F4 racer Reynolds scores remarkable Cortina win at Donington Historic Festival

There are not too many drivers who have competed in British Formula 4 that have also raced a historic Lotus Cortina in the same season, but Harri Reynolds demonstrated that he is quick in two very different disciplines after being one of the stars of last weekend’s Donington Historic Festival.

The previous weekend the Welshman was piloting one of JHR Developments’ Tatuus F4 machines, taking a best result of eighth, but then swapped to Peter Smith’s Cortina seven days later and triumphed at his debut historic racing event in the most unlikely of circumstances in the Historic Racing Drivers Club Jack Sears Trophy contest.

The son of rally ace Julian needed to use some of those off-road skills on the opening lap when he was one of several drivers among the magnificent 43-car field – which, alongside a phalanx of Cortinas, also featured everything from a Sunbeam Rapier to Colin Turkington sharing a Standard Vanguard Six with James Colburn – to tangle into the Old Hairpin. Former Ginetta Junior and GB4 frontrunner Reynolds took to the gravel and ended the first tour down in 18th. But the third-place starter launched a spectacular charge and returned to the top five on the seventh lap. He then darted ahead of Jonathan Mitchell through the Craner Curves to enter the contest’s pitstop phase in fourth – a position he held until late in the race.

At this point, 2016 British Touring Car runner-up Sam Tordoff was comfortably leading in his Ford Mustang, but this suddenly slowed with five laps to go with a gear linkage problem. Reynolds then demoted the Cortina Paul Streather was sharing with fellow former Clio Cup competitor Jake Giddings on the penultimate tour of Donington’s Grand Prix configuration to seemingly snare second. But there was to be one more twist as another Mustang struck misfortune when a fuel pressure issue suddenly caused new leader Nigel Greensall to slow in the car he shared with John Spiers. Reynolds therefore took the most unlikely of victories.

“I thought my race was over,” said Reynolds of his first-lap strife, adding that his experience of the shorter Donington National layout the previous weekend had been useful. “But I kept pushing and I can’t believe it. It’s completely different [to F4] – going from slicks and wings to road tyres and a car that’s triple my age!”

There was also late drama among the slightly newer tin-tops of the HRDC’s Gerry Marshall Trophy and another unexpected winner in the shape of the Jaguar XJS of Alex Brundle and Simon Lewis, almost 42 years to the day since Brundle’s father Martin won the Donington Park 500kms in an XJS alongside John Fitzpatrick and Enzo Calderari.

Michael Whitaker Jr’s Rover SD1 had looked on course for victory, with the entire field pitting during a safety-car period, but it then came under attack from the Ford Capri of new WSR BTCC recruit Charles Rainford, who had recovered from slipping from second to fifth at the start. With three laps to go Rainford dived ahead into the Melbourne Hairpin but Whitaker remained on his bootlid and impressively reclaimed the place two laps later with a bold move around the outside of Schwantz. And before Rainford could retaliate, he found himself in the McLeans gravel.

Yet Whitaker still did not take the glory as a five-second track-limits penalty meant he slipped behind the Brundle/Lewis Jag in the final reckoning. “It was good fun!” said Brundle. “Simon is a proper old-school gentleman racer – he rocked up with the car on an open trailer with a couple of mates. Dad told me I need to ignore 90% of the stuff in the car!”

Not to miss out, there was also a thrilling lead battle among the subsequent Group A tin-tops of the Historic Touring Car Challenge. This contest has often been won by the fire-breathing Nissan Skylines but when one of the ‘Godzillas’ – that of early leader Ric Wood – retired with a differential oil cooler leak, Skyline superiority was under threat. Having taken over the ex-Toshio Suzuki Skyline from Jonathan Bailey, Andy Middlehurst emerged from the pits with a 3.5s lead over Darren Fielding’s BMW. But a couple of spins and a penalty for pitlane speeding dropped the M3 from contention.

Instead, it was Julian Thomas in the ex-Andy Rouse Kaliber Ford Sierra RS500 who was on a charge. With the Nissan suffering from fuel surge issues, the two cars were evenly matched and had a fantastic scrap. Thomas twice grabbed the lead only for Middlehurst to immediately fight back. But, with three laps to go, Thomas seemed to have made the decisive pass across the timing line and began to pull clear. However, he then ground to a halt on the penultimate tour with the fanbelt having broken, which sent the Sierra’s engine temperatures soaring.

Despite the disappointment, Thomas relished the battle. “I had the race of my life, I had so much fun!” he enthused. “I think we touched three times, and he kept closing the door firmly. It was touring car racing and the car’s not a museum piece.”

Middlehurst added: “I got a bit of fuel surge so couldn’t push as hard as I would like. It was great battling, but I was fighting with one hand behind my back.”

Thomas (l) and Middlehurst had a fantastic Historic Touring Car Challenge scrap

Photo by: Steve Jones

Fielding still finished second, despite also picking up a track-limits sanction, while Steve Dance’s Group 2 Capri was the only other car on the lead lap.

While these tin-top bouts built to a crescendo, the best Mad Jack Pre-War battling came in the early laps. Gareth Burnett and Rudiger Friedrichs are regular frontrunners in the race that celebrates Richard ‘Mad Jack’ Shuttleworth – who won the Donington Grand Prix 90 years ago – and enjoyed a tremendous tussle. Friedrichs’ Alvis Firefly grabbed the lead from Burnett’s polesitting Alta Sports into Redgate for the first time, but Burnett fought back at the same corner two laps later. The pair continued to switch places over the next few laps before Burnett eventually pulled clear after the pitstops with Friedrichs struggling with a gear issue. “The Alvis was quicker down the straights but I could get him under braking,” said Burnett. “It took me four or five laps to work out where to pass him.”

Sue Darbyshire’s three-wheeled Morgan was also on a mission in the early stages and could potentially have been in podium contention but for it losing a cylinder.

While there was jeopardy in the pre-war race, there was only ever going to be one winner of the contests for the newest machinery in action at this year’s Festival. Twenty-four sportscars assembled for the new GT3 Legends category after Motor Racing Legends ran a successful pilot race at the end of last season. Jonathan Mitchell had qualified his Aston Martin V12 Vantage – previously raced in the Daytona 24 Hours by James Davison, who was at Donington driving a Williams FW22 in demo runs – on pole by 1.5s and proceeded to streak clear both times.

Andrew Jordan was set to negate his 30s ‘elite driver’ pitstop penalty to bag a brace of runner-ups in the Corvette C6 he shared with Matt Holme but a driveshaft problem put the pair out of race two late on. Christian Albrecht’s McLaren MP4-12C was promoted to second, while Max Lynn’s Nissan GT-R rounded out the podium to make up for a clash with Craig Wilkins’ Lamborghini Gallardo that dropped Lynn down the race-one order.

A variety of marques were represented among the strong field, including the rare Ford GT GT3 of Fred Shepherd, but the pair of Ferraris never featured near the front. The Prancing Horses did provide some entertainment in the Ferrari Formula Classic thrashes however, with Wayne Marrs’ F355 winning two of the three races. A driveshaft failure in the opener marred the start of the pineapple importer’s weekend, with Tim Mogridge’s F355 triumphing in that one after passing Colin Sowter’s F355 Spyder into the Esses with a couple of laps to go.

Alongside the unexpected twists in many of the tin-top contests, another recurring theme of the event was near misses for the Spiers/Greensall duo. In addition to their late Jack Sears Trophy disappointment, the pair was also narrowly defeated in the Pre ’63 GT mini-enduro. The early stages of the race were all about three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, who built a healthy advantage in a Shelby Cobra. But Greensall was on a charge after taking over Spiers’ Cobra and closed a 25s gap to Gregor Fisken – in for Franchitti – down to less than 5s by the flag. “There was nothing left!” smiled Greensall.

Franchitti enjoyed the physical challenge of the Cobra around Donington Park

Photo by: Steve Jones

Franchitti added: “It’s just a lovely car to drive. [Later in his stint] I started to play with it on the bumps. I’ve had some adventures with Gregor over the years but I think it’s our first win together.”

Spiers also led a chunk of the two-hour Pall Mall Cup contest in his Jaguar E-type before the pair opted for an alternative strategy by being one of the first crews to complete their mandated five-minute stop with refuelling. The Lotus Elan of Shaun and Max Lynn assumed the lead and opted to make its longer pit visit in the final minutes of the race. It had looked like the E-type and the Elan would converge close together only for Greensall to stop the Jag with a suspected clutch problem.

In the end the Lynns finished over 20s clear of the Marcus Oeynhausen/Andy Wolfe E-type to score a victory for their Elan against far more powerful opposition. Lynn Sr admitted they were not expecting to win. “We were hoping for a podium,” he said. “But we knew we would have a chance as the Elan is a giant-killer.”

Spiers/Greensall were also key contenders for the Stirling Moss Trophy in their Lister Knobbly. But, unlike the rest of the field, they did not pit during a safety car period as they believed Spiers had not completed the minimum amount of drive time for the ‘owners’. Inevitably they plummeted down the order when Spiers pitted just as the race went green again, Greensall eventually recovering to fourth. The Lotus 15 of Kyle Tilley and Olly Bryant took the win, Bryant fighting past the Listers of Tim Crighton and Will Nuthall, which had benefitted from being the first to pit.

Rounding out Spiers’ near-misses was a slightly ragged and unsuccessful pursuit of the fellow TVR Griffith of Mike Whitaker Sr in the HRDC Allstars encounter. Tordoff completed the podium, the Jordan Racing Team having hastily patched up his Mustang’s gearbox.

Another international racing star to enjoy a victorious weekend was 2003 Le Mans winner Guy Smith. His Cortina topped both of the Under 2-Litre Touring Car races, the first featuring a brief battle with Fortec boss Richard Dutton’s similar car after the latter had profited from a fractionally too-short pitstop to challenge the erstwhile leader. Mitchell had put in another stirring performance from the back to finish second in his Cortina after Dutton served his stop/go penalty.

Single-seaters also made a return to the Donington Historic Festival bill this year with two Formula Junior grids. Each featured a dominant winner with Ray Mallock’s U2 Mk2 unstoppable in the front-engined set and Alex Ames (Brabham BT6) uncatchable among the rear-engined ranks.

This was as close as anyone got to Mallock in Formula Junior

Photo by: Steve Jones