Steve Dance navigated gusty and damp conditions at Silverstone in his Ford Capri RS3100 to take the win in the red finale of last weekend’s Equipe Super Sprint.
The unique event features a series of short heats through which drivers progress to determine which of three finals they would contest, with each designed to feature car/driver combinations of a similar pace.
But in setting a super qualifying time of 1m03.667s that was two seconds faster than anyone else, Dance marked himself out as the driver to beat, and duly won every single heat in the top group of the event. Given a 10-second penalty in his first heat for a false start, he still triumphed by a commanding 12s.
Several drivers tried to challenge Dance throughout the day, most notably Rob Cull in his Ford Escort RS1800, but Dance’s 1970 GAA-spec machine proved too much to defeat in the mixed conditions. This included in the red final for the quickest contenders, in which Cull briefly took the lead, before Dance breezed by again and disappeared in his stunning white, blue, and orange Capri.
“I would have been disappointed if I hadn’t done as well as I had done being as I had slick tyres compared to treaded tyres,” Dance said.
“I’ve loved it, the different format is quite good and makes a nice change. It’s very different and I think they’ve done a really good job.”
Neil Fisher led the field away from pole in the middle green final in a Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R but dropped to second after Harvey Blake-Jones stole the lead in his Marcos 1800GT. However, Fisher was able to use the Ford’s blazing straight-line speed created by its 4.7-litre V8 engine to grab the place back and then pulled away to win by three seconds.
Fisher and Blake-Jones initially had a close scrap in the green final
Photo by: Mick Walker
Barry Dye and his Ginetta G4R took the laurel in the slowest yellow final after holding the lead off the line and beginning to build a comfortable gap in front of Darren Smith and James Topliss who scrapped for second place in their MGB Roadsters.
Detailed with the car’s past wins on its exterior, Dye can now add his own name after taking his first win in the vehicle he labelled a “proper history car”. Topliss was later disqualified after crowding out Mike Henney’s Turner, which had joined the battle for second.
One of the day’s star performers was Charles Angrave in his 1955 Lotus MkVI. Weighing only 420kg with 1100cc, Angrave moved through the ranks after he was unable to compete in qualifying thanks to an oil leak.
Starting last in the first heat of group three, Angrave made light work of the field and made up 20 places on the first lap alone before the safety car was brought out. Once green, Angrave passed the lead cars of Dye and Steve Winter, which secured his promotion to the top group.
During heat two, Angrave worked to make up eight places on lap one from 16th and finished eighth, which kept him just within the top echelon of racers. The oil leak meant his brakes began to fail in the final heat, however Angrave managed to stay in the red final and went on to finish 12th.
“We’ve had [the oil leak] in every race but we sorted before it then leaked onto the brakes in the final heat and it meant we had no brakes,” Angrave explained.
“Then problems came back again so we had to do our best for the final. It’s just the most fantastic little car. It’s so light which is why it is good in the wet. It does really well even with the most powerful cars.”
Angrave produced several storming displays as he battled back from oil leak woes
Photo by: Mick Walker
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– The Autosport.com Team
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