B.A.R.C. (WEST MIDLANDS), 7th July 1962
WELLESBOURNE
SPRINT
THE restricted sprint organized by the
B.A.R.C. (West Midlands Centre) on
7th July was run off in ideal weather
conditions at Wellesbourne Airfield, the
site having been made available through
the kind co-operation of Group Captain
E. Earnshaw. O.B.E. The entry was
over-subscribed. and a most convincing
B.T.D. over the one-mile-plus course
was eventually to go to Steve Neal who
on his first really successful outing with
the attractive new l½-litre Arden-Ford,
apparently made a nonsense of a gear-
change and spoilt one run, and then
went out again to record a shattering
39.4 secs., no other car managing to
break 40 seconds during the day. Austen
May's well-known and very fast Lotus
18 got down to 40.5 secs. to win the
racing class, with Gordon March's Djinn
a comfortable second in 41.3 secs. Randy
Vaughan, with his ex-Keylock Elton,
had some difficulty selecting his gears
and never really got under way, and,
unusually, Freddy Floyd's immaculate
Cooper-J.A.P. was unable to better 42.8
secs. for third place.
Proceedings opened with the small
saloons, the Broadspeed Austin Seven of
John Fitzpatrick returning a smoky but
quite unapproachable 50.4 secs. for the
major honours, while into second place
came a fugitive from the G.T. class in
the shape of S. L. Courts's elaborate and
extensively modified i.o.e. l00E Ford
Escort which, with 51.4 secs., surprised
nobody by taking the place from the
closely matched standard production
Austin Mini of A. K. Berwick (52.3 secs.)
and Rob Ordway's similar Arden-pre-
pared Mini-Minor (52.5 secs.). Miss Jan
Hatton, who might normaliy have heen
expected to feature in the results, had
an off-day, taking her Broadspeed Austin
onto the grass in practice and subse-
quently being plagued by broken fan-
belts and similar minor bothers, which
rather put her out of the running. T.
Keegan ex-works Rapier took the
larger class with 51.1 secs., while, in his
unsuccessful effort to dislodge G. C.
Collins's Rapier from a 52.5 secs. place.
Harry Skelton took his Rapier into the
countryside, but recovered to press on
over the grass in a most hairy-fashion.
while A. Ellis enthusiastically revolved
his Gazelle at the hairpin.
The small sports and G.T. class saw
Ralph Broad's Austin-Cooper, with 48.4
secs., establishing an unassailable class
win and being the only car among this
large class to better the time that Fitz-
patrick's Group 2 Austin had returned
in the standard class, though J. Wales's
Group 3 Austin came very close with
50.5 secs. for the place award. In the
2-litre class G. S. St. John's chain-gang
Frazer-Nash, despite depositing one of
said chains on the start line during prac-
tice, showed a very clean pair of heels
to a representative variety of respectful
modern machinery with a brisk 46.4
secs., while C. Gilbert took his TR3A
slightly off-course and Yorke-Brooks
eventually got his M.G.A into second
place with 48.0 secs.
In the heavy class V. D. Bell first
spun his Jaguar "E" in a big way, and
later recorded 45.1 secs. for second-place
behind class-winner Malcolm Delingpole
who did 42.4 secs. in his Jaguar "E"
before nipping out in his Lotus 7 to
clock 44.0 secs. for second place in the
small sports-racing class behind Paul
Ivey, who got his Speedsport Lotus
Seven round in 42.4 secs. for the class
win. In the next larger category Digby
Martland's Lotus Super Seven, with 41.1
secs., was seriously challenged only by
the Elite of Bob Rose which, on a day
when off-course excursions were the rule
rather than the exception, was second
with a best run of 44.1 secs. despite cer-
tain unscheduled activities at the hair-
pin. Finally came the unlimited class,
enlivened by Ken Wilson's one-time
Equipe Nationale Belge Lister-Jaguar,
which took control of the situation at
one stage and passed some 15 seconds
engaged on a tour of the décor before
ploughing its magnificent way back to
the course, subsequently to make a deter-
mined run in 43.7 secs., winning the
class unchallenged and bringing to a
close a day of fast and exciting sport.
HOWARD BILEY.
Results
B.T.D.: S. Neal (Arden). 39.4 s. Class Winners:
Standard Production Touring: J. Fitzpatrick (Aus-
tin Seven), 50.4 s.: T. Keegan (Rapier), 51.1 s.:
R. Romain (Jaguar 3.8). 45.7 s. Sports and
Grand Touring: R. Broad (Austin-Cooper), 48.4 s.;
G. Day (Austin-Healey Sprite), 48.6 s.; R. Rose
(Lotus Elite), 43.4. s.; G. St. John (Frazer-Nash),
46.4 s.; M. Delingpole (Jaguar "E"), 42.4 s.
Sports-Racing: P. Ivey (Lotus 7), 42.4 s.: D.
Martland (Lotus Super 7). 43.7 s.; K. Wilson
(Lister-Jaguar), 43.7 s. Racing: C. May (Lotus 18)
40.5 s.; S. Neal (Arden), 39.4 s.
Autosport, 20 July 1962, Pages 99-100
RGDS RLT
Edited by Rupertlt1, 22 July 2021 - 17:23.
