Nothing quiet comes close to a sunny Silverstone. Mind you there was a chill Northerly blowing over the Stowe Circuit and it seemed to suit Stewart Robb who was, apart from a minor glitch, in a league of his own. The joint British Sprint and British Super Kart meeting had a pretty full entry and the day was going to have to be run well to maintain the schedule and to get through all the runs and races. The Icelandic volcano incident did have a knock-on affect on the event when Nick Algar & John Payne ended up stranded abroad - “Nick Algar’s stuck in Spain? Oh that is a pity!” said Stewart Robb Snr. Practice as usual took its toll and in the Westfields there was a game of musical seats as people swapped cars and blagged shared drives. Mike Musson was the most notable withdrawal as his Force straight-lined the chicane and destroyed its front wing - “The problem at the chicane was that the cones were 6 foot apart whilst the car is 7 foot wide!” Meanwhile other drivers were concerned about the state of the track “There is an awful lot of dust out there but what do expect when you go sprinting on a building site.” said Jonathan Toulmin. Making his second appearance of the season at a British Sprint round was Eddie Walder. The Motorsport News Hillclimb Correspondent was enjoying the event but like a lot of people was staggered by the cost of a bacon baguette! Then the timed runs got underway after the short lunch break and despite the odd distraction from the Formula 2 races on the GP track it was to be an eventful afternoon.
John Stephens took Class A1 despite a first run spin at the top hairpin with John Cocks (Morgan) and Chris Bound (Mazda) some way off the pace. Class A3 saw a two-way Morgan battle which Chris Bailey won with time to spare. In Class B2 it was a Sylva Striker clean sweep. David Spencer just held off a challenge from older brother Jim who in turn managed to keep Mike Smith at bay. Tim Wood in fourth was the top Westfield some seven seconds adrift. Class B3 saw the return of John Tomlinson who was sharing Howard Gaskin’s Westie. Tommo was fastest throughout keeping a rejuvenated Adrian Clinton-Watkins, who was sharing Barry Slingsby’s Westie, at arms length; Slingsby was third and Sean Baker fourth as the Westfield’s dominated.
Into the Mod Prods and in Class C1 Phil Newall held off Mark Anson, Matt Turner and Garry Bunn – the latter guesting in Newall’s car. In C2 Graham Frankland staged a superb fight back to snatch the class win from the spirited Andrew Miller in the Morgan 4/4. In Class C3 Terry Everall’s Millington engined Westfield was the class act finishing well clear of Paul Aspden in the rather sick sounding Derek Hodder Westfield-Honda with Hodder third. In C4 it was a one car, two driver battle. Craig Sampson just managed to hold off Matt Hillam on the first runs and when the car retired whilst Sampson took his second run Hillam had to settle for second.
The one and only Sports libre class was a family affair as the Clemows finished 1-2. With the withdrawal of Simon Bainbridge the Radical was the only runner. Martin was on the back foot throughout and a half spin at the top hairpin didn’t help leaving Simon to win at a canter. Classes E1 and E2 were amalgamated and not unsurprisingly the win went to a ‘1600’. Tom Potter took the tiny one litre turbocharged Jedi to the class win but it was the 1100 of Gary Thomas in second just ahead of Jonathan Toulmin in the Force and Andy Potter back in fourth. Class E3 for the Formula Fords was a close battle; Chris Bennett led after the first runs but was bounced down to second by an on-form Peter Caiado-Gillett in the ex-Jarvis/Webb RF84. Dennis Pickett in the Quest was third and with all three covered by less than a second it was a close run thing. Initial leader in the 2 litre class (E4) was Mark Smith but on the second runs it was Steve Broughton who slipped through for the win. Colin Birkbeck, Steve Miles, Phil Lynch and Tony Jarvis were next whilst Martin Webb in seventh just missed out on the Top 12. The Over 2 litre class (E5) looked like being a walk in the park for Stewart Robb but Terry Holmes pulled out all the stops on his second run to close the gap.
Tony Jarvis led the way but only got as far as the chicane on the back straight before coming to a halt. The car had done a demolition job on the tyres and cones so was an instant retirement. After the car was recovered it was Jonathan Toulmin next to the line. His first run was a banker however he put in great second run to record his personal best time of the day but would remain in eleventh. Phil Lynch was next and on his first run (sans engine cover) he continued to improve his time and then on his second run (with engine cover) again clipped almost a second and a half off to climb to ninth. Next in the running order was Graham Porrett and he was over a second quicker than in qualifying on his first run. However he was much slower on the second run and would have to be content with eighth. Gary Thomas, aka Carlos Fandango, was next and on his first run he almost matched his qualifying time. The second run though was two tenths quicker and despite this improvement he remained tenth.
Steve Miles had, as usual, been slowly ratcheting up the speed during the day. On his first effort he put in his usual fast and steady run to ensure some points. His second run saw another personal best as he clipped over a second off and moved up to seventh from tenth. Next in the firing line was Colin Birkbeck with the green and black Dallara which was going well. Colin was careful to get a time on his first run, especially after his second timed run fail. Then with a time in the bag he went for it. His second run was neat tidy and fast. The two second plus improvement lifted him above Steve Miles. Tom Potter was next and was the first driver to break the 90 second barrier. This left him close to the lead of the run-off going into the second runs and when he improved his time by over a second, due in no small part to a sprinter’s lunge at the finishing line, he ended up in a comfortable lead.
Mark Smith then brought Orville the Reynard to the line and followed Tom Potter into the Sub-90 Club. His second run was also quicker but it left him trailing the Jedi driver by just over half a second. Terry Holmes was next and his first run was quick. He set the fastest time so far and moved into the lead of the Top 12. His second run, like co-driver Porrett, was a lot slower as they both coasted through a couple of corners in neutral and this would see Terry drop down the order and finish fourth Steve Broughton also popped in a sub-90 on his first run but he effectively fell down the order and was lying in fourth at the halfway point. His second run on the now cooling track was slower which meant that the second fastest qualifier would end up in fifth.
Stewart Robb Snr had been visibly the fastest throughout the day and as he set off on his first run he looked to be maintaining his pace. However as he flew towards the top hairpin on his second lap there was a sudden squeal of tyres and silence as the Pilbeam spun to a halt. The clutch had stopped working and he would register a DNF. Thanks to some problems with the timekeeping Toulmin and Lynch would each require a re-run and whilst the cars were shuffled to the head of the queue Stewart and his wife struggled to restore the clutch to working order. As we reached halfway in the second runs the bodywork was going back on the Pilbeam and Stewart was smiling. So as he rolled forward to be lined up for his vital second run he was looking at a zero score unless he could register a time. There was however no cruising round to be safe, Stewart went for it from the green light. The orange Pilbeam was looking and sounding superb and as he rocketed into the top hairpin there was no hesitation on the down-change. All the way round he looked smooth and controlled and when he flew through the finish he stopped the clocks at a new course record.
“Three wins on the trot – the season’s got off to a great start. The spin in the run-off was caused when the clutch ceased to operate. Thankfully the break for the timekeeping problem let me get it fixed.” said Stewart Robb Snr. So with a massive lead in the championship standings Stewart is looking forward to the Ingliston double header in May; least he would be if he hadn’t written off his old March when he last visited the venue!
1 Stewart Robb (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd KV MP88) 85.87secs; 2 Tom Potter (1.0T Jedi/Suzuki Mk4) 87.88secs; 3 Mark Smith (2.0 Reynard-Vauxhall/Swindon 903) 88.45secs; 4 Terry Holmes (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) 88.67secs; 5 Steve Broughton (1.3S OMS-Suzuki/SBD CF08) 89.71secs; 6 Colin Birkbeck (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall 301) 90.74secs; 7 Steve Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Zetec/Dunnell RF96M) 92.83secs; 8 Graham Porrett (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) 93.12secs; 9 Phil Lynch (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall/JRE F399/01) 93.39secs; 10 Gary Thomas (1.1 Force-Suzuki PT) 93.76secs; 11 Jonathan Toulmin (1.5 Force-Suzuki PT) 95.05secs; Tony Jarvis (2.0 Formula Vauxhall Lotus) DNF
Class Winners:
John Stephens (1.6 Morgan 4/4) 124.33secs; Chris Bailey (2.0 Morgan Plus 4) 125.85secs; David Spencer (1.6 RAW Sylva Striker) 108.16secs; John Tomlinson (2.0 Westfield SEiW) 103.43secs; Phil Newall (1.0 Westfield SE) 102.10secs; Graham Frankland (1.8 Westfield SE) 122.35secs; Terry Everall (2.5 Westfield Sport 2000S) 100.69secs; Craig Sampson (2.0 Westfield-SBD) 100.08secs; Simon Clemow (1.3 Radical Clubsport+) 101.34secs; Tom Potter 91.47secs; Peter Caiado-Gillett (1.6 Van Diemen RF84 FF1600) 112.51secs; Steve Broughton 90.72secs; Stewart Robb Snr 89.06secs. NB all the above established class records for the course.