Moggie tames the Cobras
The father and son team of Grahame and Oliver Bryant were victorious in the HGTCC Sunday enduro race on Silverstone’s GP circuit. They won in fine style despite a determined challenge from John Dickson in his orange Ram Cobra starting from the back of the grid.
Qualifying
After a quick trip back to the pits after failing the noise test, Olly and Grahame Bryant put their Morgan V8 on poll with a blistering lap of 2m.05.995 secs, over 2 seconds quicker than the thundering Ram Cobra of Cheng Lim and Phil James.
Third on the grid was Roger Donnan.
John Wilson followed with his very quick MGBV8. Ian McCallum and John Bussell put their Aston Martin DB5 on the third row in 6th.
7th and 8th were the other two Crossle’s of Andrew Todd / Nigel Edwards and John Taylor. Then came four big V8’s; Bob Searles and Tony Jardine in their Aston Martin DBSV8, Neil Merry and Christian Dick’s Chevrolet Corvette. Leigh Smart and Kevin Hancock’s DBSV8 and John Shoesmith in his Chevrolet Camaro.
The seventh row was shared by Sean and Robert Brown in their Aston Martin DB4 lightweight and the lovely Mini Cooper of Leigh Youles and Paul Tarry. Alan Hudd in his Aston DB4, the Richard Cooke/Simon Verschueren Mustang and Paul Tarry and Mike Youles in the Austin Healey Sebring Sprite completed the running order.
Two other noise failures were John Dickson in his Ram Cobra and the V8 Morgan of Paul Conway and Ed Mercer. John managed to get out for qualifying only for his distributor drive to break. Both had to qualify out of session over the lunch break along with the GT40 Mirage of Chris Shipton who had failed scrutineering and had to search for some new seat belts. These three would start at the rear of the grid.
Race
A bright and sunny afternoon saw the Heritage racers take to the grid for the start of the race. Unfortunately Neil Merry and Christian Dick’s Chevrolet Corvette didn’t make it because of diff. problems.
Phil James took the Silver Ram Cobra into an early lead from Grahame Bryant in his Morgan V8, holding these positions until the 10th lap when Bryant pitted and handed the blue Morgan to Olly. John Wilson in his red MGB V8 made a great start and was running a close third until he went off into the gravel at Abbey on lap two effectively ending his race. This handed third place to Roger Donnan where he had an 8 lap battle with Mark Hobbs. A gaggle of V8 Astons followed.
An early entrant into the pits was Ian McCallum in his Aston DB5. Ian had been feeling a bit under the weather all week and wisely thought that any time lost by the time penalty for an early stop would soon be made up by co-driver 3 times Porsche Champion, John Bussell.
The next four laps saw a hive of activity in the pit lane as all the cars came in for their mandatory pit stop/driver change. This was with the notable exception of Chris Shipman in his Gulf Mirage GT40 who just kept plugging on. Marshals finally called him in on lap 16. He was obviously enjoying himself so much he just forgot. Unfortunately an oil leak prevented him from rejoining the action.
Olly Bryant was now in full flow, the GT driver was lapping at 2m.06s and pulled out a lead of over half a minute over the following pack. Meanwhile John Dickson who had started his orange Ram Cobra from the back of the grid had his hawk eyes on a podium and was hunting down the cars ahead. Also on a charge from the back was the Morgan V8 of Ed Mercer and Paul Conway.
The Bryants eventually ended up winners by 42 seconds over John Dickson with Roger Donnan over the line in third. The James/Lim Cobra was 4th and Nigel Edwards and Andrew Todd were 5th.
Then came Ed Mercer and Paul Conway (Morgan V8) in 6th followed by a very close battle between the DB5 driven by John Bussell just making up the pit penalty over Tony Jardine in Bob Searles’ DBS V8 by under 2 tens of a second.
Class C winners Kevin Hancock and Leigh Smart were 12th ahead of the immaculate Ford Mustang of Richard Cooke and Simon Verschueren.
Class A winners were Paul Tarry and Leigh Youles in their Austin Cooper followed by Alan Hudd in his Aston Martin DB4 Lightweight.
Sean and Robert Brown had oil surge problems so failed to finish, The Tarry Youles Sprite also came in after 8 laps.
Results race: 50 minutes:
1 Bryant/Bryant (Morgan +8) 23 laps in 51m 12.555s (138 kph); 2 John Dickson (Ram Cobra) + 42.935s; 3 Roger Donnan; 4 James/Lim (Ram Cobra); 5 Edwards/Todd ; 6 Mercer/Conway (Morgan Plus 8). 7 McCallum/Bussell (Aston Martin DB5) 8 Searles/Jardine (Aston Martin DBSV8) Class winners: Bryant/Bryant (Morgan +8); McCallum/Bussell (Aston Martin DB5); Smart/Hancock (Aston Martin DBSV8); Tarry/Youles (Austin Mini Cooper). Fastest lap Bryant 2m06.189s (91.13mph).
