Mallory Park Saturday 26th September 2015

"Return to Mallory" was the title of this BRSCC organised raceday as the club (who once virtually organised all meetings at the circuit) were back in charge for a meeting at the Leicestershire circuit for the first time in several years. The glory days of the Overend family's tenure running Mallory seem a very long time ago now with weekly car and bike meetings running from March to October. Indeed this was only the 4th car meeting at Mallory out of 6 scheduled in 2015.
At least the circuit is still open for racing though so it was on a gloriously sunny morning I headed off to Mallory for a meeting that contained 9 races with an eclectic mixture of old and new. 
The Old came in the shape of 3 races run by the Historic Racing Drivers Club (HRDC). With the emphasis on the "car is the star" this club have found a niche in the crowded historic racing scene for drivers to race original touring cars from the 1950's & 60's. There was some special "tin" on show at Mallory! A 30 minute race for Allstars was their first race with 27 cars starting, but there was a high attrition rate with 18 finishers which is understandable with older cars. After a brief safety car period early on to recover a broken down car at the Esses the race settled down and was won easily by the Lotus Cortina of Kerry Michael despite an ominous cloud of white smoke appearing from the exhaust every time as the car braked for Gerards!
The Academy "Flying A Trophy" race was the first ever race entirely for Austin A35's. 17 started the half hour race which was probably about 15 minutes too long for the small cars to be honest. It was definitely too long for the driver who rolled his car at Gerards....sadly I was at the Esses so didn't see what happened! Neil Brown winning overall. I think the one make concept could work at historic level, maybe add a class for early Minis too but race lengths need to be much shorter in my opinion.
The HRDC's Touring Greats race was a 45 minute pit stop race that started with 26 cars and finished with 18. Mike Jordan's Austin A40 initially led from pole position but retired early on which handed the lead and eventual win to the Austin A35 of Neil Brown/Richard Dutton for the cars second win of the day.
Touring Greats Qualifying at the Hairpin
The Hairpin at Mallory is still the scene of much building work with the sound barriers that have been erected there meaning that spectators cannot walk a full lap of the circuit as the walkway through the office building being closed for the immediate future
Hairpin Sound Proofing!




The days Modern racing element was provided by double headers for the Honda VTEC Challenge/4Two (Smart Car) Cup, Monoposto Tiedeman Trophy & TVR Challenge.
The combination of Honda's and Smart cars was a curious one with an enormous speed differential between them. It was the tiny Smart cars that provided the days destructive element though as morning qualifying saw Alistair Woodhead roll his Smart on the exit of Gerards into an even tinier sized car! The days second race then saw a red flag as two Smarts collided heavily at the Devils Elbow with one meeting the tyre barrier with some force. With 11 Hondas and 10 Smarts this was a marriage of convenience but at least the grids were combined. Other clubs would have run both separately so at least spectators were spared 2 thin grids.
A week on from watching Monoposto's at Donington they were in action again 25 miles further South in Leicestershire with 2 races for the Tiedeman Trophy series. Named after the founder of the Monoposto Racing Club, Frank Tiedeman, this series gives the driver another opportunity to race outside of the main championship. A decent 21 cars were on the grid for the first race of the day which saw pole sitter Jeremy Timms' Dallara retire on the first lap. With the days second race grid being formed by finishing position from the first race,Timms carved his way through the field to win the race after fixing whatever problem he had.
In the mid to late 1990's the TVR Tuscan championship was one of the highlights of the national racing scene with packed grids and some very good drivers battling it out around the UK in the 4.5 litre brute of a car. It was good to see a few of the old cars on the grid in the TVR Challenge which featured 14 cars. Quite why there was a Westfield in the field was a mystery but an Invitation class is part of the series apparently! The 7 litre Sagaris driven by both Tim Hood and Darren Dowling is an impressive machine and the two drivers put on a show in both races battling for the lead. Dowling wining race one but retiring in race 2 giving Hood the win.
A very enjoyable days racing this was at Mallory. The circuit saw a fair turnout of spectators as good weather and the presence of the HRDC causing a large turnout of people with classic cars. There was no need to visit the paddock as the car parks were full of some very interesting machinery anyway! Spectating is always good at Mallory..it's such a shame that there aren't more meetings there. The old place still could do with a spruce up though and I took a photo below of the armco barriers at Gerards to emphasise that certain priorities have to be adhered to when improvements are made at the track....If hit at high speed then the barrier is simply going to disintegrate
                           
                             


Admission was £12 and as the BRSCC website had kindly posted entries I didn't buy a programme.....

                                        

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