Silverstone Grand Prix Round 4 15 May 2011

Another new circuit was on offer for round 4 with a run on the new Grand Prix circuit. With the HSCC finding it necessary to amalgamate the CF3 with the FF2000 runners and a sprinkling of the 1 litre screamers to fill a grid, a massive 53 cars would battle for honours. A number of new faces appeared for the first time this year led by Richard Trott (Ex Siegfred Stohr Chevron B43), who was expected to challenge at the front, Geoff Hoodless (March 803) now sporting the high wing nose and
Jonathan Price in his immaculate, ex Rob Wilson, ICL liveried, March 783. Dave Smithies brought out his March 793 for the first time since Monaco and Peter Hiscocks his rare Lola T670, looking unfamiliar in it’s new blue colour scheme. The 1600 class was bolstered by the welcome appearance of Graham Kiddy in his Dastle Mk10.

Qualifying

The main talking point after qualifying was finding some space for a lap, particularly among the front runners. It was business as usual however with Benn Simms (March803) taking pole but only by 0.5 sec from a fine effort by Trott to beat Jamie Brashaw (March 793) who had his usual sparring partner Paul Smith (Martini MK31) for company. Rudolf Ernst (Ralt RT1) was again going much better in fifth just ahead of the returning Hoodless who did well to just beat Chris Remers (Chevron B43) in his first run of the year. Price managed to edge out Smithies for eighth leaving Hiscocks and Bartell to complete the competitive class A runners. The 1600 cars were led by Albert Clements (Lotus 69) who was ahead of a surprised Kiddy having his first run in the pretty Dastle and Tom Powell (Chevron B20), once again making the long trip from Scotland. Gareth Walters had repaired his Palliser following his Cadwell accident although he was running without wings and Andy Storer who propped up the grid suffering from overheating in his Chevron B38.

Race

Due to the size of the grid a rolling start was planned. The first one, in the categories long history, and new to most of the runners. All was well and the field got away at the first time of asking with Simms leading Trott, Brashaw and Smith at the end of the first lap with Ernst and Hoodless following. The lap chart showed little activity up front but the race was turning in to a classic Silverstone race as Simms, Brashaw and Trott scrapped for lead, after loosing Smith on lap 4 to a DNF, as the race reach its finale. It took until the last lap to resolve things with a clash between Simms and Brashaw which left Simms with a damaged nose and wing and second place behind Brashaw who had finally grabbed a championship round win in CF3. Trott was a close spectator to all this but was unable to capitalise on the situation and finished a close third. Ernst finished fourth, his best ever result, after scrapping with Hoodless for the whole race, finally getting by on the last lap. Chris Remers had a lonely run into sixth and easily led Price who managed to keep ahead of Smithies as they raced among the FF2000 cars for the whole race. Surprisingly Bruce Bartell had a lonely run into ninth leaving just Storer, still suffering with overheating problems, to complete the class A runners. Hiscocks departing the scene on lap 4 along with Smith.
The 1600 race had a familiar feel with Clements coming out on top with Kiddy finishing second on his first outing and Walters completing the class after Powell spun on lap 7 and was unable to get going.

Another classic Silverstone encounter at the front which showed that even on a Grand Prix circuit two cars can find themselves on the same piece of track when racing hard.