18 APRIL 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 71OPINION CLUB AUTOSPORTn extraordinary centrepiece race celebrating 100
years of Bentley made the Vintage Sports-Car
Club’s 85th anniversary season opener – which
also marked 70 years since the club’s first race
meeting at Silverstone – a very special weekend.
While I’m not convinced that the Formula Vintage branding of
recent times has achieved its aim of engaging younger generations
of fans – most of whom are hooked in by family devotees or friends
who compete, or have spectated for decades – the cars and
characters in the paddock have always been compelling to me.
I have attended many spring events, and that excitement in
anticipation of quality motorsport still sustained me as I set off
at 0600 en route to the circuit, which I first attended as a baby in
August 1958. Heading east over the New Forest into the sun – a
vermillion fireball over Southampton – was an encouraging start.
It is rarer these days to see racing cars on the way. Most now
travel within clamshell trailers or trucks, robbing people of the
spotting opportunities of my childhood.
In the environs of Silverstone I did see a couple of vintage cars
on the A34, and followed a delightful BMW onto the campus,
within which the paddocks were packed as ever with exotica.
Behind the pits, a tent housed the 40 Bentleys taking part in the
Benjafield’s 100 feature race – together with ‘celebrity’ alumni
including two mighty monoposti: the Pacey Hassan Special and
the rebuilt Barnato-Hassan Special that competed at Brooklands
in the 1930s. Many roadsters were parked nearby. I couldn’t help
feeling that company founder Walter Owen Bentley would have
been proud, incredulous, or both.
Bentley Motors survived little over a decade before being taken
over by Rolls-Royce, but what a sporting legacy it left. Le Mans
24 Hours victories in 1924, through dealer John Duff and Frank
Clement, then from 1927-30 with works entries, was a remarkable
achievement for the Cricklewood firm. Sadly it haemorrhaged
money prior to being rescued.
The atmosphere on the Le Mans-style echelon grid as
Saturday’s racers lined up for a 45-minute blast was wonderful.
Prince Michael of Kent, a Bentley enthusiast who drove vintage
machines on record runs and is an honorary member of the British
Racing Drivers’ Club, owner of Silverstone, was among the guests.
That cars from 1919-31 could race so hard, the youngest 88 years
old, for 45 minutes will live long in onlookers’ memories. Fewer
than a quarter fell by the wayside as the 1925 Le Mans team car
finished. Off track, the works three-litre known as ‘Bitch’, now the
only survivor of the 1927 White House crash, and fresh from an
extraordinary Graham Moss restoration, delighted aficionados.
I’ve always been an ERA fan, thus the strongest turnout at VSCC
Silverstone in five years (Nick Topliss’s R4A, Mark Gillies in Dick
Skipworth’s R3A, Charles McCabe’s ex-Bira R5B ‘Remus’, Julian
Wilton’s R7B, Paddins Dowling’s ex-Peter Whitehead R10B, Terry
Crabb’s R12C, and the Tony Merrick-built AJM1 of Ben Fidler were
on track) was a very welcome sight. As was the beautifully restored
Reg Parnell-built Challenger-ERA of Duncan Ricketts, until its
engine dropped a cylinder in the perishing cold conditions.
Nonetheless, Ricketts (with a Goodwood finish behind him the
previous Sunday) is adamant that the engineering behind the
ambitious GP car project was sound.
In many ways the VSCC staple was the perfect ‘clubby’ with
close, safe racing across the board. It was effectively two meetings
packaged as one, for a sporting chance of covering costs. Julius
Thurgood’s Historic Racing Drivers Club subscribed to three
grids on Sunday, the Morgan Challenge two, FiSCar co-promoted
a 1950s sportscar race, and a 500cc Formula 3 grid closed the day.
Only the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association double-header
spanned both. Saturday’s club Autosolo in the outer paddock
and the tyre-screeching British Autotest Championship
opener on Sunday added diversity and intrigue.
Returning to the 77th Goodwood Members’ Meeting, David
Coulthard’s splendid Tony Gaze Trophy win in the IWC
Schaffhausen Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Gullwing’ was not
unprecedented. In September 1958 for the 32nd MM, Dennis
Barthel drove a sister car to victory in a five-lap handicap race. The
science behind the handicappers’ calculations might not have been
as all-encompassing as Colin Ayre’s at current VSCC or 750 Motor
Club events, but Barthel, who started a minute and 15 seconds after
Harry Moore’s Ford Consul and 65s after the Riley 1.5s of Goffe
and Cooper, was beaten to the line by Goffe in a shower of sparks
having lost a wheel and clobbered the chicane wall. The excursion
brought disqualification, favouring his Merc rival...
Where to next? Easter Monday means Castle Combe and
next weekend’s celebration of 50 years of the resident Formula
Ford championship promises to be special. Most extant
champions have accepted invitations to attend, and alongside
the Castle Combe Racing Club openers a Classic FF1600
(Pre-1982) double-header stars the evergreen Rick Morris,
who defends his points lead.A celebratory race to commemorate 100 years of Bentley was only the
headline attraction of the VSCC’s near-perfect season opener at Silverstone
MARCUS PYECricklewood characters
“The atmosphere on the grid as
Saturday’s racers lined up for a
45-minute blast was wonderful”
A