76th Members' Meeting report
Through the ice and snow
Author & photography
- Mattijs Diepraam
Date
- March 28, 2018
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Who?David Hart What?Ecurie Francorchamps Ford GT40 Where?Goodwood When?76th GRRC Members' Meeting (March 18, 2018) |
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Why?
Basking in the spring sun in their T-shirts on the Friday before the meeting, no-one believed that the next two days would deliver Siberia to the coastline of England, after which normal seasonal service would be resumed on Monday. And yet the forecast had been unequivocal in its drama: sub-zero temperatures, a spine-chilling wind, and even snow. For once, the meteorologists were right: precisely those 48 hours in which the 76th Members’ Meeting would be held were kidnapped by the Russian Bear. The cars and drivers had to do their utmost best to turn up the heat – and fortunately, lots of them came with guns blazing.
The first snow came at the end of Saturday morning, and then lots more during the following night – which forced the organisers to salt the track. Some of the action was limited because of that, as only a handful of the F5000 cars dared to venture out while the 1000cc F3 screamer race (easy pray for Jon Milicevic’s Brabham-Ford BT11) was well down in numbers. Further proof of the treacherous conditions was supplied by the cancellation of the Hailwood Trophy motorcycle race – if bikers do not dare to race it must be really bad!
Saturday's F5000 demo took place in a blizzard... (photo 8W)
Fortunately, the rest of the races weren’t affected, and on Sunday the track dried up completely to allow the event to end on a high. Which it did. The five consecutive afternoon races were all top-notch – apart maybe from the safety-car-inflicted Gerry Marshall Sprint – while the Sears Trophy bookending the Members’ Meeting was an absolute cracker. Equally, Saturday’s two races were sublime as well, the drivers doing well to cope with the circumstances
.This time, though, the toughest guys of the meeting were undoubtedly the drivers competing in Sunday morning’s Hawthorn Trophy for F1s, F2s and Indycars hailing from the immediate post-war era, easily won by Tony Wood’s Cooper-Bristol Mk1. In freezing conditions, the track lined by snow-covered grass, some even raced with open-face helmets. That must have been bitterly cold…
Dutch rally driver Kevin Abbring was the star of the Group 5 demo in this GS-Tuning BMW 320. (photo 8W)
Meanwhile, spectators kept warm by the many open woodfires along the track while they were hotted up mentally by the flame-spitting Group 5 demo, which proved to be amongst the most popular demos in the five-year history of the event in its modern revival guise. Star of the show was undoubtedly young Dutchman Kevin Abbring driving the ex-Markus Höttinger BMW 320 that was run by Freiburg tuning company GS-Tuning back in the day. Its new owner hailed from Freiburg too (and his wife was just as Austrian as Höttinger was), and he was happy to see the WRC rally star drift the car through the corners to the adoration of the crowd – with Abbring in the process also setting fastest time of the day.
Germany, Italy and Britain go side by side towards Madgwick in a thrilling Ronnie Hoare Trophy race. (photo 8W)
Another pair of ‘cloggies’ came up trumps in the headlining Gurney Cup for pre-66 sports prototypes, as father and son David and Olivier Hart claimed first and third – dad after beating pole man Andrew Smith away from the line and keeping Smithy’s brand-new Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé at bay for the entire race, coping best with the backmarkers, and Junior by storming up the field after a fluffed start and gobbling up one GT40 after another in his similar Daytona Coupé, using the track and some more to do so.
On Saturday, in the Ronnie Hoare Trophy for sixties sportscars, Smith’s mate James Cottingham did convert his pole position into a win but only after coming back from behind to defeat Billy Bellinger’s Morgan SLR and Vincent Gaye’s Ferrari 275 GTB/C. The latter was Cottingham’s main threat all race but a late-race challenge came to nought when the Belgian spun at Fordwater to hand Bellinger second place.
Lights and speed during the Gerry Marshall Trophy night race. (photo 8W)
Saturday’s night race was handed to the seventies touring-car guys in the ever-popular Gerry Marshall Trophy, and on a circuit still glistening with icy water they didn’t disappoint. Mike Whitaker had done the early running in the Whitaker/Jordan Capri 3.0S, but after the driver changes the Kerry Michael/Mark Blundell Escort RS2000 came out on top, Blundell beating Jordan to the line by a mere second.
More pictures of the Saturday paddock atmosphere and track action
The Moss Trophy for pre-63 GT cars proved to be a welcome addition to the programme, confirming the return of interest in the sleaker sportscars from earlier in the decade. With Historic Motor Racing and Equipe GTS converting that interest into the shape of a championship, there were plenty of machines wanting to be part of the season-opening show. In the first part of the race, the E-types of Jason Minshaw and Richard Meins fought with Emanuele Pirro in the Ferrari 250 GT ‘Breadvan’, but after the driver changes Minshaw’s team mate Justin Keen drove away to an easy win, while Rob Huff in Meins’s E-type came back to overtake Lukas Halusa in the Breadvan.
The Vincent Gaye/Anthony Reid Ferrari 250 GT SWB blasts towards the chicane sometime into the Moss Trophy contest. (photo 8W)
It was no holds barred in both the Salvadori Cup and the Sears Trophy, two races for cars that have proven very popular at Goodwood. In their Lister/Lotus battle, Martin Stretton’s ‘Knobbly’ prevailed in its fight with the 15s of Roger Wills and Olly Bryant, while a four-way Lotus Cortina lead battle ended with Andrew Jordan beating Andy Wolfe, Mark Sumpter and Steve Soper across the line.
Finally, fans were treated to a double helping of pre-war machinery, and both the Edwardian specials competing in the Bolster Cup and the twenties sportscars taking part in the Caracciola Sportwagenrennen were very much drooled over in the paddock. The racing was great too, Huffing and puffing, Tim Llewellyn’s Bentley 3/8 Special kept ahead of Tom Walker’s Amilcar-Hispano Suiza in a very exciting Bolster Cup, while Justin Maeers’s GN-Parker beat Patrick Blakeney-Edwards’s Bentley 3/8 Special to third. ‘PBE’ did make it a comfortable win in the Caracciola tribute race, his Alfa Monza finishing well ahead of Duncan Pittaway’s Bugatti T35.
More pictures of the Sunday paddock atmosphere and track action