Tag Archives: BMW

US Dollars One Million Four Hundred Thousand – Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing

Leave a Reply

Time was when one used to ask for an apple one would get a piece of fruit, these day’s one might just as likely get a box of completely inedible micro chips.

Back then if one asked for a mini one would either get a short skirt or an extremely small car which drivers over 6 feet tall might have to drive with their knees around their ears, nowadays with the right financial credentials one might just as likely get a Hummer like 6 foot tall Dakar Rally leviathan known as the Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing.

Apart from a vague likeness to the overall shape of the Mini Cooper Countryman street car developed by BMW and Mini John Cooper Works WRC rally car developed by Prodrive, the Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing has little in common with it’s street or competition siblings aside from the badges, door handles, windscreen and lights that decorate the carbon fibre body.

Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing, Goodwood, Festival of Speed.co.uk

The chassis for the T1.2 class Rally Raid All 4 Racing is a steel frame designed and constructed by Heggemann Autosport GmbH in Büren not far from Paderborn / Lippstadt Airport in Germany.

The double wishbone suspension with twin titanium shock absorbers on each corner has 8 inches / 203 mm of travel and the wheels can be changed in three mins with the aid of the on board jacking system.

The T1.2 Rally Raid class is for all wheel drive vehicles powered by diesel motors which in this application takes the form of a 3 litre / 183 cui twin turbocharged 6 cylinder dry sumped motor built for BMW Motoren GmbH by Magna Steyr in in Oberwaltersdorf, Austria, that when fitted with the mandatory 38mm / 1.49 inch air restrictor produces just over 300hp, the roof scoop is for the intercooler fitted behind the drivers compartment.

Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing, Goodwood, Festival of Speed.co.uk

With a six speed sequential gearbox the All4 racing, that weighs a hefty 2.5 tonnes when fully kitted out with; 400 litres / 89 gallons Imp / 105 gal US, three spare tyres, spare drive shaft kept in a compartment below the floor and everything else mandated for survival and safety, can reach 60mph from rest in six seconds and a top speed of 110mph off road.

The whole car is put together and run by the X-Raid Team based in Trebur-Astheim Germany that is owned by Sven Quandt, a member of the family that has the majority stake holding of BMW shares.

The team first ran it’s Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing cars that eventually replaced it’s BMW X3 CC Rally Raid vehicles, in 2011 winning the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge with Stephane Peterhansel and Baja Portalegre 500 with Filipe Campos.

Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing, Goodwood, Festival of Speed.co.uk

The following year Stéphane Peterhansel and France Jean-Paul Cottret led home team mates Nani Roma and Michel Périn to win the Dakar Rally with Stéphane going on to win the Baja Spain round of the FIA World Cup Cross Country Rally championship.

In 2013 Stéphane won his sixth Dakar Rally driving a car matching the six times he won it on a motorcycle, again with Jean-Paul in the co drivers seat of the winning All4 Racing.

Spaniard Joan “Nani” Roma Cararach (Nani Roma) partnered by Frenchman Michel managed to pip the 2012 / 2013 winners the following year when Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah and Spaniard Lucas Cruz made it an All4 Racing lock out on the podium.

Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing, Goodwood, Festival of Speed.co.uk

In 2015 2011 winner Nasser now partnered by Matthieu Baumel steered their All4 Racing to victory on the Dakar.

The models 4 year reign of dominance on the Dakar was brought to an end by Peugeot with Nasser and Matthieu bringing their All 4 Racing in 2nd behind their former team mates Stéphane and Jean-Paul.

In amazing show of strength in depth and reliability in 2013 11 Mini Cooper Countryman All4 Racings, reckoned to cost around € 1 million / US$ 1.4 million each, were entered in the Dakar Rally and all 11 finished inside the top 20.

Thanks for joining me on this “US Dollars One Million Four Hundred Thousand” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Mercedes Monday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

All Ages And Abilities – BPMC Auto Solo / Auto Test Aust Services

Leave a Reply

A couple of weeks after Le Jog visited Aust Services I went back to lend a hand with the timing for the Auto Test / Auto Solo event run by the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club that I would have entered myself, but I doubt my employers would have been amused seeing one of their marked SEAT Toledo TDi ambulances being thrown around with competitive abandon.

Ford Cortina, Gilmour, BPMC Auto Solo Auto Test. Aust Services

Among the 25 entries of all ages and levels of ability were Jayne & Andria Gilmour who were taking part in their very first motorsport event with their fabulously original 1980 2 litre / 122 cui Ford Cortina GL Mk V, while they had lot’s of fun they retired after a couple of runs for fear of damaging their pride and joy, but promised to come back with a more powerful Cortina they are building.

FIAT Panda, Thompson, BPMC Auto Solo Auto Test. Aust Services

Youngest competitor taking part was 14 year old Sam Thompson who again was on his first event and competing against his more experienced father Chris for class honours in his Mum’s Fiat Panda.

Toyota MR2, BPMC Auto Solo Auto Test. Aust Services

I’m not sure who was driving the Toyota MR2, the car made a lot of noise, but the driver was having too much fun doing donuts while trying to follow the route through the cones to be competitive.

Subaru Impreza, Benstock, BPMC Auto Solo Auto Test. Aust Services

Über rally marshal Mark Benstock used the opportunity to make a rare appearance behind the wheel of his 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX and promptly won the Autosolo Class C award, at the end of the event Mark kindly offered anyone interested the use of his car for a drive round the track, had I not been sodden in water proofs and wellies I might have been tempted to have had a go.

BMW 318 Ci SE, Payton, BPMC Auto Solo Auto Test. Aust Services

The 2002 BMW 318 Ci Se driven by the Payton’s provided much entertainment through out the afternoon, one wag commenting that the car needed wipers on the door window’s such was it’s side ways progress of the car with a noisy locked differential, Jack won class C of the Auto Test from Josh.

Mazda MX5, Welsh, BPMC Auto Solo Auto Test. Aust Services

The best times of the day were set by the Mazda MX5 driven by the Welsh brothers, with A Welsh being the quickest in the Auto Solo event.

Vauxhaul Viva, BPMC Auto Solo Auto Test. Aust Services

Finally I am not too sure who was driving this splendid farm find 1972 Vauxhall HC Viva, but the owner told me that since being put back on the road it has benefited from a boast in performance courtesy of a modern 2 litre / 122 cui 16 valve Vauxhall “Red Top” XE motor which in standard trim is good for 150hp nearly double the 77 hp available from the original HC Viva motor.

Thanks to everyone at the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club who made this a rainy day of affordable motorsport to remember, their next competitive event will be a 40th Anniversary Navigation exercise on Friday Feb 19th in Wales, see website linked above for details, or come along to the next club meeting at BAWA on Monday Feb 8th.

Thanks for joining me on this “All Ages And Abilities” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow, when I’ll be looking at another Daytona 24 hour challenger. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Firing Up Brand Awareness – BMW GTP

Leave a Reply

The early to mid 1980’s were boom years for many capitalist economies as the price hike in fuel prices provoked by the 1970’s fuel crises became normalised as increased oil production outside the OPEC nations that forced the crises became more economically viable.

In 1983 Nelson Piquet became the first driver to win the World Championship driving a vehicle with a turbo charged motor, his Brabham BT52 being powered by a BMW engine that brought the Bravarian brand much attention, despite Ferrari winning the 1983 Formula One Constructors Championship, in almost all of the global automotive markets except the biggest one in the USA.

BMW GTP, Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham

To fire up brand awareness in the USA for the 1986 season BMW tasked McLaren North America to run two BMW North America financed cars in the increasingly popular IMSA GTP series for prototype 2 seat coupé racing cars.

Time and considerable development expense was saved when BMW commissioned March to build four GTP chassis based on the previous race winning March 82G, 83G and 84G GTP prototypes that had been run with Porsche Flat 6, Buick V6 and Chevrolet V8 engines.

BMW GTP, Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham

The BMW GTP prototypes, said to have been designed by Gordon Coppuck, were fitted them with 2 litre / 122 cui 4 cylinder 16 valve turbo charged motors and to be driven by American young guns Davy Jones and John Andretti backed up by the more experienced pairing of John Watson and David Hobbs.

During testing for the Daytona one of the cars caught fire and wary of adverse publicity the team withdrew it’s cars from the season opening 24 Hours race.

BMW GTP, Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham

A second car burned during qualifying at Sebring and it’s sister was withdrawn after a separate accident, but in the remaining races the cars proved fast, regular top ten qualifiers, but fragile recording 8 did not finishes plus two accidents from 17 starts.

At Watkins Glen the team locked out the front row of the grid and the pole sitting youngsters Davy and John drove their BMW GTP to the models only victory in the Watkins Glen 500 while the sister did not finish.

BMW GTP, Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham

At the end of the year BMW announced it’s imminent withdrawal from International motor sport after the BMW powered Brabham F1 team scored only two points and BMW powered vehicles from both series appeared to attract more publicity for catching fire than for racing success.

BMW saw out it’s contract to supply motors to Brabham for one more season and the GTP programme was shut down immediately, although two of the remaining BMW GTP’s, two replacements for the ones that were destroyed were sent to McLaren North America, appeared in 1988 as Buick powered March 86G’s with Gianpiero Moretti’s Momo Racing in 1988.

BMW GTP, Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham

The BMW GTP, like the one seen here at last years Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham, should not be confused with the four Group C spec Nissan V6 turbo powered March 86G’s or the IMSA spec Buick V6 turbo powered 86G supplied to Conte Racing all of which were also raced during 1986.

Thanks for joining me on this “Firing Up Market Awareness” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Classic Competition Cars – Classic Motor Show NEC Birmingham

Leave a Reply

Today’s blog is all about some of the classic competition vehicles at last weekends Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

Rosemary Smith, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

A couple of weeks ago I went to a talk at which Rosemary Smith, winner of the 1965 Tulip Rally driving the Hillamn Imp above, was to be the guest of honour, unfortunatley she had a fall and so could not make it so it was great to see her on her feet again at the Classic Motor Show despite the fact that some of her bones were still on the mend.

MG B Roadster, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Rosemary drove a Ford Cortina Lotus on the 1968 London to Sydney Rally and finished 48th six places behind Jean Denton who drove the MGB GT Roadster seen above in need of some tlc, who finished 42nd.

Discovery Beetle, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Among the taller vehicles at the show was the road legal Gulf liveried Discovery Beetle, above, built on a shortened 1996 Land Rover Discovery chassis and fitted with a 300 TDi which being lighter and more aerodynamic than a standard Discovey goes well on the road and is perfect for off road trials.

Cooper Daimler T87, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Having acquired a 1966 Cooper T81 formula one car and fitted it with a 7.2 litre / 440 cui wedge engine for hill climbing Martin Brain acquired a 1967 Cooper T87 Formula 2 chassis and had it fitted with a 2.5 litre / 152 cui Daimler hemi V8, more commonly found in the SP250 and V8 250 Daimler models, for hill climbing on tracks with tighter corners. The car was rescued from a Swedish Museum in 2011 by Gillian Goldsmith better known as a successful equestrian and car racer Gillian Fortescue-Thomas who has since competed with the Cooper Daimler as has her daughter Samantha.

Gould NME GR61X, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Powered by a 650 hp Nicholson McLaren Engines (NME) 3.5 litre / 213 cui development of the Cosworth HB Indy car engine the Gould NME GR61X is the most successful car ever to compete in British Hill Climbing with Scott Moran claiming 133 wins and Roger Moran claiming a further 16 and Alex Summers 8 since the cars first appearance in April 2005.

Empire Wraith, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Successful Trike hill climber and Empire Racing Cars founder Bill Chaplin called Dutch born Formula One aerodynamicist Willem Toet, most recently at Sauber, to work on the Empire Wraith hill climb challenger which is powered by a 180hp Suzuki GSR K8 motor. This example built at the Empire factory in Stathe Somerset in 2013 is the first of three built to date and is driven by Clive Austin and Chris Aspinall.

Healey Westland, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

In 1948 Donald Healey and Geoffrey Healey drove the Healey Westland above to a ninth place finish on the Mille Miglia, the following year Tommy Wisdom and Geoffrey finished 10th in the same event in the same car.

Marcos Prototype, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

By 1959 former de Haviland aircraft engineer Frank Costin had a CV that included designing the Vanwall Grand Prix challenger that won the inaugural World Constructors Championship in 1958 and subsequent demand for his attention included that of Jem Marsh with whom he founded Marcos Engineering in Dolgellau, North Wales. The prototype Marcos, using the same plywood construction techniques de Haviland used to build the Mosquito fighter bomber the Vampire jet fighter, built in 1959 powered by a Ford 100E engine is seen above awaiting some well earned tlc having disappeared in Lincoln for many years.

Italia 2000GT, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Only 329 Italia 2000 GT’s were built by Vignale and in 1996 Jorg Von Appen had #210, one of five Italia’s he owned converted to race spec to take part in the TR Race series, it survived four races and was recently purchased by the proprietor of Patterson’s Original Pickles.

Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

After withdrawing from Formula One at the end of 1962 Porsche built their first tube framed fiberglass bodied sports car which would culminate in the development of the 917 and later 936 models, originally known as the 904 Porsche badged the car Carrera GTS in deference to Peugeot’s ‘digit “0” digit’ numbering system. The GTS seen here was I believe used in competition by Claude Barbier and possibly later by Cyr Febbrairo.

BMW GTP, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

No doubt much to the annoyance of Formula Ring Meister Bernie Ecclestone the manufacturer who supplied the engines for his Formula One Brabham team split it’s efforts in 1986 between Formula One and the IMSA GTP series and invested in four March 86G chassis and fitted them with a 2 litre / 122 cui version of the BMW engine that had powered Nelson Piquet to the World Championship in 1983. A BMW GTP was driven to it’s only victory by Davy Jones and John Andretti in the Watkins Glen 500, while the Brabham BMW team scored on 2 championship points in the worst season for the team up to that time.

Eagle HF89, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Dan Gurney’s All American Racers graduated to the IMSA GTP class in 1989, after claiming the driver’s and constructors’ championships in the GTO division Chris Cord in 1987, the teams all new HF89 was designed by Ron Hopkins and Hiro Fujimori and the following year Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio II drove HF89’s to three victories in the Topeka 300, Sears Point 300 with Rocky Moran and Del Mar Fairgrounds Road Circuit in November 1990.

Thanks for joining me on this “Classic Competition Cars” edition of Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Carrera Panamericana challenger. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

1967 – Chevron B6

Leave a Reply

In 1966 hitherto builder of Clubman’s racing cars Chevron guided by founder Derek Bennett diversified into building a series of GT Cars starting with two Ford Twin Cam powered Chevron GT’s that retrospectively became known as B3’s an a similar BMW powered car known as the B4.

Chevron B6, Nick Thompson, Sean McClurg, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

Both of these models won first time out as did the one off 2 litre / 122 cui BRM V8 powered B5 built in 1967 which Brian Redman drove to a debut victory at Oulton Park in April 1967.

Chevron B6, Nick Thompson, Sean McClurg, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

1967 also saw the fledgling business build a batch of six similar B6 GT cars similar to the one seen here shared by Nick Thompson and Sean McClurg at Oulton Park in August.

Chevron B6, Nick Thompson, Sean McClurg, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

Like the similar B3, B4 and B5 GT models the B6 was also driven to a debut victory, by Digby Martland at Brands Hatch who also claimed the B3 debut victory in 1966.

Chevron B6, Nick Thompson, Sean McClurg, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

Six of the B6’s were powered by 2 litre / 122 cui BMW motors and the other by a 1600 / 97.6 cui Ford Twin Cam, between them the B6’s are credited with at least 14 wins and an additional 4 class wins.

The last documented in period class win being recorded by Martyn Denley at Silvertone in 1970, Simon Hadfield and Michael Schryver were campaigned their Michael Schryver Antiques example in Thundersports from 1985 to 1986.

Thanks for joining me on this “1967” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the last in the current series of Lola T400’s. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Grand Finals – Castle Combe

Leave a Reply

On Saturday I popped along to Castle Combe for the Grand Finals meeting where the sun was trying in vain to dissipate the clouds, but the fine quality of the racing made up for it’s inadequacies.

Reynard/Fisher Spectrum/Moyers, FF1600, Castle Combe

The afternoons racing got off to a scintillating start with the Drive Soutwest and Empire EV Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600, Kent engines, Championship, in which Josh Fisher starting from third on the grid in his 1989 #81 Reynard engaged in a thrilling battle with pole sitter Michael Moyers driving the #125 Spectrum 11c that was twenty years younger than the Reynard.

Josh took the lead on lap six, relinquished it for the next two laps before grabbing it for good on lap 9, Josh is seen above exceeding track limits as he takes the flag after 15 thrilling laps by just 0.212 of a second from Michael, Roger Orgee clinched the championship, 41 years after his farther Roger Snr, won the same championship at he same track, with a third place finish.

BMW 320i, Swaffer, Wileman, Palmer, Davison, Castle Combe

The penultimate round of the Toyo Tyres Production BMW championship saw Gary Feakin and Harry Goodman storm away from the rest and leaving the #145 of Matthew Swaffer, #131 of Matthew Wileman, #8 of Mark Palmer and #17 driven by William Davison to squabble over the final place on the podium in another entertaining race.

When the dust settled William finished third behind Harry but ahead of Matthew Wileman, Rob Cooper and Mark while Matthew Saffer retired the #145, Gary’s win sealed the championship in his favour with one round, run later in the afternoon, to go.

Spire GT3, Tim Gray, Castle Combe

Nottingham’s Tim Gray drove his #96 Spire GT3 to set a pole time for the Castle Combe Sports Racing Series race over three and a half seconds ahead of fellow front row starter Robert Gillman in his #66 Radical Prosport.

It was hardly surprising there for that the closest anyone got to Tim was on the warm up lap when the race ended Robert was 53 seconds ahead of the #12 Radical SR4 driven by Darcey Smith who remained the only unlapped runner, hopefully next year Simon Tilling might bring his Radical out to play in what could be a competitive series.

Audi Hutchings, Volkswagen Scaramanga, Castle Combe

Dave Scaramanga, driving the #6 Volkswagen Scirocco from 9th on the grid, accepted some responsibility for killing Tony Hutchings opportunity to clinch the Class A title of the On Pole Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship after a coming together with the #33 Audi TT a couple of hundred yards after the photo above was taken, leaving Gary Prebble to win the class championship unchallenged in his SEAT Leon 20V T.

Earlier in the race Dave missed the same Bobbies chicane where he came together with Tony on the penultimate lap, after 19 years of trying Mark Wyatt secured his first championship with his class B Vauxhall Astra.

Brabham Thompson, March Armer, Castle Combe

Like Dave Scaramanga, Simon Armer also misjudged Bobbies chicane on the opening lap of the first of two HSCC Historic Formula 3 Races, Simon driving the #22 March 703 is seen making up time as he looks to deprive the #65 Brabham BT21 driven by Peter Thompson of the second place on lap 3 on his way to victory.

Legendary club motorsports journalist and racer Marcus Pye in the commentary box informed us that the Simon’s March belonged to Tom Walkinshaw, who went on to found Tom Walkinshaw Racing with which he won the 1984 European Touring Car Championship at the wheel of a TWR Jaguar before taking Jaguar back to Le Mans in 1986 which resulted in wins for the marque in 1988 and 1990.

Spectrum/Moyers, Reynard/Fisher, FF1600, Castle Combe

The Formula Ford boys made a second appearance at the meeting for the non championship Formula Ford Carnival which again saw a close battle between Michael Moyers and Josh Fisher, this time Michael did not give an inch and won the 15 lap adrenaline rush by less than a second, for his two entertaining drives in such an ancient machine Josh quite rightly won the man of the meeting award.

Ginetta Krayem, Mazda Putt, Castle Combe

Bristol’s Oliver Bull driving a Ford powered Vauxhall Tigra Silhouette in class B of the Avatar Sports Cars Castle Combe Sports and GT Championship managed to secure the overall title with an incident free drive to second overall from pole. Claimants for the win included Barry Squibb who took the lead on the opening lap only to retire his fire belching Mitsubishi Evo on lap 3 which handed the lead to the fearsome 7 litre / 427 cui V8 powered Zilla Killa Mazda RX7 driven by Steve Putt who started second on the grid.

4th place starter David Krayem, driving a 3.5 litre / 213 cui V8 powered Ginetta G50 is seen above at Quarry having just taken the lead, which he held until the end of the race, from Steve with three laps to go.

BMW 320i, Feakins, Goodman, Wileman, Davison, Castle Combe

Gary Feakin #2, Harry Goodman #4 and William Davison #17 again deprived Matthew Wileman of a podium as they finished the second Toyo Tyres Production BMW championship in the same order as the first, Matthew held third place in the #131 until lap 5 before giving way to the William in another event full of close racing through out the field.

March 703, Simon Armer, Castle Combe, Castle Combe

Simon Armer made no mistakes in the second HSCC Formula 3 race in which he smoked the field and led from start to finish to win by just over 3 seconds, although the finishing order with Peter Thompson and Michael Scott finishing second and third the battle was never certain until the checkered flag was shown.

Ginetta Kraymen, Audi Hall, Castle Combe

Finally the Castle Combe Sports and GT’s came out to play with the Castle Combe Saloons for a bit of end of term fun, Steve Hall in the #19 Audi TT starting from 5th on the grid made the move on David Kraymen seen above as they approach the The Esses stick and led the opening lap before relinquishing the lead back to David who won the race by 2.5 seconds from the Audi with Adam Prebbles steel bodied Rover Tomcat a highly entertaining 3rd ahead of the Audi TT driven by Tony Hutchings.

With another full day of motorsport planned in Wales for the following day I declined the kind invitation to all to attend a party at the Strawford Centre where no doubt a good time was had by all.

Thanks for joining me on this “Grand Finals” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Plymouth. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Super Saturday Winners – Silver Jubilee Silverstone Classic

Leave a Reply

Today’s post features all the winners on Super Saturday of the Silver Jubilee Silverstone Classic Meeting, after an aqueous qualification day Saturday emerged as a beautiful sunny.

Lotus, Sam Wilson, Lotus Andrew Hibberd, Silverstone Classic

The action kicked of with the Historic Formula Junior race which was won by the blue #53 Lotus 20/22 driven by Sam Wilson, from 2nd on the grid, seen above being challenged by 4th place starter and 8th place finisher Andrew Hibberd’s red #79 Lotus 22 going into Copse on the opening lap.

Stirling Moss Trophy, Silverstone Classic

Gregor Fisker did a great job driving, the GALPOT Banner car, #46 Ferrari 246S from fifth on the grid to the win he is seen above chasing 3 Knobbly Listers and a white stripped Costin Lister while being pursued by the #25 Lotus by A. Wolfe and I. Vercoutere on lap 5 of the 21 lap / 50 minute race.

Warwick Banks Trophy, Silverstone Classic,

Three Mini’s secured the top three spots for the Warwick Banks Trophy race in the wet conditions, however they were soon swamped by more powerful Lotus Cortinas, BMWs and Alfa Romeos after the start. Richard Meaden in the #63 Lotus Cortina leads coming out of Village above on the opening lap while eventual winner triple British Touring car champion Matt Neal driving the #152 Lotus Cortina, he shared with 2012 British Touring Car Champion Gordon Shedden, has made up 7 places from 14th on the grid going into the third corner of the 50 minute / 18 lap race !

Kidston Trophy, Silverstone Classic

Andrew Hall driving the #69 Frazer Nash Supersports made a super start from 5th in The Kidston Trophy race for pre war sports cars to lead for a couple of corners before Gareth Burnett in the big green #52 Talbot 105 took command for the opening 7 laps of the race. A slick driver change helped Fredric Wakeman and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards take the lead and win the race in the #11 Frazer Nash Super Sports, seen on the extreme left of the photo above in third place.

Tyrrell 012, Martin Stretton, Silverstone Classic

Despite qualifying his #44 Tyrrell 012 nearly 5 seconds faster than Sam Hancock’s yellow #55 Fittipaldi F5A, Martin Stretton, seen above, had to eat Sam’s dust for three laps before pulling away to win the FIA Masters Historic Formula one race by just under 2 seconds.

Honda Dodd, Audi, Wrathall, Silverstone Classic,

12th place starter Frank Wrathall in the 1989 #39 Audi 80 Quattro is seen above lining up to overtake James Dodd driving the 1999 #1 Honda Accord for the lead which Frank would not relinquish on lap 4 of the Super Touring Car race.

Cooper T51, Harvey, Cooper T53, Nuthall, Silverstone Classic,

Racing an open wheeler for the first time since breaking his legs in a Formula Ford car early in his career was 1992 British Touring Car Champion Tim Harvey, who is seen above passing Will Nuttall in the #10 Cooper T53, for the lead on his way to winning the Maserati Trophy race driving Roger Wills #1 Cooper T51.

Jaguar, Nicholl-Jones, TVR, Whitaker, Silverstone Classic,

Mark Whitaker driving the #46 TVR Griffith starting 4th on the grid for the JET Trophy race had left the two Minis that qualified ahead of him way behind and as seen above already had pole sitter Matt Nicholl Jones #85 Jaguar E-type well in his sites as he exited Woodcote for the first time, Mark won the 9 lap race by nearly 18 seconds.

FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars, Silverstone Classic

Martin O’Connell driving the #4 Chevron B19 seen in second above never dropped out of the top 4 on his way to winning the FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars race from the #60 Lola T70 driven by Marino Franchitti and Richard Meaden seen above in 4th place.

Jaguar E-Type, Martin O'Connell, Silverstone Classic

There was little time for Martin to savour his victory as he had a pressing appointment on the 13th row of the grid to start the International Trophy race in his E-Type Jaguar, on lap 11 of the one hour 25 lap race he took the lead and stayed there to claim a second consecutive victory.

11 Nissan / Jaguar_9462sc

Steve Tandy starting from pole in his IMSA Spice, seen in a distant third above, held the lead on the opening lap of the evening Group C race but relinquished it to the #27 Nissan R91CK of Bob Berridge and #17 Jaguar XJR14 of Christophe D’Ansembourg, Bob held the lead for three laps before Christophe, seen in second place above, took the lead on the 4th lap and held on to it for the remainder of the race.

Thanks for joining me on this “Super Saturday Winners” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another Mercury. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share