A new season of racing for the Classic Touring Car Racing Club kicked off on Donington Park Grand Prix circuit with plenty of close-quarters action.
Pre-’83 Group 1 Touring Cars began a big year for the category with two entertaining contests, each won in contrasting fashion by reigning champion Jonathan Corker.
Also taking double honours across the weekend was Mike Manning (BOSS), while other highlights included a maiden win for Dave Farrow in Classic Thunder.
Pre-’83 Group 1 Touring Cars
An 18-car entry of Group 1 machinery was the best at a season-opener for four years. But it was a familiar winner as Jonathan Corker twice took his unique Datsun 510 to victory.
Corker had a scare at the start of qualifying when a loose connection to the fuel pump threatened to prevent him setting a time. But, once diagnosed, it was quickly fixed and Corker joined the session in time to complete the minimum three laps.
They were all he needed to claim pole position by almost three quarters of a second. Nick Williamson’s Rover SD1, which had been on a winter diet, was second fastest, just ahead of Nic Grindrod (Ford Escort Mk1) who was one of a number to have times deleted for track-limits infringements.
Tom Harvey’s similar Escort would join Grindrod on row two. Jared Knight impressed with fifth fastest time in his Mk2 version. Sixth quickest was club newcomer Jerry Bailey in the ex-Tony Palmer Rover.
Timetable delays pushed the first race back to Sunday. It was led from start to finish by Corker although he was kept on his toes throughout.
The Escorts of Grindrod and Harvey used their weight advantage to get off the line quicker than Williamson’s Rover. Grindrod slipped into second while Harvey ran side by side with the big V8 down the fearsome Craner Curves.
Williamson did well to hold on to a huge twitch on cold tyres which allowed Harvey to claim the place, setting up what the Rover man later described as an “epic battle” between the pair. They traded the position before Williamson made it his own, although 15 seconds of track limits penalties would ultimately have cost Harvey anyway.
Out front, Grindrod kept up the pressure on Corker but was unable to challenge the Datsun which went on to take its sixth win in seven races. Williamson won Class B in third overall, while Harvey’s penalties promoted the similar car of Graham Smith to fourth.
As Knight’s pace suffered due to cracked brake discs, which would keep him out of race two, Harvey was just far enough in front to only drop to fifth.
Behind Knight, Bailey managed a second-in-class seventh on his first time running the car in the permitted Group 1.5 set-up. Reece Cannell, making a second appearance with the club in his superb Ford Capri Mk2, but retaining its pure Group 1 spec, was eighth.
Cannell gained a position when Carl Shreeve’s Triumph Dolomite Sprint hit oil under braking for the Melbourne Hairpin. The Dolly speared left into an unprotected wall, suffering heavy damage.
From the back of the grid after brake problems in qualifying, Neil Philpotts had lifted his Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo to fifth before hitting further trouble and dropping to ninth at the flag.
Completing the top 10 to win Class D was James Dunkley’s Ford Fiesta Mk1. Both his 1600cc rivals hit trouble – the gearlinkage on Don Hughes’s VW Golf broke on the grid, while Robyn Slater’s Escort sadly suffered a big blow-up.
Following the earlier attrition, and with a quick turnaround on the revised timetable, only a dozen cars were able to start the sequel. It brought another win for Corker but this time he had to come from behind.
With his rear tyres worn almost into slicks, and a couple of missed gears not helping matters, the Humberside driver dropped behind Grindrod and Harvey. Grindrod’s pass for the lead was a sublime move around the outside of Redgate, while Harvey cut back exiting Goddards for second.
In effect, that actually put Harvey into the lead because Grindrod had a 10s penalty to come for creeping at the start. Luckily for those watching on, none of the drivers realised that – otherwise they might have driven differently.
Instead, all three continued to go hell for leather. Despite his car beginning to look a handful, Corker got a run exiting Coppice to re-pass Harvey. He then reeled in Grindrod and dived ahead at the Melbourne Hairpin to take a decisive lead. Corker even snatched the point for fastest lap from Grindrod on the final lap.
“All that effort and I didn’t need to!” laughed Corker when told of Grindrod’s penalty.
Harvey inherited second from his fellow Escort driver, the Rochester man delighted to have his car running better than ever. Grindrod’s Viking Auto Garage-entered Escort dropped to third, with Smith’s GS Electrical Services version completing the top four.
First and second in Class B, fifth and sixth overall, where Bailey and Cannell. Class rival Williamson hit trouble when his car began to overheat; but having pitted and topped the water up, he looked set to still secure points for third. Unfortunately, he fell foul of the scrutineer’s roller and was disqualified for not meeting the minimum rideheight. The same fate befell veteran Mostyn Rutter’s pretty droopsnoot Vauxhall Firenza.
Just outside the top six, Don Hughes bounced back from his earlier disappointment to win Class D ahead of Dunkley. Steve Walden’s BMW E30 and double Class A winner Mike Broadway (Jaguar XJ6) completed the classified finishers.
Pre-’66 Touring Cars
The largest entry for any single championship came from the oldest machinery, with a 26-car field. Lotus Cortinas were the cars to beat, but V8 stalwart Piers Grange did just that in his Ford Falcon, before Simon Gusterson upheld twincam honour in race two.
Winter fettling by Alan Henderson Racing helped Gusterson put his Cortina on pole position by 0.9s, ahead of 2024 champion Ian Thompson’s similar car. Teenager Oliver Law was next, with Grange’s newly-acquired ex-Leo Voyazides Falcon the first non-Cortina in fourth.
Best of the Mini men, and Class C pacesetter was Daniel Wheeler, fifth overall, ahead of Adam Cunnington (Cortina). Row four of the grid would be filled by welcome returnee Roger Stanford in his newly-built Cortina alongside Martyn Armstrong’s Mini. Barry Sime (Mini) and Jake Swann (Ford Anglia) completed the top 10.
Gusterson converted pole into the race lead, although the fast-starting Grange got alongside into Redgate before slotting into second ahead of Thompson and Law.
Further down the top 10, Sime’s Class C title defence got off to an unhappy start when a CV joint failed and left him cruising to a halt on the first lap. It proved a significant retirement for more than just Barry due to the oil he left behind.
Race leader Gusterson was first to hit it, costing him most of the 2s advantage he had quickly built over Grange. He drove more cautiously thereafter. Thompson suffered too, with a couple of off-track excursions dropping him behind Law, Wheeler and Cunnington.
Grange took advantage to power past Gusterson and take up a lead which he would convert into a debut victory for the Falcon, despite being baulked by backmarkers on the final lap.
“I wasn’t really expecting that, first time out in it,” admitted Grange. “First time driving it in the dry.”
Gusterson still won Class F in second overall, while Thompson recovered to third ahead of Law and Cunnington. Sixth overall and Class C winner was Swann after Wheeler was penalised for track limits offences.
Stanford was seventh, with Wheeler classified eighth ahead of fellow Mini men Mike Davies and Martyn Armstrong.
Adrian Oliver (Hillman Imp) just held off series newcomer Gary Prebble’s similar car to win the well-populated Class E. Brendan Rooney recovered from a spin to take third.
A year after brake failure ended his debut at the same venue, Charles Norris made a triumphant return to win Class D in his Austin A35, despite snapping its gear lever in the closing stages.
Gusterson turned the tables in Sunday’s sequel. While Grange led the opening laps, the Cambridge man kept within range. The heavy Falcon was working its tyres hard and Gusterson challenged from mid-race. After trading the lead a couple of times, he made a move stick and went on to take a second series win.
Having backed off a little to let his tyres cool, Grange responded with fastest lap on the final tour, finishing less than 0.5s adrift at the flag.
Thompson finished third. He had dropped to fifth after finding himself boxed in at the start but benefited from Law’s retirement when his car lost power and ground to a halt. The Luna Rising Records man completed his recovery by getting a run on Cunnington around the outside of Goddards to take third. He then began to close in on the leaders but ran out of laps to challenge.
Cunnington was fourth ahead of Wheeler, who drove a tidier race to take class honours ahead of Swann.
Perhaps the drive of the race came from Andy Hack who finished seventh overall. The long-time Mini racer failed to start Saturday’s contest after hitting engine trouble in qualifying. But he charged through from the back of the grid on Sunday to take third in class.
Barry Sime started alongside Hack and did almost as well to rise to ninth (fifth in class), the pair sandwiching Ed Gibbs’s Anglia. Roger Stanford was classified 10th after jump start and track limits penalties demoted him from fifth.
In Class E, Brendan Rooney drove a tidy race to take the honours ahead of Steve Platts (Singer Chamois) and Adrian Oliver. Prebble limped home fourth with his ex-Ed Carter car stuck in fourth gear, having also been hampered by clutch trouble at the start.
Taking over from son-in-law Steve Evans, Brian Bedford took his Austin A40 to Class D honours. Norris got the better of Patrick Harris’s Morris Minor for second after the pair enjoyed a race-long scrap, Norris’s A35 regularly stuttering as it exited the Melbourne Hairpin.
Classic Thunder & Historic Thunder
The monstrous machinery of the Classic and Historic Thunder championships were joined on track by entries from BOSS and Pre-’93 and Pre-’03 Touring Cars, making for a busy and eclectic grid.
Sadly, Saturday’s race was something of a non-event after a startline accident, red flag and lengthy safety car period. A much better contest on Sunday produced a maiden series win for Dave Farrow in Rick Kerry’s V8-powered BMW 1 Series.
It was Farrow who set the pace in qualifying, going 0.17s faster than Joe Collier’s increasingly well sorted BMW M3 E46.
Kevin Clarke (1 Series coupe), Jasver Sapra (M3 F80) and Mike Cutt (M3 E36) completed an all-BMW top five.
Best of the non-Bavarian machinery was Andy Robinson’s Aussie V8 Ford Falcon, ahead of the leading Historic car, Colin Voyce’s Mountune turbo-engined Ford Escort Mk1.
Having had water pump trouble in qualifying which restricted him to just two laps, Andy Wilson’s 6.2-litre Mercedes C63 from the defunct Superstars series was left out of position, in mid-grid. As he powered past Kevin Willis’s Pre-’93 BMW at the start, the pair made contact.
Wilson’s Mercedes got turned across the front of the BMW and speared into Ross Craig’s Pre-’03 Honda Civic, firing it into the pitwall. Incredibly, everyone else avoided the incident, but with three wrecked cars littering the circuit, the race was stopped.
At the restart, a first-corner incident between the BOSS Fiesta of Chris Brown, Daniel Gandesha’s Pre-’93 BMW and the spaceframe BMW Z4 of Simon Hutt led to a lengthy safety car period. Already reduced in duration to 10 minutes, the clock ticked down before racing could resume, very disappointingly for all involved.
In the short green-flag running that had taken place, a terrific start from Sapra took him into the lead and he duly claimed a first overall victory in Classic Thunder. The Coventry man saw little reason to celebrate, however. “Wasn’t really a race, was it?” he shrugged.
Clarke, driving the ex-Matty Evans car that is also part of Sapra’s extensive garage, was second. Collier survived a heavy swiping of the Esses tyre stack to take third, ahead of Farrow, Cutt and Historic winner Voyce.
Robinson’s challenge was shortlived, the big Falcon splitting its gearbox casing.
Thankfully, Sunday’s race was much more straightforward, although it featured an eventful first lap for veteran Intersport man Clarke. He dived inside Sapra to take the lead at the Old Hairpin, only for the 1-Series to cut out exiting McLeans barely 30 seconds later. A quick reset did the trick and Clarke was back up to speed, albeit mired in the midfield.
Collier initially took up the challenge to Sapra, along with Voyce who briefly powered into second. But once Farrow got his tyres up to temperature, he unleashed the V8’s full power and picked his way forward, taking the lead on lap three of nine.
Next to challenge was Mike Cutt’s much older E36. With Farrow’s car looking a handful at times, and blowing out the odd puff of smoke, Cutt sniffed blood. But he decided that discretion was the better part of valour and settled for second, first in class. “I wanted to go home in one piece,” he explained.
“After yesterday, that was needed,” said Farrow, speaking for many, after taking the flag for his first win in Thunder.
Clarke’s recovery lifted him to third ahead of Collier. Sapra slipped to fifth, hampered by a gearbox that struggled to engage.
Sixth overall, and first historic car was Voyce. The Essex veteran lost pace as his already worn tyres gave up. Struggling to source appropriate rubber since the demise of Avon, Voyce may be forced to run bigger wheels on the Escort in future.
Completing the top 10 Thunder runners were newcomer Giuseppe Callari (E46 M3), Kevin Denwood (E46 Compact), reigning champion Ian Bower (E36 M3) who won Class C despite a track-limits penalty, and Anton Martin (E46 M3).
Blue Oval Saloon Series
Running alongside Thunder, the series exclusively for Ford machinery featured a number of drivers returning to its ranks and brought two wins for Mike Manning’s Sierra RS500.
With an engine overhaul finding him another 50bhp over the winter, Manning used the Eggenberger tribute car to good effect, posting a lap almost three seconds faster than 2021 champion Martin Reynolds’s Group 2 style Escort Mk2.
Third quickest was Sam Daffin’s rear-wheel-drive Fiesta Mk5. Daffin had ditched the unreliable Ecoboost powerplant over the winter, installing a Duratec motor in its place and mating it to a six-speed sequential Sadev gearbox.
Fourth quickest in BOSS was Pre-’83 multi-champ Stephen Primett, returning to the club with his Mk1 Escort now running a 1600cc BDA screamer. Michael Keneally’s Mk7 Fiesta and Michael Rudge’s Mk2 example rounded out the top six.
Also on the entry list, but not enjoying the best of fortunes in qualifying, were returnees Will Hunt (Mk6 Fiesta) and 2017 champion Chris Brown. The latter’s XR2 now features outlandish aerodynamic appendages as well as having a two-litre Duratec shoehorned under its bulging bonnet.
With racing laps severely limited in Saturday’s opener, Manning took the honours from Reynolds, Daffin and Primett.
The following day, Manning was again to the fore. The Gloucester-based driver was mixing it within the top 10 Classic Thunder cars, well clear of his BOSS rivals. He enjoyed a good battle with Giuseppe Callari’s BMW, eventually prevailing by less than 0.5s.
In Manning’s first BOSS double victory since the 2023 season opener at Silverstone, he finished some half-minute clear of Reynolds.
Daffin was third in BOSS, well clear of his Class D rivals. Fourth-placed Primett and Kenneally in fifth also won their classes, despite 15s of track limits penalties in the latter’s case.
After getting caught up in one of Saturday’s incidents, Brown had a better run to sixth in BOSS, second in class. Having to run without a splitter after breaking a bracket, the ATW Motorsport man still improved his pace as he got accustomed to running slicks for the first time.
Pre-’93 Touring Cars
Reigning Pre-’93 champion Ian Bower’s winning streak came to an end in the truncated opening race as Oliver Owen took the honours before Bower hit back on Sunday.
Running alongside the Classic Thunder field, with much of the Pre-’93 entry registered for both categories, Bower set the pace in qualifying, seventh tenths faster than Owen. Kevin Willis, Graham Myers and Daniel Gandesha made it an all BMW M3 E36 top five.
Sadly, the CTCRC debut of former rally driver and British GT newcomer Ernie Graham aboard his sublime E30 M3 didn’t last long as the car succumbed before even completing a lap. Shaun Morris’s E36 also hit engine trouble that would ruin his weekend.
With such limited running in the opening contest, the start was crucial and Owen made it count. He leapfrogged Bower and earned himself only a second career Pre-’93 win, his first while registered for points.
Bower had to be content with second, with Myers third. Both Willis and Gandesha were eliminated by accidents which left Class D man Mark Fynney as the only other Pre-’93 finisher in his lovely little Vauxhall Astra GTE.
It was Owen’s turn to hit problems in Sunday’s uninterrupted race, leaving Bower untroubled en route to victory in his CibiEmme lookalike machine.
Plymouth veteran Myers, champion in 2019, took a distant second. With Willis a non-starter and Gandesha retiring again, Class D winner Fynney finished third overall in Pre-’93.
Pre-’03 Touring Cars
A number of newcomers graced the Pre-’03 Touring Car ranks as Kent driver Kam Tunio took the laurels in both races.
Peterborough racer Ross Craig was fastest in qualifying, his Aligned Concept Engineering Honda Civic Type R EP3 going better than ever. Craig was 2.6s faster than Tunio’s similar car as the third Civic of three-time champion AJ Owen was sidelined by electrical gremlins.
Among the trio of BMW 328i E36s entered for Class A, Tim Tomblin’s smart example took class pole on debut, edging out reigning champion Dave Cave by 0.17s.
There was heartbreak for Chris Bassett, who has switched to the championship this year in his Peugeot 306 GTi. Hopes of his Pug taking the fight to the Civics were dashed when alternator failure prevented him qualifying. It would be a long journey back to Kent with nothing to show for his efforts.
Sadly, Craig was a completely innocent victim of the startline shunt in race one. A big hit into the pitwall left him with a very bent Civic and nursing a sore neck. Very cruel luck for the club stalwart.
Craig’s misfortune gave Tunio a clear run to Pre-’03 victory in the truncated restart, his Civic mixing it among the BOSS runners for the brief period of green flag action.
Cave’s better start helped him beat Tomblin to Class A victory, with the trio completed by Frenchman Guillaume Le Meur, who had to qualify out of session.
Owen rejoined the field for Sunday’s race. Starting from the back of the grid, he climbed his way forward but was unable to catch Tunio who recorded his first Pre-’03 double.
Cave had the better of Tomblin as he took Class A honours, with Strasbourg-based Le Meur failing to reach the finish.
Full results are available via the TSL website.
Images courtesy of CTCRC official photographer Steve Jackman/Eat My Pixels (SJ) and Jamie Peters-Ennis (JPE)
