SPAGGIARI & HIBBERD EXTEND LOTUS’ SUPERPRIX WIN RECORD: REPORTS MARCUS PYE
Run annually since June 1990, when it celebrated the venue’s 40th anniversary, the HSCC [Legends Of] Brands Hatch Superprix has always provided a Grand Prix circuit showcase for lithe Lotus cars. Winners at the inaugural edition included Swede Tommy Brorsson (Elite), Mike Westphal (Elan), Tony Thompson (Elan 26R), Steve Hitchins (23B) – who beat current safety car driver Chris Alford in a 20/22! – and Simon Hadfield (F2 69).
Held in scorching hot conditions which sapped cars and personnel, this year’s edition, the 36th, continued the trend, with resounding victories for Italian visitor Enrico Spaggiari in the unique 41X which F1-bound John Miles developed for the 1968 1000cc F3 season – and won that July’s Clearways Trophy race in it on the GP circuit – and Andrew Hibberd (23B), who trounced more modern machinery in the Guards Trophy race.
A special Sunday feature was a parade of eight Lotus 51s – three of which were racing, Simon Hadfield finishing seventh on both days – to celebrate the first standalone Formula Ford race on the club layout on July 2, 1967. Former HSCC CEO Grahame White was the BARC’s programmed starter for that momentous event and 58 years later dropped the union flag to set the cars off, ahead of the Historic FF round. Inaugural race winner Ray Allen’s sister Pat presented the trophies. With much interest among existing 51 owners – some already competing in hillclimbs and sprints, others awaiting ARDS tests – a class for the charismatic 1967-’68 cars will boost the HFF offering from next season.
First of the club’s 16 races on track was the Derek Bell Trophy set, spanning Formulae 5000, 2, Atlantic and Classic FF2000 machinery from 1968-1982. The largest division, for F5000s, sadly lost the long-awaited Lola T332 of veteran Wil Arif to a transmission issue in Friday testing and Christian Pittard’s ex-Team VDS/Teddy Pillette Chevron B28, when it threw a rod during qualifying.
Nonetheless, 17 cars formed Saturday’s grid, with Mark Dwyer’s Bang & Olufsen Hi-Fi liveried F2 March-BDG 742 on pole with a 1m28.817s (98.62mph) shot and Marc Mercer’s ex-Bill Brack FA March-BDA 78B alongside for the rolling start. Pittard’s early bath moved Paul Campfield (ex-Skeeter McKitterick Chevron B24) to the top of the F5000 tree, a whisker quicker than Neil Glover’s ex-VDS/Bruce Allison/Ivan Tighe Chevron B37.
Many hours had been expended by Ben Stiles and longtime Brands FF racer father Trevor repairing their torpedoed F2 Lola T360 in the six weeks since Silverstone. Ben qualified sixth, ahead of enthusiastic American Gary Lapidus’ ex-John Morton F5000 T400 – walloped here last July – and Daniel Pyett’s remarkable wingless Tecno. Dad and lad Mike and Calvin Bainbridge were next in ex-Joe Sposato Chevron B29, with two-litre engine, and 1600cc Brabham BT35 respectively.
Robin Lackford (ex-Dolly Indra GRD 272, in Atlantic trim), Dan Clayfield (March 71B) and Frank Lyons (ex-Elliot Forbes-Robinson Eagle FA74) also lapped inside 1m40s. Steve Futter (F2 Ralt RT1), Jago Keen (Palliser WDB2), Mike Coker (ex-Gus Hutchison Lola T300) and the Ford Pinto powered Van Diemen RF82s of Peter Finnigan and Jason Green completed the pack.
Dwyer overpowered Mercer from Saturday’s get-go, while Stiles was frustratedly stuck behind Campfield. After Glover retired, having lost his brakes, and Lapidus stopped with a gear linkage problem, Bainbridge Sr passed Pyett for fifth but was unable to shake the Tecno terrier from his trouser leg. Lackford finished seventh, still on the lead lap.
Mercer bravely bounded round the outside of Dwyer at Paddock Hill Bend after Sunday’s start and, despite giving power away, repelled attacks for four laps. Dwyer went ahead at Paddock but, having set the weekend’s fastest lap at 1:27.725s (99.85mph), fell off at Westfield on lap 10, triggering a safety car.
Reprieved, Mercer – on racing dentist father David’s old stamping ground, with a 1:28.286 lap on his slate – took the chequer clear of Stiles, who twice circumnavigated Campfield at Druids, then made second stick at Surtees. Glover rumbled from the back to fourth, ahead of Pyett and Mike Bainbridge. Lapidus, Lackford and Lyons all went the distance, Gary working down encouragingly into the low 33s.
The 25-minute HSCC Road Sports counter provided a superb spectacle, with John Williams (Porsche 911SC) – who burst away from P3 when the red start lights went out – Antony Ross (TVR 3000M), poleman Frazer Gibney (Lotus Elan S1), returnee Martin Pratt (Morgan +8) and Mark Godfrey (Lotus 7) circulating in train formation, as George Daws (Datsun 240Z) clamoured to join the fun.
Ross scrabbled past Williams into Druids with the Ford V6-powered TVR’s inside wheels on the grass, lost the advantage, then forged his way past again, this time to stay. As Williams faded, Gibney went after Ross to win the Historic RS section. But Frazer could not rest for class rival Godfrey chased him home. Williams and Daws were fourth and fifth, clear of Historic class winner Pratt, who had newbie Sam Garland looming in his mirrors, matching his times in a similar Rover V8-motivated Morgan.
Reigning 70s champion Howard Payne had a lonely run to eighth in his Lotus Europa. Ant Reeley (Elan S3) and Neil Wood’s screaming Ford Anglia – best of the Historic Touring Cars – rounded out the top 10, Wood outrunning Reece Cannell’s Capri, Cornishman Steve Bellerby’s TVR 3000M and Mark Hunt’s Mini Cooper S.
Porsche 924 frontrunners Simon Baines and Peter Hore had an intriguing new classmate in Italian visitor Gianluca Bardelli, an experienced Historic racer, at the wheel of buddy Nicola Cippone’s Lotus Eclat. Guided by Roberto Giordanelli, Rome’s Jaguar Land Rover dealer climbed from 23rd to 15th in the race as his circuit knowledge grew, finishing 2.4s behind Baines. Bardelli has also entered the Oulton Park Gold Cup race in the Oliver Winterbottom-designed coupe, powered by a Lotus/Vauxhall 907 slant four engine.
Inspired by John Miles contemporary F3 victory 57 years previously, Enrico Spaggiari’s maiden Historic F3 win in the Gold Leaf Team Lotus 41X was both hard-earned and special. Just as Miles dug deep to defeat American Roy Pike (Titan Mk3), the man from Verona narrowly beat Richard Trott – 1980’s double British FF2000 champion and Ayrton Senna’s F3 rival three seasons later – in his ex-Erkki Salminen Brabham BT28 to Sunday’s chequer.
Twenty one 1000cc screamers representing nine chassis marques from three countries – Alexis, Brabham, Chevron, De Sanctis, Lotus, March, Merlyn, Pygmée and Tecno – populated the 1964-’70 retrospective. Ten were piloted by competitors from France, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. Add a Scot, a Welshman and numerous equally patriotic Englishmen to the mix and it was a truly international field.
Peter de la Roche (ex-Ken Sedgley Alexis Mk17) bagged pole by 0.318s from Trott and Jason Timms (Brabham BT21), with Ross Drybrough (ex-Patrick Champin Merlyn Mk14A), Spaggiari and Christoph Widmer (ex-Wal Donnelly BT18A) completing the top six. When Ludovic Ingwiler’s Pygmée 69 suffered suspension failure behind a safety car, sent for marshals to clear Tony Wallen’s ex-Carlos Pace Lotus 59A from the gravel, race one finished under caution, the top five in grid order, albeit with winner de la Roche eight tenths inside his qualifying time.
With Sunday’s start matrix defined by Saturday’s best laps, Spaggiari set off from P2, with de la Roche on the tricky more cambered pole to his right. Abreast as they crossed TSL’s timing stripe after a lap, the Italian swept past into Paddock on lap 6 and stayed there, with Trott, de la Roche and Drybrough ganged-up behind. Spaggiari eked a slender advantage with a 1:37.555 (89.79mph) lap, the weekend’s fastest, and looked unfazed when Trott nibbled his deficit back to a second. Timms went fourth when Drybrough spun, while Widmer usurped Roland Fischer (Tecno) from sixth before the latter retired. Charlie Martin screamed Paul Waine’s gorgeous de Sanctis – a baby Ferrari 312 viewed from even a few metres away – from the back to seventh.
Historic Grand Prix Cars Association members have frequented the Superprix regularly down the years, their front-running 2.5-litre cars rekindling memories of the Silver City Trophy F1 race which christened the GP circuit in 1960 and world champions Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Graham Hill and John Surtees, immortalised by corner names at Brands.
Australian Brabham won the inaugural feature in a works Cooper-Climax T53, and one of ‘Black Jack’s period chassis triumphed again, in both stanzas, with versatile German Rudi Friedrichs in its cockpit.
Saturday’s race was restarted after Clinton McCarthy, disputing fifth place, crashed at Paddock, tearing a rear corner from his ex-works Lotus 18. Happily, McCarthy stepped out unhurt. Tom Waterfield in Tim Ross’ T53 and Tim Child (ex-Brabham/Graham Hill Scuderia Veloce Tasman Brabham BT3/4) chased Friedrichs home in the restart.
Oxford University professor Child pulled off the most astonishing overtaking manoeuvre of the event on Sunday. At the end of lap 10, Friedrichs and Child crossed the timing line 0.043s apart, Rudi’s sage green Cooper on the outside, Tim’s red Brabham nearer the pit wall. Up ahead, Welshman Geraint Owen in the Kurtis-Offenhauser 500C ‘Merz Engineering Special’ – in which Fred Agabashian finished sixth in 1954 Indy 500 – was leading the front-engined race at a solid lick.
Cognisant of a 10mph speed differential, the vastly experienced Owen knew better than to move, remaining steadfast in the centre of the track as the duellists hurtled past his maroon monster, one on each side. Child seized the advantage audaciously, two wheels on the grass, kicking up dust into the undulating braking zone for Paddock. Carrying speed he washed wide past the apex, whereupon Friedrichs coolly cut back inside him to regain the lead as they plunged downhill into the compression, then climbed towards the hairpin at Druids.
Blissfully unaware of this excitement, HGPCA prime mover Peter Horsman (ex-Tony Shelly Lotus 18/21) was a strong third on Waterfield’s retirement, ahead of Mark Shaw who beat James Denty in their Lotus 21 duel for 1500cc supremacy. Justin Maeers and Rod Jolley (Cooper T53s) were sixth and seventh, Jolley quickest of all through the start/finish line speed trap at 144.9mph! Behind Owen, best of the two-litre front-engined Cooper-Bristol squadron both days was Scotto-Belge Paul Grant’s.
The Formula Junior Historic Racing Association’s Lurani Trophy championship, honouring the training category’s founding padre Giovanni (1905-1995), attracted its customary superb entry for its first visit since 2014, covid having scuppered 2020’s projected double-header. Callum Grant qualified John Sykes’ ex-Denis Welch Merlyn Mk5/7 on pole, the Bolton wanderer’s 1:40.554 (87.11mph) shot 2.317s swifter than 2023 champion Horatio Fitz-Simon’s in the ex-Ian Walker Racing/Paul Hawkins Brabham BT6, blighted by a misfire, and the ex-Denny Hulme sister car of Mark Shaw.
Reigning triple UK champion Nic Carlton-Smith (Kieft) led the National C2 class and Richard Ferris its E2 equivalent in the Australian Donford. A scant 0.046s separated James Owen (Gemini Mk2) and Charles Cook (in Ken Nichols’ Nike Mk1 brainchild) in the national B2 set, although the quickest FIA registered front engined cars were Adrian Russell’s Condor-Ford S2 and Nick Taylor’s Elva-BMC 100, 12th and 18th overall.
With Fitz-Simon struggling, Grant was chased throughout Saturday’s leg by Stuart Roach (Alexis Mk4), who was super quick through Sheene curve. Having shaken off Mike Hibberd (Lotus 22, a period winner in Reg Brown’s hands), Richard Wilson (Lotus 27) was overtaken by Shaw – recovering from an early gyration – into Paddock on lap 13. Richard was re-classified third on countback as red flags had flown with three minutes remaining for Russell, beached in the aggregate at Westfield.
A late clash between Fitz-Simon and Hibberd at Druids spun Michael round, leaving him behind Horatio. Richard Smeeton (Wainer) finished seventh, ahead of top European Lucas Hoefer (Lotus 22), Tony Lees (ex-Alan Rees Lola Mk5A) and class D2 battlers Martin Aubert (Lotus 20) and John Chisholm (Gemini Mk3A). Ferris, Cook and Trevor Griffiths (Emeryson) prevailed in the National classes, Griffiths after Carlton-Smith retired to investigate oil surge at Druids.
Grant was more worried about fuel capacity than rivals on Sunday, thus the orange and yellow Merlyn was brimmed before reaching the assembly area and he led the pack slowly to the grid. Callum resolved to break his pursuers in three laps, then conserve juice for a possible 14. His plan bore fruit, for he took the flag 8.809s clear of Roach, with Wilson, Hibberd, Smeeton and the rejuvenated Carlton-Smith next home. Fitz-Simon pitted on the green flag lap.
Aubert won D2 again after Chisholm pulled off adjacent to the pit exit, with Richard Bishop-Miller (Caravelle Mk2) a strong second and Ferris between them. Clinton McCarthy (Lotus 18) won C2, in which Saturday victor Philippe Lenoir’s Elva 200 was an early faller. Cook and James Owen (Gemini) shared National B2 golds, but John Timoney (Ausper) had no opposition in National D2.
The Formula Ford paddock was buzzing, with 28 Historic and 26 Classic entrants revelling in both the track action and the social scene. The earlier set was out first on Saturday, with hillclimber John Cottrill and Roger Newman (Lotus 51s) among the newcomers, and Greville Ball substituting a recently-acquired American Caldwell D9 for his ex-Emerson Fittipaldi/Colin Vandervell/Jody Scheckter/Frank Sytner ’Magic Merlyn.’
Benn Simms’ 1:38.668 (88.78mph) in his Jomo JMR7 snared pole, but Kentishman Ben Powney (PA Motorsport Scalextric Jamun T3) and Barnett Racing Engines championship leader Sam Mitchell (Merlyn Mk20) were within 0.179s – a typical Indy circuit margin, but on the full 2.43-mile course!
Simms led the opening lap, just, but pulled off immediately when a con rod made a bid for freedom, legacy of a missed gear. Mitchell duly stretched away from a full-blooded scrap between Danny Stanzl (Elden Mk8), Swiss veteran Gislain Genecand (Crossle 16F), Powney and Oliver Chapman (Lola T200). Following a short safety car interlude, with Ball stranded at Druids, Mitchell beat Stanzl, Powney and Will Nuthall (Jamun T2) – three abreast over the line after a two-lap dash. Genecand, Chapman, Simon Hadfield (Lotus 51) and Scot Neil Hose (Titan Mk6) chased them in.
Mitchell’s big Sunday lead was also annulled by a caution, with Nick Sheppard’s Merlyn Mk11A backwards in the gravel at the foot of paddock, which timed the race out. A fifth successive victory has stretched 2013 champion Sam’s points lead, with Simms sidelined and engine problems forcing Powney out. British Airways long haul pilot Hose – with fastest lap at 1:39.033 (88.45mph) – finished second in a frenetic group embroiling Stanzl, fast-rising Dane Mads Gravsen (maxing one of his infrequent outings in Chris Sharples’ Palliser WDF1), Over 50s subset winner Genecand, Nuthall, Hadfield and Christian Goller (Lola T202). Amazingly, different chassis marques filled the top eight places!
The SDC Classic FF pack, corralled by the avuncular Stuart Kestenbaum, was no less competitive in its chase of double title winner Jordan Harrison – his Lola T540 a sister to that in which eventual champion Peter Morgan scored the first of four straight BRDC Esso championship round wins on Brands’ short circuit in April 1978.
Harrison’s 1:38.650 (88.79mph) pole time was three quarters of a second up on closest rival Genecand’s, with Hose, Chapman, Snetterton winner Tom Gadd (Numanair tribute Van Diemen RF81) and Philip Senior (Royale RP24) behind Gislain. Lurking at the back, having got his head into gear in Friday’s Indy circuit testing with ace preparer Don Hardman, Rick Morris had it all to do after a carburettor fault restricted him to a solitary lap.
As Harrison disappeared into the distance, pursued by Gadd and red car trio Genecand, Chapman and Hose, Morris overtook 12 competitors before Surtees and was 13th inside a lap. Sixth when a safety car reunited the field with Graham Payne’s Van Diemen RF80 off on the exit of Surtees, Rick eventually emerged third behind Harrison and Genecand Hose, Chapman and Senior filled the minor placings. Gadd tumbled down the order when his ignition switch flicked off, returning 18th. Harrison set best lap, improving to 1:38.415 (88.04mph).
Sunday’s race saw Genecand and Hose outstrip Harrison at the start, but Jordan was ahead of Genecand, Chapman, Hose, Morris and Gadd when Freddie Lillingstone-Price’s Merlyn nose-dived into the barriers at Druids on lap four. After three laps behind the Hyundai safety car, a lap of racing ensued before Hose dived inside Chapman at Paddock, spun down the hill on the exit and clipped Gadd. With Hose’s Titan immobile red flags flew.
Behind winner Harrison – whose sixth successive victory in the Lola following a post-qualifying switch at Snetterton’s opener – is making his third title quest look invincible – Genecand and Chapman claimed the other podium positions. Morris, Gadd and Senior were classified behind them. Julian Wantling (Titan Mk5) in his single-seater rookie year, Sheppard, Andrew Smith (Van Diemen RF73) and Richard Yeomans (Royale RP24) completed the top 10.
Formula Ford 2000’s 50th anniversary season continued with two intense Sunday confrontations between title protagonists Ben Glasswell and Graham Fennymore. After a qualifying session in which they were twice separated by 0.001s, double champion Fennymore’s 1:32.642 (94.55mph) best earned pole by 0.064s as Glasswell’s throttle cable snapped. Out for the first time this year, Reece Wood excelled with third, 1.3s adrift but three tenths up on Adrian Reynard, the 1979 EFDA Euroseries champion third in the points table coming in to the meeting.
Behind the Reynard quartet, Ben Tilley broke the marque monopoly in Iain Rowley’s Delta T79, albeit frustrated by a misfire. Reynard duo Greg Robertson and Andrew ‘Pukka Pies’ Storer were next, ahead of Antony Denham (Delta T78/79) and Stephen Glasswell (Reynard SF79), Ben’s father back in the saddle following engine failure at Donington. The sole Royale rep was Fraser Collins, 11th in his emerald green RP30.
Class B leader Andy Lancaster gridded his Swan Lager-Liveried Hawke DL16 10th, hoping to emulate Philip Pullman’s period victories in David Lazenby’s designs. Lancaster’s rivals Neil Jenkins (ex-Nick Foy Parsons Auto Finishes Reynard SF76/77) and the indefatigable Ken Bowman (Van Diemen RF78) were finding time while enjoying their private tussle at the back.
There was drama in the first race when Fennymore and Glasswell Jr touched as they slithered out of Surtees and climbed onto the GP loop. Graham spun dustily, but picked himself up and charged back to second within six laps. With Lancaster in the gravel and Wood’s car parked on the rise from Surtees since lap three, a full course caution was called and the race finished behind the safety car. Four-three to Glasswell for the season, with Tilley spluttering home third ahead of Robertson, Reynard and Glasswell Sr. Bowman pipped Jenkins among the earlier cars.
Fennymore made a superb start second time out and, try as he did, Ben Glasswell watched Graham equal their win tally from close quarters, recording fastest lap again. A change of carburettor enabled Tilley to improve his lap times, but fast-starting Robertson outgunned him for third. Wood and Storer were fifth and sixth, but Reynard pitted on lap two, reporting severe brake judder. Lancaster won class B from Jenkins – whose last lap of the weekend was his quickest – but Bowman retired.
Guards Trophy competitors also joined the fray on Sunday. The 1960s’ sports and GT contest was opened up when gearbox failure trailered the twin-cam engined Lenham which Ben Tusting had whirled round in 1:38.670 (88.78mph) for pole. That left the Chevron-BMWs of Dans Pickett and Eagling (B16) and Charlie Allison (ex-Trevor Twaites B8) out front, with the lightweight 1963 Lotus 23Bs of Max Minshull/Horatio Fitz-Simon and Andrew Hibberd their closest challengers.
A touch between Allison and Pickett at Surtees on the first lap played into the hands of Hibberd – last year’s Historic Formula Junior and HF3 champion – who went clear and made hay, winning by almost 20 seconds after an exemplary performance.
An exciting scrap for second embroiled 1983 Formula Ford Champion of Brands Karl Jones, the Welshman getting a full body workout in Chris Wilson’s thuggish ex-Roy Pierpoint Attilla-Chevrolet Mk3 – a period Guards contender – and the red B8s of Chris Lillingston-Price (sharing his ex-works/Reine Wisell example with son Freddie), Max Bartell (starting Ross Drybrough’s ex-David Forsbrey continuation car) and Allison.
Despite overheating, put down to a weeping water pump, Allison landed second, with Dan Eagling – flying in Pickett’s car during a relentless chase – third, having ousted Jones’s increasingly brakeless V8 slugger into Paddock on the final lap. The Chevrons of the L-Ps, Bartell/Drybrough, Nick Thompson/Shaun McClurg (ex-Alan Harvey/Chris Skeaping B6) and Hugh Colman (ex-David Good B8) were next to take the flag.
Henry and Martin Stephenson’s Ford GT40, Charles Cook (Merlyn Mk4A) and the GT cars of Rudi Friedrichs (AC Shelby Cobra) and Rupert Ashdown (Elan 26R) completed the finishers. Graham Moss’ Shelby Daytona Coupe was retired late, while a flat battery stopped the Minshull/Fitz-Simon Lotus.
Report: Marcus Pye
Images: Motorsport Classics Media