SILVERSTONE

As the season gets well into its second half we have three critical championship races coming in the space of 8 days. Anyone testing will find themselves with two test days and three races to pay for, prep for and supply their car with consumables for, in 9 days. It’s busy work, and expected to hit the Cadwell entry pretty hard.

Not only that, but anyone suffering damage or mechanical problems at Silverstone has only a few scant days to repair it. We have not had this level of time pressure before, but the championship contenders have no option but to rise to the challenge.

Silverstone presents itself first, a fairly dull, flat track, saved only from utter tedium by the fun of throwing a couple of tons of Jaguar at Copse whilst shouting “wheeeee” in a silly voice. Awesome corner, great to get it right, and 200 miles of run off if you get it wrong. Sillystone’s greatest strength perhaps is that it’s a high speed track, and it is very hard to hit anything.

Changes to the circuit have made that even more true, the pit straight is now wider, someone moved the grandstands, and the wall! Wide, fast, but with little real sense of speed, it makes Luffield a real disappointment as the cars struggle for front end grip and try for more speed at this eternal right hander, any sense of velocity killed by the barren tarmac desert that F1 demands from its circuits. There can be no greater contrast between any two circuits than Silverstone and Cadwell.

TESTING

As ever, the gruesome twosome of the Harrison brothers, and the Bearded Webster out to play, all of them with significant changes from the last race that they need to test, and going through petrol, brakes and tyres like there is no tomorrow. For the E class cars this latter point is a real issue, because there is a nationwide shortage of the correct sized R1R tyres, leading both to test on ruined rubber. Questions about how it can be possible for there to be a shortage of the control tyre are heard.

To add to the spice of testing, the place is being utterly torn apart by two FIA GT-spec Aston Martins, travelling at the same sort of pace as a comet. Flat in 5^th in your Jag heading into Becketts and feeling very pleased with yourself for how early you needed that gear, steaming down the left of the track on the way in telling yourself you can go later on the brakes than last time, and a yellow blur goes past as if you’re standing still, and doesn’t brake until the point at which you’d be going for third gear, changes direction like a cursor, and disappears in a howl of exhaust before you can work out which of the two cars it even is. It is a little disheartening. When they broke down later on there may have been an element of ribbing of the pit crew about buying a proper car.

QUALIFYING.

The Kutukans were out to qualify so early they needed tents and a primus, but in a mixed saloon/XJS session it was always going to be important to get some clear track, and the flood of West Riding Cars immediately astern attested to one thing, which is that the most successful teams in each championship are clearly of similar mind.

The Bear engaged warp drive immediately, and burned in a time for pole position almost immediately, then proceeded to simply get faster, until a broken bonnet pitted him. Worthy of note for the race to come however that any one of his flying laps would have netted p1, by well over a second.

Amazingly, it is the T1R-shod Lyddall, all smoke and drift, that takes p2 on the grid. 1.2 seconds adrift of pole, but leading the sticky-shod and more powerful Coppock machine for the class pole, Coppock suffering with dreadful understeer at the key right hander of Becketts.

On this mixed grid though, the surprise is that p4 is the lead saloon. Chris Palmer, despite his huge power and grip, is relegated to row three by the flying Rich Dorlin, with another three saloons around him within a half a second.

Next XJS is row 5, the improving James Ramm, leading the off-form Harrison and Webster, both locking row 7 for the XJS, with a host of fast XJ40s astern.

So close is the grid that the next of the XJS is all the way back in 22^nd place, Comer takes class p2, Seath 3^rd in D in 24^th, leading a rush of D class cars, MacVicar from a returning BCB – Bruce Cologne-Brookes, back out after a long absence playing with faster things and looking to shakedown his veteran XJS.

Beecham and Crossley are as ever locked in their eternal duel, XJS D cars packing out rows 12-14, the 5 cars split by under 2 seconds. Richard Coppock brings up the rear in his first time out at this track.

RACE

Whilst saloons and XJS alike would interfere in each others’ races, we have reached that time of the year when the more thoughtful drivers are starting to look towards points, rather than outright racing, and some of the “duels” in this race were rather more processional than appearances would suggest. Some pilots of course were out to race anything they saw, others trying not to race anyone at all, making for a bizarre dichotomy and some unusual performances.

Lights out, and Bear leads from pole so decisively that Lyddall would later describe seeing nothing but a red blur. Coppock as ever makes a superb launch from 3^rd and Lyddall’s pole heroics count for nothing against better grip and power, p2 is lost in moments.

Perhaps crucially, Palmer makes no headway off the start whatsoever, and not only fails to jump Dorlin, but has Bye close astern, anxious to jump the S to pursue the saloon win. By the end of the first lap alone Palmer is three seconds off the lead.

Ramm has a poor opening lap, dropping from p9 to p12 after a kamikaze piece of grass-cutting at Beckets, lucky to hold it and not slam sideways into the pack, but crucially retaining position as 5^th XJS. The fast-starting Webster however has passed Harrison off the line, and is now right on Ramm’s tail, the class E battle for third mirrors their points situation, this is a fight for p3 overall in class E, and they have evenly-matched machines, Ramm perhaps with the edge on power.

Harrison lost places off the line, made them all back with the classic inside to outside line at Becketts, and then dropped them again along the straight, mirrors full of saloons, windscreen full of class E battle, neither one of them a place for a D car to play.

Next XJS is Comer, but with 5 saloons between himself and Harrison this wasn’t to turn into another Mallory, instead it is a fast-starting Seath that has made up two places to sit off his bumper, but is himself under such pressure from the saloon of Doyle that pursuit is far from his mind.

A good start and opening lap from BCB sees him too on the tail of the Seath/Doyle chase, Bob MacVicar’s machine close astern and matching laptimes.

Crossley is instantly 2 seconds faster than Beecham off the opening lap, Bob coming under early pressure from Baby Coppock, the fight to be “not last” usually more important than the lead!

Out front Bear has 2.6 seconds at the end of lap 2, and keeps plugging in fastest laps to extend his lead inexorably in this early phase. Coppock’s V12 is still second, but Palmer uses his superior grip to overtake Lyddall and is on the tail of the 6 litre by lap 3, the understeer that plagued Coppock in qualifying still making the white monster a tricky car to wrestle round the slower corners. Palmer makes the pass stick on lap 4, putting the class E lighter weight and better balance to use to draw clear by an immediate 2 seconds as Coppock struggles with the errant beast.

Lyddall is locked in combat first with Rich Dorlin’s saloon, then Palmer. Losing the place to Palmer sees Lyddall mount an attack back on Dorlin, though old nemesis Derek “Darth” Pearce in the mirrors has him distracted by sheer nostalgia. Lyddall re-takes the saloon on lap 3, but this contest is far from over.

Webster is hard astern of Ramm, it’s still under a second on lap 3, but the Beard is finding it tough to stay with the orange-splashed E car down the straights, the motorbike throttle bodies suiting the long drag races here, and the fuzzy-chinned Webster is starting to struggle to hang on.

Harrison is dropping back fast, measuring the gap to class rival Comer and letting saloons past with a cheerful wave, no other XJS to race and in line for a very lonely afternoon.

Comer has Seath covered now, four seconds clear and extending, Seath now under huge pressure from Doyle in the XJ6, only tenths behind, and Doyle’s bold style would soon see him make a decisive pass on lap 4.

BCB is in heated battle now with MacVicar, there is only a tenth of a second in it by lap 3, and the pair are utterly inseperable, MacVicar makes it through on lap 4 only for a determined BCB to take advantage back on lap 6, crucially squeezing a hapless saloon between them as a buffer. This trio are the tightest scrap on track, and will remain locked together to the flag.

The other car on the march is, unsurprisingly, Baby Coppock. It is a now-familiar sight, the poor man is seeing the track for the first time each race in qualifying, daddy is kind enough to show him round for a couple of circuits, and then drops the hammer, but as junior gets hold of the track he picks up the race pace and sets about harassing Bob Beecham. As it is written so shall it be done, he grinds down the gap and slices neatly past on lap 4, job done.

Now having to watch the mirrors is Crossley, who has been holding a nice 3-second gap on Beecham in this “best of the T1R D cars” contest, something of an informal but no less important sub-category, but now he has Coppock in the mirrors, and he’s faster. Lap times show Crossley’s immediate response is to take a full second off his own time, but then a slow lap 5 and it’s game on, Coppock2 only 3/10ths behind and hunting, Bob now only a second astern, Class D, as ever, the tightest fight. We have said it time and again, but whilst everyone is looking for the leader, it’s actually the fight in the bottom half of the grid that is where the real action is.

Lap 7, half distance, and there is some sort of order to the chaos now. Bear is 5 seconds clear of second placed Palmer, Coppock’s handling woes have him a further 4 seconds adrift, not at all what we expected from the mighty v12 here. Just as it all looks stable, Bear comes up to lap Bob Beecham, and his gearknob comes off in his paw. As he stares at it stupidly the brief confusion is enough to lose brief control, and the race leader slams into poor old Bob, who was quietly minding his own business and getting politely out of the way. Cosmetic damage to both cars, but both continue unabated, fortunately.

Lyddall is hunting Dorlin, perhaps pointlessly, but Dorlin wants the bragging rights for out-driving the V12 champ, and who can blame him? The next XJS is Ramm, over ten seconds adrift, Webster still only a second behind him, with Pete Dorlin sandwiched in between, this trio very close indeed, Dorlin the faster in the corners but unable to make it past the more potent XJS.

Class D leader Harrison is some 8 seconds back still, 7 clear of Comer and following XJ40s around for something to do, when you have no-one to race a 15 minute race lasts forever.

Seath’s pursuit of Comer is really ended by his duel with Doyle, by lap 5 Comer was 9 seconds clear as Doyle defended his place, and a spin from Seath on lap 6 dropped him down the order to rejoin just ahead of Coppock2. Coppock had just dispatched Crossley, slow in defence and ultimately a sitting duck to the more potent 4 litre car at this power-critical track, and with Seath appearing suddenly ahead scented yet another XJS scalp.

Indeed their respective next laps are only tenths apart, Coppock junior registering his fastest laps in pursuit, and remarkably able to match Seath’s laptimes until disaster struck, into the pits on lap 11 with mechanical failure. A sad end to a very promising race.

Harrison now 9 seconds clear of Comer, Comer himself now 15 clear of BCB, who with Seath’s spins and his sparkling re-pass of MacVicar now finds himself 3^rd in class in his first race with the series for over a season. Nice work! MacVicar has hardly given up, he’s only 2 seconds back, but it’s a gap that BCB has well in hand.

With Coppock’s overtake, Crossley has himself a new worry. As is so often the case, one car coming past can snowball into a difficult afternoon as either rhythm or mindset get disturbed, and now Beecham’s laptimes are matching his own precisely. It’s touch and go for a while until with lapping leaders some order reasserts itself, and he can begin to gradually draw clear again.

Lap 10, and drama at the front. Seven seconds clear of Palmer and extending by over a second per lap, the race leader overcooks it into the complex and falls off the road, losing not only his entire lead but dropping slightly behind into p2. Palmer, unable to believe his luck, fortunately doesn’t have long to think about it, 2 corners later and a dummy from the Bear at Becketts has him off-line, and the re-pass for the lead is clean and quick.

This does now put Coppock back within 7 seconds of the front, and with Lyddall back ahead of Dorlin as the latter breaks down, but only 8 seconds adrift there is a brief moment of wonder whether a magical Hollywood ending is coming to this race, 4 cars closing in for the lead. No. Bear runs away again, Coppock settles quite sensibly for the class win, and Lyddall can do nothing about his smoked rubber. No script writer for this contest, sorry.

With this last fling of drama the race is essentially run, there are no more changes of position coming. Bear drags a 3 second gap to Palmer and wins comfortably, damaged paintwork and all. Palmer in p2, Coppock 3^rd, Lyddall 4^th, class E and G in Noah’s ark formation.

Ramm takes 5^th, continuing his run of decent results, Webster 6^th, missing the last class trophy, but unable to close back within 4 seconds once Ramm made his break, that crucial saloon buffer doing its job at the right time.

Harrison 7^th for the class D win, 19 seconds behind Webster and fast asleep at the wheel, Comer 2^nd in D 11 seconds back.

BCB a superb 3^rd in D, 9^th overall, handlily holding off MacVicar, never able to close Bruce down once he found his stride. Comer and BCB does rather smack of nostalgia, 2007 the last time this gruesome twosome were together in class.

Seath a disappointed 5^th in class, leading Crossley from Beecham, Richard having regained his momentum despite some close calls, lap 13 for example, clear air allowing Beecham to steal nearly a second off him. It’s all about the laptimes!

Third win of the year then for Alex Harrison, second in a row, and perhaps a shift in the championship momentum as we reach 2/3 distance in the season, the points lead Palmer enjoys eroded yet again.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

WINNERS

ALEX HARRISON We don’t usually celebrate errors, but in some perverse way losing a huge lead with a daft spin and flattening poor old Bob to boot makes the eventual win, passing Palmer so very easily on the way, all the more entertaining.

BRUCE COLOGNE BROOKES – away for a year, that last outing rather ignominious, the last race he actually finished was in 2007, yet back he comes, straight into the trophies. Well done sir.

RICHARD COPPOCK – unlucky, but that was a good drive until the car broke, we liked that.

LOSERS

V12s generally. Coppock had handling issues that prevented him laying down that huge torque, and Lyddall had no grip, and no power. Not a day to run lots of cylinders.

SIMON SEATH – uncharacteristically out of sorts, and a victim of the joint saloon/XJS grid.

BOB BEECHAM – did nothing wrong, got clouted for his troubles.