SAVE THE BEST TILL LAST

(reporter: Matt Hollis)

Silverstone, the self-proclaimed Home of British Motor Racing, offers any budding driver the chance to race on the same track as such greats like Ayrton Senna, Juan Manuel Fangio and Taki Inoue.  With such a unique opportunity available, 27 (yes, 27!) drivers entered the sprint and enduro races.  It wasn’t until signing-on did some realise that only the National Circuit was being used, but having paid the entry fees had to make do with accepting that they would still be sharing the track with other notable names, such as Mad Pete ‘Faster than a Fast Thing’ Cardell-Williams.  The season finale offered up one of the biggest grids of recent years, including several new faces and returnees.  Fortunately, the track is wide enough to race a Boeing 747 down it, so the scene was set for a magnificent spectacle.

As the Sprint Championship was already decided, winner Pete Sparrow no longer felt he had to try, winding up 3^rd on the grid.  It was Gary Adnitt who took pole position, just to remind everyone that he won the title in 2003.  Phil Myatt joined him on the front row, having securely fastened his fuel cap.  Chairman Trevor Williams made an impressive return in 7^th, whilst Neil Thompson, fastest in similar conditions in 2002, could only manage 19^th this time.  John Parker surprised himself into 12^th place, whilst newcomers Gordon Riseley and Geoff Turrall took 18^th and 24^th respectively.  Last on the grid was Nigel Hollis, who having been bullied into racing by his sons, found himself with a brakeless car just an hour before the session.  Frantic work got him out on track, though when asked if the brakes now worked, he was unable to say as a serious misfire prevented him going fast enough to try them out.

The qualifying session for the enduro followed next, which saw Phil Myatt and Simon Leith (who had brought his drive earlier in the year at Snetterton) fastest, ahead of Sparrow and Adnitt.  The Lott car was an impressive 5^th on the grid, just ahead of Pete Cardell-Williams, who after having written off his car at Lydden, charmed Wayne into letting him borrow his second car, resulting in a half-Rocket Dog, half-Gadget mutant machine.  The Hollis brothers, with a choice of three cars, chose to use no. 4 as so far it had had no problems.  The irony was not lost as the car coasted to a halt on the pit straight after the engine decided it had done plenty of racing for one season.

The organisers of the meeting decided, in their wisdom, to start the sprint race early, leaving little more than 20 minutes for the engine to be changed.  Unfortunately, running 3 cars meant Hollis Motorsport were lacking a working spare engine, so John Parker and Marc Fenner lent their completely unknown spare.  Amazingly, with help from Marc and Graham Harper, Matt Hollis made it into the race, albeit 3 laps down.  Up at the front, Sparrow was pulling away from Adnitt and Myatt, whilst Wayne Cowling held onto fourth.  With 27 cars on track, there were battles throughout the field, with some cars falling back whilst others came up through the field.  Shaun McLaughlin, who had qualified a slightly disappointing 11^th, managed to finish 6^th, behind Sparrow, Myatt, Adnitt, Cowling and Steve Panas.  Zoe Cardell made up an impressive 8 places to come home 14^th, two places ahead of Gordon Riseley, who managed to hold off at least 5 cars for 16^th.  Richard Hollis had started from the pitlane, having been helping to change his brother’s engine, and it wasn’t long before he was back in the pits with a loose spark plug lead.  On one lap, Hollis Motorsport managed to really confuse the commentator by crossing the line with all 3 cars nose-to-tail, but all on different laps!  Nigel Hollis discovered he did have brakes, but was now suffering from severe fuel starvation.  Eventually the team finished 24^th and 25^th, with Matt Hollis retiring on the last corner of the last lap after a loose wire caught in the fan, disconnecting the coil.

With so much happening in a short sprint race, the enduro race was going to be even harder to follow.  Myles Packman got so excited on the formation lap that the gearbox broke, resulting in retirement before the race had even started.  Up at the front, Sparrow/Adnitt were pulling away, as Myatt/Leith made an early trip to the pits, putting them out of contention for the win.  Making steady progress up the field was Shaun McLaughlin, sharing his car with Steve Panas.  However, the real battle was for 6^th place.  On lap 10, just 2.7 seconds covered Pete Cardell-Williams in 6^th back to Matt Hollis in 17^th.  It’s not often 5-abreast racing occurs but it did at Silverstone as everyone tried to get to the front.  On lap 11 things came to a head at Brooklands, with a multi-car smash.  Ultimately, too many cars tried to occupy the same piece of tarmac, resulting in Neil Savage barrel-rolling around the corner.  Whilst the car was now more aerodynamic, the buckled wheels made the steering a bit heavy, so Neil chose to retire there and then.  Simon Pearson somehow found himself disappearing backwards off the circuit, which wouldn’t have been a problem except that there were about ten cars in close company.  Zoe Cardell disappeared into the gravel with Simon, as did Aubrey Brocklebank with a bent front arm.  Francis Rottenburg was delayed and Christian Callander, who was in the thick of the action, lost 14 laps repairing the car before Trevor took over.  Amazingly, only two cars retired – Savage and Brocklebank - but it left six cars battling for 6^th as the pit stops started.  Sparrow handed over to Adnitt with no problems, allowing them to win at the flag by over a minute and a half.  Shaun McLaughlin and Steve Panas finished second, although they were sure it should have been 3^rd.  Rounding out the top 3 were Paul Roberston and Colin Whiteley who claimed the place by just 0.2 seconds.  Simon Pearson managed to rejoin the race, and after handing over to Graham Wallace, saw his car come home 7^th.  Jon Davis finished 8^th despite the rocker arm retaining nut falling off with a few laps to go.  The Hollis’ came home 9^th, pleased to have at least got a decent result in Richard’s car, which had only just been rebuilt from its Lydden incident.  Pete Cardell-Williams forgot it was a one hour race, as he only added enough fuel for 59 minutes, coasting across the line in 11^th.  In the end, 24 cars finished, although the Callander/Williams car and the Allan/Lister car were so far behind they weren’t classified.

Silverstone certainly reminded a lot of people what 2CV racing is all about – competitive, fun racing.  If the grids continue to be as good as they were at Silverstone, then we can expect plenty more action-packed races (but maybe not with a rolling Yellow Peril).

reporter: Matt Hollis)