“One swallow does not make a summer,” wrote Greek philosopher Aristotle over 2300 years ago, but of course he’d not witnessed a Jaguar race. At Donington Park – where the fork-tailed birds long nested in the commentary box’s eaves – two Swallows Racing cars starred in the Classic Sports Car Club’s season-opener last weekend.
Wholesale delays on Saturday deferred Jag racing to Sunday, the first day of British Summer Time after the clocks sprung forward an hour overnight. At breakfast time, Jack and Tom Robinson were swiftly up to speed for their family’s Swallows equipe, defending champion Jack (XK8) shaking off Tom’s supercharged XJR6 and Colin Philpott’s shrill XJS, resplendent in a vivid new lime livery.
On a fiendishly slippery track, a scintillating sequel provided the wow factor as the Robinsons ganged up on Philpott, quickest out of the blocks. Tom thundered ahead past the pits on lap nine of 13, by which time James Wall had bustled Mark One Motorsport’s three-litre diesel-engined X-type estate – 14th on the earlier grid – up to join the lead battle with Simon Lewis’ V12 XJS.
Revelling in the torque and front-wheel drive of the “soot chucker” (as Philpott described it), Wall closed on Jack Robinson. When Robinson fishtailed wildly out of the chicane for the final time, Wall and Lewis gleefully shot past as he wrestled the svelte coupe back under control. Despite their steeds’ disparate specs, the top five’s best laps were 0.701 seconds apart, Tom Robinson’s 1m27.214s the standard.
Fierce Arctic winds – facing competitors exiting Coppice and on the Wheatcroft Straight – challenged the hardiest of marshals and circuit crews. “We had four seasons in 30 minutes,” said one, reflecting on Saturday’s rain, hail and sunshine. But conditions were bright when saloons defeated sportscars in the Future and Modern Classics race.
Barley’s BMW was able to defeat the TVRs in Future/Modern Classics contest
Photo by: Mick Walker
Tom Barley drove his BMW E36 M3 brilliantly, splitting the TVR Tuscan Challenges of Alex Taylor and Aston Blake initially. Blake blasted ahead but was stuck in fourth gear when he relayed father Tony, who wasn’t ready. Mark Chilton’s Nissan Skyline GTR R32 finished strongly, ousting Taylor, but Barley was beyond reach as he reaped a golden spring harvest. Dorset Sports Cars’ Paul Winter/Tim Speed also went the full distance in their very pretty 2004 Porsche Carrera Cup car.
Local hotshoe Connor Kay enjoyed a cracking Saturday, winning the Swinging Sixties and Classic K mini-enduros and bagging a Midget & Sprite Challenge class win for his father’s Tapchanger stable. Dominic Mooney started Kay’s three-litre TVR Tuscan V6 in the former, in which Stephen Pickering (Sunbeam Tiger) shadowed Connor past the chequer. Cheshire golf pro James Hughes (Lenham Sprite) was a close third, ahead of Dutchman Marc Kniese’s orange-topped Mini Cooper S.
Kay subsequently soloed in a 26R-spec Elan, which was comfortably quickest for the FIA Appendix K-couched pre-’66 race when a rear wishbone broke at McLeans. When an early safety car emerged behind him, Kay was gifted a lap’s lead. Neil Armstrong (Ginetta G4R), Mark Campbell/Ben Ferguson (Triumph TR4) and Peter Smith (Lotus Cortina) led the fruitless chase.
The year’s first Spridget encounter ended with James Hughes outrunning Pippa Cow and Kay. Sunday’s sequel was tougher but, as many rivals were bunkered or hit mechanical trouble, Hughes stayed on the fairway with Kay and defending champion Hugh Simpson ever more distant in his wake. Hughes’ class rival Cow was displaced on lap one but, helped by a safety car, recovered to sixth behind Barney Collinson and Ian Burgin.
Back from racing his Lola Mk1 Prototype at Phillip Island in Australia, Keith Ahlers qualified his beloved +8 on pole for the Morgan Challenge opener by 11.953s, the only competitor to beat the rain to a second hot lap. Come the first race, the Jersey resident was focused by the impressive Andrew Thompson’s +8 before a full-course caution. Thompson was jumped by Oliver Pratt (ex-Matthew Wurr +8, 99 OK) in lapped traffic before the timing line at the green, but kept the place. Meanwhile Ahlers growled to his 110th Challenge win in a 30-year career. Nearest rival Rick Lloyd, long retired, has 27!
Ahlers occupied his customary position at the head of the Morgan field
Photo by: Mick Walker
Pratt also lucked-in during race two when he, Ahlers and third-placed Louis Ruff (+4 turbo) found the Coppice kitty litter having hit oil over the brow. Ahlers scrambled out first and took the chequer, but a red meant the result wound back a lap to when Pratt was ahead.
Turbo Tin Tops provided a surprise winner when Steve Berry’s Mini JCW Coupe prevailed over David Robb’s Audi TT. Berry led either side of a full-course yellow but the race was halted when Robb slithered off towards Starkey’s Bridge and narrowly missed a Mini newly beached there. Richard Clarke’s Renault Clio and Matthew Jackson’s Ford Fiesta ST180 were third and fourth.
The Tin Tops lead scrap was in full flow when an innocuous tag between Jon Dee (Honda Integra DC2) and Andrew Windmill (Civic EP3), lapping cars over the timing line, speared Windmill headlong into the pitwall. The car rotated into the pit exit, where the local ace was extricated and transferred to hospital. From the restart, top qualifier Adam Brown converted Nigel Ainge’s opening gambit to victory in the octogenarian’s Hillwood Autos Integra DC5. Former banger racer Alfie Jones (EP3) and feisty Joe Hathaway (Clio 172) touched at Coppice but chased Brown home.
Niall Bradley and Paul Cook won the Ramair BMW openers in their E46 M3s, the Irishman chasing Cook back on Sunday despite gear actuator problems. Nathan Wells ended Saturday in the Redgate tyre wall after a rear brake calliper mount failed on his E46 GTR, but repaid his crew’s repair work by winning Sunday’s wet ‘Slicks’ race and New Millennium finale. Closest in the former were Sam Howarth’s Porsche and the Colin Turkington/Mark Smith E36, which had Kevin Clarke (Lamborghini Huracan) filling its mirrors on the line. Tim Crighton set fastest lap finishing Will Garrett’s Lotus Emira GT4.
Jonny Pittard’s supercharged Caterham CSR prevailed over a big Magnificent Sevens field. From a 10-place winner’s drop, he was second to Daniel Kelly’s 420R when the later race was declared three laps in.
Pittard was the star of large Magnificent Sevens grid
Photo by: Mick Walker
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– The Autosport.com Team
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