Champions were crowned and epic victories were scored as the Historic Sports Car Club’s 2024 championship season finished in style at Silverstone over the weekend (October 12-13).
The annual HSCC Finals Meeting on the Silverstone national circuit delivered some outstanding racing as season-long battles were won and lost and it was in the weekend’s second SDC Classic Formula Ford Championship round that one of the very best races of the year played out.
In Saturday’s opening race Tom McArthur, in his Titan Mk4, managed to wriggle free of the chasing pack as Benn Simms and Jordan Harrison rounded out the podium finishers. However, that was just a warm up for Sunday, when an absolute thriller brought the Classic Formula Ford season to a close in great style.
This time around, six drivers battled furiously for the lead and were constantly wheel-to-wheel with frequent place changes. Ultimately, McArthur did it again by being in the right place at the right time to lead over the line by just a quarter of a second from Harrison and Simms as Andy Gosling, Rick Morris and Adriano Medeiros all swept past the flag covered by a fraction over a second after a truly sensational race. The result earned McArthur the Paul Simms Memorial Award for the second time as the aggregate winner.
Those two Classic victories marked an awesome weekend for McArthur as he also took two victories in the Historic Formula Ford Championship rounds. In Saturday’s race, a measured fourth place in the midst of a tremendous five-car battle was enough to secure the championship for Spencer Shinner, who marked his 21st birthday by winning the title in his Merlyn Mk20.
On track, Shinner was fractionally headed by Mads Gravsen in the Palliser of Chris Sharples and Simon Toyne in his fresh Winkelmann, whilst right behind came Ben Powney in his Jamun T3 and Cormac Flanagan in his Alexis Mk14. It was a wonderful contest that raged for the entire race.
In the second race, McArthur was able to pull clear as Shinner took second from Danny Stanzl and Chris Porritt as Powney had a first lap spin and Gravsen retired with a sick engine. With four wins in the space of one weekend it was an epic affair for McArthur on one of his relatively rare race outings in the Titan run by the Simon Hadfield team.
Another champion crowned was Howard Payne in the 70s Road Sports Championship with his Lotus Europa. John Williams was the star of the Road Sports races, winning twice in his Porsche 911SC which had been repaired after its accident at Castle Combe three weeks earlier. On Saturday David Tomkinson had his best ever Road Sports finish with second overall in his TVR Vixen ahead of Payne, while on Sunday Payne was able to lead the chase of Williams, as Mark Leverett came up to third after switching Lotus Elans overnight following car problems on Saturday.
The Derek Bell Trophy delivered two mighty races from a spectacular grid of powerful single seaters and on Saturday, on a drying track, Chris Porritt came through for a fine victory in his Chevron B40 from Mark Mercer (Ralt RT1) and Richard Evans (March 782). On Sunday, in fully dry conditions, Mercer made the early running but was later slowed and then forced to retire with a wheel bearing failure, just as Evans came through to attack in his first proper race outing for seven years. Evans moved ahead and won convincingly as an inspired David Thorburn who tigered up to second in his March 762 from Porritt and leading Formula 5000 racer Neil Glover (Chevron B37).
Samuel Harrison arrived at Silverstone with one hand on the Historic Formula Ford 2000 Championship title and third place in the opening race on Saturday was enough to secure the title for the youngster. However, it was an epic race as Graham Fennymore and Ben Glasswell headed Harrison over the line with eight tenths of a second covering the three cars after some fantastic dicing. Fennymore had to race very hard to recover from stalling on the line and was elated with the result.
With both Glasswell and Harrison missing from Sunday’s grid, Fennymore made the early running and built a substantial lead until a distributor lead started to work loose and prompted a worsening misfire in his Reynard. He was finally caught by the chasing pack and it was Jonty Hair who battled ahead to take his first category win in his Reynard SF78 from Andrew Storer and the impressive David Robinson in his Hawke DL16.
Another excellent race came in the second of the Historic Road Sports and Historic Touring Car contests as five Lotuses battled for the lead in spectacular style. In Sunday’s opening race Robert Rowe emerged to score his first race win over Frazer Gibney in the battle of the Elans and at the end of the afternoon Gibney was able to turn the result around as he beat Rowe by just a third of a second. Rupert Ashdown was the third of the Elans in the lead pack along with the 7s of Mark Godfrey and Jonathan Stringer after a wonderful contest. Neil Wood was the best of the touring cars in his Ford Anglia.
The Guards Trophy season finished in style with a resounding victory for Adam Sykes, who went solo in his McLaren M1A. Driving superbly, Sykes was able to see off the challenge of the smaller-engined cars and win by eight seconds after a mighty performance. Leading the chase was the Lenham P69 of newly crowned champions Robert and Ben Tusting and they had half minute in hand over the Chevron B16 of Daniel Pickett and Dan Eagling.
Finally, the rear-engined Formula Junior pack turned on two stunning races as Callum Grant and Sam Wilson went head-to-head at the front of both races. On Saturday, Grant was able to dive ahead in the Merlyn Mk5/7 of John Sykes when Wilson put a wheel wide on the exit of Luffield. On Sunday the tables were turned and Wilson was able to take a hard-won victory, with a little boost when Grant got caught by a backmarker at Brooklands with a couple of laps to run.
Andrew and Michael Hibberd each took a third and a fourth place as Michael made a welcome return to racing in his Lotus 22. Andrew, in his drum-braked Lotus 20 went into Sunday’s race only needing to finish to make certain of the Formula Junior title and did just that, although an early spin at Beckett’s caused him some anxious moments. He recovered and chased his father home for a class-winning fourth place and his third championship title of the 2024 season. In the separate races for the front-engined Juniors Ray Mallock was peerless and won by 11 and 15 seconds respectively. On Saturday, Adrian Russell led the chase in his Condor S2 while on Sunday Robin Longdon’s Lola Mk2 took the runner-up slot from the Condors of Alex Morton and Russell.