Motor Racing Legends at Spa

10/10/2011

Saturday’s Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy race at the Spa Six-Hours Meeting was won from pole by the white D-type of Carlos Monteverde and Gary Pearson, although the early laps suggested the outcome could be very different. From the start, Monteverde had to fight tooth and nail to keep Simon Hadfield, in Irvine Laidlaw’s Ecurie Ecosse D-type, at bay.

Sadly, Hadfield’s D-type suffered a puncture after just a few laps, which put him out of the race and left yet another D-type to inherit second place: this one owned by Gary Pearson, and driven by him for the first half of the race. At the pit stop, Pearson handed his D-type to co-driver Andrew Smith and jumped into Monteverde’s D-type to finish – and win – the race, three and a half seconds ahead of his own car. Meaning Gary came both first and second, in two different D-types…

On the same lap but further back when the chequered flag fell was the Cooper-Jaguar of Derek Hood and John Young, superbly driven to a podium place, a very impressive result which included beating the fourth-placed Jaguar D-type of Nick Adams and Fred Wakeman by some six seconds.

Other class winners included Stephen Bond’s Lister-Bristol (in fifth place overall), the sixth-placed Jaguar C-type of Wil Arif and Jarrah Venables, the Aston Martin DB3 of Mark Midgley and Chris Woodgate (who managed to beat no less a competitor than the DB3 of Martin Melling and Rick Hall), and the Austin-Healey 100 of Martyn Corfield and Jeremy Welch.

Meanwhile, in Sunday’s Stirling Moss Trophy, the Lotus 15 of Roger Wills and Joe Twyman led the field for the vast majority of the one-hour race, but a spectacular drive by Bobby Verdon-Roe in the Ferrari 246S Dino steadily hauled in the Lotus until, in the final few laps, the Ferrari dodged past to cross the line in first place.

Not only was there a Lotus 15 in second place, however, but the same model took third, fourth – and fifth. Third went to the Lotus 15 of Philip Walker and Danny Wright, while right on its tail came Ollie Bryant, a sole driver in the fourth-placed car. Fifth went to Ewan McIntyre, whose Lotus 15 had started the race on pole but lost out due to a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding. It was, meanwhile, a disappointing day for Jon Minshaw and Martin Stretton. Their Lister-Jaguar looked set to scoop third – if not second – place, only to be struck by a differential problem two laps from the end, leading to a reluctant withdrawal.

Adding to the excitement of the race was a good-natured ‘grudge match’ between the cars in Class 1 (under-2000cc on drum brakes). In particular, the two Elva Mk5 teams were determined to beat each other – and even more determined to beat the Lola Mk1 prototype of Chris and Ollie Phillips, but it was the Lola that eventually took the class win. Other class winners included Gregory de Prins in his Rejo MkIV, and the Lotus 17 of Gabriel and Dion Kremer.