Snetterton

Flockhart Pushes Snetterton Record to 103.85 m.p.h.

A record-breaking F.1 and F.2 race and the three-hour final of this year’s Autosport Series Production Sports Car Championship closed the motor racing season at Snetterton on October 10th. Ron Flockhart in a works B.R.M. won the Formula race at a cracking pace from Jack Brabham’s 2.2-litre engined F.2 Cooper. In doing so, Flockhart became the first driver to lap the 2.71-mile Norfolk circuit at over 100 m.p.h. and collected an extra £100 prize, donated jointly by Oliver Sear and Stanley Boshier, by virtue of this. He left the lap record at 103.85 m.p.h. after chopping 4.6 sec. off Brian Naylor’s existing circuit record with a time of 1 min. 33.6 sec.

Bruce Halford, in his first B.R.M. drive, came home third after a relaxed race. Perhaps this indicates a works drive with the Bourne team next year. David Piper’s 2-litre Lotus gained a creditable fourth place ahead of the first F.2 cars home — the Yeoman Credit Cooper-Borgward of Chris Bristow and Mike McKee in Jim Russell’s Cooper.

Jim Clark with the Border Reivers’ Lotus Elite won this year’s three-hour race from Dick Stoop’s Frazer Nash, Sutcliffe’s Frazer Nash, Mitchell’s A.C. Bristol, Protheroe’s XK120 and Needham’s M.G. coupe. To win the 1959 Autosport Championship, Paddy Gaston and his Sprite had to beat Bob Gerard’s Turner. These two lapped in close formation for 15 laps and then, pulling hard in third gear, the cog broke on the Sprite, wrecking the gearbox, and Gerard had merely to last out at the front of his class to win the Championship. However, at the end of the race it was found that Stoop and Gerard had tied for the Championship, the decision being given to Gerard when points scored in seven of the 12 qualifying races were taken into account. — D.J.R.