Graham Crowhurst and his stripey M3 E46 – inspired by Jeff Koons’ BMW Art Car M3 GT2 raced by Andy Priaulx at Le Mans in 2010 – enjoyed a memorable Classic Sports Car Club Modern & Retro race weekend at Castle Combe, conquering technical issues to maintain his Ramair championship lead on Saturday and winning Sunday’s 3 Series 50th Anniversary celebration.
Sonorous E46s dominated the points races, Irishman Niall Bradley winning both. When head gasket failure stopped early leader Jason West, James Card led the first chase. Third overall, Crowhurst won class B, separated from rival Ollie Neaves by Oliver Faller.
Neaves inflicted a rare class defeat on Crowhurst later, helped when Graham’s fly-by-wire throttle glitched during a caution. Upon the resumption, Crowhurst scorched from eighth to third, on Neaves’ tail, with fastest lap.
Sunday’s marque race was depleted, notably by Card (holed piston), while Adrian Bradley shared brother Ronan’s car having blown his engine. Russell Humphrey shot Mark Wyatt’s E92 between front-row men Niall Bradley (the siblings’ cousin) and Neaves’ partner Russell McCarthy, but Niall soon restored the status quo.
Crowhurst made “the worst possible start”, his engine lapsing into limp mode again, but made meteoric progress thereafter. Third by lap seven, he howled past Humphrey into Quarry. Leading after Niall Bradley made his stop, Crowhurst pitted two laps later, whereupon Faller led. With Niall Bradley spent, brakes smoked, Crowhurst usurped Faller, and Adrian Bradley grabbed second only for Neaves to snatch it away.
Watkinson (l) and Johnson had great Swinging Sixties scrap, but neither was ultimately triumphant
Photo by: Steve Jones
The Swinging Sixties races were action-packed. Chris Watkinson (Mini) took the chequer in Group 1, having battled furiously with Malcolm Johnson (Lotus Europa) until a throttle body gasket stifled its engine. Ben Gough (Marcos 3-litre) and Ben Tovey (MGB GTV8) and Dutchman Marc Kniese (Mini, from 14th) led the chase. Alas, Watkinson and Kniese were excluded for arcane non-performance issues, advancing the Bens and Niall Sinclair (Lotus 7 S4) to third.
Group 2’s lead battle was fantastic. Having watched their respective son Charles Hyde-Andrews-Bird (Lotus Cortina) and daughter Claire Norman (BMW 2002ti), scrap behind Ben Tovey through the mid-phase, Kevin Bird and Charles Tippet took up the cudgels. Tippet – 50 years a racer and 76 the previous day – remained glued to 2022 Combe GT champion Bird’s tail, but couldn’t purge his defences.
When Tovey growled up to split them, Bird was unaware he’d been fighting for P1, thus did not defend when he saw blue flags on the penultimate lap, thinking the MG was a lap down. “I could have made the Cortina very wide,” he grinned.
Grunty 3.9-litre MGB GTV8s ruled Modern and Future Classics, Neil Fowler beating Ollie Neaves/Russell McCarthy after second-placed James Wheeler’s sister car expired. Piers and Luca Masarati’s Porsche Boxster merited third and Modern gold.
Alex Hewitson celebrated Classic K victory with a joyous powerslide out of Camp in his Austin-Healey 3000, prepared in Scotland, having pursued Tim Crighton in Hilton & Moss’ pristine 1963 Jaguar E-type pre-stops. Novice Will Garrett jumped into the Jag and impressed in outrunning Jerry Bailey’s Ford Mustang for second. Dominic Mooney wrung every last drop of speed from his Ashley GT-bodied MG Midget to annex fourth from Allan Ross-Jones’ Cortina.
Outsprinted initially by Jordan Billinton’s Lamborghini Huracan, Dylan Popovic blasted his Ginetta-Chevrolet G50 to Saturday’s Slicks Series victory, despite its traction control kicking in. Archie Buttle, 17, bounced back from a hefty qualifying shunt to finish third in his Ginetta G56 GTA. New Millennium sub-set winner Humphrey/Wyatt’s BMW, Danny Cassar/Adam Brown (2.4-litre Honda Integra) and debutants Garrett/Crighton (Lotus Emira GT4) completed the top six.
Jones could not be caught in Tin Tops
Photo by: Steve Jones
The Tin Tops bout was restarted after John Ridgeon’s Honda Civic whacked Adrian Matthews’ faltering Volvo C30 at Folly. Adam Brown (Ford Fiesta ST150) led Alfie Jones (Honda Civic EP3) from the restart, pursued by Julian Fisher (Fiesta), then Richard Bethell (Renault Clio). Brown and top qualifier Cassar – relayed into Hillwood Autos’ “analogue” two-litre Integra by octogenarian owner Nigel Ainge – had 30-second previous winners’ penalties to negate, but Jones remained 13.8s beyond Cassar’s reach. Colin and Steve Simpson’s Peugeot 206 completed the podium, clear of Brown and Fisher.
Turbo Tin Tops welcomed a new winner in Nathan Nicholls who rasped his Helix Autosport Mini Cooper S, the sole supercharged entry, to the front. Nicholls did not wilt under pressure – even when his exhaust fell off on the last lap – as poleman Andrew Marson (Abarth Assetto Corse), one of four rivals carrying 30s winners’ penalties, finished 1.8s short. Nathan then rushed off to his stag do ahead of nuptials with Zoe! Adam Worgan’s super VW Golf GTI Mk4 was third ahead of Richard Clarke’s late model Renault Clio.
The Turbo Tin Tops vs Tin Tops fun finale was cautioned when first-time Puma Cup winner Gareth Cotgrove slithered off at Quarry after a coolant pipe blew. Having previously scuttled away, Marson won a single-lap dash from the well-matched Jones, Simpson and Bethell.
Stephen Collins aced the Magnificent Sevens opener from fifth. As the top six paired off, Andrew Grant shadowed Collins in the summer heat, clear of Richard Carter and Martin Leadbeater, then Simon Lanyon and Pascal Green. Grant topped his Combe debut by winning race two from Carter and Leadbeater. Collins lay third when he spun through Hammerdown’s kink and clonked the barrier, leaving Grant ecstatic atop a Boss Racing 1-2-3.
Jack Robinson (Swallows Racing XK8) won Sunday’s Jaguar championship counters, staving off Simon Lewis’ potent V12 XJS in the opener. From fifth in a partially reversed grid, Robinson clawed ahead in three laps as two absorbing duels raged in his wake. In a supercharged fight, initial leader James Wall kept his S Type R ahead of Chris Boon’s XK8 until an unfortunate last-lap clash at the Esses promoted Michael Atkinson (XK8) and Mark Bennett’s energetically-conducted X-type estate to the podium after two late exchanges. Third in race one, champion Colin Philpott’s flame-belching Powerbell XJS succumbed to a broken alternator wire.
Paul Sibley was untouchable in the Midget and Sprite Challenge. Pursuers James Hughes and Connor Kay shook off Richard Perry as Pippa Cow – learning her T-car – faded. Sunday’s race was red-flagged when Amelia Storer could not avoid hitting John Faux’s spun car head-on at the Esses. Hughes and Kay again chased Sibley at the restart. Cow bested Hugh Simpson and Mike Henney for fourth after Tom Walker’s steroidal frogeye Sprite retired.
Sibley occupied his regular spot at the head of the Midget and Sprite pack
Photo by: Steve Jones
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