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| Track and Race Cars Magazine Monoposto Championship Silverstone 1 August 2009 2litre Classes & 1600 One does not know what the Mono2000s have done to offend the weather gods, but while the other Monoposto race got off with light rain and a greasy track, the 2000s received the full deluge.On this occasion they shared their grid with the 1600s so the 1600s were treated to similar conditions. Qualifying: Mono2000, Mono2000 Classic, Mono2000 Formula, and Mono1600. I took my position in the stand at Copse just in time for Richard Purcell to entertain spectators with a big spin, not long after Francis Philips and Mark Smith gave repeat performances. Many took to the run off area at Copse, ‘Ah for the good old days when this was an unforgiving gravel trap and the cause of many red flags’. Conditions were poor with steady rain but they were to be considerably worse for the race. Amanda Whitaker's long standing lap record (from the last millennium!) was not going to be challenged in 2009. The Dallaratocracy headed the sheets, lead by Neil Harrison and Jeremy Timms. Interestingly Neil looked the most conservative of this group, with Kevin the most ebullient – but the times told a different story. Neil and Jeremy were both in the 1:10s, Tristan Cliffe was on 1:11s as was Nick Anstruther in the Bowman. Tristan’s experience of the session wasn’t very positive – reflected in his own report of the proceedings. The older Dallara of Kevin Mason was in the 1:12s along with Richard Purcell's rather special FVL. Jeremy Goodman had a slightly scary moment into Copse, locking up and wavering towards the wall, but he caught it all well, and Russ Giles reported a total lack of grip, but nevertheless qualified well. David Cox spun twice, once at Lufield and once luridly missing the pitwall and ending up pointing in the right direction. The 1600s were headed by Ian Hughes with the Agent on1:18.9s – starting what was to be a weekend to remember. Geoff Fern was next up but parked the usually reliable RF89 on the inside of Copse with locked-on brakes, useful on a racing car...... Tony Cotton was the first of the three elegant Van Diemen Formula Vauxhall 8v Juniors, perhaps this car is at last being recognised as ideal mount for the Mono1600 class. New man here is Nigel Smith (some may remember his son Adam racing the same car very effectively in the late 80s). Nigel is no mean peddler himself and had a very impressive first outing with Mono. Selection of slicks hampered his qualifying, as it did Tony Davies. David Parkinson was in an unfamiliar penultimate position on the grid, his Reynard being a work in progress, after being substantially damaged by a BMW at the start of Friday testing. He’d made a sterling effort to fix the damage aided by a visit to Ken Thorogood’s emporium of parts. His progress in much of the session was impeded by something flapping loose under the car. The Race: Mono2000, Mono2000 Classic, Mono2000 Formula, Mono1600. The heavens opened prior to the start of the race, the track surface was effectively completely covered with standing water of varying depths. It must have given the CoC considerable concern, but the race went ahead as planned. Neil Harrison made an excellent start, the yellow Dallara was first round Copse, an excellent colour to spot in the prevailing conditions. Kevin Mason’s start from the third row of the grid was even better, and this pair came through clear ahead of Nick’s Bowman. Unfortunately Kevin had a damaging excursion at Becketts followed by retirement with another off at Maggots. By the end of the first lap a wet weather running order had been established. Neil Harrison and Nick Anstruther came through Copse about 5s ahead of Russ Giles in the Reynard, he headed the next group composed of Richard Purcell, Jeremy Timms, (who had gone the wrong way on setup and was very comfortable as a result), Jim Blockley and Lenny Coleman – who was starting a stormer of a race. The rest of the field followed after an appreciable gap, the faster 1600s mixing it with the slower 2000s. Tristan’s video shows why, the 2000s were having great difficulty putting their power down even when on the straights. Tristan had already spun his Dallara at Brooklands. He restarted in14th position. Neil’s leading Dallara was being slowly caught by Nick Anstruther and on lap five Nick took the Classic Bowman through to lead the race. Driving very hard, Nick built up a steadily increasing lead, only to spin it away at Becketts after he eased off right at the end with a big lead in hand. The unforced error cost him a fine win and the poor lad had his head in hands as he came in fourth overall. Tristan’s drive back from 14th to 2nd overall is described elsewhere and was one of the highlights of the race.
Russ had occupied a solid third position for much of the race, he hung onto this position to take the classic class win from the quickly recovering Nick Anstruther by just 0.5s. Prior to being overtaken by Nick on the last lap, Lenny Coleman did a grand job of upholding the honour of FVL, and the more mature driver; he had an excellent run to third in class, at one stage he had been third overall. After an equally good run in similar conditions at Cadwell last year, we will have to consider Lenny a foul weather specialist. Jim Blockley's RT3 was next up followed by Richard Purcell and Jeremy Timms, Terry Clark (FVL), Mick Kinghorn and Jeremy Goodman followed on before there was a 22 second gap to Mark Smith who was 3.8s ahead of the first Mono1600. Graham Read splashed home to win the Formula class. On the opening lap the 1600s had come through Copse as a remarkably compact group presumably unable to see in the spray kicked up by the 2 litre cars. When they sorted themselves out Ian Hughes had the initial lead and thought he was home and dry – mistake on both counts. Nigel Smith in the Vauxhall Junior came storming up to the front and a classic duel ensued in the appalling conditions. The two fought for the class win throughout the race and unlike the 2 litre race which, for some drivers, had an element of snakes and ladders about it, this race was car to car, and they came through Copse side by side on several occasions. Eventually Nigel took the rough and wide route through Copse allowing Ian to take a well deserved win by 2s. It was an epic that both drivers can be proud of. Ian dedicated this class win in the Agent to the memory of Uncle Ray. Third in class fell into the Clutches of Tony Davies and the repaired cars of Geoff Fern and David Parkinson remained reliable and took fourth and fifth. Given the appalling conditions retirements were few. Modern race car electrics seem to be impressively waterproof. As well as Kevin Mason's retirement on lap one, the race lost David Cox to the pits on lap three, and Barry Smith and Henry Fryer later in the race when Barry removed various components from the front of his car when lapping Henry. Both drivers were blameless victims of the weather – neither even knew the other was there until they heard the bang… It’s also certainly worth recording that the Clerk of the Course complimented the entire field on their driving in the very difficult conditions. Fastest laps went to: Tristan Cliff, Nick Anstruther, Graham Reid and Nigel Smith. Tristan, several seconds faster than the competition, set a fastest lap some 7s slower than the fastest qualifying lap, and 20s slower than Amanda's record, that alone gives some measure of how bad conditions were. Mark Smith took the Super Clutch Driver of the Day Award, having improved from 20th on the grid to 12th overall – I wonder how many of the cars he passed he actually saw? Patrick Huston
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Long-time Mono competitor Francis Phillips was in his new Reynard 923, always a neat looking design
Richard Purcell's rather special FVL
Kevin Mason's rear wing adopted a strange attitude - Ing Dallara's new "very low downforce" model
Jeremy Timms was an uncharacteristic 8th
The NorthEastern chapter of the MRC: Barry Smith and Mick Kinghorn
Close-up - more drivers than just Barry felt the need to run with the visor open
Jeremy Goodman deftly applies a dab of oppo. (Dab? more like an armful. Still deft though.)
David Cox's fellow RT3 prior to, we think, a Lauda-type retirement All pix Norwich Photo/Andrew Cliffe
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