Silverstone Sat/Sun 31st/1st October/November 2015
For the first time since May I spent both days of the weekend trackside and with the clocks going back 1 hour the previous weekend, Autumnal mist and fog was in evidence as I travelled South early on Saturday morning. Thankfully Silverstone was free of fog but an overcast morning saw qualifying for the 6 heats of the Walter Hayes Trophy (WHT) plus Historic Formula Ford 2000 and Closed Wheel Historic race.
10 minutes only of qualifying was allocated to competitors in the WHT meaning that any mistake would be punished. On a damp greasy circuit there were a few spins and some heroic retrievals by Marshals at Copse to push back into action drivers who had spun. The first Heat of the day was run just before the lunch break and set the tone for some excellent racing in all the Heats. Local favourite Michael Moyers emerging from a 3 way battle with James Raven & Robert Barrable to triumph.
The days dominant Heat winner came in Heat 2 with Stephen Daly simply driving away from the rest to win by a whopping 6.121 seconds. To demonstrate how dominant this win was, the other 5 heats saw winning margins of 0.190..0.190(again)...0.573...0.082...& 0.120 seconds! Heat 3 was won by Josh Fisher's positively old 1999 Van Diemen ahead of 3 times WHT champion Joey Foster. Heat 4 saw an intriguing battle for the lead between the other 3 time WHT champion in the field Peter Dempsey and Irishman Kevin O'Hara. Dempsey seemed to have the win in the bag but O'Hara rallied and passed Dempsey late on to take the flag. Heat 5 featured last year's champion Wayne Boyd who won from pole position but his win didn't come easily with American Michai Stephens and Scot Graham Carroll snapping at his heels throughout. The real bunfight of the day came in Heat 6 which saw a frantic battle for the lead at times early on. Jonny McMullan eventually finishing first ahead of Oliver White.
There was some really good and hard racing in the heats with the only major casualties being Stuart Gough in Heat 4 who was involved in a collision and Castle Combe Champion Roger Orgee whose car failed to start in Heat 6.
A good idea by the weekend's organisers the Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) was to save the final round of their Historic FF2000 Championship until the WHT weekend. This meant that a decent 19 car grid took the start as this race has been a poorly supported non-championship single-seater allcomers race in the past. A cracking 20 lapper saw a 3 way fight for the lead with Ben Simms,Andrew Park & Callum Grant covered by just 0.7 secs at the finish.
Saturday's only race not to be powered by a Ford engine of any variety was a Closed Wheel Historic race which saw the Chevron B6 of Will Schryver lap the other 29 cars in the field. My favourite car in the race was a fantastic black 1977 Chevrolet Camaro of Mike Luck who finished 3rd. The larger UNSER painted on each side meant this was an ex International Race of Champions (IROC) car as also raced by Mario Andretti & Jack Ickx apparently.
After the overcast start, Saturday afternoon saw glorious sunshine at Silverstone and the pleasant weather made a change as usually the WHT weekend is one where the weather gods haven't been kind in the past! I really enjoyed the days racing on Halloween..indeed it was spooktacular at times.......
Having completed my Trick or Treating on Halloween night......it was back to Silverstone on Sunday morning to be greeted by what can only be described as warm sunshine! It was no surprise to learn that November 1st turned out to be one of the warmest November days on record. It snowed on this equivalent day 2 years ago so UK weather is nothing but unpredictable...!
Sunday saw 3 support races of varying quality.13 Clubman cars took the start of the Geoff Friswell Trophy and after 20 uneventful laps Rob Manson prevailed after poleman Ray Mallock retired early on.
Henry Chart's F3 Dallara led for 19 of the 20 laps of the Open Wheel Allcomers race but didn't on the important 20th lap. One had the impression he ran out of fuel but whatever the cause a grateful Mark Dwyer took the spoils in his March 742. Interesting to note the race debut of the new BRDC F4 car (the Tatuus MSV F4-016) in the hands of Neil Hunt who finished 2nd.
The days best support race was the Allcomers Closed Wheel race which saw a diverse bunch of automobiles ranging from the Spire GT3 of Tim Gray who won to the LMP3 Ginetta of Joey Foster (4th) and to the Rover Vitesse of Brian Sale.
The first FF1600 race on Sunday was the Progression race where just the top 6 cars progress to the Last Chance Race. Roger Orgee won from the back of the 28 car grid with 2014 MSA Formula Ford Champion Jayde Kruger in 2nd just a fraction behind.
Orgee won the Last Chance race too, this time from 31st on a 36 car grid. He did it the hard way as there was a red flag and 8 lap restart.
The WHT starts to get "interesting" at Semi-Final time and both 12 lap semis were classics. Graham Carroll won Semi 1 from 6th on the grid and an even better 2nd Semi saw Stephen Daly edge Michael Moyers.
Just before the Final there was an excellent 31 car Bernard Baxter Trophy race for Historic FF1600's that had taken part in the main WHT. Matthew Cowley's Reynard 88F overtaking erstwhile race leader Nigel Thompson on the final lap.
So to the last race of the day and for many the best race of 2015..the WHT Final.
A quite frantic opening few laps saw a huge train of cars squabbling for glory and it was somewhat inevitable that this couldn't last and at Brooklands at half-distance the bubble burst. Front runners Wayne Boyd, Stephen Daly & Josh Fisher were eliminated and a red flag was shown as at Woodcote Matt Rivett required medical attention following an off.
After a delay the 7 lap restart saw further drama with Michael Moyers rolling at Copse after at one stage looking odds on to win. Through the chaos though and always unobtrusive was Graham Carroll. Benefiting from the Moyers incident which also cost James Raven & Jonny McMullan a chance of victory, Carroll held off the recovering Peter Dempsey to take the 2015 Walter Hayes Trophy. 3rd placed Oliver White would become 2nd placed Oliver white as Dempsey was subsequently disqualified from 2nd due to a technical infringement.Australian Scott Andrews the new 3rd place man from 18th on the original grid, Phew....!!
In my opinion the standard of racing at the WHT gets better year by year and, with the 2015 version being held in fantastic weather almost throughout, this meeting is a cracker and shouldn't be missed. Slight alterations to the format would be beneficial in my opinion. Saturday's heats are only 8 laps in length and maybe all FF1600 races throughout the weekend could be increased by a few more laps. More laps = More action! A change in the traditional support races too would be a good idea...a few more Championship deciding races instead of Allcomers would add a bit of spice to proceedings.
Admission was £10 on the gate each day and a very good programme was £3. Silverstone had promoted this meeting more than in previous years and there were more people on the terracing at Luffield than usual. If you really wanted to you could extend the days entertainment on Sunday by staying for a fireworks show and then watch the Mexican GP in The Wing. As I'm boring I did neither and it was back home early for me. The end of the 2015 season for The Spectator too as this was my final meeting of the year. Thank you to all my loyal readers!
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