Aintree Sprint Reports
Liverpool Motor Club – Late-Summer Sprint
Aintree – 31st August 2024
Graham’s great Gould goes top! Report by Steve Wilkinson
As I arrived at Aintree for the final sprint of the season the skies were wall-to-wall blue but there was a cooling breeze. Once again, we were borderline on entries and with several more withdrawals on Saturday morning the event teetered on the brink of going into the red!
Practice saw several cars fall by the wayside. First to falter was Robert Tonge in his re-engined MK Indy Cup 200. Robert had upgraded the engine and the full-fat Busa propelled him into Beechers at an incredible speed and the back-end lost traction and the car spun off into the vegetation causing the suspension to break. Jack Fairhurst then had issues with his self-built IFS and couldn’t take any competition runs. The finale car to falter was the Austin Allegro of Pete Cooper. The rally prototype gave up the ghost and was, like the IFS, back on its trailer by lunchtime.
Despite the delays in practice, we were able to move into the competition runs before the lunchbreak. First onto track was the four driver Introductory class. Michael Davies led off proceedings after he switched from his two litre Turbo Diesel Mini Cooper to an MX5. Andrew Davies set a new bench mark for the class on his first run in the shared MX5 as he established a PB . He then lowered his time twice after the lunch break and set a new class record. Nigel Burns took second in his MX5 whilst Paul Sarginson, who recently did a trackday at Aintree and fancied a competition outing in his Ford Focus, finished third just one hundredth ahead of the trailblazing Michael Davies.
There were just two Standard classes; in SC Neal Bateman led all the way in his Clio with the similarly mounted David Goodlad less than a second adrift. In SD class record holder William Hunt took the win in his Honda S2000 and set a new record as Peter Messer came home second with a new PB in his MX5.
Into the Series Production Road classes and in 1A it was a Ford Fiesta 1-2 as Paul Webb led throughout. Initially Gordon Peters was in second with his Fiat 500 Sport but on the third class runs Jonathan Ashford slipped into second extending his advantage over Peters on his fourth and final run. In 1B Russell Thorpe took the class win in his venerable Renault 5 GT Turbo whilst Jonathan Baines was second setting a new PB in his Clio on the way and James Robinson was third in his Clio on his Aintree debut. In 1C Stuart MacMaster led initially in his new BMW M340i Touring but was relegated after lunch. Firstly Alex Gilchrist-Jones took over the lead in his Mitsubishi and then James Hunt pushed MacMaster down to third as his turbocharged E30 picked up the pace on the fourth run. Jeremy Sladen was fourth in the first of the Renault Meganes whilst Jimmy Leach was fifth in his BMW M3. In 1D Lee Early took the lead on the first run with a PB before lunch in his Honda S2000 with a time that couldn’t be beaten. Ray Worrall got to within one hundredth of Early’s time in his S2000 but only managed two competition runs whilst Keith Rose set a new PB in his MX5 in third spot. Karol Bailey (TVR) also set a new PB as she carved over three seconds off her previous best. In 1E initial leader Tom Bourn in the turbocharged MX5 was unable to improve after the lunch break when first Roy Newton took the lead in his soft-top 911 Carrera and then Paul Clare in his iconic 911 Carrera hardtop slipped into second. In 1F we had a handful of Lotus Elise contesting the class and it was John Caldicott who led throughout, and he also reset his PB on the first run after lunch. Aintree debutant David Whiteley took second as he first established a PB then reset it on every successive run. Phil Wood ended up third with Steve Wilson fourth and David Lee fifth in his left-hand drive version.
Into the Road Going Kit Cars and in 2A Les Golding was on cracking form in his Rover K Series powered Caterham 7 as he reset his PB after the lunch break then took the class lead on his third run and equalled his new PB on his fourth run to cement his class win. Matt Bramall took second in his Zetec powered Caterham but needed a new PB to have regained the lead. Martin Walker took third in his Westfield whilst Chris Bramall was fourth as he too failed to make inroads on his PB. In 2B John Munro was making his Aintree debut and the young Scot took a lead he wouldn’t relinquish on his first run then lowered his brand new PB after lunch in the family Westfield Duratec. Nigel Fox took second spot in his Zetec powered Caterham whilst Roy Munro, John’s father, took third. Fourth went to Mathew Crawford in his Audi Turbo powered Westfield who managed a new PB on his fourth run. Gary Picken then took a solo win in 2C as he clipped a second off his PB in the Kawasaki powered Westfield. In 2D David Everett was also running solo in his Morgan Plus 8 and just failed to reset his PB by 0.16 seconds.
Into Mod Prods next and in 3A both drivers set new PBs. Roy Bolderson lowered his mark twice after lunch in his Bodspeed mini whilst David Beechey took his Peugeot 106 to a PB before lunch and then lowered it again after the break but had to settle for second behind the Mini. In 3B there was a close three-way battle. Peter Hamlett led initially in his Honda Civic Type R only for Mike Ashcroft to take over the lead on the post lunch runs and hold off Hamlett’s spirited challenge. Third place went to the ultra-rare MG Maestro of Dave Mockford. Mockford, who was making his Aintree debut with the Maestro, first established a PB then lowered it twice. The three runners ended up covered by just 0.28 seconds! In 3E Michael Bailey took a solo win in the Rover V8 powered Tasmin whilst in 3G Michael Skidmore did the same with his turbocharged Vauxhall powered Westfield and finally in 3H Chris Boyd took a solo win in the Bingley Special.
With the demise of Robert Tonge’s MK Indy we were left with just the one Sports Libre runner, Martin Chittenden in his Honda CBR powered Pulsar, and he duly took what had become a solo victory. Into the Racing Car classes and 5A suffered a similar fate to 4A when Jack Fairhurst practiced but didn’t take any competition runs. This left Stuart Mather in his OMS Hornet to take a solo win with a time less than a tenth shy of his PB. In 5B we had a handful of Formula Fords with two first timers. John Murphy, who has done a couple of track-days in his Van Diemen but was making his competition debut, was initially second but on his fourth run popped in a super sub-51 second run to snatch the win. Geoff Ward brought his Swift home second whilst Aintree regular Phil Perks in his Royale took third. Fourth place went to the other Aintree debutant, Russell Haynes in his Zeus ZR163, as he got very close to beating Perks’ Royale. Octogenarian Graham Curwen came home fourth in his Van Diemen but pledged to be back next year! In 5D Richard Prosser, who used to be a regular British Sprint Championship competitor at Aintree in the 1990s, took a solo win in his immaculate F3 Ralt RT3. Also running solo in 5E was former British Sprint Champion John Graham in his Gould GR55B. The car now runs a 2.8 litre version of the Cosworth XD and John reset his PB in this configuration of the Gould.
Into the Classics and in 6A Andrew Webber was determined to reset his class record and brought along his Lotus Europa 47D duly slicing nearly a second off his record in the Elan Plus 2. The new record meant mission accomplished so he packed up during the lunch break ready to head back to West Malling in Kent! Alex Thronton was initially second as a mechanical issue with the shared TR7 meant that co-driver Michael Thornton missed his first competition run as the beast had to be pushed back to the paddock. Thankfully the car was fixed during the break and the battle for second was back on. Michael Thornton duly took second place setting a new PB on his fourth run whilst Alex came home third on his Aintree debut. In 6B it was a two-horse race after Tomos Brogden pulled out after injuring his leg whilst running! Peter Brogden duly took the class win in the ex-Kuwashima March 733 whilst Richard Jones brought home Les Procter’s Elva Mk 7 in second spot with a new PB.
In the Rally Car Class (7R) Neil Philpotts set his PB on the first run in the Starion and then lowered it on each successive run annexing first in class in the process. As it was a Rally Car class it was appropriate that Sean Flint brought along his Mk 2 Escort and he too first established a PB and then lowered it. Tony Williamson in the Clio lowered his PB three times but lacked the outright grunt to challenge the top two.
We then moved into the guest championships and leading off were the Morgans. On scratch, once again class record holder Simon Baines led the Moggies home in his Lightweight Roadster with Paul Clarke’s similar car second and Clive Glass’s Plus 8 third. Fourth place went to Ella Frow on her first visit to Aintree in a shared drive in her father David’s Supersport Plus 4. After the Championship handicapper had done their calculations, 1st went to Chris Bailey in his Plus 4, 2nd was Simon Baines in his 3.7 litre Roadster, and 3rd was Ella Frow in her Supersport.
We then moved into Triumph territory with the TR Register competitors. First place went to Len Olds in his TR4 on his first visit to Aintree whilst in second it was Shaun Roche who made a super recovery drive in his Dolomite Sprint after a first run trip to the turf. In third it was another TR4 in the hands of Howard Holdcroft whilst Neil Revington was fourth in the Triumph Beta replica.
The final support class was for the all-new National Historic Speed Championship contenders which brings together a mixed bag of cars from varied classes to contest the championship on handicap. On scratch it was a Mini 1-2-3-4 with Pete Flanagan first in his Morris Cooper S, Stephen Akers second in his similar car with Adele Hunt and husband Ian third and fourth in their Austin Mini Cooper S. It was great to see Damon Green in his Volvo Amazon at Aintree for the first time, we usually see him at Barbon Manor in this rally prepared machine in which he finished fifth ahead of James Shore’s MGB GT. After the Championship’s handicap formula was applied, Stephen Akers was promoted to 1st, and a draw was declared when Adele Hunt, Ian Hunt and Pete Flanagan ended up with identical scores for 2nd place!
Once again, thanks to the highly experienced LMC team, the meeting ran like clockwork. A huge thank you to all the volunteers who make this happen especially the marshals who were busier than usual with several incidents to sort out.
That’s it for 2024 as far as Sprints go. I hope to see everyone back at Aintree in 2025 and I have my fingers crossed that we can maintain the use of this venue well into the future.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
As usual, fully detailed results for all LMC events are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Mid-Summer Sprint
Aintree – 29th June 2024
Sketchley does it in one! Report by Steve Wilkinson
With a small entry and variable weather conditions the second sprint of the season at Aintree could have proved to be a hit-or-miss affair. However, for those that took advantage of these variables there was the opportunity to get in some serious seat-time. It was raining when I arrived at the venue and after two wet practice runs, we moved into the first of what would be no less than seven competition runs.
In the Standard Car classes, it was business as usual. In SA for the Up to 1400cc cars it was the usual battle of the MG ZR140s as Chris Smith led throughout setting his best time on his third run whilst Clive Plested took a little longer to hit his stride closing the gap to Smith on his sixth effort. In SB John Jones took a solo win in the MINI Cooper managing a PB on his third run and then lowering this on each successive run. In SC David Goodlad led initially only for Jonathan Birrell to take the lead on the second runs. Goodlad fought back on the third stanza and led home the battle of the Clios when the pair set their best times on their fifth runs. Peter Messer took a solo win in SD with his MX5 with his fourth run being the best of his sub-59 second runs.
Into the Road Going Series Production classes and in 1A Harewood regular David Taylor led throughout in his Morris Cooper S whilst Henry Holdcroft brought his pretty Austin A35 home second. In 1B Russell Thorpe waited out the rain and only came out to play on the third competition run when he stormed into the lead which he held for the rest of the meeting with his trusty Renault 5 GT Turbo. Initial leader Jonathan Baines in his Clio went on to set a new PB in his pursuit of ‘Doris’. With Jon Knowles third in the Civic and John Early fourth in the Clio. Graeme Sherrington took a solo win in 1C with his Megane establishing his PB in the process.1D was next and it was Ray Worrall who took the early lead in the Honda S2000. Nigel Trundle grabbed the lead with his MX5 on the third session before Worrall took control on the fourth and led the class home. Trundle took second with Lee Early third in his Honda S2000 whilst newcomer Cameron Edwards was fourth in his MX5 and Karol Bailey fifth in the TVR. In 1E it was class record holder Robbie Birrell in his Cayman who dominated proceedings. As the track started to dry out, he popped in a new class record on the third competition run. He equalled his new record on the fourth attempt and then lowered it again on his fifth and final effort. Meanwhile Tom Bourn set a new PB in his MX5 in second whilst Martin Walker came home third in his Boxster. Howard Holdcroft took fourth in his smart TR4 setting a new PB on his third run whilst James Bourn brought the shared MX5 home in fifth as he lowered his PB twice. In 1F Phill Wood cruised to a solo win in his Elise whilst Rob Holt did the same in 1G with his turbocharged version.
In the Road Going Specialist classes, Kit Cars & low Volume Sportscars, we had a couple of solo wins to start with. In 2A Les Golding got to within a tenth of his PB with his Caterham whilst in 2C Gary Picken set a new PB in his Kawasaki-powered Westfield. In 2D Tanya Everett led initially but husband David eventually took the upper hand in their shared Morgan Plus 8 as both set new PBs.
We then moved into Mod Prod territory and in 3A we had a class of five contesting the trophies. Up front newcomer Jim Brindle led initially in his Leyland Mini. David Beechey took over the lead on the third set of competition runs in his Peugeot 106 and led home with Brindle second. We then had a hugely entertaining battle between the three remaining runners. Chris Yates, Andi Donaldson and Shirley Hennessey had a super day of sport in their Citroen 2CV racers. Yates held off the other two whilst Donaldson likewise held off Hennessey but the sight of three 2CVs line astern waiting for the start was brilliant and considering they all were running the 602cc engine their performances were first class. In 3B Tony Lynch was returning to his old stomping ground as he used to Rally an Escort at Aintree back in the day. The Team Geriatric driver took his Toyota MR2 rallycross car to the class win as he enjoyed his return with Peter Hamlett second in his Civic Type R with a new PB. In 3E Bev Fawkes was back with Blue Thunder, his Reliant Scimitar SE6B, after a 20+ year absence and despite only having slicks dominated the class from the get-go as he eventually smashed the class record on his sixth run. Michael Bailey cruised home in second with his Rover V8 powered Tasmin. Finally, in 3H Chris Boyd took a solo win with the Bingley Special, aka a Sylva Riot.
Into Sports Libre where Martin Chittenden took a solo win in 4A with his Pulsar. In 4B Michelle Swallow was appearing at Aintree for the first time in her Audi Twin Turbo Boxster. During the day Michelle carved nearly five seconds off her time but could only take second place. Ian Rowlance had a late switch of cars bringing the MG Metro 6R4 instead of the Reynard single seater. On the first wet run he set a new PB crossing the line at 137 mph! He opted out of the second run then on the third runs clipped a further 2.85 seconds off his new PB and promptly packed up!
We then moved into the Racing Car classes. In 5A for the Up to 1100cc cars Jack Fairhurst again took the class win in his home-built IFS One Yamaha also setting a new PB on his fourth run and then lowering it again on his fifth. Stuart Mather took second in his OMS Hornet with Adrian Saltmarsh third in his 600cc LCC kit car. Eve whitehead, who was sharing Mather’s OMS, was fourth with Russell Edwardson fifth in the Jedi. In the Formula Ford class (5B) Geoff Ward again took the win in his 1993 Swift with Phil Perks second in his Royale ahead of octogenarian Graham Curwen in the Van Diemen. In 5C David Taylor took the solo win in his immaculate Suzuki powered Jedi, which is up for sale. In 5D Glyn Sketchley took just the one practice run and then waited until the track was almost dry. On the third runs he brought his Force PT to the line and rocketed to the solo class win setting FTD in the process. He promptly packed the car away.
Into the Classic classes and in 6A Angus Buchan brought out his latest acquisition the ex-Warren Peugeot 205 GTi. He shared the driving with his pal Douglas Anderson. Buchan led initially despite never having sat in the car before! Anderson took the lead on the second run and extended it twice more as the pair battled for the lead. Edward Roberts took third in his Stag setting a new PB on his fifth run. In 6B Richard Prosser was back again with his Ralt RT3 having run earlier in the year in 5D he switched to the more age-appropriate class and cruised to the class win with a new PB. Peter and Tomos Brogden came home in second and third in their shared March 733.
In the MGCC Speed Championship class, Ian ‘Harry’ Howlett led throughout in his MGF. David Coulthard took second in his ZR160 with the pair setting their best times on the fifth run. Rosemary Collins was a whisker away in third in her ZS with Helen Waddington taking fourth in her ZR160 she shares with David Coulthard.
The final class was for the Jaguar Drivers Club championship contenders. The only Jaguar present was the Jaguar F Type of David Rodgers who led initially. Anthony Taylor, who was another late switch bringing his McLaren M1B Can-Am car rather than his F5000 McLaren, was second initially. He opted out of the second competition run but on the third went into the lead extending it one run later. Rodgers maintained second setting a new PB on the third run whilst Peter House won the battle of the Escorts ahead of Steve Woods.
Once again Liverpool Motor Club put on a cracking meeting with some superb machinery, class records, PBs galore and a huge amount of seat time available to the competitors. The marshals also were exemplary keeping us all safe in some quiet dreadful conditions.
Hopefully, the third and final sprint of the year at Aintree on 31st August will attract even more competitors and be equally exciting.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
As usual, fully detailed results for all LMC events are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Spring Sprint
Aintree – 25th May 2024
Forceful FTD Report by Steve Wilkinson
Blue skies and sunshine welcomed the drivers, officials and marshals to Aintree’s first sprint of the season. Despite the wonderful conditions, it was a crying shame that the club had only managed to accumulate a relatively small entry compared with events pre-Covid. Practice was quickly underway and after two runs we were ready to kick-off the competition runs.
The Standard Car classes were first up and in SA for the up to 1400cc Saloon Cars class record holder Chris Smith took a solo win in his MG ZR. In SB for the 1401 to 1700cc Saloons class record holder Paul Gorge took the win in his Citroen C2 just half a second shy of his record. Second was John Jones in his immaculate MINI Cooper finishing just two-and-a-bit seconds adrift on his competition debut. In SC for the 1701 to 2000cc Saloons, it was a Clio 1-2 as David Goodlad took the class win with TWO runs of 56.07 to start proceedings. Second went to Mike Lawson just over a second in arrears. In SD for the Up to 2000cc Sports Cars Peter Messer took a solo win in his MX5.
Into the Series Production classes and in 1A for the Up to 1400cc Saloons Paul Webb took a solo win in his ‘new’ Turbocharged Fiesta. In 1B for the 1401 to 2000cc Saloons Russell Thorpe led from the get-go in his Renault 5 GT Turbo (aka Doris). Second and third went to Jonathan and Simon Baines in the former’s Clio – both setting new PBs. Whilst Jon Knowles, who also set a new PB, took fourth in the Civic with John Earley fifth in his Clio. In class 1C for the Over 2000cc Saloons all three drivers set new PBs. John Murphy took the win at the wheel of his Megane with John Murphy in the MINI Cooper S second and Murphy’s co-driver Graeme Sherrington third. Next, it was class 1D for the Up to 2000cc Sports cars where it was a Honda S2000 1-2. Ray Worrall, aka Cross Plane, dominated the class with Lee Earley just over a second in arrears. Third to fifth places went to the three silver Mazda MX5s. Oliver Chilton took third with a new PB with Chris Machell and Michael Tindale fourth and fifth respectively. In Class 1E for the Over 2000cc Sports cars, Tom Bourn set a new PB en route to the class win in the Turbocharged MX5 whilst co-driver James Bourn took third. Splitting the MX5 drivers was Martin Walker in his Porsche Boxster S. In Class 1F for the Elise cars, John Caldicott was back at Aintree after a long absence and on his first visit with his Elise took the class win. Phil Wood and David Lee were second & third whilst Andy Platt retired during practice as his Exige cried enough.
In class 2A for the Up to 1800cc Kit Cars Matt Bramall set a new PB en route to the class win in the family Westfield. Les Golding took second in his Caterham with Chris Bramall third despite setting a new PB! In 2B for the Over 1800cc Kit Cars Nigel Hinson reset his PB in the supercharged Caterham to take first whilst Nigel Fox was second in his Caterham. Third was taken by the Westfield of Roy Munro who was making his Aintree debut. His car’s electrics played up in practice and there were also issues in both timed runs possibly due to a low battery impacting the semi-automatic gearchange. In 2C for the motorcycle-engined kit cars, Gary Picken took a solo win in his Kawasaki-powered Westfield. In 2D for the limited production cars David and Tanya Everett took the 1-2 in their shared Morgan Plus 8 as both drivers lowered their respective PBs.
Next it was the turn of the Mod Prods and they all saw solo wins! In 3A for the Up to 1400cc cars, David Beechey took the win in his Peugeot 106. In 3B for the two litres Peter Hamlett was smoking in his Civic as he set a new PB whilst in 3H for the motorcycle engined kit cars Chris Boyd in the Bingley Special was the victor. There was just the one Sports Libre class for the Up to 2 litre cars and the Thorntons took a 1-2 with son Alex first from Dad Michael in the pretty Tiga they share.
Into the Racing Car class and in 5A for the up to 1100cc cars Jack Fairhurst took the class win on his Aintree debut with his self-built IFS 1 Yamaha R1. The car was designed and built by Jack using the old Terrapin template as the jumping off point. Adrian Saltmarsh took second in his T89 LCC 600 with the Jedis of Russell Edwardson and Stuart Mather third & fourth. Seven drivers in six cars contested class 5B for the flying Formula Fords. Geoff Ward once again dominated in his Swift with Jonathan Townsley second in the Merlyn. Phil Nelson, who has ‘retired’ from circuit racing and was back at Aintree after a 20-year absence, took third in his elderly but very tidy Hawke whilst Phil Perks grabbed fourth in his Royale. Eve Whitehead climbed up to fifth in her shared drive in Phil Nelson’s Hawke. Graham Curwen and Peter Ibbotson brought up the rear in their Van Diemen and Sparton. In 5D for the 1601 to 2000cc cars Glyn Sketchley took the class win in his turbocharged Force PT just pipping the pre-event favourite John Graham for FTD. Second in 5D was Richard Prosser in his ex-F3 Ralt RT3 – Richard used to compete in a Mallock and a March in the British Sprint Championship events at Aintree. In 5E for the over 2000cc cars John Graham took a solo win in his Gould however his day was terminated early after a massive ‘rotational episode’ on his third run which left him with second FTD.
There were two classes for the Classics, in 6A for the Pre-1993 Road Cars Paul Clare, a long time Porsche exponent, took the class win with his “new” Porsche 911 Carrera whilst Edward Roberts brought his magnificent Stag home in second. In 6B for the pre 1993 Racing Cars there was the wonderful ex-Masami Kuwashima Formula 3 March from 1973. Peter Brogden took the class win whilst his son Tomos took second with a new PB. In Class 7R for Rally cars it was good to see Tony Williamson back at Aintree to take a solo win in his Clio 197 CUP. In the 1980s Tony had been LMC’s Clerk of Course for several LMC single venue rallies at Aintree, as well as the Gold Cup and Mayfield Rallies.
It was then the turn of the “guest” classes. The Classic Marques Speed Challenge contenders mustered a 23-car entry. On scratch, the fastest was Darryl Crosby in his Reliant Scimitar 1800Ti whilst Nigel Trundle took second in his MX5. Third went to the big BMW M3 of Peter Sherratt with Clive Glass fourth in his rumbling Morgan Plus 8. The Louch boys brought along a beautifully prepared Austin A40 Farina which just beat Brain Marshall’s lovely Marcos Mantula. All in all, it is a cracking class of mixed potential hence there is no class record but some very serious & close competition.
Only one Aston Martin Vantage DB4 made it to Aintree and Peter House took a solo win in the AMOC class. Disappointedly only six competitors made it to Aintree in the Caterham & Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship with class wins going to Ivan Pullen, Robert Jacobs and Jeremy Davies.
It really is a mystery why the Club gets such low turn-outs when you consider the fantastic value-for-money events that LMC organises at Aintree. With two practice and seven competition runs available for the 91 drivers taking part, the hard-working start team lined up cars over 700 times during the day.
Aintree might only have three corners, but they all take some mastering and rarely does a competitor achieve the fastest line through all three on the same run.
Finally, I must personally thank the organisers, officials and marshals who again put on a wonderful event for spectators and competitors in near-perfect weather.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
As usual, fully detailed results for all LMC events are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint
Aintree – 2nd September 2023
Graham Grabs FTD Report by Steve Wilkinson
Arriving at Aintree under blue skies the day was set fair and the only issue was likely to be rising temperatures. With a full compliment of marshals everything was ready for some action. During practice we ‘lost’ Peter Ibbotson and his Sparton Formula Ford with a poorly engine, whilst several other competitors had issues too. After two practice runs we swiftly moved into the competition runs and with a small entry of just 78 turning up there was always going to be lots of runs available and in the end the organisers managed to fit in SEVEN!
In the new Introductory class Steven D’Cruze took a solo win in his Puma lowering the class record three times during the day.
In the Standard classes Steve Smith took SA for the up to 1400cc Saloons with Clive Plested second in their MG ZR140s. Paul Gorge took a solo win in SB for the up to 1700cc Saloons in his daily driver Citroen C2. David Goodlad took a solo win with his Clio in SC for the up to two litre Saloons. In SD for the up to two litre Standard Sports Cars Peter Messer set a new PB in his MX5 whilst William Hunt took the class win and set a new class record with his Honda S2000.
We then moved into the Series Production classes. In 1A for the up to 1400cc tin tops Stuart Ballinger took a solo win with a new PB. In 1B for the two litre tin tops Ian Butcher took the win a couple of tenths shy of his class record in the Integra and also grabbed the lead in the NSCC Championship. Russell Thorpe was second in his trusty Renault 5 GT Turbo and Jonathan Baines third in his Clio. In 1C for the over two litre tin tops Alex Gilchrist-Jones took the win in the Mitsubishi EVO with David Reid, all the way from Blackburn in Scotland, second in the Flying Haggis Racing Impreza on his Aintree debut. In 1D for the up to two litre sports cars the top three were covered by less than a second. Nigel Trundle led throughout in his MX5 setting a new PB in the process whilst Martin Rowe in second closed to within 0.02 of a second in his Honda S2000 with Lee Early, also in a Honda S2000, third a further 0.26 adrift. Keith Rose, another Scot making a raid South of the Border, set a new PB in fourth with his MX5. In 1E for the Over two litre Sports Cars Mike Ashcroft took the class win in the Jaguar F-Type on his debut with the car. Dave Everett was second in his Morgan Plus 8 with Annette Bingham third in the Porsche Boxster having carved over two seconds off her PB. Steve Wilson took a solo win in class 1F with his Elise.
Then it was ‘Kit Car’ time. In 2A for the up to 1800cc cars Les Golding led throughout lowering his PB no less than four times. Matt Bramall made it a Caterham 1-2 with Martin Walker third in his Westfield. Michael Bellerby, who usually is challenging for a podium position, had a series of issues and only managed to post two timed runs both way off his normal pace. In 2B for the over 1800cc cars Adrian Clinton-Watkins led throughout in his Duratec powered Westfield. Nigel Fox was second in his Caterham just 0.16 of a second ahead of Sean Bourn in the Carcraft Cyclone.
Into Mod Prod territory and in class 3A for the up to 1400cc cars David Beechey in the Peugeot 106 took a solo win with a new PB. In 3B for the two litre cars Phillip Bowman took the class win in his Escort Mk2 on his Aintree debut whilst Peter Hamlett was second in his Civic Type R. In 3G for the over 1800cc Kit Cars Michael Skidmore only managed one class run as his Vauxhall turbo charged engine in the Westfield detonated on Railway Straight. Anthony Middleton, who was Red Flagged on his first run, set a new PB when he had his re-run taking his Zetec powered Westfield to the class win. In 3H for the motorbike engined Kit Cars Chris Boyd in the “Bingley Special” Sylva Riot Busa led throughout with Harry Moody in his Westfield Megabusa second.
We had just one class of Sports Libres and it went to Lindsay Robertson all the way from Glamis near Forfar in his Force LM supercharged Busa who took the win with a new PB getting to within half a second of the class record. Second went to Martin Chittenden who also set a new PB in his one litre Honda powered Pulsar.
Into the Racing Car classes and in 5A for the Up to 1100cc cars it was Eve Whitehead who held the lead throughout in Craig Powers’ OMS 2000M. Shaun Crouch brought RBS 8A home second with a new PB whilst Adrian Saltmarsh was third in the angular T89 LC 600 and Stuart Mather fourth in his OMS Hornet. In 5B for the Pre 1994 Formula Fords Phil Perks led initially in his Royale RP26 only for Geoff Ward, who was back in his Swift SC93F, to take over the lead on the second class runs. Graham Curwen, who first visited Aintree for the 1955 British GP, took third in his Van Diemen RF91. In 5D for the 1601 to 2000cc racing cars Alex Thornton took a solo win in the very smart Tatuus T014 with a 1400cc turbocharged Fiat Abarth engine. In 5E John Graham set a new PB on his first class run with the Gould GR55B Cosworth XD V8 lowering it again on his third effort annexing FTD in the process.
The two Classic Classes saw some very diverse machinery. In 6A for Classic Road Cars on the first class runs the Class Record holder Andrew Webber could only post a time in his Elan Plus 2 that had him in joint second. He then opted out of the second & third runs as he worked on the car and when he re-emerged, he swept into the lead with a new class record time. Second place went to the initial leader Michael Thornton in the glorious sounding TR7 V8 who had got in some sneaky practice at the recent track day. Third went to Paul Drake in the MGB GT who also had issues, having to be bump started later in the day. In class 6B for the Sports Racing and Racing cars it was a Brogden 1-2 with Peter leading home son Tomos in their ex-Masami Kuwashima March 733. Third went to Mark Lawton in a very early Formula Vee built by Cotswold Garages.
In the new for 2023 Rally Car Class Adam Cooper, who set the class record earlier in the year, broke it again on his first class run in the Mk 1 Escort. However, just a couple of runs later Dr Ian Rowlance took his ex-Colin McRae MG Metro 6R4 sledgehammer and cracked the record wide open. Rowlance then lowered it three times having carved over 4 seconds off the record that stood at the start of the meeting. Cooper came home second with Chris Thomas in the Vauxhall powered Talbot Sunbeam third and Nick Stafford fourth in his Impreza.
The final class saw the Aintree Sprint Debut of the Bentley Drivers’ Club Challenge. Ben Eastick was the first of the six runners onto the track in his Bentley T Type Special built by his father Barry back in the 1960s and “rescued” from America since when it has been restored to its current immaculate state. Eastick duly established the class record and went on to reset his record on each of the four class runs the Bentley Boys made. Second went to Adam Stacy-Marks in the ‘modern’ Bentley GT Sprint whilst Paul Andrew brought his 1952 Bentley Special home third. Jock Mackinnon won the Vintage battle bringing his 1924 Bentley 3 litre, now fitted with a 4.5 engine, home fourth ahead of Duncan Wiltshire’s standard 1928 Bentley 3 litre. After the Bentley Challenge coordinator worked his magic, it was Jock MacKinnon who the class on handicap with Adam Stacy-Marks second.
Once again, a big thank you to the marshals who did an exemplary job keeping us all safe. A special mention for the start crew which included two newbies who quickly got into their stride. Considering the number of class runs available I’m sure that most competitors went home thoroughly delighted with their day’s sport although we did have a rather higher than normal attrition rate.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
As usual, fully detailed results for all LMC events are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Summer Sprint
Aintree – 24th June 2023
Graham’s Gould Gallops to FTD Report by Steve Wilkinson
Sunny skies and a stiff breeze greeted the competitors as they arrived at Aintree. After two brisk practice runs, during which we ‘lost’ Harry Moody’s Westfield, there was a short delay before the class runs started. With such a small entry there was every likelihood that we would get plenty of track action.
Kicking off proceedings were the Standard Car classes and in the Introductory Class Steven D’Cruze, who made his competition debut back in April, was back with his Ford Puma and broke his class record on both his first class runs. In Class SA Chris Smith led throughout in the battle of the ZR140s with Phil Howarth, who was “running in a new engine”, just holding off Clive Plested. In Class SC Mike Lawson set a new PB on his second run in his Clio but after the lunch break could get closer to David Goodlad’s earlier Clio who led throughout. Peter Messer took a solo win with his MX5 in Class SD setting a new PB on his fourth class run.
We then moved away from the Standard Car Classes into Roadgoing and in Class 1A, Andrew Till led in his Fiesta throughout. David Beechey’s Peugeot 106 and Adam Sutton’s Peugeot 107 came home in the podium places as each set new PBs. In Class 1B Sam Markham, who was making his Aintree debut in the Golf GTi took a solo win. In Class 1C 18-year-old Jack Evans was making his competition debut and took his Mini Cooper S to deserved class win ahead of David Smith in the Volvo T5 Estate and Ken Pickering in the VW Tiguan both of whom were also at Aintree with their respective mounts for the first time. In Class 1D we had three Mazda MX5 doing battle. Nigel Trundle led throughout lowering his PB on each of his first four class runs. Oliver Chilton took second as he too reset his PB three times whilst Chris Machell came home in third. In Class 1E Robbie Birrell blasted apart the Class Record in his Porsche Cayman on his first run and then being inside the old record on both of his additional runs – he sat out the rest of the event as the steeply climbing temperatures were too much for the tyres. Dave Everett rumbled to second with his Morgan Plus 8 as he relegated Mark Lawson in the Boxster to third. Tanya Everett took fourth in the Plus 8 with Annette Bingham setting a new PB in fifth with the Boxster. In Class 1F Phill Wood took the win in his Elise 111S with a new PB whilst Steve Wilson came home second in his S2 Elise. Robert Holt then took a solo win in Class 1G in his supercharged Elise. In Class 2A for the Up to 1800cc Kit Cars Matt Bramall led initially in the family Caterham but on the second run Les Golding grabbed the lead he would then hold to the end. Matt’s father Chris came home in third with Roger Abbott fourth in a Caterham clean sweep. Alex Miles then took a solo win in Class 2B for the Over 1800 Kit Cars with his Caterham first establishing his PB and then lowering it on three occasions.
We then moved into Mod Prods and in Class 3A Peter Flanagan took the win in his classic Mini Cooper S with a new PB with Henry Holdcroft second in his nifty Austin A35. In Class 3B Wayne Trevor led throughout in his Peugeot 205 GTi. Scott Trevor was initially second in his Ford Focus breaking his PB twice but was relegated to third by Peter Hamlett in his Honda Civic who left it to his sixth run to set a new PB. In Class 3G Tony Middleton set a new PB en route to a solo win in his Westfield. Finally in Class 3H Chris Boyd in the Sylva Riot Bingley Special took a solo win.
Next were the Racing Cars and in the Up to 1100cc Class 5A Eve Whitehead led throughout in Craig Powers’ OMS 2000M. Ulsterman Nick Houston, who now lives at Moreton-in-Marsh, was making his first visit to Aintree. His first run was a DNF but he soon recovered to finish second in his OMS Hornet. Stuart Mather in the Jedi was initially second but a series of no less than five PBs saw him take third in the 600cc car. Russell Edwardson brought his Jedi home in fourth also setting a new PB. In the Formula Ford Class 5B it was the two oldest cars that topped the times. Jonathan Townsley led throughout in his smart Merlyn Mk 20A with Phil Perks iconic Royale RP26 second. 82-year-old Graham Curwen finished third in his RF91 Van Diemen with Peter Ibbotson fourth in his Sparton. In the final class for Racing Cars, 5E for the Over Two Litres, John Graham led throughout in his Gould GR55B despite a fourth run rotational escapade. He also set a new PB on his fifth run and FTD in the process. Ian Rowlance took second in his gruff sounding Reynard 2KF.
In Class 6A for the Classic Sports & Saloons Alan Wilson led throughout in his superb Austin Healey 3000 Mk 2. Steve Cole set a new PB in his Ford Lotus Cortina in second whilst third place went to Jamie Hall who also set a new PB in his lovely Alfa Romeo GT Junior. In Class 6B for the Classic Sports Racing and Racing Cars Peter and Tomos Brogden came home first and second in their shared ex-Masami Kuwashima F3 March 733.
Next to the line was a new class set up for Rally Cars (7R). Both competitors were making their Aintree debuts. First on track was Andy Jarman in his Austin Mini and he duly established the new class record. Then Adam Cooper, who normally navigates the Ford Escort Mk1 in rallies, broke the new record no less than 5 times leaving Jarman a somewhat distant second.
The “guest championships” were next and it was the MGCC Speed competitors up first. Paul Drake led throughout in his MGB GT whilst Ian ‘Harry’ Howlett set a new PB as he held second place throughout in his MGF Trophy 160. Rosemary Collins, who was making her Aintree debut, climbed from fifth to third in her MG ZS leaving David Coulthard fourth in the ZR180 he shares with fifth placed Helen Waddington.
Next it was the turn of the Morgan Sports Car drivers. Once again Simon Baines took the win in his rapid Roadster Lightweight with the similarly mounted Paul Clarke second and Nick Bolton third also in a Lightweight. Chris Bailey was fourth in his Plus 4 being the only driver in the class to break his previous PB.
The penultimate class for the Revington TR contenders saw Hamish Roscoe take the win in the Hamish Racing TR3A with Howard Holdcroft second in his TR4.
The final class was for the Jaguar Drivers Club 4 Hills & Sprint Championship contenders. Class Record Holder David Rodgers clipped over two tenths off his record in the Jaguar F Type R on his first run and would be even quicker on his third. However, Anthony Taylor had brought along his 1966 McLaren M1B sledgehammer and smashed Rodgers new record on his first run then clipped a further nine tenths off on his second.
The early finish gave all the competitors a head-start on their journey home and as the stalwart marshals and organising team broke down the venue all their efforts to put on the event were overshadowed by the lack of entries.
With two practice and six competition runs, and a 3.30pm finish, the club continues to run excellent meetings offering fabulous value for money and yet are struggling to attract entries. It just doesn’t seem fair.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
Fully detailed results for all events are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Spring Sprint
Aintree – 27th May 2023
Tonge licks the rest! Report by Steve Wilkinson
As I headed to Aintree for the first of the three Liverpool Motor Club sprints of 2023 the weather looked set fair with blue skies and sunshine. Shifting the date back seemed to have worked as there was a larger entry than last year and a lot of novices too.
As always LMC run a tight ship and the two practice runs were soon over and before lunch we had two timed runs. After a short lunch break there were four further timed runs although by the sixth several drivers had either run out of fuel or were packing up for the journey home.
Kicking off proceedings was the Intro-Class, a new low-cost class introduced to attract track day drivers with relatively low powered, standard modern cars into sprinting and, just like track days, the only compulsory safety kit is a helmet. Steven D’Cruze, who is a groundsman at Aintree, took the win in a 1700cc Ford Puma, creating a class record in the process.
In the Standard classes Chris Smith (1.4 MGZR) took his customary win in SA whilst Paul Gorge, David Goodlad, & Peter Messer all taking solo wins in their respective Standard Road Car classes.
We then moved into the Road-going Modified classes and in 1A Andrew Till led throughout in his Fiesta with Gordon Peters second in his Fiat 500 Sport. In 1B Ian Butcher only did the first two timed runs and on his second lowered his class record in his Integra by a narrow margin. Russell Thorpe popped and banged his way to second in the Renault 5 GT Turbo with John Early, in yet another Clio, third. Graham Mintram then took a solo win in 1C with his Lancia Delta HF Turbo. Michael Thomson then lowered his class record in 1D on each of his first two runs prior to lunch, whilst Lee Early, also in a Honda S2000, took second ahead of Nigel Trundle in his ‘new’ MX5. In 1E Glen Shaw took the win in his 350Z whilst Dave Everett rumbled home in second with his Plus 8. In 1F Zoe Shearman, who led initially in her Exige, got bumped down to second on the fifth timed run but fought back on her sixth to regain the lead. Phill Wood and Steve Wilson came home in second and third after swapping places on their second runs.
Into the Specialist Productlion Kit Cars and in 2A Les Golding, who was on new rubber in his Caterham 7, led initially and then fought back to grab the win on his sixth run after Martin Walker in the Westfield had snatched the lead on the second run. Walker ended up bending his Westfield on the fifth run but just held onto second ahead of Matt Bramall’s Caterham 7. In 2B Sean Bourn led initially in the Carcraft Cyclone but a second run rotational delay and resultant damage sidelined the Prestonian and allowed Nigel Fox to slip past into the lead with his Zetec powered Caterham 7.
Next was Mod Prod and in 3A David Beechey, who has upgraded his Peugeot 106 XSi from Road-going class 1A, took a solo win. In 3B John Moxham, who is 76 years young, led throughout on his 205. Wayne Trevor fought back to second in his 205 after initially being in sixth after a first run rotational delay whilst Taras Andrusin grabbed third in his Clio from John Graham in his Civic. Harry Moody took a solo win in 3H with his Westfield Megabusa.
In Class 6A for the Pre 1992 Classic Saloons and Sportscars Alan Wilson led in his big Healey after the first runs. Steve Cole then took over the lead in his Lotus Cortina before Wilson retook the lead. Michael Wills, who was back in competition after a 10 year lay-off, was third throughout in his Midget whilst Jamie Hall, in his first Aintree sprint, brought his superb Alfa Romeo GT Junior home in fourth.
Into the Racing Single Seater classes and in 5A Eve Whitehead took a comfortable win in the OMS 2000M with Stuart Mather and Russell Edwardson second and third in their Jedis. In 5B the four Formula Fords were immaculate and it was Geoff Ward in the Macon who led throughout. Jonathan Townsley was second in his ‘new’ Merlyn with Graham Curwen, 81 years young, third in his Van Diemen and Phil Perks snapping at his heels in fourth with the Royale. Robert Tonge took a solo win in 5C which also netted the Force driver FTD in a display of consistently rapid racing. In 5E Ian Rowlance took the win in his smart Reynard V6 and also netted second FTD whilst Daniel Williams in the Gould GR37 took second in class and third FTD.
Next it was the Classic Sports Racing and Racing Cars from Pre 1993 and it was a family affair in the F3 March 733 where Peter Brogden just held off son Tomos by less than a second. Next should have been the Rally Car class but the sole runner, John Carroll in his Honda Civic, suffered terminal engine issues in practice.
We then moved into the Classic Marques Speed Challenge competitors’ class. On scratch Darryl Crosby set the best time with his Reliant Scimitar SS1 whilst Michael Bailey rumbled home second fastest in the V8 powered TVR Tasmin and Simon Parkin was third with his Porsche Boxster. Once the championship handicapper had worked his magic, the result was a little different with Parkin taking the win, Roger Fish 2nd in his Boxter and Crosby 3rd.
Next it was the Aston Martin Owners Club class and although there were only three entries it was a cracking class. Andrew Forret led off with a PB in his BMW 325i which would leave him third. The two Aston Martin Vantage GT4s would contest the win and it all came down to the fifth timed run. Peter House was second but despite knocking 4 tenths off his first run time remained second. Tom Whittaker then set off and of course had no idea if he was still in the lead. Whittaker pushed hard and set a new class record as he extended his lead. None of the three took the sixth run.
The final classes were those for the Caterham & Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship. Ivan Pullen took a solo win in 10-1 setting a new PB in the process. Class 10-3 saw an intense battle which ended up with the top five covered by just 1.1 seconds. Robert Jacobs led from the first run in his Sigma powered Seven with four of his six efforts good enough for the class win. Second went to Clive Marsden who had Ian Jones making a last run charge to close to within 0.03. Jonathan Heyes was pushed down to fourth by Jones’ last run whilst fifth went to Andrew Willoughby in his Sigma engined Seven. The final class was for the most rapid Sevens present (10-4) and Malcolm Hickey put in six sub 50 second runs to dominate leaving Sean Toms 2.64 adrift in second.
Once again Liverpool Motor Club had provided a slick event with plenty of runs and finishing relatively early. A big thank you to all involved especially our unsung heroes, the marshals, who toiled away all day in the sunshine to keep everyone safe, and then finished their day shifting 300 straw bales ready for the farmer to collect. What stars they are, without them there would be no motorsport!
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
Fully detailed results for all events are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint
Aintree – 3rd September 2022
Sketchley rapidly annexes FTD Report by Steve Wilkinson
Liverpool Motor Club’s September sprint was run in excellent conditions but suffered from a dearth of entries. However, this meant lots of runs and by lunch time the club had already managed two practice and three timed runs! During the lunch break no less than seven competitors called it a day. After the break a further seven runs were on offer although many competitors stopped after the sixth timed run as the temperature dropped and only the novices were improving.
As always, we kicked off with the Standard classes and in SA the trio of MG ZR140 saloons again did battle. As per the form book Chris Smith took the class win with Phil Howarth and Clive Plested second and third respectively. Paul Gorge took a solo win in SB but also managed to reset his own class record in the process with his Citroen C2 VTS. In SC the battle of the Clios went to David Goodlad with Mike Lawson second as both reset their PBs. In SD Peter Messer took a solo win in his MX5 and also sliced nearly four tenths off his PB.
Next were the Road Car classes for the slightly modified vehicles.
In 1A Andrew Till took the win in his Fiesta whilst Gordon Peters in the Fiat 500 Sport and Martin Dean in his Fiesta both set new PBs as they finished second and third. In 1B Ian Butcher, who had equalled the eight-year-old class record on his last visit, managed to shave seven hundredths off Fred Currell’s 2014 record on his third timed run as he took the class victory in his Honda Integra. Russell Thorpe in his Renault 5 GT Turbo, which is known in the family as Doris, was second with John Early in the Civic third and Rosemary Collins fourth in her MG. Into SC and it was Alex Gilchrist-Jones in the “two-tone” Mitsubishi that took the class win with John Murphy second in the Megane R26 and Jeremy Sladen in the Megane 225 third. In 1D it was Peter Taylor who dominated in his MX5 despite an occasional rotational delay. Martin Rowe in his Honda S2000 was second whilst Kevin Ellis in his Mazda RX8 just held off a late challenge from Peter Darlington’s Toyota MR2 to take third. In 1E Pekka Tulokas in a turbocharged MX5 impressed on his first visit to Aintree taking the class win with ease. Second went to David Exton in the 350Z with David Everett third in the Morgan Plus 8. In 1F for the up to 2200cc Elise and derivatives it was Phil Wood who took the win in the Rover powered 111S with Steve Wilson second in his Toyota powered Series 2. In 1G for the over 2200cc Elise and derivatives Rob Holt took a solo win.
Into the Specialist Production Road Car classes and in 2A for the up to 1800cc vehicles it was Matt Bramall who took the win in the Zetec powered Caterham. Second went to Les Golding in the Rover powered Caterham with Chris Bramall third ahead of Roger Abbott in his Sigma powered Caterham. In 2B for the Over 1800cc cars it was a Gaskin 1-2 in their Westfield. Howard Gaskin led initially but his son Alex overhauled him and finished one hundredth ahead of his father. Third went to Aintree regular Nigel Fox in his Caterham with Nigel Hinson fourth in another Caterham.
Next were the Mod Prod classes. In 3A for the up to 1400cc cars Julian Harber took the first two timed runs in his Mini to claim first whilst Henry Holdcroft chipped away at his PB in his Austin A35 some way behind. In 3B Ian Johnson took the class win but had the suspension collapse on his third run leaving the Civic somewhat ‘second-hand’. Wayne Trevor took second in his 205 and Scott Trevor third in his Focus as the pair had a cracking Aintree debut. In 3C Graham Kearsley would take the class win in his Impreza whilst Chris Edwards only managed one run in the Mazda 323 which ended up cruising home over three seconds off his normal pace and into immediate retirement. In 3G Michael Skidmore took the class win in his turbocharged Westfield but incurred the wrath of the timekeepers when he had a tank-slapper off the line and took out the timing gear complete with tripod! Second when to Dave Starr as he made his Aintree debut in the rumbling SEight. In 3H for the bike-engined Kit Cars Chris Boyd in the Bingley Special Riot led initially but dropped back to second when Terry Everall charged into the lead in his Westfield Megablade. Harry Moody finished third in his Westfield Megabusa with Stephen Everall fourth in his Megablade. There was just the one Sports Libre class which saw Martin Chittenden take a solo win in his neat little Pulsar with the Honda CBR engine.
Then it was the turn of the Racing Car classes. In 5A for the 1100s John Loudon took the class win in his Force TA packing up at lunchtime and heading North to Knockhill for the British Sprint Championship meeting on the Sunday. Eve Whitehead finished second with a new PB in Craig Powers’ OMS 2000M whilst Adrian Saltmarsh was third as he made his sprint debut at Aintree in his neat 600cc T89 LCC. In 5B it was the Usual Suspects with their Formula Fords. Geoff Ward took the win in the pretty Macon MR8 with Phil Perks in the Royale RP26 second and Graham Curwen third in his Van Diemen RF91. Nick Scott then took a solo win with his Force PT in 5C setting a new PB some 2.3 seconds quicker than previously. Glyn Sketchley then took a solo win in 5D with his turbocharged Force PT setting a new PB and taking FTD in the process. Glyn only took two runs both of which would have given him FTD, before also heading off North for Sunday’s event! In Class 5E Graham Blackwell in the Mygale was another en route to Knockhill and grabbed the class win with his second run before packing up. John Graham was second in his Gould GR55B setting a new PB with the 2.8 litre engine. Third went to Ian Rowlance with the Reynard 2KF. The former Formula Chrysler car was slowly being modified and a “flappy paddle gear change” was new for 2022. Ian chipped away at his times and finally set a new PB on his sixth run.
Unfortunately, we only had the one Classic class as both the cars in 6B had issues prior to the event causing the four drivers to withdraw. This left 6A which was also reduced to two with a non-appearance. Both drivers would set PBs with Steve Cole leading throughout in his Ford Lotus Cortina as Edward Roberts in the Triumph Stag closed the gap in second with his tenth timed run!
Despite the lack of entries, the event was riddled with intriguing class battles and as always, the marshals deserve a big thank you for their diligence and expertise which kept us all safe. Roll on 2023!
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
Fully detailed results are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Summer Sprint
Aintree – 25th June 2022
John Graham Annexes FTD Report by Steve Wilkinson
The June sprint was definitely an event of two distinct halves. Before the lunch break it was fine, sunny and a tad windy, after lunch it was a lottery as to whether you had a dry run or were battered by a monsoon! With such a low number of entries, the two practice runs were quickly over and the well-oiled machine that is Liverpool Motor Club swiftly got the first two complete sets of timed runs underway before lunch.
Starting off as always with the Standard Road Car classes in SA it was the usual suspects in the usual order. Chris Smith set the pace on his first run and then clipped a tenth more off to maintain his lead on the second run. The second runs also saw Clive Plested and Phil Howarth set their best times, all thre drivers being in MG ZR’s. In SB Paul Gorge ran solo in his Citroen C2. In SC the three Clio runners ended up covered by just 0.85 secs and it was a Birrell 1-2 with Robbie taking the win and Jonathan second. David Goodlad was third but it was an entertaining battle. MX5 driver Peter Messer then took a solo win in SD before we moved into Roadgoing.
The Peugeot 106 of David Beechey was just too quick for Martin Dean’s Fiesta in 1A for the 1400cc machines with the third runs being decisive. Kraig Mycock (Civic) held a comfortable lead in 1B until on the third run John Early got the hang of his new Honda Civic Type R and snatched the lead he held to the end. In 1C Colin Smith (BMW Cooper) put in three consistently rapid runs before lunch and after getting caught out in the first big shower sat out the rest of the afternoon. Paul Bond in second set his best time on run 2 and although he did all three of the after lunch runs in his Golf he was foiled by the conditions.
As with the other classes 1D was sorted out in the morning with Oliver Chilton taking the win in the MX5 with Peter Darlington in the MR2 second; neither driver got close to improving their times after lunch. Phil Wood and Rob Holt both took solo wins in 1F & 1G respectively in their Lotus Elises although Holt did luck out on the fifth run setting his best times in a dry window in the weather. In the roadgoing Kit Car classes Martin Walker’s first run proved unbeatable in 2A for the up to 1800cc cars whilst Les Golding and the Bramalls like so many others set their best times before the break. Nigel Fox took a solo win in 2B for the over 1800cc cars opting out of the post lunch runs due to the damp. Into Mod Prod and the first three classes saw Henry Holdcroft, Ian Johnson and Anthony Middleton take solo wins In 3H Chris Boyd’s Sylva Riot (aka The Bingley Special) had the legs on Harry Moody’s Westfield.
Into the Racing Car classes and in 5A the up to 1100 class there was very limited running after the break which meant Eve Whitehead in the OMS 2000M, who was quickest on all three of the morning’s class runs, took the win with Shaun Crouch in RBS 8A second and Russell Edwardson in the Jedi third. In 5B for the Formula Fords, Geoff Ward in the Macon MR8 led throughout with his third run being his best. Phil Perks took second in the Royale RP26 with octogenarian Graham Curwen third in his 1991 van Diemen. John Graham was the sole entry in 5E for the over 2-litre Racing Cars and with his Gould’s engine capacity now reduced from 3500cc to a more flexible 2800cc he just pipped Eve Whitehead for FTD in the process of taking the solo win.
Steve Cole then took a solo win in his Ford Lotus Cortina in class 6A, the first of the Classic Classes. In 6B the father and son team of Peter and Tomos Brogden battled it out in their shared March 733 and it was Peter who emerged with the win whilst Tomos trailed home second after a second run spin slowed his progress.
The guest championships completed the programme. The Caterham & Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship runners were first and like most, the pre-lunch runs were generally the best however, during the fifth timed run there was an opportunity as the track was drying out and several drivers did improve. Charlie Wilson took the first of the sub-classes with an L1 solo win whilst in the L2 class the winning time of Ian Jones was on the fifth run whilst Roger Cummings and Debbie Jones relied on their pre-lunch efforts. In the L3 class, Robert Jacobs took the win with his third run time with Philip Matchwick second whilst Robert Clay, who had been second initially, fell back to third. In class L4 Jeremy Davies was the only driver in the sub-50s as he finished nearly two seconds ahead of Chris Whitlow. Class L5 was contested by the Elwells with Shaun first and Gill second.
Just five cars filled the MG Car Club class and it was local driver Paul Drake in his MG BGT who took first ahead of Kevin Lahert in the MG TF. The Morgan Sports Car Club class mustered seven entries and the two Morgan Roadsters were split by Clive Glass in his Plus 8. Simon Baines led throughout whilst Robert Stones couldn’t clos the gap on Glass for second spot.
The final class was the Revington TR Register class and just 3 made it to the start. Hamish Roscoe took the win in his immaculate TR3A with Howard Holdcroft second in his TR4.
After two practice and six timed runs, and with more rain heading our way, the meeting drew to a close at a very respectable 3.30pm. Certainly the competitors got full value for money from the well organised and efficiently run event. A huge thank you to the marshals who braved the appalling afternoon weather and without whom there would have been no meeting.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
Fully detailed results are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Spring Sprint
Aintree – 30th April 2022
Empirical Victory for Stephen Brown Report by Steve Wilkinson
Driving towards Aintree the weather looked set fair but on arrival, the strong wind meant it felt very cold. The sun remained out most of the day and several records would fall and lots of Personal Bests got broken. There was a lower-than-normal entry thus when the usual withdrawals and none arrivals were accounted for, we were down to 87 starters. We also ‘lost’ the lovely Brabham BT18 of Stanley Santer when a gearbox gremlin sidelined the Grantham driver.
After two practice runs, we were straight into the timed runs and proceedings were as usual kicked off by the Standard classes. Three MG ZR140s contested Class SA and it was class record holder Chris Smith who led throughout with Phil Howarth and Clive Plested both setting new PBs in second and third. In SB we had no class record so Paul Gorge, as the only entrant, was bound to set the record on his first run and he went on to reset the record twice during the afternoon. In SC David Goodlad led home Mike Lawson, in a Clio 1-2. In SD Peter and Sam Rosenthal swapped the lead several times in their MR2 with Sam snatching the win on his fifth run whilst Peter finished second ahead of Peter Messer’s MX5.
In the Road Going classes, it was 1A that kicked off proceedings. Andrew Till in the Fiesta ST led throughout setting his winning time (57.98) on his first and third runs! Stephen Akers was second and top classic Mini-man ahead of Stuart Ballinger and Peter Houghton. In 1B Ian Butcher was back with his Integra after two years in a Porsche Cayman and on his fourth run equalled the class record. Initial class leader Daniel Brady brought his Clio home second ahead of Nigel Trundle’s Fiat Abarth 500, Kraig Mycock’s 206 and Rosemary Collins’ ZR180. In 1C Alex Gilchrist-Jones broke his PB en route to a comfortable class win with Colin Smith in his ‘new’ BMW 135i second, Zoe Shearman (Toyota Yaris GR) third and Julian Davies in his Saab 900 Turbo fourth.
Next, it was the sportscars in 1D and Michael Thomson broke his own class record three times as Ray Worrall made it a Honda S2000 1-2. Peter Taylor brought his successful Mazda MX5 home third ahead of Lee Early in the third Honda S2000. The rest of the class was made up of Mazdas. In 1E the entry was paired down to just two and the first runs would prove decisive. Aaron Perrot took the lead in his Aston Martin Vantage whilst Glen Shaw overcooked things at Country Corner and spun through 180 degrees slithering down the Armco barriers. The battered Nissan 350Z did reappear after lunch but by then Perrot had put in a sub-52-second run and was out of reach. Classes 1F and 1G managed just one Elise entry each so Phil Wood and Rob Holt took the wins without breaking sweat. The two Road Going kit car classes mustered just three entries!
In 2A Martin Walker, whose pre-start tyre-smoking preparations in the Westfield are a sight to behold, took the win from Roger Abbott’s Caterham whilst in 2B Nigel Hinson took the solo win in his Caterham 620R – all three setting PBs in the process.
Next in the running order were the Classics in 6A. Aintree regular Alan Wilson in his Big Healey led throughout whilst Steve Cole, whose entry caught the eye of the local press, maintained a competitive second in his Mk 1 Lotus Cortina. Third went to Peter Flanagan in “Minty” the Mini (which has an extensive history of racing including events on the full GP circuit at Aintree) with Rod Stansfield third in his MGB and finally the Triumph Stag of Edward Roberts.
Mod Prods were next and in 3B Ian Johnson set a new PB in his Honda Civic Type R as he ran in unopposed. In 3C Graham Kearsley in the Impreza impressed as he cruised to the win with Jonathan Ashford second in what looked like a pretty standard BMW Mini Cooper S. Final Mod Prod class saw Harry Moody take a solo win in his Westfield in 3H. Just one Sports Libre pitched up and David Bickley set a new PB en route to the solo win in his Radical.
Into the Racing Car classes and the single-seaters didn’t disappoint. In 5A Stuart Bickley stamped his authority on the class with a first run PB and then on Run 2 carved off another half a second. Eve Whitehead held second throughout in Craig Powers’ OMS whilst Paul Webb in his OMS was third and Russell Edwardson fourth in his Mk 6 Jedi. The Formula Fords in 5B were “The Usual Suspects” and it was Geoff Ward in his 1970 Macon that would lead throughout. Second was snatched on the sixth run by Phil Perks in a 1979 Royale whilst third went to the evergreen octogenarian Graham Curwen in his 1991 Van Diemen with Peter Ibbotson fourth in the pretty Sparton from 1981. In 5C we were reduced to one runner with the demise of the Santer Brabham. However, Rob Tonge in the Force TA was not holding anything back. On his first run, Tonge set a new PB lowering it again on his second run. Just one entry in 5D meant Steve Brown had the chance to experiment but soon ditched the idea of starting in second gear! On his first run, Brown set a PB and then on his third clipped a tenth off that time to not only take the solo win but also Fastest Time of the Day. In the Classic Racing Car Class (6B) it was the Brogdens in their March 733 that had back in the day had been run by Masami Kuwashima in the British and European F3 championships that contested the win. Peter Brogden led throughout as the car was bedded in after a new clutch was fitted over the winter whilst son Tomos, who had only had one test session in the car, slowly brought his times down as he became more accustomed to the ‘new’ car.
In the Aston Martin Owners Club class, we only had two runners but with two Vantage GT4s, it was quality. Peter House led initially but on the second run before lunch, Tom Whittaker snatched the lead and held off House’s challenge to take the win. Then it was the Classic Marques Speed Challenge runners; they don’t have a class record due to the mixture of capacities but the quality and variety of the entry was excellent. In the championship, Aintree being the sixth round, they use an algorithmic handicap system to determine the points each driver scores. On scratch, Nigel Duffield was the quickest in the Reliant Scimitar GTE whilst David Barrowclough was second in the TVR Chimera and Peter Sherratt third in his BMW M3. Amongst the runners were two Morgan Plus 8s, a V8 Marcos Mantula, two Porsche Boxsters, a Sunbeam Imp Sport, a TVR Tasmin and a TVR V8S. To judge the overall competitiveness in the championship only 6 of the 19 competitors failed to improve on their PB.
In the final class, for Jaguar Driver’s Club members, we had four varied runners. Up front David Rodgers smashed the class record in his F-Type on his first run and then lowered it again on his second. Former class record holder Anthony Taylor was second in his Aristocat “XK120” kit-car with Phil Taylor third in his Aristocat C-Type replica which is stunning although it did retire in the afternoon with what appeared to be a blown head gasket. Fourth was Geoff Mansfield in the Kougar-Jaguar prototype once owned by motoring journalist and commentator Simon Taylor.
The meeting ended at 15:30 and a huge thank you has to go to the marshals, start-line crew and organisers for putting on a superb event. With Three Class Records being reset and countless PBs, it was a successful day of club motorsport at its very best.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
And wasn’t it great to see spectators back for the first time since 2019!
As usual, fully detailed results are on our results page HERE.
See our Facebook page for photos of cars at the event
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint Report
Aintree – 4th September 2021
Records Galore! Report & Photos by Phil James
The excellent weather conditions were conducive to some fast times so it was no surprise that a number of track records fell on the day.
Graham Blackwell made best use of some revised traction settings to record FTD in his Mygale EcoBoost G21.
Graham Blackwell on his way to FTD
The well-organised event allowed contestants the opportunity to test their mettle on six timed runs with many saving their fastest times to last. Inevitably a number bucked that trendsetting their fastest times on Run 1 and failing to get quicker as the day progressed.
The day’s action got underway with the Class SA (Standard Saloon Cars up to including 1400cc) contenders, a trio of MG ZR pilots, with Chris Smith showing the number 1 decals attached to his car were a true indication of his performance. Clive Plested edged into second place by just 0.06secs after a close contest with Phil Howarth.
Class SC (Standard Saloon Cars over 1700cc up to and including 2000cc) proved popular attracting seven starters and it was Paul Gorge who claimed the top honours in his Renault Clio 172 Cup.
In contrast, Class SD (Standard Sports Cars up to and including 2000cc) had a solitary entrant in Peter Messer’s Mazda MX5.
Class 1A (Road Cars Series Production Saloon Cars up to 1400cc) produced the first of the day’s record breakers as Martin Rowe surpassed his previous record time in his Peugeot 106 Rallye. Andrew Till left his familiar MG ZR at home and took to the track in a completely standard Ford Fiesta ST Line, the first time he’d driven the car in anger at the Aintree track. He was Rowe’s closest challenger while Ford Ka pilot Andrew Rollason was one who couldn’t better his Run 1 time and was forced to accept third place in the final class rankings.
With two scheduled entrants not running Class 1B (Road Cars Series Production Saloon Cars over 1400cc and up to and including 2000cc) became a straight fight between Daniel Brady’s Renault Clio 172 Cup and Paul Jaggard’s Alfa Romeo Mito. On this occasion, it was the French model that claimed the prizes as the Italian marque failed to show after Run 3.
Alex Gilchrist-Jones took full advantage of the 500bhp provided by his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 GT to take top honours in Class 1C (Road Cars Series Production Saloon Cars over 2000cc). His day nearly ended early however after a coolant leak was identified as emanating from a broken radiator fan mount. Fortunately, some emergency repairs effected with the clever use of some cable ties, saved his day.
Peter Taylor was quickest in Class 1D (Road Cars 2 4 Seater Series Sportscars up to and including 2000cc) guiding his Mazda MX5 to victory ahead of the Honda S2000 of Raymond Worrall.
Top honours in Class 1E (Road Cars 2 4 Seater Series Sportscars over 2000cc) went to Ian Butcher in his Porsche Cayman S.
Steve Taylor was quickest in Class 1F in his Lotus Elise while Rob Holt, the sole entrant in Class 1G, made an early withdrawal after putting his Lotus Elise off exiting Village Corner.
In the Classes for Specialist Production Kit Replicas Martin Walker took 2A honours in his Westfield SEIW while Nigel Fox set fastest 2B time in his Caterham Super 7 Zetec. Jon Ison’s time in Class 2C sufficed to provide the Westfield Megabusa pilot the honour of establishing a new class record.
Paul Talbot, returning to the sport following a 20 year absence, made the long trek north from Henley-on Thames only find he had zero competition in Class 3A (Modified Series Production Cars up to and including 1400cc). Undeterred he looked to previous class times as his benchmark. As the day progressed his times, in the Rover Mini he’s spent seven years building, got better and he was delighted to record a sub 51 second final run to beat the previous best set by a HSA competitor.
Ian Johnson continued his winning ways in Class 3B (Modified Series Production Cars over 1400cc and up to and including 2000cc) bringing his Honda Civic Type R to victory ahead of John Moxham’s Peugeot 205GTi. They faced competition from David Telfer, an Aintree debutant from north of the Border, who brought his rally homologated Ford Escort Mk2. Despite finding his car couldn’t match the pace of the Aintree regulars on the long straights he enjoyed his day.
No one could match the pace of Chris Edwards in his Mazda 323 GTX in Class 3C (Modified Series Production Cars over 2000cc) where Graham Kearsley provided his closest challenge. Further competition came from the Lancia Delta Integrale 8v, a rare rhd example, of Gareth Shipley.
Mazda MX5 Mk2.5 pilot Sam Markham was the sole Class 3E entrant while John Hoyle set a new Class 3G track record in his Westfield SEIW as did Chris McDaid in his Zenos E10s in Class 3K. Terry Everall claimed the Class 3H honours in his Westfield Megablade.
Lyndsay Robertson only managed one run but the Force LM pilot proved the quickest of the day in Class 4A (Sports Libre Cars up to and including 2000cc). Martin Chittenden came closest to him in his Pulsar 919CBR while mechanical issues with his Maguire Spaceframe IMP cut short Grant Sinclair’s day.
In the Racing Car classes John Loudon’s Force HC was fastest in 5A and Geoff Ward took the top award in his Macon MR8 in 5B.
Robert Tonge set his personal best time in his Class 5C winning Force TA and added to which he set second-best time of the day.
Rob Tonge, just 1 sec short of FTD
This is Tonge’s first season in the car and as he’s still coming to terms with its grip and downforce it bodes well for the LMC member’s future results. Paul Tinsley, who set FTD here in September 2019, was the sole 5D entrant in his Dallara F397 but couldn’t repeat his previous success. But the quickest driver of the day was Graham Blackwell who managed to claim 5E honours and FTD by fending off the challenges of Ian Rowlance (Reynard 2KF) and Daniel Williams (Gould GR37).
Andrew Webber continued his winning ways in Class 6A (Classic Road Cars first registered before 1991) in his Lotus Elan +2 stopping the clocks more than a second faster than the Talbot Sunbeam of Chris Thomas. Webber’s time bettered his existing best so established a new class record. Paul Drake’s MG BGT was third followed by the Triumph Stag of Ted Roberts and the MG B of octogenarian Rod Stansfield.
Two practice runs followed by the opportunity to take 6 timed runs kept the start line marshals very busy as they lined up cars over 625 times during the day, and still managed to head for home (or 3 Sisters) by 4 pm. A great end to the Aintree Sprint Season.
As usual, fully detailed results are on our results page HERE. Phil James www.pro-rally.co.uk
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint Report
Aintree – 7th September 2019
Tinsley Triumphs Report by Steve Wilkinson
Despite just 60 competitors turning up to take part in the event it proved to be highly competitive. It was feared that there would also be a shortage of marshals due to clashes in the region, but on the day it was great to see a good turn out from the orange army.
Despite initial problems with both PA and timing kit, we again had a well organised event and those who chose to support the club were rewarded with two practice runs, six competition and a seventh optional run which didn’t count towards the event awards but never-the-less saw several drivers set their best times as the event wound down.
The two practice runs were done and dusted in no time and we swung seamlessly into the timed runs mid-morning.
As always, the Standard Car classes set the ball rolling.
In SA Chris Smith again took the win in his MG ZR and despite his own predictions broke his class record twice; Clive Plestedd was second in his MG ZR140 setting a new PB in the process. In SC it was a Clio one, two, three as David Goodlad led throughout whilst Les Wilson got to within 0.19 of the leader in second spot, Michael Lawson was third and Paul Collier fourth in his Honda Civic as they all broke their PBs. Peter Messer (MX5) then took a solo win in SD before we moved into the Road-going classes.
In 1B Russell Thorpe had a varied day in his venerable Renault 5 Turbo. On his first run he went orienteering at Beechers and as he approached the finish on his second run, the engine spluttered and coughed. Low fuel pressure had a catastrophic consequence and the good doctor was towed out of the venue during the lunch break. Daniel Brady (Clio) missed his first three timed runs so by the time he got into the groove after lunch the “opposition” had departed. Brady established his PB before a sixth run ‘detour’ left him in second spot. In 1C Alan Sawyer (Subaru Impreza) started with a new PB and led the class only for Alex Gilchrist Jones to slash over a second off his PB to take control of the class. Sawyer couldn’t match the Mitsubishi driver’s pace and had to settle for second. Peter Sherratt, team principle of Equipe Crème Anglaise, also set a new PB but was left trailing home in third spot in his BMW M3. In 1D all four drivers set new PBs in a great battle that raged all day. Ray Worrall (Honda S2000), aka Cross Plane, led initially setting a new class record in the process. On his third run, Michael Thomson (S2000) chipped a further 0.13 off Worrall’s record to annex first place. Lee Early (S2000) and Oliver Chilton (MX5) were third and fourth. In the somewhat depleted 1E, there were three non-starters, Keith Calder held the lead throughout in his Audi TTS, with Nathan Warburton second and Mark Warburton second in their TVR Griffith – all three set PBs in the process. In 1F the three Lotus Elise were somewhat overwhelmed by Robbie Birrell in the Exige V6. Birrell got to within a tenth of his class record to record a comfortable win. Steve Wilson took second ahead of Phillip Wood and Rob Holt with the three Elise covered by less than 2 seconds.
Into the Kit Car classes and in 2A Daniel Hollis (Caterham) and Martin Walker (Westfield) had a ding-dong battle for the lead. First Walker led, then Hollis snatched the lead and finally after Walker had slowly closed the gap, he swept through to take the win with his sixth run being conclusive. Michael Bellerby, on his first visit to Aintree, found the Sylva Striker a tad under geared but still managed to close to within a second of Hollis for third. Bill Stevenson cruised home in fourth whilst his wife Carol set a new PB as she got to within a second of her husband’s best time in their shared Westfield. Sean Bourn took a solo win in 2B in his Carcraft Cyclone. In 2D Huw Binfield also took a solo win – the youngster was making his competition debut at 16 years and 2 months and was chopping time off on each successive run in the Ariel Atom.
The Mod Prods were a tad thin on the ground! In 3B John Moxham set a new PB in his 205 GTi taking the class win from Mike Ashcroft in his ‘new’ MG ZR190. Graham Kearsley then took a solo win in 3C in his Impreza. TVR Tasmin pilot David Welton, who is allegedly retiring from the sport at the end of the year, took the class win in 3E with Martin Chittenden second driving his ‘trackday’ Porsche 944 for the first time in a sprint as his Sports Libre car was sidelined. In 3G Chris Griffiths cruised to the win whilst Mark Davenport (Sylva J15) lowered his PB by 0.99 in his chase of the Westfield driver.
The Racing Car classes were reasonably well supported, certainly at the bottom end of the capacities. Unfortunately, a clash with the British Sprint Championship round at Knockhill meant John Graham was absent. In 5A Craig Powers led throughout despite destroying the clutch in his OMS 2000M on his fifth run. Roger Wright, who was making his Aintree debut at the wheel of the Speads RM07, took second place with Eve Whitehead, co-driving Power’s OMS, third. Daniel Williams’ Jedi was fourth in the first of the 600s with Tomos Brogden (Jedi) fifth ahead of his father Peter in sixth whilst Colin Kendall(Terrapin Mk1) in seventh struggled to get anywhere near his PB. The Formula Ford class again featured the Usual Suspects. Geoff Ward continued his season-long dominance in the Swift finishing nearly 1.5 seconds ahead. Phil Perks took second in his venerable Royale, Nigel Fox just took third by the narrowest margin in his Van Diemen RF89 and Graham Curwen (RF81) was fourth. Graham had obviously been trying as he included a big Gilhooley at Beechers on his second run! In the final Racing Car class Paul Tinsley was running solo in 5D. Paul has recently acquired the 2 litre Dallara F3 and this was his first event in the car that we last saw at Aintree in the hands of John Graham. The Dallara has been hillclimbed by the Eyles family ever since John Graham moved up to the Gould and had lain fallow for many months. Tinsley, who last sprinted a Formula Renault Swift at Aintree, was a bit ‘ring rusty’ but soon got up to pace. He switched ratios during the lunch break and on his fifth run grabbed FTD.
In the ‘Classic classes’ entries were also a tad thin. Bob Binfield took a solo win in his immaculate circuit racing Jaguar E-Type roadster in the Road Car Class. In the Racing Car Class Jonathan Baines took the win in his Royale RP30 Formula Ford 2000 setting a new class record in the process. Edward Lea was second in his FF1600 Lotus 61 with Rod Stansfield third. Rod had decided to have some fun so left his immaculate Elva Sports Racer at home and brought his vintage Lagonda Rapier Special. The monoposto racing car is also known as The Jenks Special after the highly talented Denis Jenkinson who conceived the car as a Maserati 4CM replica. Rod was grinning from ear to ear each time he came to the line and provided a wonderful contrast to the modern-day race cars.
The final class was for the MGCC members. Up front Richard Watkinson was unassailable in his Mod Prod Midget finishing well clear of the rest. Jake Wolf took second in his Mod Prod Midget as he sliced exactly two seconds off his PB. David Coulthard (MG ZR160) took thrd whilst co-driver Helen Waddington was fourth with a new PB. Fifth was taken by David Tandy whose left-hand drive Frogeye Sprite used to be raced on the ovals in the States. Final place in the class went to the very smart MGB roadster of Phil Cheek who like Tandy was making his Aintree debut.
Once again, the organisers and marshals did a wonderful job and despite the small entry produced a highly competitive meeting.
Hopefully all those who competed will act as ambassadors for the club and next year we will have a full entry list.
As usual, fully detailed results are on our results page HERE. Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
Liverpool Motor Club – Summer Sprint Report
Aintree – 29th June 2019
Return of the British Sprint Championship Report by Steve Wilkinson
After more than a decade’s absence the British Sprint Championship returned to Aintree on June 29th, now under the management of the Hillclimb and Sprint Association.
With the unpredictable British weather, it could have been a disaster had it rained, however the sun shone and there was just a light breeze to make the 26 degree heat just about bearable. And with six new class records set during the day, the competition was certainly close.
Car issues in practice saw Colin & Heather Calder (all the way from Thurso) miss their first practice runs due to a split fuel tank and Michael Calvert’s Caterham sidelined by a recurrent clutch problem.
After two practice runs, we were straight into the first of the class runs before lunch.
Leading the way were the Standard Classes. In SA for the Up to 1400 Saloons, Chris Smith (MG ZR) lowered his own class record on his first run to lead home Clive Plested (MG ZR) who in turn slashed over 3 seconds off his previous best time. In SC it was once again a Gorge 1-2 as Paul led home Doug in their shared Clio. Les Wilson (Clio) on his first visit to Aintree took third just 1/100th off Paul Gorge’s time. John Wadsworth then took a solo win in SD in his MX5, before we moved into the Road-going Production classes.
In Road-going Production Class 1B for the 2 litre Saloons it was another family 1-2. David West and his son Nick took the top two places in their Peugeot 106 recording the exact same time so the win went to David on count-back. Third went to Richard Forber’s Clio with Russell Thorpe and “Doris” his trusty R5 Turbo in fourth. In 1C Alex Gilchrist Jones (Mitsubishi Evo9) posted his first sub 50 second run to take the win from Alan Sawyer (Impreza) and Ian Johnson’s MINI Cooper S R56. In 1D for the 2 litre sports cars it was a Honda 2000 clean sweep as class record holder Roger Fish held the lead throughout with Ray Worrall battling through to second at the expense of Michael Thomson. Martin Rowe held station in fourth and the first none Honda S2000 was Phil Howarth’s MX5 in fifth. In 1E Keith Calder led throughout in his Audi TTS Quattro whilst Tom Bourn was second in the turbocharged MX5 and Nathan Warburton third in the TVR Griffith. 1F saw the class record shattered by Robbie Birrell in the Exige V6 Cup. The Lotus driver carved over two seconds off the old record breaking it twice whilst Phillip Wood was second ahead of Rob Holt both in Elises.
The last two Road classes were for Kit Cars. In 2A Daniel Hollis led throughout in his Caterham 7 and broke his PB on his fourth run. Martin Walker’s smokin’ Toyota powered Westfield was second with Bill and Carol Stevenson third and fourth in their trusty Westfield. In 2B Sean Bourn took a solo win in his Car Craft Cyclone.
Into Mod Prods and in the Up to two litre tin-top class 3B John Moxham took a solo win in his Peugeot 205. In 3C Graham Kearsley dominated in his Impreza taking the win although his third run ended with the car staggering through the finish; second on his first trip to Aintree was David Smith in his Volvo 242 Turbo. In 3E David Welton took a solo win in his TVR Tasmin which is currently for sale before we moved into Class 3G for the Modified Kit Cars which was a Westfield affair. John Hoyle led throughout with Chris Griffiths second. Usual front runners Derek Hodder and Gary Bunn were struggling with their shared Honda powered Westie and could only mange third and fourth respectively.
The Sports Libre class only managed to get two entries but each were superb. Jeff Wiltshire’s Zeus was glorious to behold, however the Hayabusa powered car had to give best to the other entry. The mighty SBR Chrono Audi V8 with twin turbos and four-wheel drive was big and brutal. On his first timed run Simon Bainbridge slashed 1.10 seconds off the class record and cruised through the finish at over 140 mph. His second run was fractionally slower but was still well inside the old record.
Moving on to the Racing Car classes and in the 1100 split it was BSC regulars who dominated. John Loudon, who holds two class records in his Westfield, was now fully at home in his Force HC and took the class 5A win and also made it into the BSC Top 12 run-off. Mark Anson took second in his new for 2019 Jedi Mk 6. Eve Whitehead was having issues with the OMS 2000M but when it actually made it to the finish it was going well and finished third. The tiny Mk 1 Jedi of Tomos and Peter Brogden came home in fourth and fifth – not bad for a 600cc Honda CBR engined car.
In 5B for Formula Ford 1600’s Geoff Ward was again the man to beat and he once again lowered his PB en route to the win. Graham Curwen finished second just ahead of Phil Perks as Nigel Fox was closing in behind them in fourth slot.
Class 5D for up to 2 litre cars was all about BSC contenders, and it was Nick Algar who led them home in his DJ Firehawk. Championship sponsor Steve Broughton in the Dallara was second with co-driver Matt Hillam third and Stephen Miles fourth in the Van Diemen – a car that started life as a Formula Ford 1600! In the Over 2 Litre class 5E again all the runners were BSC registered. However, it was Aintree regular John Graham’ 3500cc Gould GR55B who would take the class win ahead of Colin and Heather Calder in their similar car. Graham Blackwell and Peter Goulding were fourth and fifth in their Mygales whilst BSC stalwart Graham Porrett was sixth in the TeGra Lola-Judd.
The two Classic classes were next and Andrew Webber took a solo win in 6A in his smart Lotus Elan Plus 2. In 6B Jonathan Baines put in four runs all within half a second of each other to take the win in his FF2000 Royale whilst another Aintree stalwart Edward Lea in his Lotus 61 FF1600 was second. Third was Rod Stansfield in the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Elva Mk 6 to complete the class.
We then moved into the Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship contenders. Effectively six classes of performance related cars where tyres and BHP determine in which class you run. In Class 1 Paul Boston snatched the win with a third run charge demoting Richard Abraham to second whilst Crispin Scott held third throughout with Simon Houghton equally secure in fourth. In Class 2 Initial leaders Matt Bramall and Graham Howard were demoted by Clive Marsden on his third run with Paul Collins and Chris Bramall holding station behind the three battlers. In Class 3 Richard Price led from the first run with Philip Matchwick, Justin Dobson & Robert Jacobs holding station. In Class 4 Tom Price recovered after a first run ‘sat nav failure’ to take the win (and a new class record) from initial leader Mike Cocker. In Class 5 Jeremy Davies cruised to a solo win in his R300. In Class 6 the three runners never changed places as Simon Rogers led home Roy Alum, on his first trip to Aintree, and Les Golding who set a new PB.
Next it was the turn of the single marque classes. Kicking off we had the MGs and Richard Watkinson again led them home in his Mod Prod Midget. David Coulthard was second (ZR), Andrew Till (ZR) third with a new PB and Helen Waddington (ZR) fourth with her first ever sub 60 second run at Aintree. We then moved into the Morgan class which was led off by George Proudfoot in his ‘flat rad’ Morgan Series 1. Up front Simon Baines dominated, he broke the class record on his third run and then equalled his new record on his fourth effort. Second went to Steven McDonald in the Plus 8 whilst third was Paul Clarke’s Lightweight Roadster. The Morgans were hyper competitive with only one driver not setting a new PB! (The Morgan Championship points are allocated on handicap, so the fastest on the day isn’t necessarily the driver who earns maximum points for the Morgan Championship).
The Triumphs were next and all three runners set new PBs. Up front on his first visit to Aintree Steve Small in the TR7 V8 slashed over a second off the class record on his first run. He then broke the new record on his second and third runs having taken over three seconds off the old record! Shaun Roche was second in the Dolomite Sprint (shades of Andy Rouse) and the final TR was the TR3a of Hamish Roscoe in third.
Just two Jaguar Drivers Club contenders arrived and it was another Aintree stalwart who took the win. Anthony Taylor was giving a “Continuation” Lister-Jaguar a run out and just held off the challenge from Geoff Mansfield in his Jaguar-Kougar prototype.
The final class was for the Bert Hadley Austin Sevens and these fantastic pre-war cars were the fitting end to the proceedings. Up front Paul Geering broke the Track Car record in his Pigsty Special to take the win whilst Road Car class record holder Ian Bennett was second with Gerald Mullord’s pretty Hamblin Cadet 7 was third.
Top 12 Run-offs
With just 14 entries only two BSC drivers failed to qualify – Jeff Wiltshire and Mark Anson. The former being a newbie whilst the latter was in a new car for 2019. Only one driver had broken a BSC Championship Record in qualifying as the majority struggled for grip.
First to step up was John Loudon in the Force. The 1100 initially showed a fine turn of speed and moved up to 11th but when he failed to improve on his second run, he would slip back to 12th. Graham Porrett was next and despite the elderly Lola being a tad heavy compared to the more modern machinery he acquitted himself well. His first run was a banker and his second moved him back to 11th, the position he qualified in. Having decimated the Championship record in qualifying Simon Bainbridge then put in two more stellar runs in the brutal SBR Chrono picking up two bonus points en route to 9th and moving ahead of Stephen Miles.
Next to the line was Matt Hillam, as the car is a shared drive and the Top 12 comprises two additional runs the second driver runs in a slightly off-set place in the running order to allow more time for the cars to cool down. Hillam’s first run took him into the lead but by the time he was back for his second run he had been ‘bumped’ down to sixth. Despite being a smidge quicker away from the line he was slightly slower to Becher’s and would fail to improve. Stephen Miles was next up in the former Formula Ford chassied Van Diemen. Despite improving run on run and clipping a further tenth off his Q-time he would fall back to tenth.
The next car to come to the line was the Gould GR55 of reigning Sprint Champion Heather Calder. Her launch was spectacular and she short shifted through the gears. By the time she got to Becher’s she was comfortably in the lead and when she blasted through the finishing line at 160 mph she was definitely in the lead. Unfortunately, a split in the water system meant that there would be no second runs for either of the Calders. British Sprint Championship leader Peter Goulding was next and the rather guttural Mygale staggered off the line and was unable to recover so after the first runs was 9th. His second run was far smoother and he moved up to 8th. The second of the Mygales that of Graham Blackwell was next and Leicestershire driver was another who failed to hook up his launch being the slowest single seater to Becher’s on his first run. On his second run he had no such problems and moved steadily up the order finishing 7th. Nick Algar was next and the slimline DJ Firehawk moved into second behind Heather Calder. By the time of his second run he had been relegated by the V8s to fourth, and when he fell just five hundredths shy of his first run time, he had to settle for nine points. Steve Broughton was next in the Dallara he shares with Matt Hillam. Mr SBD was quickly into his stride but lacked the top-end punch slipping into fifth slot and when on his second run he, like Nick Algar, fell just short of his first run time his position remained the same.
This left the two Goulds to battle it out. Colin Calder was first and he was initially quicker than daughter Heather to Country Corner and carried that momentum all the way to the finishing line which he crossed at 162 mph and took the lead despite an “interesting” wobble in the middle of Becher’s Bend. That water leak meant that it would be just a one-run effort from Colin and he had to sit out the second runs. John Graham, having qualified fastest was in the best position to judge his pace. He was a tad slower to launch off the line but by Country was with six hundredths of Colin Calder. He was a tenth down at Becher’s and crossed the line at 160 mph and split the Calders times. For his second run Graham had a slightly better launch and was matching Colin Calder by Becher’s, however, a big moment coming out of Becher’s onto Railway Straight had him off the throttle and he had to settle for second.
In the exceedingly hot conditions, a big thank you must go out to the marshals, especially the start-line crew who oversaw over 700 starts during the day. Two practice runs, no less than four competition runs and two BSC Top 12 run-offs, there was barely time to catch your breath during another smoothly run meeting. Hopefully when the British Sprint Championship returns next year we may get a fuller set of competitors.
As usual, fully detailed results are on our results page HERE Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
Liverpool Motor Club – Spring Sprint Report
Aintree – 27th April 2019
Return of the Jedi as Storm Hannah attacks Report by Steve Wilkinson
As I arrived at the track it was raining.
It rained on and (only very occasionally) off throughout the day.
Throughout the entire day there was a oblique headwind of mammoth proportions across the Railway Straight.
As I left the track after the prizegiving it was still raining!
One thing was for sure there would be no new class records.
Of the 91 entries 3 withdrew, 5 Did Not Start whilst 4 Retired after practice. All this meant that the meeting had a disjointed look but despite this there were some very entertaining battles.
Kicking off the pre-lunch timed run were the Standard Car classes. Class record holder in SA, Chris Smith, was quick off the mark and despite not improving after lunch took the win whilst NSCC stalwart Gordon Peters, now driving a nifty FIAT 500 Sport, was a close second and Clive Plestedd (MG ZR140) third. In SB Paul Gorge took the lead which he extended on his third timed run. Newcomer to Aintree, Sherief Megid in his Clio, held second throughout ahead of Doug Gorge and David Goodlad. In SC Aintree debutante Zoe Shearman in her Toyota MR2 held the lead throughout setting her best time on the fourth run and leaving Peter Messer nearly two seconds adrift.
Into the Road-going classes and in 1A Martin Rowe was stunningly quick in his Peugeot 106 Rallye and on his first run got to within 2 seconds of the class record! Keith Waters was back after nearly a ten-year absence with his Metro and took a well earned second ahead of Andrew Rollason (Ford KA) and Peter Houghton (Mini) who were separated by just 0.2 seconds. In 1B Ian Butcher set the pace before lunch extending his lead on his third effort. Initial second placed Russell Thorpe packed up at lunch time as he was attending a wedding and this left the door wide open. Alex Thornton slipped through in his Civic to snatch second whilst Michael Thornton held fourth throughout. In 1C the 1-2-3 was settled on the first runs. Class winner Alex Gilchrist-Jones put in four cracking runs with his fourth marginally quicker than his first to extend his lead. Andrew Hollis in his ‘new’ Volvo 940 (aka The White Brick) was second whilst Aaron Perrott closed-in in third with his Aston Martin Vantage. Mark Livesey, taking part in his first sprint, took fourth in his Audi A4 Quattro. In 1D the plethora of MX5s had to give best to the two Honda S2000s. Class record holder Roger Fish was the quickest on every run and just kept Michael Thomson at bay by a meagre 0.15 seconds. Top MX5 was Aintree debutante Duncan Morgan who was the only other driver to break the 60 second barrier whilst Phil Howarth came home fourth just 0.37 seconds of making it four! Into 1E and it was Keith Calder in his recently acquired Audi TTS Quattro that set the pace from the start. He extended his lead on his fourth and final run to keep the rest at bay. Second place was held throughout by Dave Exton in his recently acquired Nissan 350Z and his four runs, all in the 58 second bracket, were the mark of consistency. Nathan Warburton snatched third in the TVR Griffiths on his final run as John Williams (350Z) sat out the third and fourth runs. In the Elise derivatives class Robbie Birrell in his Exige V6 Cup only took the one run leaving Rob Holt’s Elise in his wake. Just two runners took to the track in class 2A for the smaller capacity Kit Cars. Both drivers took just two runs and it was Martin Walker in the Westfield who emerged victorious with Daniel Hollis second in his Caterham. Clive Glass took a solo class win in 2B to round off the Road-going classes.
Mod Prods were thin on the ground. In 3B John Moxham took a solo win and there were solo wins for Graham Kearsley in 3C, Paul Boscott in 3D and David Welton in 3E. Chris Griffiths took 3G in his Duratec powered Westie whilst Mark Davenport, in the neat and tidy Sylva J15 with Honda S2000 power, was second and Les Golding third in his Caterham. In 3H Harry Moody had Chris Boyd co-driving his Westfield Megabusa. Both only took the one timed run and it was Moody in first.
With no Sports Libres entered it was now time for the Racing Car classes. In the Up to 1100cc class we lost two drivers in the one car when Tomos Brogden spun out and clipped a bank in the Jedi. Stuart Bickley was terrific in his one-litre Jedi and stormed his way to not only the class win but a thoroughly deserved FTD. Daniel Williams was equally impressive in his 600 Jedi which is currently for sale. In the Formula Ford 1600 class the pre-lunch run was decisive. Geoff Ward was on form and took the class win whilst Nigel Fox, making his Aintree debut in his recently acquired 1989 Van Diemen, took a fine second place. Graham Curwen took third ahead of the usual suspects. None of the remaining entries in single seaters took to the track in either practice or the timed runs.
Into Classic Road Car territory; Edward Roberts, competing in his first sprint since 1973 took his smart Triumph Stag to the win ahead of Phil Cheek in his ‘works replica’ MGB Roadster. We had a nice selection of Classic Racing Cars out however, Rod Stansfield practiced but then retired his lovely Elva, Jonathan Baines in his FF2000 Royale took the win ahead of Edward Lea in the FF1600 Lotus. Anthony Taylor only took the pre-lunch first run in his McLaren M1b Can-Am car which must have been handful in the conditions as it resembled a speedboat as it flew down Railway Straight en route to third.
The two “guest classes” rounded off the meeting. In the Aston Martin Owners Club Speed Series class, we had just one Aston – Nigel Dowding in his historic and well travelled 1934 Mk II which put the rest to shame as he took all four timed runs in the super little open topped car. Up front Class Record holder Tom Whittaker was now running a Lotus Exige V6 and duly took the class win. Peter House in his VW RSi Beetle was second and Andrew Forret third in his BMW. The final class for runners in the TVR Car Club Speed Championship mustered just two entries. John Carter took the class win in his rumbling TVR V8 S whilst Bill Campion was Mr Consistency with his four runs covered by just 0.75 seconds.
With so many competitors opting out of their later runs as the weather took a turn for the worse, we finished early.
A huge ‘THANK YOU’ goes out to the marshals and organisers who braved the elements to let the event take place. Their sterling work both during the event and in packing up were appreciated by all. Hopefully they will have dried out when our next sprint rolls round in June!
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
As usual, full detailed results are on our results page HERE
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint Reports, (Part 1)
Aintree : 1st September 2018
Class by Class report – by Brian Taylor of www.whitedogphotography.co.uk
Liverpool Motor Club held the last of their 2018 sprints on Saturday 1st September, with 70 entries, slightly fewer than the 100+s which Aintree usually attracts, however there were 27 classes leaving the grid. The weather was dry and cooler than of late, making it more comfortable for the drivers, marshals, officials and spectators, and ideal for sprinting over the two practice and five timed runs.
The first class to get underway was SA road going standard saloons up to 1400cc a two car battle between Colin Duncalf and Chris Smith both driving MG ZR’s with Chis Smith getting the honours with a time of 63.12 and a speed of 94mph across the line, 4mph quicker than Colin’s ZR but in Colin’s defence he did have early signs of head gasket failure.
Class SB had three Clio 172 Cups and a Mazda 3 making the line up. Paul Gorge was quickest with a time of 55.32 and top speed of 109mph. Standard production road going sports cars up to 2000cc class SC went next with only the Mazda MX5 of Peter Messer in the class, crossing the line in 61.67.
Class 1A road going production saloon cars up to 1400cc was won by David Taylor in his 1380cc Morris Mini Cooper S with a time of 57.35 just short of the class record of 56.96 he set in September 2015.
The1B road going production saloons 1400cc-2000cc award went to Russell Thorpe in his Renault 5GT turbo with his best run of 52.52 putting Karl Wilson’s Clio Cup into runner up spot with a 52.86.
James Hunt took only 3 out of the 5 available competitive runs in his BMW E30 to win the Road going production saloons over 2000cc class 1C with a time of 52.10 and top speed of 126mph. Class 1D road going production 2&4 seater sports cars up to 2000cc saw Raymond Worrall quickest over the 1.15 mile course at 52.19 in his Honda S2000. The larger engined road going 2&4 seater sports cars over 2000cc award went to Congleton’s Rob Tonge missing out by 0.01 second on the class 1E record of 47.81 that he set in June this year by breaking the timing beam with a time of 47.82 and top speed of 141mph in his Audi TT. Class 1F had just one entry, the Lotus Elise of Steve Wilson who achieved his best run of 54.95 on his third out of five runs.
Class 2A road going kit, replica and space-framed cars up to 1700cc with car engines had Martin Walker win by margin of nearly 10 seconds in his 1620cc Westfield SEiW at 50.41seconds.
Class 2B car engined road going kit, replica and space-framed cars over 1700cc was won by Nigel Fox driving his Caterham 7 over the line in 47.83. Class 2D for road going specialist cars not eligible for classes 2A, 2B or 2C had just two cars in it, both Lotus Elises driven by Rob Holt and Ian Walker and saw Walker the quickest with a time of 54.21.
Class 3B Modified production saloon cars 1400cc to 2000cc saw Taras Andrusin’s Renault Clio 172 cup set a time of 54.67 to get the better of the Honda Civic Type R driven by Chris Boyd and the Peugeot 205GTI shared by Angela Jones and William Jarman.
The over 2000cc modified production saloons class 3C had the sole entry of William Hunt’s Ford Sierra 2ltr put in a time of 48.36. Another single entry Elen Worthington, in class 3D modified production 2&4 seater sports cars up to 2000cc saw her achieve a time of 50.61 in a well turned out Lotus Elise S1.
John Loudon made the trip to Liverpool from Warwickshire to beat his own class record by shaving 0.76s off the time he set for class 3F (Modified kit, replica and spaceframed cars with up to 1700cc car engines) in June by driving his Westfield SE over the finish line in 45.23seconds, the only new class record to be set on the day.
In Class 3G Modified kit, replica and space-framed cars over 1700cc another Westfield won the class driven by Chris Griffiths to a time of 44.49. Terry Everall was the only representative in the motorcycle engined kit, replica and space-framed class3H with his Westfield Megablade finishing with a best time of 45.95 on his 5th run.
Martin Chittenden was the sole entrant in Class 4A for Sports Libre cars up to 2000cc his Pulsar 919 putting in a time of 54.31.
Racing cars up to 1100cc class 5A was well supported, and a one two finish by the same OMS 2000M being shared by Eve Whitehead and Craig Powers with Craig taking the honours with a time of 43.01 over Eve’s runner up time of 43.57. Class 5B Formula Ford 1600 racing cars manufactured before 1st January 1994 saw Geoff Ward take the class with a time of 49.50 in his Swift SC93F making Graham Curwen’s Van Diemen runner up with 51.76 and Peter Ibbotson 3rd with 53.35 in a Sparton FF81.
Ray Stockton in a Vauxhall engined Van Diemen was the only competitor in class 5C racing cars up to 1600cc and put in a time of 60.97.
Class 5D racing cars up to 2000cc again saw only one competitor in the class, the Force PT of Glyn Sketchley who did a respectable time of 41.74.
Windermere farmer John Graham was literally in a class of his own, not only being the sole car in class 5E (racing cars over 2000cc), but he took FTD in his 3.5 Nicholson McLaren engined Gould GR55b too, propelling his car down railway straight at a blistering pace and breaking the timing beam on his final run at 174mph. In fact, all of his runs saw top speeds of over 170mph and he twice set a best time of 37.53secs but unfortunately that’s still one and half seconds short of beating Nick Algar’s course record set in June 2010 – but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.
Class 6A was for classic road going-cars registered before 1st January 1988 and was won by Richard Freye with a time of 58.45 in his mini but my favourite was Rod Stansfield’s Triumph TR5 classic rally car. Class 6B classic racing cars built before 1st January 1988 had Les Proctor’s Elva MK7 come out on top with a time of 54.67.
The final class, class17, was for contenders in the TVR car club speed championship but was very poorly supported with just two cars entered. Driving his TVR Chimera, David Barrowclough finished in a time of 51.20 secs, ahead of William Campion’s TVR S2.
Well that’s it. LMC’s sprints at Aintree for 2018 are over, and by 4 o’clock the cars were being put back on their trailers and everyone was going home (or to Longton’s event at Three Sisters) after a great days racing, but don’t worry there’s always LMC’s last Track day on October 6th to look forward to and there’s still time to book your place. (See my photos of this and other Speed events HERE)
Brian Taylor
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint Reports (Part 2)
Aintree : 1st September 2018
A flavour of A Day at the Races Report by SID Calderbank
A cooler day than of late made for more bearable conditions for everyone, drivers, teams, spectators and particularly for me, who, as guest commentator, was kept all day in a glass case by the startline. The club’s marshals and officials were all on time, bright and very well organised and the event started as per programme on the dot of 9.30am with two practice runs for each of the 70 odd competitors.
Sprinting, for those unfamiliar with the sport, is a timed race against the clock around a measured course, in this case using part of the old Formula One Grand Prix circuit at the famous Aintree race course. Competitors set off individually and are timed precisely to hundredths of a second; little changes or small errors during their runs can make a big difference.
It soon became clear to me, leafing through the competitors information sheets, that this was basic, club level motorsport, organised for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts but not exclusive, as witnessed by the large number of first time drivers and marshals that I met during the day. Everyone was intent on having a good, safe, fast days sprinting – and so it proved.
With so many classes available and relatively few entries (there are often well over 100 at LMC’s events), many classes were fought between just 2 or 3 cars but, as you would expect, the road going saloons had the bulk of the field, regularly scoring times around the 50 to 60 second mark and becoming more and more competitive throughout the day. Each entrant was allowed 2 practices and 5 timed runs and it was interesting to watch individual drivers recording improved and then slowing times as they eventually tried too hard and got tired as the day progressed – self control, stamina, rest and experience are as important as a fast car.
The fastest car of the day by miles was John Graham’s 3,500cc Nicholson McLaren engined Gould, an awesome beast which crossed the finish line at something like 175 mph having taken just over 30 seconds to get there! John told me that he regularly brings the car and its pit-crew to Aintree to support Liverpool Motor Club as they are, in his opinion, a great, local, sporting club. The most fun was had among the road registered saloons, some with two drivers sharing the same car to decide last night’s arguments in the bar once and for all.
I’m normally at Aintree for the motorbike races but because of a clash of events in the Northwest car world, I was roped in as an emergency, stand-in, replacement commentator and I’m glad I went – a great day for competitors, spectators and marshals alike. If you’ve ever fancied having a go at motorsport you could do a lot worse than looking up Liverpool Motor Club on the internet – and I’ll see you next time!
As usual, full detailed results are on our results page HERE Sid Calderbank
(Sid helpfully stood in as commentator at this event)
Liverpool Motor Club – Summer Sprint Report
Aintree : 30th June 2018
Record Breakers! Report by Steve Wilkinson
Driving towards Aintree there was nary a cloud in the sky. As I parked up adjacent to my accommodation for the day I was pleased to feel a cooling breeze. A near capacity entry with some interesting cars making their debuts along with the club’s stalwarts indicated another great day of sprinting lay ahead. Replacing April’s Caterham Academy newbies were a mix of novices and old hands in the Lotus 7 Club Championship. In the racing and classic classes there were some serious challengers to class records whilst the outright record could be under threat. The rising temperature may have a bearing.
Kicking off the timed runs were the Standard classes. Colin Duncalf was back with his MG ZR and took a solo win. In the up to 2-litre saloon class it was again a Gorge Clio benefit. Paul again took the class win with his dad Doug second whilst Bob Jones brought his “shopping trolley” Mazda 3 home in third. A couple of the protagonists from Barbon were present for the 2 litre Standard Sports Car class and as at Barbon John Wadsworth took the win from Peter Messer in their MX5s.
In the Up to 2 litre Road-going class 1A Russell Thorpe in Doris (his faithful Renault 5GT Turbo) went one better than in April taking the class win with Nigel Trundle (VW Scirocco) second and Karl Wilson (Renault Clio) third. In Class 1C the current class record holder Andrew Cottrill blasted his Impreza to a new record on his first run but the car gave up the ghost on his second and he retired with the class win. Michael Mitchell and his dad Bill were second and third in their BMW Mini. In Class 1D for the Up to 2 litre sports cars it was a Honda S2000 1-2 with Michael Thornton first and Ray Worrall second. Third went to Phil Howarth in the first of the MX5s.
In 1E for the over 2 litre sports cars Robert Tonge was back with a vengeance. Having set a new class record in April with his Arctic white Audi TT Mk 3 he set about clipping some more time off. On his first run he snipped one hundredth off and then on his second he trimmed a further 0.11 off his ‘new’ record. Could he make it three records in a row? On his third run the launch off the line was near perfect. He was up on the clock at Beechers and then stopped the clocks at 47.81 a further quarter of a second shaved off. It was a superb performance from a talented and determined driver.
Daniel Hollis, who chose to bring his Porsche 911 Carrera S rather than the Caterham, held second place throughout setting his best time on his third run. Paul Collier in his BMW Z4 was third as he held off challenges from Bill Campion (TVR Tasmin) and Emma Williams (Datsun 350Z). In 1F Phil Wood won the Elise battle again with Steve Wilson once more in second.
Into Kit Car territory and with April’s class 2A winner being Porsche mounted at this event, who would step up for the win? Leon Franks led after the first runs in his Striker with Andy Taylor second in his Caterham. Leon failed to improve on his second attempt so had he left the door open? Andy Taylor got a good launch and was closing in however, it all went wrong at Beechers when the car veered offline and Andy became a passenger. Thankfully Andy was OK which is not something you could say about the Caterham! Bill and Carol Stevenson both set PBs as they finished third and fourth in their Westfield. Funnily enough all four runners set their best times on the first timed run. Into Class 2B; once again Nigel Fox was on top throughout in his Caterham and he improved his times on each run. Sean Bourn took second in his Car Craft Cyclone with Richard Houlgate (Westfield) third. Fourth place was taken by Robin Grimwood who was moved into the class with his ‘new’ Ginetta G40 circuit racer. Rob Holt took a solo win in 2D with his supercharged Elise.
In Mod Prods where there was a sparsity of entries. In 3B John Moxham took a solo win in his trusty 205. In 3C Graham and Tracey Kearsley had a newly prepared Impreza and were in Mod Prod for the first time with their ‘new’ car. Graham took the win as Tracey gradually got used to the ‘beast’. In 3E the three entries wilted down to just the one leaving David Welton to take a solo win in his TVR Tasmin. John Loudon’s Westfield was the only runner in 3F yet he still managed to get the motivation to break his old class record on his first run. His second matched the old record and he was inside the old record again on his third attempt. Chris Griffiths took a solo win in 3G with his Millington powered Westie. In 3H all three entrants turned up and it was an interesting battle. Chris Boyd in the Bingley Special (aka a Sylva Riot) led throughout setting his best time on the third run. Harry Moody held second throughout just keeping Mick Dent in third in the battle of the Megabusas.
Into the Racing Car classes; In 5A Chris Jones set the pace in the “Team Chris” Force TA he shares with Chris Bennett. Jones matched his first run time on his third run as he finished 0.37 off the record. Just 0.6 adrift of the Force was Craig Powers who set a new PB on each successive run. Eve Whitehead fought back from fifth to take third place with Daniel Williams in the diminutive Jedi 600 fourth.
Geoff Ward swiftly set the pace again winning the Formula Ford 1600 scrap with Phil Perks in the elderly Royale second and Graham Curwen third in the Van Diemen. The Ibbotsons in Peter’s Sparton were fourth & fifth as Chris just beat his dad to the line.
In Class 5D Glyn Sketchley took a solo win in his turbocharged Force before John Graham rolled up to the line. The Gould driver was aiming to break the class 5E record of 35.82 which is also the outright record. Graham’s first run was superb. Not the fastest launch but he was pinpoint accurate on his lines and set a new PB of 35.94. His second run saw a slightly slower time but this may have been due to him getting a re-run after a timing glitch. So, it was all down to the third and final run after much time had been lost with the Caterham incident. John’s launch was the best of the day and he rocketed into Country Corner however his speedier approach caught him out and a spin exiting the turn meant that he would have to wait until September for another crack at the record!
The Classics then migrated to the line. In the road class (6A) Andrew Webber was determined to take his first Aintree class win in his Elan S2 and posted consecutive PBs, however leading the class after the first set of timed runs was Alan Wilson in the Big Healey. Webber then posted a new PB to go into the lead and was even quicker as he started to dominate proceedings. Pete Flanagan took third in his immaculate Mini on his first competitive sortie at Aintree. In the Racing car class (6B) the usual suspects had a new car joining in. Jonathan Baines had replaced his rapid FF1600 Merlyn with a very smart FF2000 Royale RP30. The young teacher from Millom put in three sub 49 second runs to take the win ahead of Malc Evans (Mallock), Les Procter (Elva) and Edward Lea (Lotus).
We then moved onto the guest championships and first up were the plethora of Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship classes. Richard Abraham, despite a second run aberration, was the class act in Group as he led home Crispin Scott and Ivan Pullen. In Group 2 Paul Collins led throughout with Clive Marsden and Rob Clay in the other ‘podium’ places with the three covered by quarter of a second. Matthew Bramall, Graham Howard and Chris Whitlow completed the top six all within 0.65 seconds! In Group 3 Richard Price emerged victorious after dropping to third place at one stage whilst Robert Jacobs just finished second ahead of Phil Matchwick – again just 0.51 covered the top three. In Group 4 we had just two runners after a couple of no-shows. Michael Cocker just beat Justin Dobson by an amazing 0.09 seconds. Jeremy Davies took a solo win in Group 5 whilst Shaun Elwell took Group 6 ahead of wife Gill. Dave Gemzoe took the final class, Group 7, on a solo run which established the class record!
Next were the MGCC runners; Richard Watkinson’s lightweight Mod Prod Midget took the win with Nick Arnold and Graham Cherry in their ZR160s second and third. Ian “Harry” Howlett was fourth in his MGF and David Coulthard fifth in another ZR160 – 2nd to 5th covered by 1.23 seconds. There were six Morgans next and their battle on scratch times saw Simon Baines lead over the line from Clive Glass however, the class results are based on target times and it was Simon Ashby who beat his Target Time by 0.6 to take the win in his Plus 4 with George Proudfoot in the 1939 Series 1 Flat-Rad beating his Target Time by 0.4.
Just two Triumphs pitched up to contest the Revington TR class and Shaun Roche in his BTCC Replica Dolomite Sprint took the win on his first visit to Aintree with Hamish Roscoe’s 1959 TR3A in second with a new PB. Geoff Mansfield then took a solo win in the Jaguar driver’s club class at the wheel of his lovely Kougar Special.
The final class of Austin 7 Bert Hadley Contenders mustered just three entries. Ian Bennett took the win in his supercharged Seven with a super new PB, Gerald Mullord was second in the Hamblin Cadet bodied Seven and Clive Pearce third in his neat Special constructed from mainly 1936 bits and bobs!
Despite the Outright Record staying intact there were three new class records (one of them broken three times!) plus 84 drivers set new Personal Bests. Despite ‘losing’ a run the event was again well organised and a huge thank you has to go to the marshals who were out there in the blazing sun all day!
Will the record stay intact on September 1st? It may well depend on the weather but I’m sure we will have another cracking event for all concerned.
Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
As usual, full detailed results are on our results page HERE
Lots of photos are already on our Facebook Page, and a full gallery at White Dog Photography
Liverpool Motor Club – Spring Sprint Report
Aintree : 28th April 2018
Graham Conquers His Bogey Report by Steve Wilkinson
As I arrived at Aintree it looked like a glorious day, the sun was shining but as I got out of the car an Arctic blast sent shivers down my spine. As in past years there was an excellent entry with 142 drivers anticipated to take to the track. However, with withdrawals, non-starters and mechanical mayhem in practice, this figure was eventually reduced to 133 for the competitive runs. Several drivers were in ‘new’ cars whilst there were a couple of brand new cars present, as well as the 55 Caterham Academy newbies none of whom had ever competed in 4 wheeled motorsport until today. It was also good to see some ‘old-timers’ back on track as well as two healthy Classic classes.
Kicking off the timed runs was the Standard 2 litre class. Once again it was the Gorge family, son and father, who dominated proceedings and class record holder Paul took the win ahead of father Doug with David Goodlad making it a Clio 1-2-3. In the Up to 2 litre Road-going class Ian Butcher took the win in his Integra despite hitting the rev limiter on Railway Straight on each run! Second went to Russell Thorpe in his faithful Doris (Renault 5GT Turbo) whilst Keith Minshull (Peugeot 306 Ralleye) took third despite depositing all his oil in the engine bay on his second run which was only 0.52 seconds slower than his first run PB. In Class 1C Keith Foster only took one run in the turbo diesel BMW 335D but it was good enough for the win ahead of Colin Smith in his ‘standard’ Ford Fiesta ST. In Class 1D for the Up to 2 litre sports cars it was a Honda S2000 1-2-3 as Martin Rowe led home Michael Thomson and Raymond Worrall as a fleet of MX5s did battle for fourth. In 1E for the over 2 litre sports cars Robert Tongue was back with a roof over his head. His Arctic white Audi TT Mk 3 led throughout and, on his second run, he broke the 2014 record. Aaron Perrot in his battle-scarred Aston Martin Vantage took second with Paul Trill in the shrill RX7 third. The battle for Elise honours in Class 1E looked destined for Phillip Wood until Steve Wilson snatched the win on his fourth run.
Into the Kit Cars and in the Up to 1700 Class 2A Martin Walker, who delighted in filling the commentary box with tyre smoke, took the win in his Toyota powered Westfield after battling back from second relegating Dan Hollis in the ex-Caterham Academy car in the process. Third went to another Harewood refugee in the lanky form of Leon Franks on his first visit to Aintree in his Striker. Class 2B saw Nigel Fox take a solo win in his Caterham before we moved onto the Mod Prod classes.
There was another solo win in Class 3B for the ‘veteran racer’ John Moxham in his trusty 205 before we moved onto Class 3E. There Robbie Birrell in his raucous Lotus Exige V6 Cup led throughout and he twice broke the class record that dated back to 2010, with David Welton’s throaty TVR Tasmin taking second. Phil Day then took a solo win in Class 3G in his Duratec powered Locost. In the only Sports Libre class (4A for the up to 2 litres) we had a trio of disparate race cars. Jae Davies was third in his re-engine Peugeot 205, Jon Woolfit took second in his turbocharged Hayabusa powered MK Indy kit car complete with massive rear wing whilst the class went to Paul Woolfit who has replaced his spaceframe Mini with a turbocharged Hayabusa powered Lotus Exige.
Into the Racing Car classes and a very healthy Class 5A (10 entries) included Craig Powers & Eve Whitehead in Craig’s OMS 2000M which has been “resting” for three years. We also had no less than four entries which utilised 600cc engines (all in Jedi!) which begs the question why don’t we have a class for these tiny terrors? Robert Bailey in the family Empire EVO 2 led throughout whilst Craig Powers just held Eve Whitehead at bay for second despite, or maybe because, of losing his gloves! The battling Jedi 600s saw Monoposto racer Roger Wright take the ‘win’ ahead of Daniel Williams and Tomos Brogden both of whom were making their single seater debuts.
The four car Formula Ford class saw the “Usual Suspects” doing battle and once again Geoff Ward emerged victorious as Graham Curwen, Phil Perks and Peter Ibbotson gave chase; nobody got particularly close to their PBs but Ward was the nearest. In Class 5C Steve Brown took the win in his ex-circuit racing JKS whilst Chris Thomas in the ex-Mark Dalton OMS 2000M was second and Jim MacDiarmid third in the ex-Gary Thomas Force PC as both made their debuts in “new” cars.
In Class 5D Steve Miles dominated in his uprated Van Diemen (it started life as a Formula Ford!) The car now sports an SBD tuned Duratec, a sequential Hewland gearbox and fully carbon fibre bodywork and wings. James Wilkinson took second in his Formula Vauxhall Lotus. In Class 5E Graham Blackwell was a tad outgunned in his Mygale G18 EcoBoost ex-Formula Ford circuit racer. Up front John Graham led throughout and on his last two runs finally broke his previous best time from 2 years ago.
The two Classic classes were next and in Road-Going it was Alan Wilson in his Big Healey that was the runaway leader from the first. Peter Garforth of Wigton Motor Club took second in his 1977 Skoda Estelle (aka Snotty) whilst Paul Boscott was a close third in his Lotus Elan +2. In the Racing Car class Malcolm Evans was top dog in practice however, on his first timed run his overly enthusiastic start broke a driveshaft and the cheery Mallock-man was out as he had no spare. This left the door wide open and Les Procter sped through to take the win in his lovely Elva Mk 7 Twin Cam with the similar car of Rod Stansfield third, and the pair split by Liverpool Motor Club’s Edward Lea in his trusty Lotus 61 FF1600.
Next were the Aston Martin Owners Club Speed Series contenders and Tom Whittaker looked to be cruising to a steady win until on his fourth run he pulled his finger out! He carved over 4 tenths off his own class record and was pleased as punch at the prize-giving. In second was Peter House in his very un-Aston looking VW Beetle Rsi whilst the brutal Vantage S V12 of Neil Simms took third.
The final two classes were for the Caterham Academy ‘classes’. In the “Green Group” the initial leaders, Ben Buckley and Tom Brown, would slowly fall back down the order. Greg Smith took the lead on the second run with Buckley second. On the third run Andrew Murgatroyd took the lead before there was a massive shuffle round on the fourth run. Ben Lopez Appleton just shaded out Murgatroyd meanwhile Stuart Bell climbed up to third. The top three were each split aby 0.01 seconds and with fourth to eighth covered by just a further 0.33 seconds it was definitely tight at the top.
In the Caterham “White Group” Gregory Monks led after the first run with Dan Piper just a whisker away in second and Chris Moore third. After the second runs the order was the same but they were now covered by 0.03 seconds. They again ‘held station’ on the third run but the decisive fourth run saw Dan Piper take first with Monks second and Moore in third, the spread between the three being 0.07 seconds.
As the fourth runs concluded there was rain in the air and the Liverpool Motor Club team worked feverishly to clear-up before the deluge arrived. With 771 starts in the day (two practice runs and four timed runs) the organisers again excelled and the event couldn’t have been any better – unlike the weather which was very un-spring-like! Steve Wilkinson www.facebook.com/Sprinty
Full detailed results are on our results page HERE
Lots of photos are already on our Facebook Page, and a full gallery at White Dog Photography
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint Report
Aintree : 2nd September 2017
Graham scores again! Report by Brian Taylor
Liverpool Motor Club held their final Aintree sprint of 2017 on 2nd September which counted towards Liverpool Motor Club speed, ANWCC sprint, Auto66 Northern Counties speed hill climb and sprint, Longton’s Northern speed, SD34 sprint & hill climb, BARC SBD speed, and the Cross Border speed championships.
Although the entries were somewhat down on previous events, this didn’t stop the LMC team putting on another professional, well run event. The weather was cloudy with sunny spells, but more importantly it did not rain and at times was actually quite warm.
The first of the two practice and six timed runs got underway on Aintree’s 1.5 mile Club circuit with class SA, (road-going production standard saloons up to 1400cc) with Chris Smith’s MG ZR winning the class in a time of 60.93 beating his 2015 class record ahead of Tomos Brogden 70.05 and Peter Brogden 71.68 sharing the same Fiat Seicento. The larger engined standard saloons (1400 to 2000cc) Class SB went next. Paul Gorge in his Renault Clio Sport 172 put in a time of 54.62, not quick enough to beat his record of 54.23 set in April this year but quick enough to give him the class win over Colin Smith’s 55.35 in another Renault Clio 172.
Class 1A (road-going saloon cars up to 1400cc) was supported by David Taylor in his well turned out 1380cc Morris Mini Cooper S, who set the class record of 56.96 in 2015 and with no class competition his slightly slower time of 57.08 gave him class honours.
In Class 1B (road-going production cars 1400cc to 2000cc) the winner was Russell Thorpe driving Doris, his turbocharged Renault 5GT completing his fastest run in 52.72. Keith Minshull’s Peugeot 306 Rallye time of 54.49 gave him second spot. Keith Foster’s time of 53,11 in a 3 Litre BMW M3 had the fastest run in class 1C (road going cars over 2000cc).
Classes 1D and 1E for road-going 2&4 seater sports cars saw class wins for Peter Brown in class 1D cars up 2000cc with a time of 57.46 while in the over 2000cc class, Robin Grimwood’s time of 50.80 in his 3.4 Ltr Porsche Cayman S took 1E. Class 1F road-going production saloons not eligible for any other class had one entry, the Seat Leon Cupra 280 of Gordon Hick achieving a time of 55.63. The three cars in class 1G road going Lotus Elise and other non ferrous chassis construction cars up to 2200cc, were all Lotus Elises; Elen Worthington from Llanelli came out best setting a new record time of 50.88, with Steve Wilson 2nd with 55.42 and Philip Wood 3rd with 55.73.
Road going kit cars with car engines up to 1700cc Class 2A and engines over 1700cc Class 2B saw class wins for Martin Walker’s Westfield time of 50.90 in class 2A and Nigel Fox’s Caterham time of 48.48 in class 2B
In Class 3B (Modified production saloons 1400cc to 2000cc), the top two drivers were Paul Nutter 49.56 and Carl Austin 49.75 driving the same blisteringly quick Mk2 Ford Escort 1300cc Turbo putting Andy Larton’s Peugeot 106 into 3rd spot with a respectable time of 49.97, Class 3C (over 2000cc Modified production cars) was won by James Hunt with a time of 52.32 in a 2.5Ltr BMW E30. The familiar 5Ltr TVR Tasmin of David Welton was the only entrant in Class 3E (Modified 2&4 seater production sports cars over 2000cc) and put in a time of 53.95. Class 3G (Modified kit and replica cars over 1700cc car engines) saw Graham Denholm ‘s time of 48.58 in his Caterham 7 marginally quicker than the 48.78 put in by Phil Day’s Locost 7 while Chris Boyd took class 3H (motorcycle engined Modified kit cars) in his Sylva Riot Bingley Special with a time of 45.79.
Martin Chittenden’s Pulsar 910 was the only entry in Class 4A (Sports Libre and Hill Climb super sports cars up to 2000cc) and he achieved a time of 54.46.
Classes 5A, 5B, 5C and 5E were for racing cars; Eve Whitehead won 5A (racing cars up to 1100cc) in her RBS8 with a time of 44.89, 5B formula Ford honours went to Geoff Ward in his Swift SC93F in a time of 50.19, Class 5C (racing cars over1600cc up to 2000cc) had Ray Stockton’s Van Diemen Formula Vauxhall Junior put in a time of 59.00. Class 5E (racing cars over 2000cc) only had one question to answer, would Windermere’s John Graham, fresh from coming 3rd in the MSA British Sprint Championship in his Gould GR55B, smash the very quick outright sprint record of 35.82, that’s an average speed of 115.27 mph, set by Nick Algar in a Gould GR55 on 26th June 2010. As it turned out Nick Alger’s record is safe for a while longer, John’s best time was 36.62 still the fastest time of the day. Graham Blackwell was in second spot with a time of 42.99 driving his Mygale Ecoboost G17 single seater.
The Final two Classes were classic cars. In class 6B (classic racing cars built before 1st January 1986), Les Proctor was the class winner with a time of 53.52 in a Elva Mk7 but in my opinion the star of this group was Norman Tidd’s 89 years old 1928 Austin 12/4 tourer which got round the 1.50 mile sprint circuit in 89.35 secs.
Class 6A (classic road going cars and sports cars manufactured before 1987) saw Alan Wilson’s Austin Healey 3000 get round in 54.71 to win the class, with David Smithies NSU Prinz second with 63.34, the Vauxhall engined Mk2 Ford Escort 2000 of Sean Bramhall suffered a broken half shaft on the line and was a non starter.
“Only” 528 starts during the day, but when a 7th run was offered virtually everyone declined – probably because they were running short of fuel!
It had been another great LMC event at Aintree.
There are lots of photos of the event at
www.whitedogphotography.co.uk
www.iphotix.com/motorsport
Liverpool Motor Club – Summer Sprint Report
Aintree : 24th June 2017
Graham’s FTD Report & photos by Steve Wilkinson
With a pretty poor weather forecast ringing in my ears I set off to Aintree under grey clouds and fearing the worst. However, things were not as bad as forecast and we even saw blue skies and sunshine. There was a good entry, however we again had several no shows, withdrawals etc leaving 131 runners.
Kicking off the timed runs were two Standard Car classes. In the Up to 1400 class the class record holder Chris Smith led throughout whilst both the Brogden’s (Fiat Seicento) set personal bests in their pursuit of the fleet MGZR. In the two-litre division class record holder Paul Gorge had a Flymo moment at Beechers on his first run but recovered to take the win with Colin Smith second and Doug Gorge third, each in a Clio.
It was then the turn of the modified Road Going classes. In the 1400 class David Taylor in his Morris Mini Cooper S took the win. In the two-litre class Nigel Trundle (VW Scirocco) fought back from second spot on the first run to take the win from Keith Minshull (Pug 306) and John Earley (Clios). Class 1D was a Mazda MX5 field trip. David Brown led throughout with Peter Brown and Phil Howarth equally comfortable in second and third. In 1E we ‘lost’ Aaron Perrot in his Aston Martin Vantage when the car broke down en route. Robin Grimwood (Porsche Cayman) was the class act leading from run one and finishing well clear of Heath Briggs (TVR Chimera) and Andy Williams (Saab 9-3 Viggen Convertible). Phillip Wood took the class win in 1G for the Elise cars but was pressured all the way by Steve Wilson.
In 2A for the up to 1700 Kit Cars the tyre smoking Martin Walker took the win in his Toyota powered Westfield whilst Bill and Carol Stevenson were second and third in their Crossflow powered Westie. In 2B Nigel Fox took a solo win.
Into the Modified classes and it was kicked off by the 3B two-litre runners. Andy Larton led throughout in his 106 but just couldn’t break the 50 second barrier, meanwhile Ian Johnson in his Polo came home second 2.2 seconds in arrears. In 3C Andy Davies took the win in his experienced BMW M3 whilst Stephen Norton and Colin Duncalf battled for second in their shared turbo diesel MG ZS. In 3E Paul Trill’s shrill Mazda RX7 took the win with Emma Williams second in the Nissan 350Z ahead of co-driver Lee Scragg. In 3G for Kit Cars with car engines the Dynamic Duo reigned supreme. Garry Bunn and Derek Hodder, fresh from their trip to Le Mans, were 1-2 separated by just 0.04 of a second. John Hoyle, who only took two runs, came in third ahead of Chris Griffiths and Graham Frankland in a Westfield clean sweep. In 3H for the motorcycle engine powered Kit Cars I predicted a Riot. Chris Boyd with the Busa powered Sylva took the win with Bob Bellerby second in his Yamaha R1 powered machine.
Into Sports Libre and in 4A David Large took a solo win in his Radical PR6. In 4B Robert Tonge in his Radical SR8 took a solo win breaking the class record that had stood for nearly 5 years after David Marshall’s Gardner Douglas Lola T70 replica expired during practice.
Into the Racing Car classes and in the 1100s there were just two runners. Ray Forward had his Mk 6 Jedi which he normally circuit races in a faux Ferrari livery and went faster on each successive run however it wasn’t enough as Aintree regular Eve Whitehead was on fine form. Eve lowered her PB and won the class by well over a second in RBS8, a fitting tribute to her late father. Just 4 Formula Fords were entered and despite the normal depth of the class the competition was tight with the top three covered by less than a second. Geoff Ward once again won whilst Keith Rogers and Phil Perks took second and third ahead of Graham Curwen. The 1600 class was somewhat lopsided; Colin Birkbeck in his turbocharged Force PT took the win well clear of Ray Stockton who did set a new PB in the process. Glyn Sketchley took a solo win in the two-litre class with his turbocharged Force PT although on his third run the boosted Busa engine started to sound very rough and he called it a day. In the unlimited class John Graham was still not 100% at home with the uprated Gould however he did take the class win and set FTD in the process, just over a second outside the outright circuit record. Graham Blackwell set a PB and also finished as fourth fastest overall in his Mygale EcoBoost despite a second run hiccup when the car swerved to the right at the 64-foot timing line.
Next it was time for the Classics and a smaller than usual entry in both classes was disappointing. In the Road class Alan Wilson (Healey 3000) again took the win finishing ahead of Simon Cooper (Anglia) and Trevor Jackson (Mini). In the Racing class Malcolm Evans (Mallock) took the win whilst Rod Stansfield (Elva) set a PB in second and the Vintage boys were third and fourth.
Then it was the turn of the Invitation Classes. Just four of the Reliants turned up, all powered by the Nissan 1.8 Turbo engine. Stephen and Josh Oakes only took two runs apiece in Josh’s everyday car which left Stephen Cork to take the class win ahead of Josh and then Stephen with Peter Smith fourth.
In the Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship classes there were some close battles. In Class One Paul Boston took the win but was hounded all the way by Clive Marsden. In Class 2 Paul Collins just kept ahead of Graham Howard who recovered to second after Richard Abraham had pushed him to third on the second run. In Class 3 Richard Price, Michael Calvert and Phillip Matchwick were covered by just 0.20 of a second after the first runs before Price eked out his lead on the fourth and final run. In Class 4 Phil Cook took the win well clear of Jon Davies and Charlotte Johnston before John Caldicott took a solo win in Class 5. With the husband and wife team of Shaun and Gill Elwell moving up to Class 6 the outcome would be interesting; Shaun took the win with Graham Denholm second and Gill third and closing.
Into the Luffield MG Car Club class and the 10 entries had four shared drives so they got a tad mixed up with the subsequent classes. Emerging from the ‘chaos’ came Andrew Wolf in his racing MG Midget whilst Nick Arnold and Graham Cherry in their shared MG ZR160 were second and third, all three covered by just 0.17 of a second. Worth noting the whole of the class was covered by just 3.4 seconds!
The Morgan Sports Car Club were next and on Scratch and handicap Simon Baines took the win with a new class record, in fact he broke his old record twice. Second on handicap was Paul Clarke and third the highly successful John Stephens who matched his handicap to the hundredth of a second!
Just Two Triumphs turned up for the Revington TR Register class and it was the elderly TR3A of Hamish Roscoe that took the win ahead of the TR6 of Martin Paine. In the Jaguar Drivers Club class Jim Scarratt in the supercharged XKR led after the first run although Anthony Taylor was handicapped when the bonnet of the Aristocat XK120 Replica flew off. Taylor then took the lead on his second run thanks to copious amounts of tank-tape which held firm through runs three and four!
The TVR Car Club contenders were next and it was David Barrowclough who took the win leading throughout. Richard Bream took second and Jo Briars third in a Chimera clean sweep. The final class was for the Pre-War Austin Sevens in the Bert Hadley Memorial Championship. The Road and Racing cars were combined and it was Paul Geering in the racing Pigsty Special who took the win with Gerald Mullord second in his Hamblin Special.
Once again Liverpool Motor Club had excelled giving their entrants two practice and four timed runs all of which was concluded before 4.30pm and, despite the forecast, not a drop of rain! As always a huge thanks to all the marshals and ‘behind the scenes’ volunteers who made this possible.
Full detailed results are on our results page HERE
Lots of photos are already on our Facebook Page, and a full gallery at White Dog Photography and iPhotix
Liverpool Motor Club – Spring Sprint Report
Aintree : 22nd April 2017
Graham’s Learning Curve Report & photos by Steve Wilkinson
As I drove towards the Aintree track the sky was solid blue but as I alighted on Sefton Straight the biting wind almost cut me in two. It was a beautifully sunny day, but in that wind, bitterly cold.
There was a full entry list of 149 drivers, however with withdrawals, non-starters and mechanical mayhem in practice, this reduced to 134 starters. There were some new cars, some old favourites and some changes to familiar cars, so the event looked tantalising.
Kicking off the timed runs was the single merged Standard class. Paul Gorge, who already held the class record, lowered his PB on each of his first three runs leaving the Class Record at 54.23 (which would have even seen him placed second had he been in Road-going class 1B) whilst his father Doug finished second and Colin Smith made it a Clio 1-2-3.
In the up to 2 litre merged 1A & 1B Road-going class the Thorntons with their Honda Integra were the ones to beat. Alex took the class win with his father Michael in third. Russell Thorpe, who was a tad late arriving due to problems with his car on the way to the venue, managed just one practice run and slipped through to snatch second.
In the Road Going up to 2 litre Sports car class it was a Mazda MX5-fest. Ken Morris took the win with David Brown just two hundredths slower in second. In the Over 2 litre sports cars Gordon Peters again proved the one to beat and the vastly experienced multiple NSCC champion took a comfortable win. Philip Wood took a solo win in the Elise class before the Kit Cars came to the line. In class 2A Martin Walker’s extravagant tyre-warming regime, which shrouded the Commentary Box in acrid tyre smoke, paid dividends as he took the ex-Martin Hepworth Westfield to the class win. Second Place went to Andrew McKay in his former Caterham Academy car. In 2B the Mugglestones ruled supreme with their Duratec powered RAW Fulcrum; Alan led throughout as son Nick rode shot-gun in second.
Into Mod Prod and in the merged Tin-top class Andy Larton (1600cc Peugeot 106) finished 0.68 ahead of Gavin Neate in his 1360cc version! In the Sportscar class Paul Trill, a transferee from Road-going (tyres!), took the win in the shrill Mazda RX7 with David Welton’s TVR second. In the merged Kit Car class John Loudon in the Puma powered Westfield cruised to the win with Chris Boyd in the Riot second. Next were Sports Libres running in a single merged class and it was David Large in the Radical PR6 that took the win from James Davies’ re-engined Peugeot 205.
In the Racing Car class, attrition during practice was also detrimental as Stuart Bickley took a solo win in the 1100 class. And all three of the runners in the 1600 class hit trouble however Steve Brown, who managed two runs, took the win in his ‘new’ JKS JR01, an ex Monoposto Championship winning car (below). 
Gary Thomas and Nick Scott shared suspension components so that they could each do one run and they finished second and third. The Formula Fords however were as reliable as usual. Geoff Ward continued his stranglehold on the class taking the win with Graham Curwen second and Phil Perks in the elderly Royale third. Over the winter John Graham had upgraded the engine in the Gould swapping his 2.8 unit for a ‘full house’ 3.5 litre; although his times were down on his previous best due to having a smaller rear wing, no traction control and a huge chunk of extra torque, he annexed FTD.
Into the two Classic Classes and the nostalgia buffs were in seventh heaven. In the Road Car class Alan Wilson returned with his big Healey and despite lots of black smoke during practice he cruised to a comfortable win ahead of Paul Boscott’s ex Tarmac Rallying Lotus Elan Plus 2 and the now fully refurbished NSU Prinz of David Smithies. In the Racing Car class the sight of two Elva Mk 7 Twin Cams was a delight but it was Malcolm Evans rapid Mallock that took the class win with Les Procter and Rod Stansfield second and third in the Elvas.
Jeff Allan returned to Aintree with his new Electrical car a Nissan Leaf and he reset his own class record on each run eventually chopping over 6 seconds off his previous best. The Aston Martin Owners Club boys were next and class record holder Tom Whittaker again proved unstoppable in his Aston Martin GT4 as he twice lowered his own record. Peter House in his VW Beetle RSi, a sort of Herbie on steroids, was second with Tony Morgan’s DB7 Vantage third. My personal favourite Aston Martin, a lovely DB2/4 in the hands of Iain Muir, purred round looking and sounding great may have finished down the order but it was the one car I would have loved to have been driving back home.
For once the Reliant Sabre and Scimitar Owners Club only managed to muster two entries and the Oakes family Scimitar SS1 cruised home with double RSSOC Champion Joshua taking the win.
The final two classes were for the new intake of Caterham Academy drivers in their Ford Sigma powered pocket rockets. In the Green Group, it was Daniel French who led throughout. Graham McDonald fought through to take second whilst James Murphy was relegated to third on the third and decisive runs. In the White Group, there was a battle royal. On the third runs Daniel Halstead slipped through into the lead as he equalled the class record and then on the fourth run Andy Morgan regained his lead breaking the class record and taking the win by six hundredths. Tom Gensinger held third throughout although he wasn’t able to better his first run time.
After a superb day of sprinting CofC John Harden on his introduction to the prize giving announced that the LMC Start Line Crew had managed a staggering number of starts during the day – a total of 784. Once again, the club had run a super-efficient meeting and provided the competitors with incredible value for money motor sport. I am already looking forward to the June event
Full detailed results are on our results page HERE
Lots of photos are already on our Facebook Page, and a full gallery at White Dog Photography and iPhotix
Liverpool Motor Club – Autumn Sprint Report
Aintree : 3rd September 2016
John GRAHAM takes FTD on a miserably wet day! Report by John Harden
Oh dear…. what an incredibly disappointing day at Aintree today. Unfortunately, the weather was almost exactly as the weather man forecast, dry at 7.30am, wet by 9.30, heavy rain by midday, and fine by 6pm.
It was so frustrating to have to halt the event because of the water streaming across the circuit, but it simply wasn’t safe. We tried hard, physically hard, to stop the water flowing onto the circuit by digging channels to divert water onto the surrounding scenery, but eventually even that became so waterlogged that it would take no more.
We are particularly grateful for the many expressions of support for our attempts to keep the meeting running but unfortunately we were beaten by the weather and for the first time I can remember we ended up abandoning the event early in the afternoon and declaring the results final after the first timed run.
It was an incredible shame to have to abandon the event, and the Club thanks the many competitors who had travelled substantial distances to take part – the conditions were certainly not what we usually see at Aintree – and we hope we shall see you back at the Circuit next year.
Thanks have to go the marshals who valiantly stood out in all that rain.
Full results are available on our results page here
Liverpool Motor Club – Summer Sprint Report
Aintree : 23rd April 2016
GRAHAM sets the pace – again! Report & Photos by Steve Wilkinson
In near perfect conditions Liverpool Motor Club ran the second Aintree sprint of the season. FTD once again was set by John Graham in the Gould GR55B in which he leads the 2015 British Sprint Championship. The track was in better condition than in April, right from the off, and once again records were rewritten.
Clios to the fore in the 2 litre Standard Saloon class as Paul Gorge took the win with his father Doug in second and Colin Duncalf third with all three Clios covered by 3 seconds. John Earley (Clio) cruised to victory in the 2 litre Road-going class with Alan Sawyer (Impreza) taking a similarly comfortable win in the over 2 litre class. In the 2 litre Sports Road-going calss Roger Fish (Honda S2000) lowered his class record as Martin Rowe finished a comfortable second in his similar car. In the Over 2 litre Sports class Aaron Perrot took the win in his 4.3 litre Aston Martin Vantage setting a new PB in the process, in fact all the runners in this class set new PBs. Paul Bond, making a welcome return to Aintree, took the Elise class at a canter before we moved into Kit Car territory. In 2A Bill Stevenson (Westfield) took the win with wife Carol second in the shared car. In 2B Nigel Fox led throughout in his Caterham with Stephen Everall (Westfield) second and Sean Bourn (Carcraft Cyclone) third.
Into Mod Prods and woth two Minis in the 1400 division Roy ‘Bod’ Bolderson put in four consistent runs to hold the lead throughout as the Makinson’s battled over second – son Paul emerged victorious over Willy. In the 2000 Division Andy Larton continued to dominate in the “new build” Pug 106. Stuart Tranter was back again this time in a Clio and finished second with William Jarman, now running a smart Honda Integra R with Angela Jones, third just ahead of the perennial John Moxham in the 205. David Welton took the combined Sports class in his five litre TVR Tasmin ahead of a spiritedly driven Porsche 924 2 litre with young Chris Baines at the wheel.
Into the Modified Kit Cars and in the combined Car Engined class there was a new class record. John Loudon (Westfield) broke his old record shaving 0.53 off his old mark. However, the class win went to Gary Bunn (Westfield) with co-driver and car owner Derek Hodder second. In the Motorcycle Engined class Terry Everall (Westfield Megablade) led until the fourth run when Chris Boyd in the Sylva Riot pipped him by less than a tenth.
In the Up to 2000 Sports Libre class Paul Woolfit in the Z Cars Mini took the win with Chris Thomas (OMS SC1) and Steve Brennan (Radical Clubsport) in the places. A ‘new’ car was out for the first time at Aintree, Chris Child had a nifty Mini Countryman Estate with Honda engine in the back and Tim slowly got the hang of the wee beastie. In the Over 2000 class Robert Tonge slam-dunked the win with the Radical SR8 as Andrew Jackson set a new PB coming home in second with the Reliant Kitten Honda.
Into Racing Cars and a thinly supported 1100 class went to Eve Whitehead in RBS8. Once again the resurgent Classic Formula Ford 1600 class didn’t disappoint. With six entries and some close battles it was edge of the seat time. Only two drivers failed to set new PBs and the class winner Geoff Ward (Swift) went sub-50 for the first time on his first timed run. However, he couldn’t improve and Jonathan Baines in the elderly Merlyn lowered his PB twice as he closed in for second. Third was Phil Perks in the venerable Royale whilst Peter Ibbotson was fourth in the Sparton. Ray Stockton took a solo win in the 1600 Racing Car class crushing his previous PB in the process in his Van Diemen Vauxhall Jnr. In the Over 2 litre class John Graham hammered his way to FTD and a new PB going sub-37 secs for the first time.
Into the Classics; Trevor Jackson in the Road class started practice with some opposition but for the timed runs he was solo in the supercharged Mini in his first outing with the new car since his 2013 shunt at Bo’ness. In the Racing Car class Peter Brogden in the F3 March ruled the roost with Malcolm Evans in the indecently quick Mallock second. The best sight of the day was two Elva Mk 7 Twin Cams lining up to take their runs; Les Procter finished third and Rod Stansfield fourth whilst Geoff Purnell in the lovely pre-War Singer Special had to retire with engine trouble after just one slow run.
Next on track were the Premier Power Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship classes. In Class 1 Rover power prevailed when Paul Boston won again with Clive Marsden second. In Class 2 Mike Cocker set a new class record en route to victory in his Sigma powered 7 whilst Andrew Willoughby was second just 0.01 ahead of Roger Cumming. Class 3 went to Matthew Jenkins but just 0.04 from Richard Price with Michael Calvert a further 1.01 behind in third. Phil Cook took a solo win in Class 4 and in Class 6 Shaun Elwell took the win with wife Gill second.
Just 9 drivers contested the Luffield Cars MG Car Club Speed Championship class. Richard Watkinson took the win in his Mod Prod Midget with David Coulthard (ZR160) second despite brake failure on his second run and Graham Cherry, also in a ZR160, third. Next were the Morgans and again a small entry pitched up with just 7 cars and drivers. Simon Baines dominated in his V6 Roadster breaking his own class record twice. However, in the Morgan Championship the cars are handicapped based on power, weight etc. Therefore, taking the pot home for the win was Rob Toon in his Plus 8 with Baines second and Clive Hall (Plus 4) third.
Then it was the turn of the diminutive Austin Sevens of the Bert Hadley Memorial Championship. Top Road car was Alister Frayling-Cork in his 1931 Special who got to within half a second of the Road Car record. The Top Track car was Paul Geering in the Pigsty Special who ended up 1.7 shy of the record.
The penultimate class was for the Reliant Sabre & Scimitar Owners Club Championship. Craig ‘Batman’ Hughes broke the class record twice as he rocketed to victory whilst co-driver Ben Gough was also inside Hughes’ old record in second. Josh Oakes completed the clean sweep for the Sabre SS1s when he finished third after demoting Steven Louch in the GTE.
The final class was for the Revington TR Register Championship runners. With just three runners victory went to the hard driving Robert Barnard in the TR4 with championship sponsor Neil Revington in his lovely TR2 second and Martin Paine third in the TR6.
The two man startline crew again excelled with well over 780 starts and a thoroughly delighted set of drivers will hopefully be back soon to Aintree.
Full results are available on our results page here
Liverpool Motor Club, Spring Sprint Report
Aintree : 23rd April 2016
GRAHAM gets it done! Report by Steve Wilkinson
Under a cloudless sky the super-efficient Liverpool Motor Club ran their first Aintree sprint of the season. FTD went to John Graham in the Gould GR55B with which he finished third in the 2015 British Sprint Championship. The track was extremely dusty but this did not preclude record-breaking.
In the Standard Saloon classes Paul Gorge reset his 2 litre record on his first run with in the Clio. James Kerr grabbed the 1B class win whilst in the Sports car equivalent Roger Fish dominated. Ian Butcher set a new record for none List 1A shod saloons. In Mod Prod the star act was John Loudon who set a new record on his first visit to Aintree with the now slick-shod Westfield 1700 in fact all three of his runs were inside the old record. Two healthy Sports Libre classes saw victories for Radical driver Robbie Birrell and Paul Horrox in his Juno. Eve Whitehead took the 1100 Racing Car class in RBS8 despite “playing with the aerodynamics”. A hotly contested FF1600 class went to Geoff Ward who set a PB in his Swift. Les Procter was back with his ‘new’ Elva Mk 7 but was outgunned by Peter Brogden’s March 733. The final record went to James Beardwell in his Caterham 7 Academy.
Despite the slick running and machine-gun efficiency of LMC’s startline crew they “only” managed two practice and three timed runs for the sell-out entry due to the number of incidents and a greater than average number of re-runs as a consequence. However, they did achieve 702 starts in the day!
Detailed results for this and previous Liverpool Motor Club events are available on the LMC website: www.liverpoolmotorclub.com.
Liverpool Motor Club, Autumn Sprint Report
Aintree : 5th September 2015
9 Class Records Tumble at the Aintree Autumn Sprint Report by John Harden
Liverpool Motor Club hosted yet another highly competitive sprint at Aintree on 5th September when the 99 competitors who took part had the opportunity of two practice runs and 5 competitive runs. LMC has become synonymous with slick organisation and, coupled with very few incidents, this made for a great day’s motor sport. Without the usual headwind on Railway Straight, no fewer than 9 class records were broken to give an exciting end to the 2015 Aintree season, and an appropriate end to a year that marked the 60th anniversary of the venue hosting the first of its 5 Grand Prix race meetings.
So how did everyone get on?
In the Standard classes (SA & SB) there were wins for Chris Smith (1.4 MG ZR) and Paul Gorge (1.9 Clio) each of whom set new class records.
In Roadgoing Saloons David Taylor (Morris Mini Cooper S) lowered his 1400 (1A) class record yet again, though he was by himself in his class this time out. St Annes GP, Russell Thorpe (Renault 5GT Turbo) took a comfortable win in the up to 2 litre (1B) division when the opposition melted away due to mechanical problems and Andrew Cottrill (Impreza) won the over two litre (1C) class and set a new class record despite only taking two competitive runs.
It was good to see eleven cars in the well supported up to 2000cc Sports car class (1D) where Blackpool’s Roger Fish knocked over a second off his previous class record to win from fellow Honda S2000 competitor Martin Rowe from Southport, whilst Gordon Peters (Nissan 350Z GT) took the over 2 litre class (1E) from the mighty TVR Chimaera of SD34 front runner Duncan Woodcock in his first season back from a 35 year absence from motorsport.
The Elise class (1G) went to Elen Worthington who knocked nearly 2 seconds off the previous class record. In the kit car classes. John Loudon (Westfield SE) won the under 1700 class (2A) in a time that was just 3 tenths off the record he set in June, whilst Chris Howard Harris kept Nigel Fox at bay in the over 1700s (class 2B), both driving Caterhams.
Then it was the turn of the Mod Prod cars – a well supported up to 2 litre class (3B) saw another win by Settle’s Richard Hargreaves in his immaculate Mk 2 Escort from championship sponsor Phil Caza’s similarly neat Clio Cup and Aintree regular John Moxham (Peugeot 205). In the over 2 litre class (3C) Rob Wakelin had dusted off his Impreza after a 3 year sabbatical and absolutely annihilated the class record, taking 2.63 secs off the record that has stood since 2009.
Classes 3E & 3G had just one competitor each, so we move on to the under 1700 Libre class (4A), where Robbie Birrell from Ramsbottom just squeezed in with a new class record in his Radical Prosport, whilst the over 1700 class (4B) was won by James Davies (Peugeot 205 Mi16).
In the racing car classes, Bradley Dickerson (Jedi) took the 1100 single seater class (5A) from Eve Whitehead (RBS8) whilst Tarleton resident Jonathan Townsley (Van Diemen RF90) took the honours in the pre 1994 FF1600 class (5B) from long standing Pilling based competitor Graham Curwen’s RF91.
In the 1100-1600 class (5C) Gary Thomas (Force PC) took the honours and Steve Miles (RF96) won the 1600-2000 class (5E) with a new class record. Then in the over 2 litre class (5E) Windermere farmer John Graham took a day off from contesting the British Hillclimb Championship to take FTD in his rather smart looking and very quick Gould GR55B.
The two Classic Classes which use Target Times to work out the winners saw Phil Cheek (MGB) and Aintree regular Peter Brogden (March 733) take the wins whilst Tim Child (TCR Sports 2000) was the fastest overall.
Whilst not quite breaking their all time record number of starts in a day, LMC’s highly efficient startline crew still managed to line up no fewer than 621 cars during the day and the event still finished by 4pm which was much appreciated by those competitors heading to Anglesey the following day – how many other UK sprint venues can match that?
Detailed results for this and previous Liverpool Motor Club events are available on the LMC website: www.liverpoolmotorclub.com.
Liverpool Motor Club, Jack Neal Memorial Sprint Report
Aintree : 27th June 2015
4 Class Records crushed on a near perfect day Report by Steve Wilkinson
Liverpool Motor Club provided the 138 entrants with 2 practice and 4 timed runs which amounted to an incredible 788 starts during the day, with a crew of just 2 on the start-line! LMC have become synonymous with slick organisation and this coupled to excellent marshalling made for a great day’s motor sport.
So how did everyone do?
In the Standard classes there were wins for Colin Duncalf (MG ZR) and Paul Gorge (Clio) who also broke the up to 2 litre record.
In Roadgoing Saloons David Taylor (Morris Mini Cooper S) lowered his 1400 class record en route to the win, Russell Thorpe (Renault 5GT Turbo) won the up to 2 litre division despite only taking one run due to mechanical problems and Aaron Perrott took the over two litre class in his first competitive event in his awesome sounding Aston Martin Vantage.
In the up to 2000cc Sports car class Roger Fish led home a Honda S2000 clean sweep and in the Over 2 litre class Scott Hughes took his Porsche Boxster to the win ahead of the 2-ton Ford Mustang of Alex Peters.
The ‘new’ Elise class went to Keith Rogers before we moved into the kit car classes. John Loudon (Westfield SE) shattered his own class record en route to the 1700 win whilst Stephen Herbert kept Nigel Fox at bay in the over 1700s.
Then it was the turn of the Mod Prod cars – with no 1400s it was the up to 2 litre cars that led the way. Richard Hargreaves (Escort Mk2) and Andy Larton (LED Peugeot 106) had a ding-dong battle for the win with the Escort driver taking the win by 0.08 second. Tim Carter’s fire breathing Impreza took the over 2 litre class win by over 2 seconds from Steve Bussey similar car. Garry Bunn (Westfield SEi) was the top car derived engine kit car based on his second best time as his class winning time looked suspect give his splits. In the motorcycle derived engined class Jonathan Woolfit broke the 4 year old record for his unopposed win in his MK Indy.
In the Up to 1700 Sports Libre class Robbie Birrell demolished the class record breaking it on each successive run as the Radicals completed a clean sweep of the top 4 places. In the Over 1700 class Paul Woolfitt took the win in the impressive zCars Mini Busa with Derek Martlew’s 1979 Tiga Sports 2000 in second despite a slight top end misfire.
Jonathan Townsley dominated the Formula Ford 1600 class whilst Phil Perks brought his venerable Royale RP26 home in second spot. Bradley Dickerson (Jedi) took the 1100 single seater class from Eve Whitehead (RBS8) whilst James Wilkinson (Reynard Vauxhall Lotus) and John Graham (Gould GR55) took the other two classes. Graham’s FTD in the Gould was a new PB and got him to within a whisker of the class record.
The two Classic Classes which use Target Times to work out the winners saw Simon Cooper (Anglia) and Tim Child (TCR S2000) take the wins whilst Peter Brogden (March 733) was the fastest overall.
In the Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship classes there were wins for Robert Jacobs, Andrew Willoughby, Richard Price, Phil Cook and Shaun Elwell – the latter being the ‘only’ driver to break a record.
Paul Geering took the Austin 7 Bert Hadley Memorial Championship class in the Pigsty Special from Ian Bennett and Gordon Tasker. In the Morgan Speed Championship class Simon Ashby was making his return to sprinting after a 10 year absence finishing fourth in his recently acquired 4/4 with the class winner was Clive Hall in a similar machine.
Craig Hughes took the Sabre & Scimitar class from Trevor Shortt whose elderly Scimitar GT was very impressive.
The final class was for the MGCC Luffield contenders. Steve Collier, who was making his Aintree debut in his Midget, took the win from local man Paul Drake (BGT) and Yorkshire hot-shot David Coulthard (ZR160).
It was a thoroughly enjoyable day for all concerned and if the September meeting is blessed with good weather expect more records to tumble.
Full results are available here
Liverpool Motor Club, Spring Sprint Report
Aintree : 25th April 2015
Records fall despite the weather Report by Steve Wilkinson
During a day of changing conditions Liverpool Motor Club provided the entrants with 2 practice and 4 timed runs which amounted to 832 starts off the line. Once again slick organisation coupled with excellent marshalling meant despite several off course incidents it was only bank balances that were drained.
The Standard classes led the way and in the 1400 Division Chris Smith broke the class record twice in his MG ZR. In the 2000 Division Paul Gorge got to within half a second of his father’s record despite a second run rotation in their jointly driven Clio. There was no 1400 Roadgoing entries so it was the two litres next. Deryk Jones (Peugeot 205GTi), on his first visit led initially until the two R5 Turbo GTs got into their stride. Ian Butcher took the win with Russell Thorpe snapping at his heels. In the Over 2000 Division the Kearsleys (Impreza Sti) pulled out with gearbox problems during practice which should have left the door open for class record holder Daniel Hollis but the Nissan GTR driver had an expensive off which sidelined the car and Bob Jones snatched the win in his turbo-diesel Mazda 3.
In the 2000 Sportscar class the three Honda S2000s dominated. Roger Fish took the win with Martin Rowe half a second in arrears and Robin Grimwood third. Fish established the class record for this new for 2015 class. In the Over 2000 Sportscar class Paul Beddow blasted to victory in his Chevvie Corvette. Rob Holt took the Elise class before we moved into Kit Car territory. In the Up to 1700 class Martin Walker in his recently acquired Toyota powered Westfield took the win ahead of Andy Taylor (Caterham) and the Stevensons in their recently rebuilt Westfield. The Over 1700 class went to Stephen Herbert (Westfield) with Nigel Fox (Caterham) second and Best Novice Lee Smith (Westfield) third. Kevin Jones (Westfield R1) took the motorbike powered division from co-driver Graham Ware whilst Sam Binfield mopped up the final Roadgoing Kit Car class in his Arial Atom.
A very healthy 2 litre Mod Prod class was next with 13 runners. Andy Larton (Peugeot 106) again dominated with Richard Hargreaves (Escort Mk2) an under geared second ahead of John Moxham (Peugeot 205).
After a series of poorly supported classes the next well supported class was the Up to 1700 Sports libre class. Robbie Birrell, who was making his debut in the Radical, not only took a comfortable win but also broke Matt Carter’s record from September last year. Paul Morris (Radical) was second ahead of co-driver Steve Brennan and the rest. In the Over 1700 class Ian Rowlance in the mighty Metro 6R4 took the win ahead of the rapid Z Cars-Mini of Paul Woolfit.
In the first of the single seater classes Bradley Dickerson was the top 1100 driver in his Jedi finishing well clear of Glyn Sketchley (Megapin) and Eve Whitehead (RBS8). Adding a bit of variety was Michael Tomlinson in his off-road AFE Mk1 buggy. The Formula Fords once again provided a hectic battle. Jonathan Baines led initially in his Merlyn Mk 20 before Geoff Ward slipped past in his Swift SC93F. On the third runs Ward failed to improve and Baines swept through posting the only sub-49 second run in the class. Jonathan Townsley held third place throughout with Graham Curwen fourth and Peter Ibbotson fifth – the latter setting two PBs. After a solo win for Gary Thomas (Force) in the up to 1600cc Racing Car class the two litres were up to the line. Nick Algar, now driving the ex-Alex Summers methanol fuelled DJ Firehawk, annexed the class with a new record on his first run; in fact his second and fourth runs were also inside the old record but were no improvement on his first. Second place went to James Wilkinson in his Reynard Formula Vauxhall Lotus with Emma Williams third in the family Ralt. John Graham (Gould GR55B) took a solo win the over 2 litre class and setting FTD into the bargain.
The Classics were next and with Target Time calculations deciding the results there were wins for Phil Cheek in his MGB and Malcolm Evans in the Mallock. Jeff Allan then established the record for Electrically Powered cars which excludes hybrids taking his Mitsubishi round in 73.16.
The Aston Martin Owners Club runners were next and it was the brutish 4.7 litre GT4 Vantage of Tom Whittaker which took the win from perennial Aintree competitor Colin Kingsman in his DB6. In the Reliant Sabre & Scimitar class Trevor Shortt’s Scimitar GT took the win from the SS1s of Steve Cork and the Oakes’.
The two Caterham Academy classes were the finale. In the “Green Group” Rui Ferrreira took the win despite a third run expedition to hunt out straw bales at Village. Rob Yates took second and David Bevan third – in fact the first 8 were all within a second in a highly competitive class. In the “White Group” top spot went to Andy Perry who got to within a couple of tenths of the record. Russ Olivant and Lee Collins completed the Top Three – only the Top Four got within the same second and there was a far greater spread of times in this group.
With the rain showers sweeping in from time to time the marshals again did a great job in adverse conditions which at times bordered on the Arctic.
Fingers crossed for better conditions for the June sprint.
Live timings are usually available for the Aintree events from Resultsman
Liverpool Motor Club, Jack Neal Memorial Sprint Report
Aintree : 28th June 2014
Graham fends off the rest Report by Steve Wilkinson
Practice started with constant rain which gradually turned into drizzle. Despite this poor start to the day it eventually stopped raining and, remarkably, by the fourth timed runs records started to tumble.
In Class SB Chris Smith kept ahead of Tim Gill’s FIAT Sedici all day and then popped in a new class record on his fourth and final timed run. In SC Paul Gorge beat his father Doug by nearly a full second with Richard Waller a further second adrift. Into the Road Going classes and the 1400 class went to the immaculate Mini of Harewood regular David Taylor and he also bagged a new class record on his fourth run. In the two litre class there was a tie initially between Ian Butcher and Daniel Brady but it was Butcher who took the win on countback. In the over two litre class Daniel Hollis in his ‘away-day’ car, a Nissan GTR, took the win and was Oh so close to a class record as he finished well clear of the rest. Roger Fish then won the battle of the Honda S2000s as he relegated Martin Rowe to second. Trevor McMaster took his TVR Tamora to the over two litre Sports car class win ahead of Brian Marshall in his ‘new’ Porsche 944 and Jim Scarratt’s Jaguar XKR. Bob Jones then established the record for Class 1F in his turbo diesel Mazda before the Kit Cars came out to play. The Vokes and Stevensons battled it out for honours in the Up to 1700 class with Mike Vokes finishing ahead of Bill Stevenson. In the over 1700 class John Hoyle led throughout and he was another to pop in a new class record on run number four as David Cleaver took second and Chris Howard-Harris third.
After a couple of solo wins for Jonathan Woolfitt (Class 2C) and Chris Taylor (3A) we were well into Mod Prod territory. The two litre class went to Andy Larton in the Peugeot 106 with Robert Tonge (Seat Ibiza) second and John Moxham (Peugeot 205) third. After his practice exploits left the Nissan Primera battered and bruised, (somewhat like LMC marshal Roy Holder), fourth place went to Colin Metcalfe.
There were a batch of solo wins next featuring Gary Preece in the Tameside College Impreza, Vic Lord (Elise) , David Welton (TVR), and Joe Shannon & Terry Everall (Westfields) before the final knockdown battle of Mod Prod. Howard Wilkinson (Autotune Gemini V8) rumbled to third spot but it was the in-house battle for the lead that held the attention. Derek Hodder in his Westfield-Honda had eventually to give best to co-driver Gary Bunn but the backward and forward struggle went to the fourth run where Bunn stole it with the final run of the class.
Into Sports Libre and in the Up to 1700 class Keith Hardy (Radical) led throughout the timed runs but Chris Thomas in the Z Cars Mini closed to within six tenths by the end of the day. In the Over 1700 class the second Z Cars Mini of Paul Woolfitt was unstoppable and got down to within two seconds of the class record with the turbocharged Hayabusa powered missile. The Racing Car classes followed and in the 1100 class Glyn Sketchley (Megapin) sat out the first two class runs leaving Eve Whitehead to lead but when Barry destroyed a drive shaft on his second run it left the door open for Sketchley who cruised to the win without opposition. In the three car Formula Ford class Geoff Ward kept the nosecone of his Swift ahead of Graham Curwen’s Van Diemen and Peter Ibbotson’s Sparton despite being slower through the speed trap. Two litre racing cars were next and Nick Algar led throughout in the turbocharged Force Hayabusa. Andrew Dobson (Megapin) took second place despite a big fourth run spin at Becher’s. Brian Walker called it a day after two runs leaving James Wilkinson in the FVL to take third. Running solo in the over two litre class John Graham in his ‘new’ Gould GR55B set the fastest time on each and every run to take the class and annex FTD.
In the Classic Cars Phil Prince (Elan) took a solo win in the Road Car class before the Racing Cars came out to play. There was a ding-dong battle between Peter Brogden in the March 733 and Jono Baines in the Merlyn Mk20 FF. Brogden led initially but on the second run Baines took the lead. Brogden fought back and grabbed the lead on scratch. Such was his pace that the March driver also took the class win based on Target Times.
The Lotus 7 Club Speed classes followed. In Class 1 Gary Beezer led the way initially before first Paul Boston and then on the fourth run Stefan Eldred took the lead. In Class 2 Alan Bowler led after the first three runs before Andrew Willoughby slipped into the lead second time round. It was changed on those all-important fourth efforts. Paul Collins slipped by to take the win with Willoughby second and Bowler third. In Class 3 Matthew Jenkins set the standard on run one before Richard Price took the lead on run two. Price still led after the third runs despite a spin however once again the fourth timed runs were decisive. Jenkins went into the lead only for Price on the very next run to sweep past and take the win. In Class 4 the late arrival, Martin Sargent, led throughout with Phil Cook over 4 seconds in arrears. Class 5 saw an Elwell 1-2 with Shaun leading from run one and Gill fighting back on run two to grab hold of second for the rest of the afternoon.
The Pre-War Austin 7 Bert Hadley boys were next. Colin Danks led through runs one to three but his co-driver of the day Gordon Tasker broke the Ulster Special. Despite this Danks took the win with Mike Harvey second in an Ulster and Paul Geering in the Pigsty third. John Mansield, who already had class wins at Harewood and Barbon under his belt also retired whilst lying second and as the track dried out he fell down the order.
There were just three Morgans taking to the track and Paul Clarke was the fastest all day however on the adjusted placings within the Morgan championship it was Robert Stones who took the class from Clarke with Gavin Rintoul third. The final class was for the Scimitars and Sabres. Craig Hughes again proved unbeatable in the Scimitar SS1 whilst once again Steve Louch in the Scimitar GTE was second and Stephen Cork third.
Despite the poor weather there were new class records, a cracking FTD plus several close battles – a typical Aintree sprint. Again Liverpool Motor Club’s organisation triumphed with 734 starts even on such an inclement day and with such a slick turn round when there were problems, the competitors were again able to enjoy their Aintree experience to the full.
Live timings are usually available for the Aintree events from Resultsman
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree Spring Sprint Report
26th April 2014
Algar’s Aintree by Steve Wilkinson
The circuit was wet when everyone arrived at Aintree but with surprisingly fine weather and a strong breeze it soon dried out.
The battle for FTD saw the advantage switch from the 1100 class to the two litres cars with Nick Algar emerging on top with the Force – the sixth car he has driven at Aintree in the last six years!
Kicking off proceedings were the Standard Car classes and with changes to the regs the Class Records were established during the timed runs. Chris Smith (MG ZR) and Doug Gorge (Renault Clio) finished in the class leads.
Into Roadgoing and the two litre class started off with a whimper and a bang! Fred Currell ran out of fuel in his VW Golf due to a dodgy fuel gauge whilst David West had the Peugeot 106’s gearbox explode as he hit the 65 yard mark on the course. Currell recovered, initially to second in class and then on his third attempt he shattered the class record. Ian Butcher finished second in his Renault 5GT Turbo with the similar car of Russell Thorpe third. Daniel Hollis took the over two litre class with his new acquisition, a Nissan GTR, and just failed to match the class record as he finished over 4 seconds clear of Graham Kearsley’s Impreza. In the sportscar class Martin Rowe’s uprated Honda S2000 took the honours with Jeremy Coughlan, returning after a two year break, in second with his Elise.
Bill Stevenson (Westfield SE) took the first of the Kit car classes beating his wife Carol in the process whilst in the over 1700 class it was business as usual. John Hoyle (Westfield SEiW) took the win and lowered his own record finishing three seconds clear of Nigel Fox (Caterham) and Lee Smith (Westfield). In the final Kit car class for roadgoing cars Joe Charles set a new record in his Caterham R500 as he held off the challenge of Sam Binfield in the Ariel Atom.
Into Mod Prods and again the two litre class dominated the entries. Andy Larton (Peugeot 106) led until the third runs when Robert Tonge in the Seat slipped into the lead. Larton was over quarter of a second adrift and pulled out all the stops as he just nipped past the Ibiza to take the win by 0.28. Third went to the hard-charging Colin Metcalfe in the heavier BTCC spec Nissan Primera.
Sports Libre provided another close call. Paul Norris dropped out during practice in the indecently rapid Talbot Sunbeam-Ford when the diff cried enough. This left Andy Marshall (Gardner-Douglas T70) as the favourite but his first run included an agricultural detour at Bechers leaving sprint newcomer Anthony Bott in the Van Diemen Multisport in the lead. On the second runs Marshall powered into a lead he wouldn’t surrender as Bott reinforced his second slot and also grabbed the Novice award. Third place went to Andrew Jackson who was also a Novice on his first ever sprint. Andrew’s very tidy Reliant Kitten was powered by a Honda S200 engine and is still ‘road legal’ – expect it to look different next time out!
On to the Racing Car classes and the 1100s literally led the way after the first run as Glyn Sketchley held FTD in his Megapin. He led the class throughout with Eve and Barry Whitehead nipping at his heels in their new RBS8. There was a great battle in Formula Fords with first to fifth within a second on most runs. Initially Graham Curwen led then in quick succession on run three Phil Perks (Royale) and then Paul Webb (Van Diemen) took over the lead. On the fourth run Paul Webb extended his lead whilst Geoff Ward (Swift) cruised up from fourth to second leaving Curwen in fourth and Peter Ibbotson fifth with all five covered by just 1.75 seconds. In the two litre class Nick Algar languished in third place prior to lunch. Andrew Dobson led with co-driver Jeanette Hunton second in Tony Ellis’s Megapin-Duratec .
After lunch thanks to some sterling work by son Luke, Nick Algar charged into a lead he wouldn’t surrender. Dobson finished second with Hunton third.
The two Classic classes followed and on scratch in the road car class Alan Wilson was top dog setting a new record in the brutal Healey 3000. On the Target Times which decided the awards it was the Elan of Phil Prince that emerged victorious. In the Racing Car class Peter Brodgen’s F3 March was quickest but Derek Martlew’s S2000 Tiga won on Target Times. Stephen Cork in his SS1 took the Reliant class from the battling Oakes father and son team with Josh second and Stephen third.
It was then Caterham Academy time with 43 of the 1.6 Sigma powered cars fighting it out in their two groups. Group 1 had Olly Wigg in the lead from run 1 with Alistair Calvert second throughout. Damian Milkins initially held third but Anthony Barnes slipped through to third spot on his second run and held on to the end. In Group 2 David Webber also led throughout and also got the closest to the Academy Record for Aintree. Paul Aram was second throughout getting to within a second of Webber’s time. Graham Williams was fifth after the first runs but charged up to third on run two and stayed there.
With 247 practice runs and 470 timed runs to count for awards, plus another 18 timed but non-counting runs before the rain came, Liverpool Motor Club had put on a really well organised and highly entertaining event and the highly experienced two man startline crew of Geoff Peters and Roy Holder deserve congratulations for a job well done.
Full results for this and our previous Aintree events are available from the Results tab opposite ->>
Live timings are usually available for the Aintree events from Resultsman
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree June Sprint Report
29th June 2013
(The Jack Neil Memorial Sprint)
Graham’s Record Caps the day by Steve Wilkinson
The 105 drivers who participated in the second of Liverpool Motor Club’s Aintree sprints enjoyed a relaxed and entertaining day at the North West’s premier sprint venue. Records tumbled throughout the classes under an overcast sky and the best was John Graham who not only took FTD but also shattered Tony Wiltshire’s nine year old record.
The first record to go was Martin Rowe’s in the two litre Standard Car class and it was Martin himself who lowered it on his first sortie. The Gorge pairing, son Paul and father Doug came home in second and third respectively. Having set the two litre Roadgoing record in April Tony Hart was back but couldn’t match his pace and it was Fred Currell who having had to retire in April with engine troubles took his VW Golf to victory and lowered the class record on both his first and second runs. Daniel Hollis came home second in his Integra with Hart third. In the Over two litre Roadgoing class Alan Sawyer clipped over four tenths off his April record on his first run and then on his third outing he went sub 50 for the first time to leave the record in tatters.
There were solo wins for Chris Smith, Robert Holt and Keith Calder before we saw another record tumble. This time it was in the Up to 1700 Roadgoing Kit Car class. Record Holder John Loudon clipped over four tenths off the record on his first run and then eased off however on his fourth sortie he got desperately close to lowering it for a second time. John Hoyle got very close to his April record but couldn’t manage to better his earlier effort; Sean Bourn took second in his Car Craft Cyclone with Andrew Lowe third some way off the pace. After a solo win for Richard James in the Motorcycle Engined Kit Car class we moved into the fourth and final Kit Car class where Stephen Herbert lowered his own class record on three of his four runs.
Into Mod Prods and Louisa Davies took a solo win in the 1400 class before LED prepared cars took first and second in the two litre split with Mr LED, Andy Larton, taking the win from customer John Moxham in his 205. Bruce Mckie made it a Peugeot clean sweep bringing his 205 home in third. Gary Preece took the over 2 litre win from ‘Bod’ Bolderson who was back at Aintree after a 12 year break! David Welton then took a solo win before we were into the first of the Kit Car classes. Gary Bunn took the win from co-driver and owner Derek Hodder as the Supercharged Honda powered Westie dominated the time sheets. Terry Everall was another solo winner but couldn’t mount a challenge to the class record as he was back to his “standard” engine. Angus Buchan took another small capacity Sports Libre win from Keith Hardy before Paul Norris in the Ford engined Talbot Sunbeam took the large capacity class from Marshall Rowland’s re-engined Elise.
The 1100 Racing Car class lost one third of the entry when Bradley Dickerson’s engined poked a rod out of the block. This left Barry Whitehead to take the win from co-driver Roger Fish who was making his Speed Event debut in a single seater. The Formula Fords were again close with Graham Curwen MBE just holding off Phil Perks by a meagre tenth of a second with Graham Barron third. In the Two Litre class it was John Graham all the way with the Dallara. He led throughout and on his fourth timed run posted a new class record. Nick Algar in the ex-Mike Musson turbocharged Force was second and Andrew Dobson in Tony Ellis’ Megapin-Duratec third. Ian Rowlance survived a massive first run spin to take a solo win in the over two litre class before the Classics took centre stage.
In the Classic road cars winner on Scratch and on target Time was Bob Binfield in the delicious Aston Martin DBR2 recreation complete with straight six Jaguar engine. Colin Flynn was second in his HSCC Touring Car Mini. In the racing Car class it was Derek Martlew who took the win on Scratch setting a new class record in the process. Winner on target Time was Kristian Evans, son of Malcolm, who shattered his Target Time on his first ever sprint drive. In the MGCC Luffield class the lightweight Midget of Richard Watkinson took the win from the ever rapid David Coulthard in the ZR160 he shares with Helen Waddington. In the Bert Hadley Memorial Championship class Mike Harvey took the win in his Ulster with John Mansfield second and Stephen Fathers third. A small field of Morgans were next and Paul Clarke was the best on Scratch with his Roadster V6 Copy but on Handicap it was Chris Martin who took first place ahead of Chris bailey and Granville Martin. The final class for Scimitars and Sabres witnessed a see-saw battle between Steven Louch and Trevor Shortt which went the way of Shortt by a neck.
Full results for this and our previous Aintree events are available from the Results tab opposite ->>
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree Spring Sprint Report
27th April 2013
Graham’s Close Call by Steve Wilkinson
The first of 2013’s three sprints on the Club Circuit at Aintree took place on April 27th and a full entry of 150 were treated to a great day of sprinting. We did however lose a few in practice but after lunch the timed runs proved fascinating with plenty of close battles.
In the 2 litre Standard class Martin Rowe just held off Roger Fish in the battle of the Honda S2000s with Rowe lowering his own class record in the process. In Class 1B Tony Hart broke the class record on his first run and held on for the win with co-driver Peter Hart second and Daniel Hollis third – all three inside the old record and covered by just 0.6 second. In 1C it was an Impreza 1-2 with Alan Sawyer just keeping his nose in front of Karl Wilson again with both inside the record. Emma Bennison on her first visit to Aintree took class 2A in her Peugeot powered Striker whilst in 2B John Hoyle had a record crunching win finishing well clear of the rest. Gordon Peters made a welcome return to Aintree with his Nissan 350Z and took a class win in Class 3C. Gary Bunn and Derek Hodder fought out a tight battle for the class win in 3G with Bunn just edging out Hodder by the closest of margins aided by Del-boy’s tardy start on his final run.
Eve Whitehead just edged out father Barry in the 1100 Racing Car class after the other two entries both retired during practice. Graham Curwen took his customary FF1600 class win and as usual the 71 year old was in fine form in the paddock as well. The 1600 and 2000 class winners were also the contenders for FTD with Gary Thomas narrowly edged out by John Graham who was making his first outing of the year in the Dallara after LAD had worked their magic over the Winter.
Boosting the entry numbers were the boys and girls of the Caterham Academy and with 53 in total they were a welcome addition. In Group 1 Nick Horton led after the first runs but Chris Hutchinson who was initially third put in a stunning second run to not only snatch the lead but also break the class record set last year. Horton would finish second with Henry Heaton snapping at his heels. In Group 2 William Smith led after the first runs but he was relegated to second by Dan Gore next time round. The third run saw Smith move back into the lead whilst Gore held off a late challenge by Lee Bristow.
Full results for this and our previous Aintree events are available from the Results tab opposite ->>
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree Autumn Sprint Report
1st September 2012
by Steve Wilkinson
With fewer than 90 entries, plus Liverpool Motor Club’s renowned organisational capabilities, there were always going to be lots of runs available and, in near perfect conditions, only incidents were liable to slow proceedings at the last Aintree sprint of 2012.
Up front Glyn Sketchley’s revamped Force dominated although Jim Belt tried his utmost to get on terms.
We started the competition with a couple of Standard classes; in the up to 2 litre merged class, record holder Martin Rowe came through to win and got within 0.01 of his record as Roger Fish harried his fellow Honda S2000 driver. In the Over 2 litre class three drivers were inside the old record. Jeff Allan (TVR T350C) was the first to set a new standard then Lyndon Dickens (Audi RS4) went sub-55 before Fred Currell slotted into the 53s before setting the new record at 52.69.
In the 2 litre Roadgoing class, James Kerr set the standard with a class record on his first run. With no David West (a crank sensor had fallen off in practice to sideline the Peugeot) the challenge came from the previous record holder – Russell Thorpe in “Doris”. Thorpe could only match his previous record to take second ahead of Colin Metcalf (Nissan Primera) who was on his very first visit to Aintree . Alan Sawyer cruised to the over two litre class win ahead of Chris Wilson in his ‘new’ Astra. The Sports car class went to Elen Worthington as she kept ahead of fellow Elise driver Robert Holt.
Into Kit Cars and in the single up to 1700 class Mike Smith in his Puma engined Striker led throughout as Martin Walker and the rest trailed in over a second adrift.
Mod Prods were next and in the merged up to two litre class Mark Teale was the class act being fastest on every run. Robert Tonge took second with Andy Larton third despite only managing one timed run. In the Over two litre class Gez Bayliss was the only one under 50 seconds so took a comfortable win from the brothers Hunt – William being the faster of the two in his Sierra.
There were two Sports Libre classes as the sports racing cars continue their revival. In the Up to 1700 class Angus Buchan led initially but was overhauled by class record holder Stuart Nelson in the Haggispeed as Clive Wooster closed in on third after a troubled first run and missing run 2 with fouled plugs. In the Over 1700 class Jim Belt set new class records on his first two runs and still managed to be inside the old record on runs 3 and 4. Paul Horrox brought the Honda powered Elise he shares with father Fred home in second with Ian Rowlance (MG Metro 6R4) third, Fred Horrox fourth and Graham Blackwell in the Fiesta Duratec fifth with a new Personal Best.
Racing cars were next and in a hard fought 1100 class Craig Powers took the win with Eve and Barry Whitehead second and third. Ben Mackey was out in the ex-Staniforth Megapin but only managed one run before heading home. In the Formula Ford class Peter Ibbotson (Sparton) led after the first runs but couldn’t match the pace and dropped back as Graham Curwen surged through from third passing Phil Perks (Royale) in the process. Glyn Sketchley dominated the 1600 class despite some aggressive driving from Peter Brogden in the elderly March F3 and Brian Walker took a solo win in the two litre class in the Brytec.
In the Classic class Malcolm Evans was fastest on scratch in his now immaculate ex-Denis Doyle Mallock Mk 8B. However once the Target Times were taken into consideration 78 years young George Cole in his Mk 1 Terrapin-BMC took the win and posted a PB to boot.
The final classes were for the Lotus 7 Club speed competitors. In Class 1 Paul Boston took the win and then in the 5th “extra run” was unofficially inside the old record. Robert Jacobs and Gary Beezer took second and third. In Class 2 in a Titanic battle Graham Howard just pipped Jon Ward for first with Paul Collins third. Class 3 was a two car battle with Matthew Jenkins in the lead throughout. In Class 4 Paul Forster just held off Nigel Fox in another two-car battle – in the “extra run” Forster was also inside the old record. The final group were in Class 5 and class record holder Robert Grigsby not only led throughout but set a new record on his fourth run as he kept Shaun Elwell at bay. Grigsby like Boston and Forster went quicker in the extra runs.
With the crew packing up, the prize presentation was a time to reflect and Glyn Sketchley summed it up perfectly as he praised not only the organisation but also the marshals who once again did a superb job.
Full results for this and our previous Aintree events are available from the Results tab opposite ->>
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree June Sprint Report
26th June 2012
(The Jack Neil Memorial Sprint)
by Steve Wilkinson
The second Liverpool Motor Club sprint of the year at Aintree was hit by a couple of heavy showers which had an impact on not only the outright pace of the event but also on the most closely contested class. Overall two Westfields set the three best times of the day with Kurt Ramsden coming out on top and recording his maiden FTD.
After practice, which accounted for the demise of one of the Morgans and a Westfield, the timed runs started before the lunch break. After lunch there were three more runs before the prize presentation. However during the timed runs there were several incidents including a spell of monsoon style rain which saw proceedings suspended as it hit whilst slick-shod cars were running.
Starting the proceedings were the Standard Roadgoing classes, which are now starting to attract some worthwhile numbers. In the two litre class Roger Fish (Honda S2000) cut his class record by 0.34 before the similarly mounted Martin Rowe lowered it to 54.10 which would actually have been good enough for a class win in the Roadgoing Modified class. In Roadgoing (Class 1) entries in the 1400 and Over 2000 classes were thin on the ground so the three were amalgamated. Alex Morton in his GT4 Celica took the win from a bevy of two litre cars whilst Rhys Palmer wasn’t last in the only 1400 runner despite withdrawing after over-revving his engine. Eve Whitehead was making her ‘tin top’ debut though it ended in tears as she went off at Bechers and damaged “Doris”, Russell Thorpe’s Renault 5 GT Turbo. Phil Short brought along his latest toy, a 414bhp Audi R8 and he cleaned up in the over two litre class posting a couple of 125mph speeds through the finish.
In the Up to 1700 Kit Car class John Loudon (Westfield) recovered from a first run ‘agricultural moment’ to not only take the win but also set a new class record on his final run. Martin Walker (Westfield) just held off Andy Taylor’s Caterham for second. In the over 1700 class John Hoyle led throughout with Best Novice Steve Everall second (both in Westfields).
The Mod Prods were next and in the merged 3A and 3B class Robert Tonge nailed it from his first run in the SEAT Ibiza. Andrew Larton in the ‘works’ 106 took second despite a last run fail. The Over 1700 Modified Kit Cars provided the best scrap of the day. Gary Bunn, guesting in Derek Hodder’s Westfield-Honda broke the class record on his first timed run. Kurt Ramsden then retook the record in his V8 Westfield just as the rain swept in. By the time Hodder came to the line the track was starting to flood and he trailed round over six seconds off the record pace, on slicks! After the track dried out all three posted times inside the old record but that initial record breaking pace seemed to elude them all. The final placing saw Ramsden not only win but net FTD whilst Hodder came second with Bunn a close third.
The one Sports Libre class attracted 7 entries only one of which was a true Sports Libre, the rest were re-engined or be-winged saloons and sports cars. Rob Wakelin took the win in his Impreza which sprouted a massive rear wing. Second went to Nick Algar who was giving his Honda 2 litre powered Juno an outing. The rest of the placings went to re-engined Elise/Exige cars.
Into the single seaters and the 1100 class featured a debutante, Russell Thorpe who was sharing RBS7B with Barry Whitehead. The class went eventually to Glyn Sketchley who slipped into the lead when Craig Powers had a rear wing support fracture and had to miss the final run. A seven-car/eight driver Formula Ford class was next and initially Graham Curwen led the pack. However Geoff Ward took the win as Curwen slipped to second just holding off Paul Webb. There was only one other singe seater present and Peter Brogden took a solo win in his 1600 March.
Next were the Classics with the results “calculated using target times”. On Scratch Phil Prince led home Malcolm Evans (Anglia) by a fraction with Alan Wilson (Healey 3000) and George Cole (Terrapin) tying for third. On Handicap it wasn’t much different with Prince leading from Cole and Evans.
We then moved into the one make classes. These were led off by a healthy contingent of Austin Sevens in the Bert Hadley Memorial Championship. Mike Harvey was a comfortable winner with John Mansfield and Alan Fairless second and third. The prettiest car was James Yeo’s Brooklands 7 which hadn’t been lowered or too heavily modified.
In the Reliant class Trevor Shortt demonstrated why he was champion in 2010 and 2011 with a clear-cut victory in his GT; the Louch’s GTE was second and third with Paul Andrews fourth. Morgans were next and on scratch Tim Harrison was clearly fastest however the results are subject to the Morgan Club Handicap and it was Andrew Miller who emerged victorious with Chris Bailey second and Andrew’s wife Anne third.
The Triumphs only managed to provide four entries in two cars and it was the hairy TR7 V8 that dominated with Simon Allaby winning from co-driver David Hardcastle.
The final class (for MGs) only mustered 10 entries; initially in the wet David Coulthard led but he fell back as the track dried out leaving Keith Egar’s indecently rapid Midget to take the win with Paul Drake (MGB GT) second. Coulthard held onto third whilst his co-driver, Helen Waddington, moved through to grab fourth spot.
So once again there were three new records in far from ideal conditions; two practice runs and four timed runs for 120 competitors once again showed what a great job Liverpool Motor Club’s hard working team had done in providing a superb day of motor sport.
Full results for this and our previous Aintree events are available from the Results tab opposite ->>
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree Spring Sprint Report
28th April 2012
by Steve Wilkinson
The first of the three sprints to be run at Aintree attracted a full entry plus several reserves. It was run in very cold and windy conditions, yet despite this three new class records were set. Nick Algar was giving the ex-Moran/Dean/Pitt/Calder Gould GR37 its first outing since he took it in part exchange for his GR55.
After practice, which accounted for a couple of cars which were withdrawn after developing various early season maladies, the timed runs started before the lunch break. After lunch there were two more runs however a fourth timed run was cancelled due to the dropping temperature and concern for welfare of the ever vigilant marshals.
Starting the proceedings were the Standard Roadgoing classes and after David Drucker took the 1400 class in his Polo the two litre class furnished our first new class record. Roger Fish and Martin Rowe have both bought Honda S2000 sports cars and did battle for the honours. Roger got off to a fine start on his first run breaking the record and the lowered it further after lunch. In the over two litre class Bob Jones ran out the winner in his turbo diesel Mazda MX3.
The Roadgoing classes were next and there were wins for Rich Stephens (Peugeot 106 Rallye), Alan Sawyer (Subaru Impreza) and Robert Holt (Lotus Elise) whilst Russell Thorpe, whose Renault 5GT Turbo suffered a broken fanbelt as he re-entered the paddock after his final run, just held off the challenge of Colin Smith and Keith Minshull to take the two litre class.
In the kit cars Allister Pimlott had a solo win in the Over 1700s whilst Andy Taylor’s Caterham took the Up to 1700 class by over two seconds.
The Mod Prods were next and in the merged 3A and 3B class Robert Tonge’s second run took him into the lead in his Seat Ibiza and despite Mark Teale’s challenge he popped in an even quicker third run to seal the win. In the Over two litre class Stuart Tranter bogged his second run in the Sapphire Cosworth which left Gerard Bayliss to slip through for the win in his BMW M3. Just one modified kit car made the trip so Stephen Morgan took the class and was also Best LMC member.
There was just one Sports Libre class which attracted 10 entries. These ranged from a Honda powered spaceframe mini through to a three litre Jaguar powered Juno. Jim Belt in the Juno took the win and got very close to his class record. Second went to Rob Wakelin in his indecently quick Impreza which now sports a MASSIVE rear wing! Paul Norris brought his immaculate Chrysler sunbeam Cosworth home in third with the rest over a second in arrears.
Into the single seaters and Craig Powers (OMS) again took the 1100cc class win ahead of Eve and Barry Whitehead in the venerable RBS7B which suffered a cylinder head gasket failure during the second set of runs.
A six-car Formula Ford class was next and it was Graham Curwen (Van Diemen), former class record holder, who took the win. Graham was the only driver to post a sub-51 second run. In the 51 second bracket it was very close with Paul Webb (Van Diemen) just holding off Geoff Ward (Swift) and Phil Perks (Royale).
The 1600 and 2000 classes were merged and Colin Birkbeck took the win from fellow Dallara driver John Graham whilst in third it was Peter Brogden with the ex-Kuwashima March 733 which had raced on Aintree’s club circuit back in the day!
The over two litre class was a tad one-sided as despite his best efforts Chris Machell’s Mygale was somewhat out-gunned by Nick Algar’s GR37. Algar was very impressed with the power and torque produced by the Judd V8 and vows to be out more often than he had planned.
We then moved onto the ‘classic’ class. The results are “calculated using target times” so we had to wait until the prize presentation to discover the winner, however on scratch Phil Prince in the Elan was the quickest and it so happened that he won on target times as well. Second quickest was Mike de St Paer in the pretty frog-eye Sprite with George Cole third fastest in the Mk 1 Terrapin. Second place on target times went to Sean Bramhall in the Healey 100 whilst Sam Barker in the Ginetta G15 was very apologetic about the car needing washing but it had only just been rebuilt and was still ‘running in’.
The first of our one make series was next – the Paul Matty Sportscar Lotus Championship. Fastest and setting our second new class record was Tony Wallen in his perfect Lotus 69 F3 minus the airbox restrictor. Second fastest was the previous record holder David Hampton (Lotus 69 F2 Atlantic) with the Governor, Paul Matty, third in his 35 F2. After the handicaps had been applied Paul Matty ended up third again, Ian Parmenter (Elan) was second whilst the win went to Steve Millward who was co-driving wife Jane’s Elan.
Next were the Reliant Scimitars, no Sabres unfortunately, and up front Trevor Short in the GT was the winner. Nick Hall (SS1) was second whilst John Louch, who switched to a co-drive in Short’s GT, took third.
The final two classes were for Caterham Academy Championship cars with Group 1 first up. Alexander Gurr was the initial leader but Matthew Lawrence, Tristan Judge and Zoltan Csabai ended up filling the top three places with just 0.06 sec covering the three of them. Group 2 were up next and Michael Gazad and Pete Fortune were both inside the class record on their first runs. Fortune slipped into the lead on the second runs and held on to take the win and the new record from Gazad. Danny Killeen held third throughout as the top six was covered by just over a second.
So there were three new records set in far from ideal conditions. But, with two practice runs and three timed runs concluded shortly after four o’clock, the 140 content competitors had made a total of 705 starts marking another successful day’s motor sport for Liverpool Motor Club.
Full results are available here
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree Autumn Sprint Report
3rd September 2011
by Steve Wilkinson
With just 90 competitors turning up on the day there were going to be a lot of opportunities to get out on track. After two practice runs in pretty foul conditions the event got underway with the first of four timed runs and, with the rain easing, the fastest runs looked likely to be recorded at the end of the day!
Leading off the timed runs was the single Standard Roadgoing class. David Drucker in his VW Polo led throughout with Chris Palmer (Suzuki Cappuccino) and Tim Gill (Fiat Panda 4×4) holding second and third. Into Roadgoing and the 1400 Saloons saw Martin Rowe once again being the pone to beat in his Peugeot 106 Rallye. John Marsden again kept close order in the Mini whilst Rhys Palmer got ever closer in third ahead of George Povey. In the two litre Roadgoing Saloon class Colin Smith in the Clio initially led but was pipped for the lead on the fourth runs by Tim Burrill in the 205 GTi. Third went to the similar 205 of John Allen whilst Russell Thorpe in Doris was fourth. Next to the line were the over two litre Sportscars and John Biddulph in the Porsche took a comfortable win from Jeff Allan (TVR T350C) and Kraig Mycock (Audi Coupe).
The two Roadgoing Kit Car classes were next and in the Up to 1700 class Brad Gould led throughout despite a third run spin. Martin Walker (Westfield) just held off a spirited challenge from Phil Gough in his Caterham. In the combined 2B/2D Allister Pimlott kept his Robin Hood ahead of the supremely powerful AC Cobra Superblower of Malcolm Thorne.
There was another merged class to herald the arrival of the Mod Prods. The car with the smallest capacity took the honours with Martin Depper in his indecently quick Mini proving to be too quick for the two litre runners. Second place went to Bruce McKie whose 205 finished clear of the rest. The over 2 litre class saw just two runners in the one car. Alan Whalley led initially due in no small part to eventual winner David Kenningley taking a grassy detour on his first run. The up to 2 litre Sportscars had just the one runner so Rob Newnes in the MX5 took a solo win. In the Over 1700 Kit Car class Robbie Birrell led throughout as Nigel Fox finished a couple of seconds adrift in this all Caterham class. In the final Mod Prod class, that for the motorcycle powered Kit Cars Mike Clarke in the Westfield just held off the challenge from the MK Indy of Mike Anderson.
Once again there was just the single Sports Libre class which Jim Belt took in his impressive Juno complete with V6 Jaguar engine. Stuart Deeley in his Banks Europa was second finishing ahead of Keith Hardy’s Radical and the Fiesta XR2-Duratec of Graham Blackwell.
Into the Racing Car class and in the Up to 1100 split, Craig Powers snatched victory from Gary Thomas on the fourth run with Eve and Barry Whitehead finishing third and fourth in their shared RBS 7B. There were just two Formula Fords to battle over the win and the more modern Van Diemen of Graham Curwen took first as Phil Perks wrung the neck of his elderly Royale in hot pursuit. The combined 1600 and 2000 classes were next. On the first runs John Graham (Dallara) led Simon Keen (Dallara), Emma Williams (Ralt), Paul Tinsley (Swift) and the rest. The second run saw Simon Keen annex the lead with Graham and Co all posting slower times. The third runs didn’t see the order change but the fourth saw a significant change of fortunes. Simon Keen extended his lead whilst Paul Tinsley closed in on Emma Williams. The final runner was John Graham and he initially bogged the start. However having been pulled back and realigned he got his second start spot-on. By Bechers he was fractionally ahead and as he sped over the line not only had he taken the class but also set the Fastest Time of the Day. There were two cars and three drivers to contest the over two litre class. Mike Musson was making his debut in the recently acquired Pilbeam MP97 whilst Brian Woffenden & Peter Howgate were having an end of season outing in their Ralt RT37. On his first run Mike Musson had problems getting off the line – it was the first time he had driven the car on a race track! However despite a tardy start he flew round the track and posted what would be the class winning time – it was also the fastest time of the day until John Graham put in that stunning fourth timed run. On his second run disaster struck as he lost the backend at Bechers and spun across the grass and collided with the barriers. Fortunately it was a slow speed impact but it did damage the rear wing significantly and he was out of contention. The Sheffield pairing trailed home some four seconds adrift with Woffenden beating Howgate.
The Classics were next and once more Phil Prince was not only the fastest over the course but also won the class on handicap. George Cole in the ancient Terrapin was second on adjusted times whilst second fastest on scratch, Mike de St Paer (Frogeye Sprite), took third overall.
The final group of classes were for the Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship contenders – all driving Caterhams by the way. In Class 1 Robert Jacobs took the win from Alan Johnson and Paul Brown. In Class 2 Robert Spencer held off the challenges from Graham Howard and Paul Collins to take the laurels. In Class 3 young Tom Price, despite carrying the yellow trowel for his grassy exploits last time out at Harewood, took the win with his father Richard Price second and David Nelson third. The final Class 4 saw Shaun Elwell take the trophy from Chris Howard-Harris and Lynn Gilbert.
The final sprint of the year proved another resounding success despite the shortage of entries. Two practice and four timed runs to count (plus an extra non-counting run) meant a busy day for the startline crew but again they excelled. A big ‘thank you’ to all the marshals who helped during the year and we are already planning our 2012 events when the club will be celebrating its 110th anniversary.
Liverpool Motor Club, Aintree June Sprint Report
26th June 2011
(The Jack Neil Memorial Sprint)
by Steve Wilkinson
Just over 120 competitors arrived at the Aintree Club Circuit for the Jack Neal Memorial Sprint under grey skies. The overnight rain had left the track damp in places and with soaking wet grass the run-offs looked treacherous. Throughout the day we had just a slight bit of drizzle which only arrived during the fourth set of timed runs so in the circumstances it was a virtually dry meeting – something that ahead of time was in doubt.
After two practice runs the event proper got underway at 11:43. Leading the way were the two Standard classes. In the Up to 1400 split David ‘TVR’ Drucker led the way in his recently acquired VW Polo with Chris Palmer (Suzuki Cappuccino) second and Tim Gill in the FIAT Panda 4×4 third. In the 2000 split the Hart family reigned supreme. Peter Hart led home father Tony in the family Clio Williams with LMC’s Douglas Gorge third completing the Clio clean sweep.
Into Roadgoing and the 1400 Saloons saw Martin Rowe in the Peugeot 106 Rallye holding off a spirited challenge from John Marsden who was reportedly waving his newly acquired bus pass at the Startline Crew as he tried to get pensioner’s rates! George Povey came home in third after putting Rhys Palmer down into fourth! The two litre Roadgoing Saloons saw Colin Smith in the Clio hold off a challenge from Keith Minshull’s Peugeot 306 Rallye whilst David Whitmore was third in yet another Clio. In the Up to 2000cc Roadgoing Sportscar class Brain Cartwright in the MX5 was the class act as he cruised home ahead of Dave Exton in the £700 MR2 and a wayward Robert Holt in a rather neat ‘Gold leaf’ liveried Elise.
The two Roadgoing Kit Car classes both proved to be a bit one-sided. In the Up to 1700 class Brad Gould was well clear of the rest in his early Westfield whilst Brian Walker just held off Phil Gough in the battle for second some two seconds adrift. In the Over 1700 class Mark Wallwork, despite sending showers of fuel onto the track on runs one & two, not only took an easy class win but also set a new class record. Alister Pimlott won the battle of the Robin Hoods & also beat Steve Salmon’s glorious sounding Stratos replica.
Into Mod Prods and in the Up to 2000 tin-tops, a merged class, Stuart Tranter led from Run 1 whilst co-driver Colin Price took second place despite the car having already done 124,000 miles. In the Over 2 litre class Ricky Moore got very close to the record as he won at a canter from Tim Hanlon in the first of the Imprezas. In the Up to 2 litre Sports cars David Ormerod Jnr was on the pace getting close to the record as he took first ahead of his father whilst in the Over 2 Litre class John Biddulph was closer still to his own record in the Porsche as the Simon Allaby/David Hardcastle Triumph TR7 growled its way round in second & third. In the Over 1700 Kit Car class it was a Hosson-Bouler 1-2 as Mark Purdham led home Alastair Jackson, the latter grabbing the Novice Driver of the Day award. In the last of the Mod Prod classes, that for the motorcycle derived engined Kit Cars, Robert Bailey was on brilliant form and was inside his old record on each of his four timed runs. Mike Clarke won the battle of the Megabusas with Harry Moody third.
There was just the one Sports Libre class and Paul Norris in his immaculately prepared Talbot Sunbeam Ford Cosworth was the fastest from the get-go. Stuart Nelson pushed hard in second but not having sprinted at Aintree since 2007 he was a tad rusty. Third went to Paul Horrox in the Honda powered Lotus Exige whilst the very pretty Tiga SC79 of Derek Martlew claimed fourth ahead of the Mallock Clubmans car of Keith Robinson.
Into the Racing Car class and in the Up to 1100 split Gary Thomas was in a class of his own as he came close to his own record in the battle for not only the class but FTD which he also grabbed. Second went to the very pretty Seward F1010 which Christian Parker drove to good effect despite only having race rubber on hand. Barry Whitehead took third in RBS 7B despite breaking a rear wishbone – this sidelined him and also meant daughter Eve never got a run. Russell Edwardson was fourth in the Yamapin whilst co-driver for the season Alan wood took fifth. Peter Brogden, who switched to his Jedi after the March blew a cylinder head gasket during the week, won the battle of the 600s as he finished ahead of Brandon Smith in the very neat MJM Stealth.
The Formula Ford battle was next and it was Graham Curwen who took the narrowest of leads from David Sturdy. On the second runs Curwen increased his lead only for Sturdy on run 3 to snatch it back. With slight drizzle falling on the fourth runs it was game over. Meanwhile Phil Perks fought back from a poor first run in his Royale which included an ‘agricultural moment’ and he moved into third place second time round as Peter Ibbotson could only chip a few tenths off his previous time in the Sparton.
With just one car and two drivers in the 2 litre class of Racing Cars it was a Dallara benefit. John Graham led throughout whilst co-driver John Moxham chipped away at his times. Graham was initially also the leader of the FTD Trophy but when he made a complete hash of his second run and bogged down at the start his chance slipped away. Never-the-less his pace was evident and I suspect an FTD trophy is sure to come sooner rather than later.
The Classics were next and Phil Prince again was not only the fastest over the course but also won the class on handicap. Malcolm Evans, who made a late switch to the trusty Anglia, was second with Mike de St Paer third in the frogeyed Sprite. There was now a change of pace but not of the competitive level as the Austin 7s of the Bert Hadley Memorial Championship took to the track. John Mansfield’s Austin 7 Special was the class act being the only runner inside the 70 second barrier whilst Gordon Tasker held off the challenge from Alan Fairless & Geoff Harrison. Just three Scimitars made up the Reliant Sabre & Scimitar Owners Club contenders and Trevor Shortt in the elderly GT ran out a comfortable winner from the two more modern GTEs of John Louch and Paul Andrews.
The Morgans were next to the line and the battle on scratch went to Simon Baines whose son Jonathan tied for second place with Tim Harrison. On the Handicap it was Paul Bryan who took the honours with his Zetec powered 4/4 which was a great achievement on his first visit to Aintree from darkest Essex! Another Zetec powered 4/4 was second driven by Simon Moore whilst Simon Baines pace in the Lightweight Roadster saw him finish third.
There were only six runners in the Luffield MG Car Club class due in no small measure to a clash with MG Live at Silverstone. On track it was a 1-2 for the Walkers as Andy took the win in a new record time with their MGB Roadster V8. Paul Drake took third in his Sebringised MGB GT ahead of the TF 160s of Tim Kirkham and Bill Sharp.
The final class for the Austin Healey Club Healey Sport runners had just four runners and it was no surprise that local ace Alan Wilson took the win in his immaculate ally bodied 3000 Mk 2. Son Chris was second in his “plastic” Mk 2 Sprite whilst John Tewson and Richard Pugh brought their Sprites home in third and fourth.
The 471 competition starts were executed in just 3 hours and 45 minutes, yet another testimonial to the thorough professionalism of the LMC team. At the prize presentation in the Golf Centre there were huge smiles all round as yet another successful sprint on the Aintree club circuit was completed. The competitors really do appreciate the effort put in by LMC and the club members involved should be proud of their achievements.
Liverpool Motor Club Aintree Spring Sprint
30th April 2011
by Steve Wilkinson
Just over 140 competitors arrived at the Aintree Club Circuit for the first sprint of the year at the historic venue. The weather was near perfect, though rather windy. After the two practice runs the meeting proper would get underway.
The Standard Roadgoing 2 litre class was reduced to just two runners and Doug Gorge took the win over John Early both in Renault Clios. In Class 1A Martin Rowe took the win in his Peugeot with the evergreen John Marsden second in his Mini. In Class 1B Russell Herring led initially with his Clio Cup 172 only for the other Russell (Thorpe) to slip through for the win. In Class 1C Bob Jones, who had been amalgamated from the equivalent Standard Class, ended up the only runner so duly took the trophy. Robert Holt then took a solo win in Class 1D with his Elise whilst initially there had been no entries for 1D on the day Tony and Peter Hart pitched up with a glorious Renault Alpine GTA and Tony just beat Peter to the win.
In Class 2A (Roadgoing Kit Cars up to 1700) Brad Gould maintained his lead throughout whilst Andrew Hargreaves in the Hayabusa powered Westie held off a challenge from Chris Hardman in the Vauxhall powered version. In Class 2B Howard Gaskin ended up just over 2 seconds clear of the rest who were led home by Stephen Everall. The final Roadgoing class for Specialist Production Cars had just one entry, but what an entry! Malcolm Thorne was making his Aintree debut with his wonderful AC Cobra Superblower ““ 5 litres of Supercharged V8! Malcolm duly hammered the Class Record and had a thoroughly entertaining day.
Into the Mod Prod classes and in Class 3B the unlikely Citroen Visa of Michael Dentten took the win holding off the challenge from David Reade in the Golf. In Class 3C John Biddulph led initially in the Porsche 964RS and looked likely to win until Aintree debutante Ricky Moore in the Time Attack Mitsubishi slipped through for the win. Biddulph remained second with David Kennerley bringing his Impreza home third. In Class 3D it was an Ormerod 1-2 with David Junior maintaining his lead throughout over father David; the “˜stealth’ Mazda MX5 of Damian Lynch and Rob Newnes completed the class order. Into Class 3G and with 11 runners it was always going to be a close call. Matt Hillam in the SBD-Westfield just kept ahead of Kurt Ramsden despite a third run spin. However Ramsden was relegated to second place after two runs only to fight back to secure the runners up slot ahead of Paul Aspden who was co-driving Derek Hodder’s Honda supercharged Westie. Hodder took fourth with Terry Everall fifth and Chris Hullat sixth. There was just one runner in Class 3H after Steven Brown’s Hyabusa powered Westfield was sidelined with engine maladies. Mark Anson didn’t hang about and got to within a quarter of a second of the class record.
There were six entries in the Sports Libre class, all with engines over the magic 1700cc mark. Jim Belt in the wonderfully crisp V6 Jaguar Powered Juno took the win and took exactly half a second off Simon Bainbridge’s class record with the Audi TT Replica. All three of Belt’s runs were inside Bainbridge’s best time! Second spot went to Derek Martlew in the lovely Tiga SC79, an ex-Sports 2000 racer. Paul Horrox was third in the re-engined Exige whilst Martlew’s co-driver, Frazer Graham, was fourth.
Into the Racing Car classes next and in 5A for the up to 1100s Craig Powers was the victor finishing ahead of co-driver for the day Eve Whitehead who had moved over to the OMS after a problem with RBS7B’s fuel pump was discovered. Speaking of which Barry Whitehead managed a temporary fix and he duly took third place, ahead of Russell Edwardson & Alan Wood who were sharing the former’s Yamapin. Class 5 B for the Formula Ford 1600’s were next and initially Phil Perks in the elderly Royale RP24 led from the Van Diemens of Graham Curwen & David Sturdy. After the second runs, Sturdy was leading from Curwen up to second yet on the third runs Perks fought back to take second. The final Racing Car class was for over 1600cc cars and there was another dominant winner. John Graham, he of the Lotus 2-11 & Elan, had bought a Dallara and he duly started to come to terms with the switch to an open wheeler on this his very first competitive event with the car. Graham would lead throughout whilst Dennis Doyle, despite a practice excursion at Village, maintained the runner’s up slot. Peter Brogden in the pretty ex-Musami Kuwashima F3 March was third with John Moxham, co-driving Graham’s ex-Platt Dallara, was fourth as he came to terms with the switch from a Mod Prod Saloon to a single seater!
In Class 6 (Classic & Racing Cars pre 1973) Malcolm Evans in the CTG Clubmans car was the fastest on Scratch times. However class positions are decided on Target Times and Phil Prince in the Elan, a car he has had for more years than either he or I would care to remember, duly ran out the winner. John Hanlon, guesting in Sean Bramhall’s lovely Healey 100/6, was second with Evans in the CTG third.
Just three Reliants made it to the line and Nick Hall in the Super Sabre 1 Turbo was too nimble for Paul Andrews & Brain Couch Snr in their Scimitar GTEs.
The final “˜classic’ class was for the wonderful Paul Matty Sportscars lotus Championship. On scratch John Palmer in a modified Lotus 61 was fastest but the Championship is run on handicap and first place would go to Pete Bottrill in the pretty series 3 Elan. Second was the similar Elan of Richard Swindall with Sarah Thorne in the Elise third. Paul Matty’s gloriously turned out Lotus 35 was second fastest overall but could only manage seventh on handicap.
This left just the two Caterham Academy Groups who were divided into two classes ““ one per group. In Group A Elliot Norris led throughout setting his best time on Run 2. Charlie Bowmont was initially second but fell down to third when Robert Chappell slipped through. Mark Lewis made a bit of a mess of his Academy car when he flew off at Bechers but the driver was OK only the bank balance would be damaged! In Group B it was Andrew Welch who was in top form leading throughout. Brad Smith got close, to within 0.03 second, whilst Michael Steeden was only 0.14 further back!
All in all a great day of sprinting in near perfect conditions. For a full set of results just check out the appropriate place on the website – and if you want to get involved then here are the dates for the rest of the season:-