The CTCRC’s Everard Pre-’66 Touring Cars enthralled the British Touring Car Championship crowds at Croft with three fantastic races. Filling a guest slot on the BTCC bill to celebrate the CTCRC’s 50th anniversary, a packed field of cars provided entertainment galore.
While former BTCC star Sam Tordoff did all the winning, there was plenty of action behind, in a wonderful advert for the CTCRC.
Tordoff was making a guest appearance with his Jordan Racing Team Ford Falcon and proved to be unbeatable. He put the big V8 on pole position by nearly three quarters of a second, ahead of a quartet of Lotus Cortinas.
David Dickenson went over six tenths quicker than Victor Cullen in his, consigning Le Mans winner Guy Smith to fourth on the grid. Paddy Shovlin’s Cortina would line up fifth, ahead of Tom Sharp (Falcon) and ex-Formula 1 driver Max Chilton, who was driving a Team Dynamics-run Cortina.
Topping Class C, eighth and ninth fastest overall, Joe Ferguson and Tom Bell set near identical times in their shared Mini, despite having to split their track time. It was an impressive effort from both to edge Mini expert Nick Swift.
Tordoff’s closest challenge came in the second race of the weekend when the 2016 BTCC runner-up was beaten away by Dickenson. Te pair then engaged in a spectacular duel before Tordoff managed to charge past the former Clio Cup regular at the end of the second tour. He then eased clear to win by 4s.
“It’s a bit of wrestle round here in that car,” admitted the Yorkshireman. “I’m glad it’s only 20 minutes because I’m definitely lacking some racing fitness!”
Irishman Dickenson had enjoyed the contest but knew that realistically second was the best he could do. “I thought all my Christmases came at once when I went into the first corner first,” he reported. “And then I quickly realised Sam was going to come back past pretty quickly.”
Sideways style and drifting action wasn’t confined to the leading pair. Smith and Cullen entertained in their all-Cortina scrap for the final podium place, while Mini men Ferguson and Swift enthralled with their battle for fifth, before Shovlin latched on and managed to pass both.
Lurid slides put many at risk of track-limits penalties. Indeed, Smith and Cullen were both censured, which therefore had no impact on the result. So Smith claimed the podium position he had lost a day earlier when he’d been slapped with 15s worth of penalties.
That had handed Chilton third place in Saturday’s race behind Tordoff and Dickenson. But he was denied a chance to repeat the result in race two after hitting transmission woe on the green-flag lap.
Shovlin was another to incur the wrath of the track-limits judges in race two, which dropped him back behind Ferguson into fifth. As the first CTCRC regular home in a class-winning fifth overall (an improvement from seventh a day earlier), Ferguson could be mighty proud of him performance in such illustrious company.
Behind Shovlin and Swift, Sharp hauled his Falcon to eighth. The experienced sportscar racer had been unable to start Saturday’s race when his brakes seized. But he charged through from the back of the field to break into the top 10, ahead of Cortina duo Pete Chambers and Peter Smith (Guy’s father).
From row two of the grid, it was Guy Smith who made the best start in race three, almost jumping into the lead. But while Dickenson was swamped having missed a gear, Tordoff did enough to hold Smith off into Clervaux and keep a lead he would never relinquish.
Tordoff was in a class of his own and completed his hat-trick in style, 15.6s clear of the field. “I enjoyed that,” he admitted afterwards. “The car was the best it’s been in all three races there – JRT have done a stunning job. The first two races were a bit scrappy; that one I drove well.”
Behind the lead pair, Cullen slotted into third and Dickenson recovered to fourth by the end of the opening lap, ahead of Shovlin, Ferguson, Sharp and Swift.
Cullen’s challenge was thwarted by a puncture that forced him to retire on lap three of 13. That released Dickenson to chase Smith but he was unable to challenge. So, keeping within the track limits, Smith completed the weekend with his best result of second, while Dickenson made it three podiums out of three.
Shovlin finished a relatively lonely fourth, but star of the race was Max Chilton in fifth. He charged through from the back of the grid, executing some very nice overtaking manoeuvres including a heroic pass of Swift through the ultra-fast Jim Clark Esses.
Swift had once again been engaged in a terrific scrap with Ferguson, who ended up contesting all three races. The two little Minis also fought Sharp’s mighty Falcon which got ahead of the pair, pulling clear on the straights before holding them up in the corners.
The battle became increasingly frantic in the closing stages with regular passing and re-passing. Ferguson finally got the better of Swift through the final hairpin as the Swiftune car was baulked by Sharp’s massive machine. Sharp edged them both across the line but lost out to a 5s track-limits penalty.
The Minis of GT racer James Dorlin and Michael Cullen (Paddy’s father) completed the top 10.
A little further back, more of the CTCRC regulars put on an enthralling show, providing maximum entertainment for the big crowd. Twice a Class E winner (Michael Loveland topped the first race), James Ibbotson became a particular favourite for his antics.
His little Hillman Imp Super twice shed its exhaust, and Ibbotson raised plenty of cheers as he stopped to fetch it post-race, giving a theatrical bow to his new fans. It typified a fantastic weekend of action, conducted in the right spirit, which earned plaudits for the club from far and wide.
Full results are available via the TSL website.
All images courtesy of CTCRC official photographer Steve Jackman/Eat My Pixels
