Willmott wins Healey battle and Wolf howls

Equipe Classic Racing held its annual summer meeting at Silverstone last weekend with over 400 cars competing, and among the highlights was a special grid of Austin-Healeys.

Joe Wilmott pipped Ollie and Jack Chatham to the Syd Segal Trophy win after a masterclass in defending in the final laps leaving the brothers “gutted” to not take home their first victory.

Jack Chatham started on pole in a Austin-Healey 3000 but a poor start meant he dropped to second behind Jaap Sinke in a 3000 MkIIA. Chatham quickly overtook Sinke into Club but Willmott, who started third, didn’t allow him to escape and began to battle with the pair weaving in and out of the lead for several laps.

Once the pit window opened, the Chatham brothers blinked first with Jack later explaining that “Ollie had been quicker in qualifying so we thought he might be able to build a gap”.

However, Willmott’s decision to stop two laps later paid dividends as he came out in the lead with a five-second gap. He explained: “I could see that there was no traffic ahead of me, if I came in for a minute pitstop I would get stuck in traffic as I came out.

“I had two blinding laps and, as I came out, I saw him coming through Copse so it was a very well-timed pitstop.”

Described as a “nerve-wracking and emotional” experience by Jack, who was now on the pitwall, Ollie began to whittle down the gap in the final laps filling Willmott’s wing mirrors in the final moments. However, Willmott never allowed any opportunities for Chatham to pass.

Sons of renowned Austin-Healey racer and friend of Syd Segal, John ‘Mr Big Healey’ Chatham – who could be found at the track during the weekend – both Ollie and Jack hoped that they had just made their dad “proud-ish”, despite the defeat.

Star car: Dickson’s Ferrari 308 GTB

An experienced racer of “big old historic V8s”, John Dickson spoke in adoration of his 308, describing the scarlet red Ferrari as “fabulous to drive”.

“It’s the lovely smooth flat-plane V8 engine which delivers the power so smoothly,” he explained, “it feels very refined for a car that’s nearly 50 years old.

“You’re encouraged to carry more speed through the corners with these massive 12-inch rears and nine-inch fronts.”

One of 150 right-hand-drive models of the 308 GTB, Dickson’s Ferrari is an original 1977 Vetro Resina dry sump 308, which he bought in 2016 after it had been shelved for 20 years.

Previously racing in the early 1990s in the Ferrari Modena Championship, Dickson was adamant he wanted it to return to its racing ways and originally stripped the car down to 70s Road Sports spec. However, when engine issues gave an opportunity to rethink the car’s specification, he rebuilt it to Group 4 rules after learning the 308’s history in the category.

“I did some races in the HSCC Roads Sports and successfully won it but I always wanted a Group 4 Ferrari,” he said. “There were two Group 4 circuit racing cars that raced in Daytona and Sebring in 1978 – a guy called Carlo Facetti won the Italian Sports Car Championship in a Group 4 308 so this is a copy of that.”

He originally intended to take the car back to Italy to compete in the Modena Cento Ore in October, an Italian car rally on both closed public roads and race tracks, but Dickson has decided to delay these plans for another year to make sure he and the car are as ready as possible.

He said: “I’ve never done it before and I’ve opted to do the regularity rather than race. I want to get a feel of the event and then hopefully me and 308 can do it next year.”

Star car: Smith’s Wolf GB08 Thunder

Smith’s Wolf is one of just two thundering around the UK currently

Photo by: Mick Walker

One of two of the models in the UK, the Thunder was built to be incredibly light with great power-to-weight ratio, explained its driver Darcy Smith, with the car weighing only 378kg and producing 222bhp.

Built under the new ownership of Wolf Racing Cars after Walter Wolf sold the rights to the company, Smith bought the prototype after years of racing Radicals and deciding that he wanted something different.

“Traditionally my background was Radicals and I raced them for 20 years and then I retired in 2018,” he said. “For whatever reason, I decided to come back and was on the internet looking at different vehicles.

“I went to the factory in Italy, spoke to the guys there and then got tipped over and the rest is history.”

Primarily made for a single-make series in Italy, the Thunder is constructed from carbon fibre and has an Aprilia V4 motorbike engine in the back.

While the small engine can make it slower than other cars it races against, its light weight makes it incredibly agile. When asked about its comparison to a Radical, Smith was clear that the weight difference gives the Thunder a big advantage in the corners.

“You can feel it when you’re driving it,” he said. “It’s so easy to turn into corners and you can brake so late. The safety is also a big advantage because carbon has to be better than any steel frame chassis.”

Despite his experience in prototypes, Smith showed nervousness when asked about his expectations of the weekend and suggested that the weather was proving to be “massively challenging”.

Smith proved to be correct with the Equipe Sports Prototype drivers tiptoeing around Silverstone in race one amid torrential rain. Smith took home two 10th-place finishes on both Saturday and Sunday, with the latter race on a much drier track.

Best battle: Curley’s slick stunner in Minis

Curley was able to get the better of Smith and Deeth (r) late on

Photo by: Mick Walker

Ian Curley’s Miglia took the lead of first the Mini 7 Racing Club contest on the final lap after a bold decision to start on slicks on a drying track.

Dropping to fifth from pole on the first lap, Curley fought to recover positions and, as the track dried, began to take seconds off Rupert Deeth and Aaron Smith who were on wet tyres and constantly brawling at the front.

With only a few corners left in the race, Curley danced past Smith into Abbey and then moments later dived ahead of Deeth into Brooklands.

Smith saw Curley’s overtake as an opportunity to slip up the inside of Deeth himself but missed out on second by 0.021s in a drag race to the line.

Stepping out his car, Curley grinned at Deeth and said “fortune favours the bold”.

Star category: Equipe MG Cup

Cawthorn’s MGA was able to mix it with the far newer ZRs in Equipe MG Cup

Photo by: Mick Walker

Stuart Emmett confidently won the Equipe MG Cup opener in his Union Jack-liveried MG ZR 190 after having to retake the lead off the line following Max Cawthorn’s incredible start from sixth to lead into the first turn in his MGA. However, Emmett’s pace meant Cawthorn’s lead was brief with Emmett reclaiming the place out of Club.

On his blazing start, Cawthorn shared: “I was speaking to one of the guys in the collecting area and he said they’re not great off the line and it takes a couple laps for the tyres to kick in.

“We lost a fellow competitor on the formation lap, which left me a massive gap in front, but I was surprised I managed to lead into the first corner.”

Once in second, Cawthorn was worried “it would be a struggle to stay where I was” but a scrap for third between George Streather, Archie Styant, and Gianni Picone allowed him to escape.

Streather finished third after Picone spun and “disappeared in a puff of smoke” out of Club, according to Streather, before going on to overtake Styant.

Starting on pole for race two, Cawthorn lost the lead to Streather into Stowe on lap one before Styant also passed him into Club. Down but not out, Cawthorn usurped both drivers again on the next lap to return to the lead.

However, the Union Jack ZR 190 remained an ominous threat after Emmett was replaced in the car by Dan Ludlow, which meant he had to start from the back of the grid. Ludlow looked set to steal the win with minutes to go but an incident with Styant out of Maggotts spun the car into the gravel.

Styant lamented post-race: “I think he just didn’t see me in his blind spot. He turned in front of me, clipped my nose. I’m really sorry to him because that ruined his race.”

Cawthorn therefore took the win while Styant was disqualified from second, which promoted Streather.