Julian clearly

display_0957d51541

Now a well-established feature of the VSCC’s Mallory Park meeting, the Williams Trophy for two-seater Grand Prix cars attracted a more varied entry than of late due to a degree of latitude being allowed in adhering to the original entry criteria. As in recent years, however, traditional Bugatti representation was thin on the ground with only five examples taking the start. Favourite was Sir John Venables-Llewelyn in Lord Raglan’s Type 51, with Julian Majzub making his first appearance of the year to defend his title in his ex-Campbell Type 35B. The Type 51 led from the flag closely followed by Majzub and Duncan Ricketts in the Majzub Dixon Riley, Llewelyn well in control until a smoketrail from at half-distance heralded his retirement with a split crankcase. This left Majzub to take a fortuitous victory from Ricketts and Martin Stretton in Terry Cohn’s Alfa Monza, who had managed to displace Keith Knight’s ERA-Riley. Ivan Dutton was best of the rest in John Marks Type 51, well ahead of the only other unlapped runner, Australian visitor Max Lane in his similar car brought over for the VSCC Jubilee celebrations.

The Spero and Voiturette Trophies race merited two heats and a final, the first heat falling to Freddie Williams’ Lagonda Rapier which worked through from fourth on the opening lap to win from John Macdonald (Rapier) and Edward Bradley (Austin), after fancied runner David Fletcher-Jones failed to make the warm-up lap. The second heat resulted an easy win for Tony Noble with his Austin-MG single-seater Special from Keith Pointing (Riley) and usual front-runner Frank Hernandez (Austin 7 Special). Noble’s Special proved to be the class of the field in the final with no-one able to offer any serious opposition, and after a poor start Hernandez eased away from the battling pair of Pointing and Williams to consolidate second place, while Chris Temple followed Williams home in fifth.

Tim Llewellyn mastered Mallory with his ultra-successful 3/8Itr Bentley to take an untroubled win in the Patrick Marsh Trophy for Vintage cars where the main interest centred on the battle between Freddie Giles (Cognac Special) and Spencer Flack (Bentley 8-litre) with Flack holding sway for most of the race except when it mattered most — Giles nipped past at the Esses on the final lap and held the place until the flag. John Baker-Courtenay finished an impressive fourth, giving John Merryfield’s Sunbeam Tigress its race debut following its lengthy rebuild, and taking second fastest lap into the bargain.

Sensibly, the pre- and post-war racing cars were combined in the Bob Gerard Trophy race, and included a class for 500cc Formula 3 cars producing a varied field of 25 starters. Early leader was Donald Day in the ex-Gerard ERA R14B holding John Harper in R4D at bay for a couple of laps before taking the lead at Gerards on the third lap, with Duncan Ricketts holding station in third, this time with Bill Morris’ ERA R12B. Just as Ricketts had taken Day for second the race was red-flagged when Phil Walker, debuting his Turner-MG, hit the barriers hard on the outside of Devil’s Elbow. The driver was thrown clear and was lucky to escape with nothing worse than a sprained finger, and was able to resume his Portugese holiday later in the day! From the restart, Harper was relegated to the back of the grid after stalling and set about working back up through the field. Once again Day led the opening lap but Ricketts took the lead at the Esses on the second lap, maintaining it to the finish to win on aggregate from Day, Mark Gillies (Brooke Special) and Harper. Ian Bentall took post-war honours with his Cooper Bristol in fifth from Ted Dunn (Riley Special). Forsaking his usual heavy metal, Steve Griswold was first 500cc finisher in his immaculate Cooper from the rare Kieft of Rod Delves. Harper had some consolation in claiming fastest lap, some two second clear of the field.

Julian Bronson’s fearsome 2.4-litre supercharged Riley was pressed by Bob Gilbert’s 4.3 Bentley in taking the first six-lap scratch race, the second falling to David Robinson (1.5 Riley) who triumphed after a race-long battle with Roy Spiers’s Alvis. Graham Withington (4.3 Bentley) narrowly pipped John Skeavington (Austin 7) to take the first handicap, Mike Painter (1.0 s/c MG) comfortably won the second from Bruce Riches’ Riley, and the final handicap proved to be an Alvis benefit with Barry Cannel’ heading home Richard Harris and evergreen Frank Lockhart in his faithful Rover Special. A S D C