Samuel Harrison and Graham Fennymore were among the double winners during the Historic Sports Car Club’s Wolds Trophy at Cadwell Park on coronation weekend (6/7 May).
After rain towards the end of Saturday’s programme, Sunday proved a better day and there was some excellent racing across both days at the glorious Lincolnshire track.
Harrison was the class of the Historic Formula 3 field as the season opened for the 1000cc cars, even though he started the opening race from the back of the grid after gearbox dramas in qualifying. However, Harrison soon stormed up the order to take the lead from the Alexis Mk17 of Peter de la Roche and won convincingly. On Sunday Harrison made it two from two in the ex-Peter Westbury Brabham BT21B with de la Roche again leading the chase. Behind the top two, Richard Wise, Jason Timms and Simon Armer all featured in the contest for podium positions and it was Wise who made a hugely impressive historic racing debut to take third in Saturday’s rain in his Tecno.
Fennymore made it three from four wins in this season’s Historic Formula Ford 2000 Championship and started his weekend with a win in the dry on Saturday. Though there was rain threatening, fortunately the track stayed dry for the slick-shod category and Fennymore was able to out-pace Ben Glasswell and Ollie Roberts for victory. The early retirement of Jordan Harrison made life easier for the podium contenders but there were battles all the way down the field in an excellent contest. Glasswell continued his impressive form this season with the runner-up position.
Sunday’s race was interrupted by incident, but it was still Fennymore at the front when it mattered, as Richard Coleman came through to be the nearest contender while Andy Storer completed the podium. Unfortunately, Roberts went out after collecting the tyre wall.
Julian Barter again demonstrated his prowess at Cadwell Park by taking a double 70s Road Sports victory with his TVR 3000M. In both cases, Barter was able to stretch clear of a strong pack by exploiting the car’s balance of power and handling at the challenging circuit. Kevin Kivlochan (Morgan Plus 8) and John Williams (Porsche 911SC) led the chase of the flying TVR and battled with each other for the runner-up position. On Saturday, a little over a second split them as Kivlochan took second, though the gap was bigger on Sunday. Nick Strong and Mark Leverett were next in the pack.
The Formula Junior pack was split across two races on Saturday, but then came together on Sunday to make a fuller grid for two more races. In the race for classes A, B and C on Saturday, Nic Carlton-Smith was a clear victor in his Kieft from Alex Morton’s Condor as expected front runners Keith Pickering and Robin Longdon both retired. Meanwhile, the rear engined cars in classes D and E had the worst of the weather on Saturday but delivered a fine race as Tim Child had to work hard to fend off the charging Mark Carter. By finishing less than a second adrift of Child’s Lotus 22, Carter took his best result to date in the Speedsport Brabham BT6.
In Sunday’s first race a fine contest on a damp but drying track had Nick Fennell (Lotus 27) just taking victory from Child and the charging Carlton-Smith with a whisker between the top two and all three cars covered by three-quarters of a second. Fennell then did it again in the third race, this time beating Child by just over a second.
Historic Road Sports was another group to get some difficult conditions on Saturday and the race started with a safety car period after Kevin Kivlochan put the Shelby Cobra off on the approach to Charlie’s to the detriment of the front wing. When racing resumed John Shaw was the master of the conditions in his Morgan Plus 8 and extended close to a 10s lead in seven racing laps over the similar car of Peter Garland. Frazer Gibney’s Lotus Elan was the best of the smaller engined cars.
In far better conditions on Sunday, Shaw did it again to complete an excellent double but Garland was never too far back as Mark Godfrey brought his Lotus 7 up to third and Kivlochan, now running his Morgan Plus 8, battled up to fourth place from the back of the grid.
The Historic Touring Car Championship opener shared the grid with the Historic Road Sports, albeit from a separate start. Saturday’s rain provided the ideal conditions for Peter de la Roche to do some giant killing first time out in his father’s Mini Cooper while others slid around. De la Roche fired the Mini up the order to take the lead from Neil Wood’s Ford Anglia while Mark Watts was off with his mighty Ford Mustang. In a close finish, Adrian Oliver just beat Steve Platts for third place in their respective Hillman Imp variants.
In the dry on Sunday, Wood and Watts were able to use their power to push the mini of De la Roche back to third and it was Wood who won by just over eight seconds after a fine performance in the Anglia as Watts battled up to the runner-up position from the tail of the pack.
Action from Bernie’s V8s, Superkarts and a closed-wheel Allcomers contest concluded a busy weekend in Lincolnshire.