Masters Brands Hatch Festival

	Monday’s Sports Racing Masters and other races were started behind the pace car. Richard Dodkins and Mike Wrigley won the race in their McLaren M1B

Masters Historic Festival

Abridged Report by Marcus Pye

HEAVY RAIN – which appeared to have followed ringmaster Ron Maydon’s circus from Donington’s waterlogged La Passione meeting three weeks earlier - caused logistical nightmares at the May 24-26 Brands Hatch’s Masters Historic Festival for the second successive year, but failed to dampen the spirits of its most ardent supporters as the Grand Prix circuit action intensified on day three.

With 10 inches (250mm) of standing water at Pilgrims Drop and deep puddles at the foot of Paddock Hill and Graham Hill Bends after a Sunday night monsoon which threatened the remainder of the meeting, Monday’s programme did eventually get under way two hours late, but only the amalgamation of the two Gentlemen Drivers GT enduros – the cancellation of a second GP60s farce and the stoic marshals got it finished in time.

Peter Dunn lent Frank Sytner his March 761 for the opening Grand Prix Masters event, in which the 1988 British Touring Car champion qualified quickest, but he was pushed all the way by a very fired-up Abba Kogan (Williams FW06) and the Martini-striped Brabham BT42/44 of Count Manfredo Rossi. Stars of the show, though, were Jacky Ickx’s ’72 German GP-winning Ferrari 312B2, which James Hanson debuted, and the Yardley McLaren M23 of Kiwi Phil Mauger, Denny Hulme’s ’73 Swedish GP winner. Several competitors, including Sytner, Hanson and Mauger, opted out of Monday’s wet race.

Richard Meins won a wet GPM race in his McLaren M23 Photos Eric Sawyer

Sytner and Paul Knapfield pulled their Lola T70 Spyders from Monday’s Sports Racing Masters event due to the soggy going, and when Leo Voyazides peeled off at the start with overheating, the way was clear for Mike Wrigley and Richard Dodkins to splash to victory in their McLaren M1B.

Chris Chiles Jr’s ballsy attempt to unseat Top Hat Masters leader John Young ended in a grassy excursion, but he recovered to keep second as Ford Mustangs suppressed Voyazides’ Falcon Sprint to fourth.

Voyazides’ Gitanes-liveried Lola-DFV T280 was never headed in the Proto ‘70s race – wait until Irvine Laidlaw’s similarly powered T292 hits the track at Anderstorp – but when Farthing’s Chevron-BDG B26 challenge was blunted by a fuel system gremlin Andrew Schryver fended off a trio of two-litre cars in his Chevron B23.

	The first HGPCA race was easily won by Michael Schryver in his Lotus 27, but a spin while leading the second race handed the win to Nigel Bancroft’s Cooper T51

Conditions had been dicey for Sunday morning’s qualifying sessions on the full layout, but the dank skies and miserable downpour suited Charlie Kemp to a T when he beat off the hulking Lola T70 brigade to snatch pole position for the World Sportscar Masters contest in his diminutive 1800cc Cosworth FVC-powered T210. The Chevrolet-engined monsters salvaged their honour in the races though, Andrew Smith winning both Lola Trophy events in father Esmond’s modern continuation car.

Kemp grabbed a feisty third on Monday, when Meins’ engine blew. Best of the small bore GT cars were the Chevrons of Michael Schryver (B6) and Frank Lyons (B16).

Alex Hammond and Graham Hathaway’s Chevrolet Camaro won the Stars of the ‘70s race from Shaun Lynn’s Ford Capri

HGPCA winners were Michael Schryver (Tasman Lotus 27 twin-cam) and Nigel Bancroft (ex-John Surtees Cooper T51), but former Grand Prix and F5000 driver Ian Ashley – looking intrepid in maroon open face helmet and goggles - revelled in Monday’s slippery conditions, bringing his underpowered LDS-Alfa Romeo home a gallant second.

Patient Gentlemen Drivers finally got their go in a dank mizzle (an enchanting blend of mist and drizzle) at the end of a trying weekend. A collapsed front wheel bearing halted the Lister-built Sunbeam Le Mans Tiger of early pacemaker Chris Beighton as co-owner Tony Eckford started his stint, which left a straight AC Cobra fight for glory.

A taster of GP ‘60s produced a motley selection of just five F1 and F2 cars – including Ron Maydon’s cloned Brabham-Repco BT24 for the first time – bolstered by Judy Lyons in the ex-John Love Surtees TS9 from the following decade.

For a full race report and results, see our July issue

Leo Voyazides won the ‘70s Proto race in his Lola T280