4 replies to this topic

[AlesiUK]

Hello, been many years since i have been around these parts, but i come asking for help / memories from UK based "club" motorsport fans for something that it seems google cannot solve. 

 

Vauxhall Junior was a well known series in the UK in the early to Mid 90s, with plenty well known winners / competitors (Dario i guess being the most well known). It effectively started to replace Formula Ford as the entry level series for those right out of Karting. 

The net, as usual, has fairly extensive records of the series running from i think around 1991 to 1997. 

However personally / family memory suggests there was a "series within a series" which i struggle to find any record of online. Vauxhall Junior was, i think, the first formula to allow under 17s to race. I am all but certain that for at least one year, they had a specific sub championship for 16yr olds. My memory says it was called "junior junior", but the only online references suggests it might have been known as either the "junior challenge" or "junior cup" within the main series. I know it was specifically for u17s and they gave out specific points and even trophies for the highest 3 finishing 16yr olds in the field (i personally witnessed the podium ceremony at least once). 

 

I am trying to find any formal record of this championship online and struggling. I know the winner was a Scotsman named Chris Buchan, who subsequently never raced competitively at any real level. A family memory suggests that Justin Wilson (RIP) was involved in the competition, which would tally with his age at the time if it was 1994 ( I believe it was). 

It was run as support races to BTCC as i recall, and it was around the time Alan Gow first got involved with touring car organising if memory serves (which it might not). 

The only record I can seem to find online is this page, which list Chris Buchan as the winner, but wondered if anyone else either remembers it (to confirm i am not mad) or has pointers / links to any records of it. 

 

http://www.dlg.speed.../1994/1994.html

 

Cheers 

 

[Tenmantaylor]

Came across this:

 

http://motorsportwin...r-championship/

 

I did my high school work experience at Team JLR (Jim Lee Racing) in Birstall, West Yorkshire in the early/mid 90s (can't remember exact!). They had two cars in the championship. Went testing with the team to Croft, Jody Shechter's son (Toby) was driving for the team at the time. He wrecked the car and got pinned up to the side of the team truck by the head mechanic. I almost wrecked a jaguar towing the pit trailer back to the truck with a quad bike.   They wouldn't let a 12 year old do that anymore!

 

Quite a prestigious list of winners in the series. Some went on to more success than others (Ralph Firman has to be one of the worst F1 drivers).

 

12 wins-Antonio Pizzonia
9 wins-Ralph Firman Jr
8 wins-Doug Bell, Peter Dumbreck
5 wins-Robert Huff, Guy Smith, Richard Lyons
4 wins-Luciano Burti, Dario Franchitti, Andrew Kirkaldy, Darren Malkin, Martin O’Connell, Gary Paffett, Justin Wilson
3 wins-Ryan Dalziel, Damien Faulkner, Joey Foster, Marc Hynes, Darren Manning, Kevin McGarrity, Henry Stanton, Leighton Walker, Dan Wheldon
2 wins-Mark Boost, Iain Brown, Ben Collins, Jamie Davies, Simon Harrison, Stefan Hodgetts, Tim Mullen, Milos Pavlovic, James Thompson
1 win-Robert Bell, Chris Buchan, Jamie Campbell-Walter, David Cuff, John Dalziel, Darren Edmonds, Jules Gilson, Jamie Guerrero, James Hanson, Philip House, Alex Jack, Ian James, Jonny Kane, Stuart King, Dan Liddle, Craig Murray, Tomas Scheckter, David Sonenscher, Fredy Van Beuren

Edited by Tenmantaylor, 29 April 2017 - 07:47.

[Tim Murray]

There's a paragraph on this championship in Autosport's review of the Vauxhall single-seater championships in 1994:

In the Junior Challenge Cup, the new class open to 16-year-olds, Chris Buchan used an early season advantage to post four straight wins that allowed him to stay clear of the group when [Darren] Malkin joined at the fifth round.

Junior Challenge Cup
1 Chris Buchan 139
2 Darren Malkin 129
3 Marc Hynes 129

Malkin also finished 7th in the 'senior' Junior Championship.

[GazChed]

The Formula Vauxhall Junior Challenge Cup was only held in 1994 and 1995 , the winners being Chris Buchan and Justin Wilson . According to British Motorsport Year 1995-1996 the 16/17 year-old class was replaced in 1996 by a class for older specification cars .

[AlesiUK]

Cheers Gents, that does seem to confirm what i thought / remembered. My Dad ran Chris Buchan that season (private team, essentially my old man, plus Chris's old man Ewen, who was for a time a well renowned FFord 1600 racer around the scottish club scene). 

I was trying to trace whether Justin Wilson actually competed in a couple of the races late in 94, before going on to win it in 95 but cant seem to confirm that was the case. 

That is quite the list of winners names as well. At least 4 guys who  made F1 by my reckoning and 5 Indy 500 wins between Dario and Dan (RIP) and a fair bit of touring car success from Dumbreck and Paffet.