ian’s family and friends, the Club sends its condolences. Mark Titterington

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STUART MARCUS WESTERBY 1 April 1934 – 22 March 2016 Associate Member Marcus Westerby passed away on 22 March after a short illness, just over a week before his 82nd birthday. Marcus, who was elected as an Associate (General) Member in 1991, was for many years the Sales Director of Moët et Chandon and as such is credited with introducing the Champagne shower to Formula 1, beginning with the 1972 Italian Grand Prix where he succeeded in directing winner Emerson Fittipaldi’s line of fire from the podium.

Marcus used to claim that the inspiration for the shower derived from the fact that the bottles which he had available had become too warm in the Italian heat, rendering the contents undrinkable.

Moët et Chandon became the supplier of Champagne to the majority of Formula 1 races, and other international events. Marcus retired in 1994 but continued to be a regular and popular visitor to Silverstone with a fund of stories from his years of travelling the world with Formula 1.

Marcus’s wife Jo passed away in 2002 and the BRDC offers its condolences to their daughters Penny, Sally and Emma and their families.

Ian Titchmarsh

Emerson Fittipaldi heads for victory in the 1972 Italian Grand Prix, the race in which the tradition of spraying Champagne after a Grand Prix really began. Other suppliers have provided the bubbly but Moët et Chandon is back on the podium today, as Lewis Hamilton demonstrates, left (Photos LAT)

From the Archive

Heritage Experience Secures Funding Sally Reynolds brings us news of exciting developments for The Silverstone Heritage Experience.

I

AM DELIGHTED TO BE SHARING WITH YOU THE fantastic news that The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded Silverstone Heritage Limited a £9.1 million grant which will enable us to build the long-awaited Silverstone Heritage Experience at the entrance to the Circuit.

Having an exhibition or museum based at Silverstone to tell the compelling story of the Silverstone Circuit and British motor sport has been a long term ambition of the BRDC. Indeed while researching the site history for this Project we found, in the BRDC Archive, reference to a proposal for a motor sport museum that was considered by the BRDC Board in 1971!

The current proposal for The Silverstone Heritage Experience has its roots in the BRDC’s decision to employ the services of a professionally qualified archivist, Stephanie Sykes-Dugmore, in March 2009. When she arrived at Silverstone, the BRDC Collection was in some disarray and over the years few had understood the importance of the items and paperwork that the archive contained. Race programmes and Club records were stored in uncatalogued boxes. Stephanie and a team of volunteers have since worked on the organisation, conservation and cataloguing of the library and archive bringing it in line with guidelines and standards set out by the National Archives. The archive will be at the very heart of The Silverstone

Heritage Experience. I would like to thank Stephanie and her team without whom this Project would not have been possible.

Work on The Silverstone Heritage Experience began in earnest six years ago when I joined the Silverstone Circuits team as Leisure Development Director. Once the viability of the project was established, work began on our first round bid to the HLF. Following success at that stage, we were awarded a development grant in April 2013 to help us to prepare our comprehensive second round bid. After three years of hard work, during

Derek Warwick, Sally Reynolds (CEO of Silverstone Heritage Ltd),Sir Stirling Moss OBE, Sir Peter Luff (Chair of HLF), Nigel Mansell CBE

which we had to overcome a number of significant hurdles, that bid was submitted to the HLF at the beginning of August 2016. The bid is effectively a blue print for the Project, including detailed designs for the building work and exhibition, a five-year business plan, project costs and a project execution plan. As the Club’s President has reminded me on a number of occasions – now the hard work really starts – we have to build it! The award from the HLF means that work on delivering the Project can begin in the New Year and that the Silverstone Heritage Project can open to the public in the spring of 2019.

Sir Peter Luff, Chair of HLF, said: “Silverstone is a place where so many legends of British motor racing have their roots. The speed and the glamour, though, are only part of the success of British motor sport since the late 1940s. Thanks to National Lottery players, more of the stories in this exciting heritage can now be told; stories of drivers and sporting glory, yes, but also of the extraordinary creativity of British engineering and of all the people behind the scenes who, quite literally, have kept the show on the road. When completed this project will help visitors to understand much more about the context and importance of the circuit.”

I would like to thank everyone who has worked on the Project: the Project Patrons, BRDC Board, Silverstone Heritage Limited’s Chair Ian Titchmarsh, and the Trustees, John Grant, Maxwell Beaverbrook, Stuart Pringle, Dr Kevin Moore (Director – National Football Museum) and Professor Jean Williams.

There is much to do to make the Silverstone Heritage Project a reality and although we are now in a position to start work we are very much still seeking sponsors for the Project. There are opportunities for donors, their companies or their families to be part of the Exhibition, preserving their involvement for generations to come.

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BRDC British F3 Autumn Trophy

BRDC Rising Star Enaam Ahmed T takes Autumn Trophy

At the end of the cars’ maiden season, the fleet of BRDC F3 machines returned to Snetterton for the Autumn Trophy. Ian Titchmarsh reports.

WELVE MONTHS ON FROM THEIR RACE DEBUT AS BRDC Formula 4, the Tatuus-Cosworth singleseaters, which have been so impressive in the 2016 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship, returned to Snetterton at the end of October for the Autumn Trophy which this year was a singlevenue event with no follow-up at Brands Hatch. Four races were scheduled, two on Saturday and two on Sunday preceded by a qualifying session each morning. Although conditions were fine and dry on Saturday, quite dense fog descended on Sunday morning causing qualifying to be abandoned so that, although it proved possible to run one race, the other had to be called off when the fog returned.

Twelve cars arrived at Snetterton, three from Double R Racing (winners of the main championship with Brazilian Matheus Leist) and Carlin plus two each from Douglas Motorsport, Fortec Motorsports and Hillspeed. Just like the old Formula Renault 2.0 Winter Series, one of the principal purposes of the Autumn Trophy is to enable teams to run drivers who have spent the main season in another category and hope to graduate to British F3 next year. Thus there were only three drivers who had been regulars in the main championship, the other nine having little or no experience of the cars. An indication of the wide appeal of BRDC British F3 was illustrated by the fact that nine different nationalities were represented including the German and USA Formula 4 Champions.

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BRDC British F3 Autumn Trophy

At 16 years of age Enaam Ahmed had been the youngest driver in the main championship, in which he finished fifth on the back of one win in the opening meeting of the year at Snetterton and several other podiums. Switching from Douglas Motorsport to Carlin for the Autumn Trophy, Enaam qualified on pole position in a very close session which had the top 10 drivers covered by sixtenths of a second with just 53-thousandths of a second separating Enaam from his Carlin teammate Dan Ticktum, with Australian Joey Mawson, the 2016 German Formula 4 Champion, a very close third. Just as he had been at the opening meeting in March, Enaam was quick off the line unlike Dan who fell to fourth behind Joey and the third Carlin driver, James Pull, who had qualified sixth behind British F3 regular Tarun Reddy (Double

R) and South African Formula Renault 2.0 racer Callan O’Keeffe (Fortec). Dan, who has spent most of 2016 under suspension, was soon back in the groove, passing James to slot into third but with Enaam and Joey too far up the road to be caught in the first two places.

Grid positions for Saturday’s second race were based on fastest laps in race one which gave Dan pole position ahead of Joey and Enaam with 16-year-old New Zealander Marcus Armstrong fourth. This time Dan made no mistake with his start, immediately opening up a clear lead over Enaam who moved ahead of Joey when the young Australian was slow away. Behind the top three, Marcus impressed in only his sixth ever car race, closing up on those ahead and suggesting that he will be one to watch in 2017.

Autumn Trophy winner Enaam Ahmed (far left) with the silverware, and (bottom right) heading race three, while Joey Mawson (whose James Hunt-style helmet is pictured above) heads through the Sunday fog (Photos Jakob Ebrey)

With fog precluding a qualifying session on Sunday morning, the grid for the day’s first and, as it transpired, only race was based on championship positions which put Enaam on pole position ahead of Dan. In a hectic first lap Enaam and Dan clashed at Agostini, eliminating the latter, whilst a little earlier at Riches James Pull and Ben Hingeley had gone off at Riches, all of which brought out the safety car. Once racing resumed, Joey kept the pressure on Enaam but was unable to find a way past, the Australian finishing less than half a second behind the Londoner at the flag. Jamie Caroline, winner of the 2015 Ginetta Junior Championship, claimed the final podium place on his graduation to BRDC F3. With the abandonment of the final race, BRDC Rising Star Enaam became the clear winner of the Autumn Trophy.

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Book reviews

BOOK REVIEWS The Bulletin team recommends worthy additions to your library

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LOTUS 18 COLIN CHAPMAN’S U-TURN Author: Mark Whitelock Publisher: Veloce Publishing Web: www.veloce.co.uk ISBN: 978–1–845845–20–9

The Type 18 is one of the most important cars in the story of Colin Chapman’s Lotus cars.

In the overall scheme of things at the time it was not as groundbreaking as the later Types 25, 78 and 79 but it was for Lotus in that, for the first time, the engine was behind the driver. Post World War 2, Cooper had pointed the way in this direction, winning its first World Championship Grand Prix thanks to Stirling Moss in Argentina in early 1958 and the Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships with Jack Brabham the following year while Colin Chapman was persevering with the elegant but fragile Lotus Type 16.

The Cooper writing was on the wall for all to see and the first mid-engined F1 Lotus, Ferraris and BRMs appeared in 1960.

Author Mark Whitelock was at Goodwood on Easter Monday 1960 when Innes Ireland’s Type 18 defeated Stirling Moss’s Cooper T51 in the Formula 1 Glover Trophy and Formula 2 (1500 cc) Porsche 718 in the Lavant Cup. Seeing off Stirling in those days was a rare achievement. To do so twice in one day was a testament to both Innes’s ability and to Colin Chapman’s first stab at a mid-engined car and made a lasting impression on a young enthusiast. Mark has previously written authoritatively about the 1.5-litre Formula 1 which ran from 1961 to 1965 and clearly has a particular passion for this period.

Although the passage of time means that many of

the drivers, owners, mechanics and others involved with the Type 18 are no longer with us, the author acknowledges the considerable assistance which he has received from Hazel and Clive Chapman, directors of Classic Team Lotus. The opening chapters summarise the early days of Lotus before describing in well-illustrated detail the design of both the Type 18 and its principal power unit, the Coventry-Climax FPF engine. There then follows a thorough, very well illustrated account of the Type 18’s 1960 season in both Formula 1 and Formula 2 with separate chapters for each category. In 1961, when 1.5 litre F2 effectively became the F1 World Championship category, some Type 18s evolved into the Type 21-style cars raced by Stirling Moss amongst others. It was chassis 912 which provided Stirling with the means to score two of his greatest victories, at Monaco and the Nürburgring, in his last full season. Tragically it was also a Type 18/21, the V8 Special, in which Stirling’s front line career ended on Easter Monday 1962 at Goodwood.

The short-lived Intercontinental Formula series in 1961, in which all the front line British teams also competed, has its own chapter as has the Type 18-derived Lotus Type 19 sports-racing car. The versatility of the Type 18’s design meant that it also became the state of the art car for Formula Junior in 1960 with prolific success, beginning with Jimmy Clark’s victory over the Cooper T52 of John Surtees at Goodwood in March 1960. In total some 120 Formula Junior chassis were built in just one season. However, it would have been a Herculean task to cover them in the same detail.

A total of 27 F1/F2/ICF Type 18s were built, including the two Parnell Racing specials, and the author has comprehensively tabulated all their races in one appendix. Chassis numbers are recorded for every car, which might start a few arguments and settle others. Other appendices also chart every driver and every entrant of a Type 18. Produced in the later

(1963) Team Lotus livery of green and yellow, this is an attractive and informative book, which should appeal to anyone with an interest in the rise of British constructors, and Lotus in particular, to the pinnacle of motor racing. IT

Stirling Moss – The Definitive Biography Volume 1 1929 – 55 Author: Philip Porter Publisher: Porter Press International ISBN: 978–1–907085–33–8 Some 10 or so years ago, Sir Stirling Moss collaborated with Philip Porter in a series of four fascinating Scrapbooks which drew heavily on Stirling’s diaries, photographs and press cuttings covering the whole of his professional racing career, presented in a very attractive fashion. These books are still available although stocks of some, particularly that covering 1955, are running low. Only last year EVRO published Stirling Moss My Racing Life written in collaboration with Simon Taylor which set out to tell the stories behind a great many images, some familiar and others rarely if ever previously seen, of Stirling’s career. Before then numerous books were published both during and after Stirling’s career including, in 2001, Robert Edwards’s authorized biography.

So where does this latest book fit in? It is described as the ‘definitive’ biography and certainly it is thorough. The bibliography shows that reference has been made to most of the books written over the years by or about Stirling although there are at least two which seem to have been overlooked. Philip Porter has also had access to the diaries which were the basis of the excellent Scrapbooks. This first volume of 600

Book reviews

pages covers Stirling’s life and career up the end of 1955. It is presented in the old-fashioned style with photographs inserted at intervals within the text although many of the early images have undergone a colourising process which seems a little inconsistent.

It is nothing if not thorough, perhaps too much so in detailing just about every cinema film which Stirling went to see, when he had a haircut, which card game he played with his parents, where he had lunch and so on.

As a comprehensive account of Stirling’s career and achievements to the end of his year with Mercedes-Benz, this book achieves its purpose.

There is probably no other book which does so and, at a cover price of £35, it is not expensive by modern standards. However, even for someone who is a wholly unreconstructed Stirling Moss fan, it is hard-going at times and the Scrapbooks, crammed with images and Stirling’s own comments as they are, convey a much better impression of the life and times of the UK’s first motor racing superstar. Murray Walker has provided the Foreword, there is a results section from Stirling’s first competitive event in his father’s BMW 328 to the end of 1955, and there is a very good index. IT

CTX 500 Last Train to Cockfosters Author: David Brodie Publisher: David Brodie Zaney (sic) Books Ltd (allegedly) ISBN: 12345678901 (probably not) For a good few years David Brodie has been threatening to publish his autobiography.

Chunks have been in circulation for some time but the day has now arrived and the full work is available. It is only 1496 pages long (yes, really!) and comes in two volumes. Or shall we say

this reviewer’s copy did; there is understood to be a lightweight, more manoeuvrable version in three smaller volumes.

We do not claim to have yet read this truly magnum opus from cover to cover. Suffice to say that open it at a page, any page, and you will find an anecdote which sucks you in as it rambles entertainingly across the next half dozen or so pages. However, be warned! It is in a way a kind of Private Eye of motor racing. Brode describes his world, in and outside racing, as he sees it.

If you are easily offended, steer clear. It is understood that copies are not available from good bookshops but are available from the author. IT

ISO BIZZARRINI – The remarkable history of A3/C 0222 Author: Richard Heseltine Publisher: Porter Press International ISBN: 978–1–907085–54–3 Philip Porter’s Great Cars series of large, comprehensive books covering the individual stories of notable racing cars began some two years ago, the only problem being that, if you acquire them all, and the seventh has just been published, you will soon need another bookshelf or two, such is their size. The series has now spawned a kind of junior version entitled ‘Exceptional Cars’ at half the price, £30, and half the size although the format is much the same.

The subject of the first is Iso Bizzarrini (née Grifo) A3/C 0222 which, despite its merits probably justifying the ‘exceptional’ label, could hardly be called one of the ‘Greats’. Its major claim to fame in a fairly brief racing career is a class win and ninth place overall in the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours in the hands of two

French amateurs Régis Fraissinet and Baron Jean de Mortemart. To put this result into context only 13 cars finished the race, there were no other finishers in the class and its average speed of 105.2 mph was slightly slower than that of the race-winning Tony Rolt/ Duncan Hamilton C-type Jaguar 12 years earlier.

Author Richard Heseltine has delved as deeply as is possible into the history of the car, unearthing for example the fact that it was once raced by Chris Amon, in the 200 Miles of Zeltweg just a few weeks after the Le Mans result. In a race around the straw bales of the Austrian airfield, Chris brought the car home fourth behind a Ferrari 250LM driven by Jochen Rindt, but not the NART car with which he and Masten Gregory had recently won Le Mans, Mike Parkes in a similar 250LM entered by Maranello Concessionaires, and Frank Gardner in the Willment Lotus-Ford Type 30. Richard was able to obtain Chris Amon’s recollections of the car which make interesting reading.

The Zeltweg race is thought to have been the last competitive outing for the car but Richard has traced its subsequent story including a lengthy period of ownership by an eccentric American restaurateur who used it on the streets of Rome, through well-known classic car collector and mineral water magnate Fabrizio Violati, to its present owner Bruce Meyer who has added it to his superb collection of authentic Le Mans cars.

Richard has also provided an account of the various automotive activities of the car’s creator Giotto Bizzarrini whose passion for motor racing seems to have far outweighed his business acumen but he certainly produced some exciting cars. The only real criticism of the book is that it does not include an appendix listing the car’s various races; these are covered in the narrative, which also includes profiles of all the car’s principal drivers in period. It is good value and hopefully only the first of many in a series. IT

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Book reviews

The Autobiography of ERA R4D Author: Mac Hulbert Publisher: Porter Press International ISBN: 978–1–907085–40–6 R4D is one of the first racing cars I ever had an awareness of in my life, having seen it conquer various hillclimbs since I was a small child. In more recent times I have had the pleasure of a closer familiarity with the car, mainly during the period that Mac Hulbert owned it, and record-breaking climbs at Prescott and Shelsley Walsh are etched in my mind along with Julian Bronson’s emphatic victories at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix. When Mac took the decision to retire from racing and conclude his ownership of the car after 14 years he commenced a long-standing ambition to produce a book about R4D. This is the sixth book in Porter Press International’s innovative series ‘Great Cars’ but the first to focus on a pre-World War Two car. It chronologically details R4D’s life story without returning to the well-covered ground of ERA’s history; indeed, each ERA has its own unique story but R4D is the most celebrated of the 17 machines. The car’s early development as a B-Type model, and transition to a C and then the D-Type is documented over a third of the book which should satisfy the technically-inquisitive reader, supported with well reproduced period photographs. While the subject matter could be perceived to be specialist, the vast array of competition photographs covering R4D’s global exploits means that this book will be of interest to any enthusiast of pre-war motor sport.

During the war, ERA co-founder Raymond Mays toured the country with R4D, delivering motivational talks to groups and inspiring them to get through the dark days and enjoy the resumption of competition.

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True to his word, the pairing was back competing when the war ended. R4D was at the front line of motor sport until the early 1950s and indeed the book claims that Mays and R4D were the most formidable sprint and hill-climb combination that Britain had ever witnessed. Mays sold the car to Ron Flockhart in 1952 when his commitments at BRM allowed him limited time to compete and therein comes the next portion of the book, following R4D’s activities over the next 60 or so years. It is truly extraordinary to think that R4D has been relevant and at the forefront of motor sport for such a long period of time and has seamlessly transitioned from being a car contemporary of its era to one of the foremost historic competition vehicles.

The concluding chapter is a ‘Portrait of R4D’ and exquisitely describes the form and function of the car.

Mac Hulbert’s experience of authoring numerous books on the subject of marketing shines through in this excellent production and it is a beautiful conclusion to his ownership of the car. David Weguelin’s book, The History of English Racing Automobiles written in the early 1980s, has been the long-standing reference guide to ERAs and an update covering more recent times is overdue.

This autobiography of R4D goes a long way to plug that gap and its £60 price tag is well justified for the pleasure that will be derived from this book occupying your bookcase. GC

WATCHING THE WHEELS – My Autobiography Author: Damon Hill (with Maurice Hamilton) Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 978–1–5098–3190–6 The basic facts of Damon Hill’s racing career are well known: 1996 Formula 1 World

Champion, winner of 22 Formula 1 Grands Prix with 20 F1 pole positions and 19 fastest laps. Son of double World Champion Graham Hill, who was killed in a plane crash when Damon was 15 years old, both were late starters in racing, Damon being 23 and Graham 24 when they first raced cars whilst it was not until he was 31 that Damon started his first Formula 1 race, Graham at 29 being slightly younger. Damon won just two motor racing championships during his career, the other one being the 1984 Champion of Brands motor cycle title.

So much for some facts. Where this book rises head and shoulders above almost every other motor racing autobiography or biography ever written is in the wholly personal, honest, courageous, highly articulate and at times very funny way in which Damon tells his life story. Although Maurice Hamilton is credited with helping Damon along the way, this is very much a story written by Damon who, after his retirement from racing at the end of 1999, enrolled with the Open University from which he graduated with a first class degree in Literature.

The early chapters of the book cover, in at times intimate, harrowing and deeply personal detail Damon’s early life growing up as the son of a motor racing super star, the appalling impact on the family of Graham Hill’s death in 1975, earning a living as a motor cycle courier and the influence of The Sex Pistols. With the encouragement of John Webb, Damon switched from ’bike racing to cars in 1983 before following the well – trodden path through Formula Ford 1600 and Formula 3 to Formula 3000.

In 1990 pole position for the F3000 race supporting the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim caught the eye of Patrick Head and so, when Mark Blundell moved on to McLaren, Damon became the Williams F1 test driver for 1991. The Williams role did not prevent Damon from racing for the Middlebridgeowned Brabham team in 1992 with the totally

Book reviews

uncompetitive BT60B-Judd. When Nigel Mansell departed for Indy Cars after winning his F1 World title that year, Damon was chosen by Frank Williams and Patrick Head to move up to the Williams race team alongside Alain Prost.

For the rest of his racing career Damon was in the spotlight as Great Britain’s top Formula 1 driver, replacing Nigel Mansell in public affection.

Dealing with Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Jacques Villeneuve as team mates and Michael Schumacher as his principal opponent is described with Damon’s inherent honesty. As someone who was in the middle of events as they unfolded, Damon writes about the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix and its aftermath with sensitive and intelligent insight. After driving what he describes as the race of his life in the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix, Damon was in contention for the World title in the final race at Adelaide until the clash with Michael Schumacher.

Learning from a journalist in the middle of the 1996 season, while trying to win the World Championship, that Williams would not be retaining him for the following year is described as it happened but with the benefit of hindsight. Damon’s last three years in Formula 1 with Arrows, with whom he nearly won the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Jordan, for whom he provided their first win in the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, are all put in their context. The whole narrative of the book is interlaced with aspects of Damon’s private life recounted with an openness and honesty which he would probably have shied away from 20 years ago.

In the Introduction Damon explains why it has taken 20 years for this story to be told and writes frankly about his battle with depression following his retirement. The reason for the choice of the book’s title, from a John Lennon song, is explained. The book closes with Acknowledgements to all the people who have helped and supported Damon through his life and career, in particular his wife Georgie to whom

the book is dedicated together with ‘all Hills, past, present and future’. Sir Jackie Stewart has written the Foreword, having known Damon ‘since he was a very wee boy’.

This is a book which cannot be too highly recommended. It is certainly one of the outstanding motor racing books of 2016 and probably the decade.

But don’t wait for the paperback version which is not due to appear until May next year. IT

FITZ – MY LIFE AT THE WHEEL Author: John Fitzpatrick Publisher: Autosports Marketing Associates ISBN: 978–0–692–72543–6

John Fitzpatrick will be familiar to many Members from his time as a BRDC director and latterly the Club Secretary from 1993 to 1998. That he was also a very successful sports and saloon car driver is also well known but the details of his career as one of Great Britain’s most successful professional racing drivers may be rather less recognised. This autobiography is therefore a very welcome addition to the literature of motor racing, giving as it does a first-hand account of racing as it was not so long ago but very different from how it is today.

Fitz, as he is universally known, originally had his

sights set on becoming a professional golfer until a fall from a tree while collecting acorns resulted in broken wrists and his swing was never the same again. After refraining from smoking or riding a motor cycle, for his 17th birthday Fitz was given an Austin Mini 850 by his father with which he was soon competing in driving tests and sprints around the Midlands. A chance encounter with Ralph Broad opened up possibilities both for the Mini and its owner and in his first full racing season in 1963 Fitz was carrying all before him at tracks around the country. Broadspeed cars were to feature prominently over the next few years, ranging from Mini-Cooper Ss, Ford Anglia, Ford Escort GT and RS1600 including victory in the 1966 British Saloon Car Championship with the Anglia (Fitz is still the youngest-ever Champion) and class wins in 1964 (in a works Cooper S), 1967, 1970 and 1971.

The second phase of Fitz’s career began in 1972 with the opportunity to drive a Porsche 911S for the Kremer brothers in the inaugural European GT Championship which he won, a feat which he repeated in 1974. He also won the first of his three Porsche Cups in this first season of Porsche racing whilst also able to drive a Schnitzer BMW 2800CS in the European Touring Car Championship. Over the next few years Fitz drove for many of the major manufacturers and teams with considerable success including the legendary ‘Cologne’ Capris, various Porsches up to and including 935s for Georg Loos, Holden for whom he won Bathurst in 1976, the year in which he shared the Hermetite BMW CSL with Tom Walkinshaw to win the first Silverstone 6 Hours by a slender margin from the Hans Heyer/ Bob Wollek Porsche. A year later Fitz was back at Silverstone with the magnificent but unreliable and underdeveloped Broadspeed Jaguar XJ12C. Driving for Georg Loos seems to have been a challenging but far from unsuccessful experience but in 1980 Fitz moved to the USA to drive for Dick Barbour in the 935 K3 in the IMSA Series plus Le Mans and

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Book reviews

a few other European events. There were victories at Sebring, five other American races and in Germany at the Norisring and Hockenheim. With Brian Redman and Dick Barbour, Fitz led Le Mans for 14 hours before a burnt piston slowed them to finish fifth overall. Two years later, with David Hobbs as co-driver, Fitz achieved his best Le Mans result with fourth overall in the Moby Dick 935 variant. At the end of 1980 Dick Barbour was forced to close his team which led to Fitz setting up his own team, John Fitzpatrick Racing, first with 935s and then from 1983 with Group C Porsche 956s and with backing from Jerry ‘JDavid’ Dominelli, one of the interesting characters about whom Fitz has various stories to tell in the book. Towards the end of 1983 Fitz achieved one of his best results by winning the Brands Hatch round of the World Sports Car Championship, sharing the 956 in very wet conditions with a promising young British Formula 1 driver, Derek Warwick, having one of his first sports car races. Fitz retired from driving at the end of the year but continued to operate his team with a variety of sponsorship deals but battling against the big budget factory teams became increasingly difficult and at the end of 1986 Fitz sold the team and its assets to Jochen Dauer.

Published by Michael Keyser’s Autosports Marketing Associates company, which was also responsible for the well-received Jonathan Williams autobiography Shooting Star on a Prancing Horse, this is an attractively presented book in landscape format with a great many colour images from Fitz’s own collection and therefore unlikely to have been seen previously. Forewords have been contributed

by Howden Ganley, David Hobbs and Tim Schenken and there is a very good index together with a comprehensive record of all Fitz’s competitive events from Ragley Hall in April 1962 in the Mini 850 to Mugello in October 1983 when he finished fourth with Hobbo and Thierry Boutsen in a JFR Porsche 956.

Anyone with an interest in endurance and touring car

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racing in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s should acquire a copy of this book. IT

50 Years of the Historic Sports Car Club Author: Paul Lawrence Publisher: TFM Publishing (Currently, only available from the HSCC office. Tel: 01327 858400) ISBN: 978–1–910079–54–6 Since its very first race at Castle Combe 50 years ago, the Historic Sports Car Club has been at the forefront of the branch of the sport catering for cars from days gone by. Initially offering drivers of older, uncompetitive cars an alternative to leaving them in garages, the HSCC has grown into an organisation that is the envy of many other organising clubs.

From running one race in someone else’s race meeting, the HSCC has grown into a Club that can fill two days of racing with its own championships. Not all have worked, and some have fizzled out or morphed into a different category, but throughout its history, the HSCC has moved with the times, reacting to competitor demand and its reputation and financial standing, under the current leadership of BRDC Associate Member Grahame White, has never been better.

Paul Lawrence has worked closely with the HSCC for many years and his book, detailing the first 50 years of the Club, offers a fascinating look at not just how the HSCC has developed, but how historic motor racing has changed as well. Readers are reminded of the ground-breaking two-day HSCC weekend at Donington Park, unheard of at the time in historic circles, which then spawned the Brands Hatch Superprix that is still going strong today.

There are candid recollections from those involved HSCCDec16.qxp_Layout 1 06/12/2016 14:36 Page 56

in some of the difficulties in the club’s past and an acknowledgement of how much of a role the late John Foulston played in the financial security of the Club when its finances were in a troubled state.

Paul Lawrence has done an excellent job of finding many of the people involved in that first Griffiths Formula race in 1966 and chronicles the history of the club by decades, looking not only at what was developing on track but off it as well as the HSCC changed leadership and locations and weathered the occasional storm.

With some excellent photographs, many of course never published before given the relatively low profile of historic racing, plus a comprehensive list of champions and the Club’s award winners, there is many an occasion when one asks oneself, “Whatever happened to him?” although there are many names that feature throughout the Club’s history that are still racing and winning today.

You don’t have to be a historic racing fan to enjoy this book, as it highlights an organisation never afraid to innovate and never afraid to reinvent itself and at a time in which the Club runs major, promoted, events at Oulton Park, Donington Park and Silverstone, its story still has many chapters to write. DA

FERRARI 250GT BERLINETTA The autobiography of 2119GT Author: Doug Nye Publisher: Porter Press International ISBN: 978–1–907085–23–9 Philip Porter’s concept of publishing a series about Great Cars, with each book focussing on an individual car, has never worked better than in this wonderful history of probably one of the best known and fondly

Book reviews

remembered Ferrari 250GTs of all. And there could not be a better author for the book than the incomparable Doug Nye whose knowledge, understanding and feel for the subject, the era in which it raced, and its later life, are sans pareil.

The car in question is the Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta which first appeared at Goodwood for the 1960 RAC Tourist Trophy entered by Rob Walker’s RRC Walker Racing Team for Stirling Moss, having been acquired by Rob with help from wealthy enthusiast and stockbroker Dick Wilkins. The TT was Stirling’s third race, and his first in the UK, since sustaining serious injuries in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix from which he had made an extraordinarily rapid recovery. Principal opposition came from the Essex Racing Stable Aston Martin DB4GTs of Roy Salvadori and Innes Ireland although there were five other 250GT Berlinettas for the likes of Colin Davis, Jo Schlesser and Willy Mairesse. After three hours, and misfortune for Roy and Innes, Stirling was the winner by two laps from the two Astons. He only raced the car twice more, at Brands Hatch one week after the TT and in the Nassau TT in the Bahamas at the end of November, winning on both occasions.

2119GT then passed to Tommy Sopwith of Equipe Endeavour fame and Ronnie Hoare’s Maranello Concessionaires for the 1961 season when it was usually raced by the up and coming Michael Parkes who carried on the car’s winning ways at Snetterton and Easter Monday Goodwood. A fortnight later 2119GT, in the hands of Jack Sears on this occasion, was up against the debuting Jaguar E-types of Graham Hill and Roy Salvadori and suffered its first defeat, finishing fourth behind the two E-types and Innes Ireland’s Aston DB4GT which passed Roy a lap before the end. After only a couple more races, 2119GT was replaced by one of the uprated 250GT Berlinetta Competiziones and was acquired by an Italian collector Giovanni Portaluppi. Subsequent

owners have included several BRDC Members and since 2012 the car has reposed with Ross Brawn, which could hardly be more appropriate.

This magnificent and profusely-illustrated book is divided into six sections: Setting the Scene, Racing with Moss, Racing into 1961, Later life, With Ross Brawn and 2119GT in Detail. Each section is divided into several chapters, which include profiles of the various owners, an analysis by Ross of the design, and concluding with many images of the car as it is today. A cover price of £60 may not be small change but it is surely a small price to pay for such a superb publication. IT

The Spa 24 Hours – A History Author: David Blumlein Publisher: Transport Bookman Ltd ISBN: 978–0–85184–077–2

Just as the Le Mans 24 Hours gets more media coverage as an event, so too are there many more books about the history of the race than the 24 hour equivalent across the Belgian border. The Spa 24 Hours is a race that has weathered many a storm, political and meteorologically and David Blumlein’s labour of love chronicles much of the event’s heritage and problems.

First run in 1924, the race was inevitably mothballed during the war and revived in 1948 for sports and touring cars before it was dropped again as the cost of running the race for a dwindling grid in front of few people were crippling for the organisers. After a period of running two-hour races, the Spa 24 Hours was reborn in 1953 as a round of the nascent World Sports Car Championship, only for the race to be

dropped from the calendar at the end of the season.

It disappeared until 1964 after celebrated Belgian journalist racer Paul Frere, impressed by what he had seen at the 1962 Nürburgring 12 Hour race for touring cars, sold the idea of a 24 hour touring car race to the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium. The next chapter was born. Works teams and privateers alike tackled the event which then grew into a round of the European and, fleetingly, World Touring Car Championships, until problems arose once more. The demise of the International Group A regulations left no central touring car specification, and although Super Touring was popular, those cars weren’t designed for long-distance races. The event battled on for a decade of ragamuffin classes but when a Peugeot 306 won back-to-back races, it was clearly time for a change. In 2001, Stephane Ratel’s SRO organisation rescued the event as it became a round of the FIA GT Championship, but change came again in 2010 as the category had morphed into the FIA GT1 World Championship and its two, one-hour, races format. So, the event reinvented itself again, opening the 2010 edition to GT2, GT3 and GT4 cars, which in turn led to the creation of the Blancpain Endurance Series.

David Blumlein’s book does a decent job of chronicling the event’s history but is vexatious in its uninspiring captions (One of the RAS Volvos… being a case in point), its results section is far from comprehensive and drivers’ first names are inconsistently researched. The photographs, many from the excellent John Brooks, are fascinating, but you are left with a need to head to Google to fill in the blanks. Don’t expect to find the well-researched captions that Ian Titchmarsh produces so eloquently for the Bulletin.

That aside, it is still a book worth buying despite its quirks and offers a welcome history of an oftoverlooked event. DA

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Members' News

Members’ news

Tall tales Brian Redman’s book, written by him and Jim Mullen, Brian Redman: Daring Drivers, Deadly Tracks, won the Royal Automobile Club’s 2016 Motoring Book of the Year Award. It was presented at the annual ceremony held at the Club’s Pall Mall clubhouse, attended by authors and leading publishers.

Show and shine

Thanks to a new association with the Concours of Elegance, 30 BRDC Members and their guests benefitted from an invitation to attend ‘Owners’ Day’ at the Windsor Castle event in early September. Ross Brawn was exhibiting his Dick Wilkins/Rob Walker/Sir Stirling Moss Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta in the Concours, while Members were able to display their finest vehicles in a special parking area.

Left: Matt Allison with Ross Brawn and his ex-Stirling Moss Ferrari 250GT Below: Chris Marshall and John Markey enjoy the relaxed atmosphere at the Concours of Elegance.

Photos: Matt Allison

Still winning!

The old partnership of Andy Dawson and Andrew Marriott was back in action recently to prove that even a performance car can be parsimonious by achieving a 36.6 miles per gallon reading against the manufacturer’s combined figure of 20.9 mpg in the 2016 MPG Marathon. This was an astonishing 75.12% improvement, the highest percentage improvement ever seen on the event and earned them the coveted top prize on the event where drivers are charged to devise the most economical route between a number of waypoints in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire.

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Members' News

High seas Rex Woodgate is not only a dedicated BRDC Regional Co-ordinator but also an intrepid yachtsman. This autumn he received a coveted award from the Royal Yachting Association for lifetime commitment to yachting and boating from HRH the Princess Royal.

Rex has been an extremely active member of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club since 1990 and has dedicated a great deal of time over the years to sitting on various committees.

For the past 14 years Rex has led a flotilla of members on one-day mid-week rallies to destinations in and around the Solent area. He has now organised more than 500 rallies and each May he has led a rally to St Vaast, skippering his yacht Rise & Shine Too across the Channel to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Volunteers and guests at the luncheon were told: “As a valued club ambassador, Rex has given a huge amount of time and energy to the club itself and to the sport and he continues to be a terrific example and inspiration to members for his enthusiasm and sheer love of sailing.”

The Rat returns New Zealand-based Member, Paul Radisich, visited the UK in September to compete at the Goodwood Revival meeting and also managed to fit a visit to the British Touring Car Championship races at Silverstone into his schedule. He joined Vice President Howden Ganley and John Fitzpatrick who were signing the books they have both recently written, and had a lot of fun catching up with familiar faces from his former world of touring cars.

Piper’s tune Richard Piper celebrated his 69th birthday in style by competing in the final round of Peter Auto’s Classic Endurance Racing Series in his March 75S at Imola where he celebrated in autumnal Italian sunshine with his wife Ina and friend and fellow Member, Patric Capon. He finished seventh in the race, which was won by fellow Club Member, Martin O’Connell in a Chevron B23.

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Members' News

Bugatti memorabilia

Different strokes

Colin Crabbe donated Ettore Bugatti’s Membership Card to the Club when he visited us in the summer. It was given to Colin in 1967 by Uwe Hucke, which was also the year when Colin became a Full Member. Hucke was in charge of winding up the Bugatti Estate and this was a much-cherished item. We also received a very rare Yearbook from the Club’s history, and the Club is grateful to Colin for allowing them to become part of the Archive.

A word for BRDC Rising Star Ant Whorton-Eales and SuperStar Ben Barnicoat who turned their hand to BriSCA Formula One Stock Car racing in November at Birmingham Wheels. Clio Cup-schooled Ant won the Whites and Yellows race, for the novice graded drivers, while Ben got stuck in as well although the racing was a far cry from Formula 3!

Great Scots!

Hugh McCaig organised a tour of the Glengoyne Distillery near Campsie Glen, north of Glasgow for the annual Scottish Region gathering. Members were joined by many prominent names in Scottish motor sport, including the two young Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 570S GT4 drivers, Sandy Mitchell and Ciaran Haggerty.

A lunch followed the tour and the intrepid Graham Gauld, who had flown in from his home in the South of France, interviewed the young duo. Gordon Shedden and Dario Franchitti also joined and it was a delight that Billy Skelly, a Member since 1952, travelled over from the Isle of Man.

BRDC BULLETIN WINTER 2016

89

Standings | Calendar of Events

BRDC GOLD STAR 2016

BRDC SILVER STAR 2016

BRDC F3 AUTUMN TROPHY

31 OCTOBER 2016 FINAL STANDINGS

31 OCTOBER 2016 FINAL STANDINGS

29-30 OCTOBER 2016 FINAL STANDINGS

Pos Driver Championship/class

Pts

Pos Driver Championship/class

Pts

1 Lewis Hamilton FORMULA 1 420

1 Colin Turkington BTCC

186 (222)

2 Daniel Ricciardo FORMULA 1 272

2 Gordon Shedden BTCC

184 (231)

3 Mat Jackson BTCC

183 (215)

3 Jann Mardenborough

FORMULA 3/SUPER GT (GT300) 246

4 Nick Cassidy

FORMULA 3/SUPER GT 226

5 George Russell FORMULA 3 201 6 Ed Jones

INDY LIGHTS 178

7 Euan Hankey GT3 LE MANS CUP/ INTERNATIONAL GT OPEN 152

8 Rob Huff WORLD TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP 140

9 Dean Stoneman INDY LIGHTS 138 10 Mike Conway WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP/LE MANS/ EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES 127

see page 13

4 Dino Zamparelli PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB 176(202)

5 Sam Tordoff BTCC

166 (204)

Pos Driver

Pts

1 Enaam Ahmed

99

2 Joey Mawson

82

3 Callan O’Keeffe

61

4 Dan Ticktum

59

5 Jamie Caroline

52

6 Tarun Reddy

51

7 Cameron Das

44

8 James Pull

36

= Abdullah Al Rawahl

36

10 Sasakorn Chalmongkol

28

157 (183)

7 Matt Neal BTCC

154 (181)

JANUARY

MARCH

8 Rob Collard BTCC

144 (189)

12–15 AUTOSPORT International

23

Southern Regional Lunch

31

North-east Regional Dinner

9 Andrew Jordan BTCC

138 (154)

10 Adam Morgan BTCC

131 (147)

see page 15

The Racing Car Show

Venue: NEC, Birmingham

FEBRUARY

8 see page 78

For complete standings, please visit the Club website www.brdc.co.uk

90

WINTER 2016 BRDC BULLETIN

EVENTS 2017

6 Jason Plato BTCC

Members Social Lunch (Members & Guests) Venue: BRDC Clubhouse Contact: catering@brdc.co.uk Tel: 01327 850 923

23

London Regional Dinner

26

Midlands & Wales Regional Lunch

Venue: RAF Club, Piccadilly Contact: Sue Goold Email: sue.goold@brdc.co.uk Tel: 01327 850 923 Venue: Nuthurst Grange, Hockley Heath Contact: Tony Fletcher Email: tony@premier.ms Tel: 07768 998 822

Venue: Gins, Beaulieu River, near to Bucklers Hard Contact: Rex Woodgate Email: rexjwoodgate@tiscali.co.uk OR Contact: Brian Heath Tel: 01590 643 408 Venue: Rudding Park Hotel, Harrogate Contact: Peter Procter Email: peterprocter@btconnect.com Tel: 01756 720 664

1994 Jaguar XJ220. Sold for (£): 275,625

Race Retro Sale 24th - 26th February 2017 Stoneleigh Park, Coventry CV8 2LG

Join us at our next sale Competition Car Sale - 24th February Viewing: 09:30 - 15:00 Auction: 15:00 onwards

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Classic Car Sale - 25th/26th February Viewing: 24th February 09:30 - 17:00 25th February 09:30 - 13:30 Auction: 25th/26th Automobilia 11:00 25th/26th Cars 14:00 onwards