Seventy years and two days after Clive Wormleighton first welcomed racers and fans to Mallory Park, 500cc Formula 3 again topped the bill at Leicestershire’s atmospheric ‘lap of the lake’ as the Classic & Modern Motorsport Club and British Racing & Sports Car Club celebrated the platinum anniversary.
On 21 May 1956, Jack Moor won the first Half-Litre race in his self-built Wasp, and the final, from heat two winner Dick Hett and Peter Procter in Coopers. This time, 500 Owners Association champion Alex Wilson scored first in his Cooper-Norton Mk10, built in the same year as the circuit!
Wilson’s victory from the back of a strong field was hard-earned, for his car shed its drive chain on the opening lap of qualifying. Wilson was second at the time of a one-lap safety car – to move debutant ‘Bex’ Kelly’s American Heizer-JAP, stalled at Shaw’s hairpin – but he grabbed the advantage from Richard Kelly into the Esses a lap from the chequer.
Chasing teenager Fergus Cameron’s non-eligible 1100cc Cooper-JAP V-twin, Kelly Sr, piloting the Cooper-Norton Mk10 in which Jim Russell won at Mallory on 7 July 1956 – en route to the second of three successive BRSCC Autosport National titles – dazzled rivals and grabbed Sunday’s maximum points in 30C heat, Wilson his closest pursuer. Jimmy May was an excellent third both days in the unique Petty, the creation of his grandfather Ray Petty, alongside Francis Beart and Steve Lancefield in the pantheon of Manx Norton engine tuning greats.
The only JAP-powered survivor on Saturday was the distinctive green ex-‘Mr Bob’ Gerard/Henry Taylor Cooper Mk8 of Douglas McLay, appropriately since local garagiste Gerard demonstrated his Cooper-Bristol at Mallory’s press launch in April 1956. His name is immortalised in the 180-degree first corner so vital to fast laps of the track. Sunday’s JAP points winner was Jonathan Morris whose South African-built Waye missed practice with magneto failure.
Flann cooked up a double Formula Junior victory as Lotuses locked out the top spots
Photo by: Mick Walker
Formula Junior superseded the 500 era, and was welcomed back to the track where local village Anstey’s rising star John Taylor, winner of the final championship round at Mallory in August 1963, has long been remembered with a special trophy. Young Rufus Flann dominated both rear-engined races to win it in a Lotus 22, similar to Jack Pearce’s 1962 victor. In a Lotus-fest, Nathan Metcalfe and triple champion Nic Carlton-Smith in 20s led the chase, with George Diffey (Veedol Lotus 20/22), Stuart Monument and Iain Rowley (22s) scrapping in their wake to keep Oscar Trepess (20) behind.
The nominally front-engined group weathered scrappy starts. After Gary Thomas’ Kieft snapped a driveshaft on Saturday’s grid, and Alex Morton’s incontinent Condor was pushed off, Adrian Russell (Condor) won from Keith Pickering’s rear-engined Britannia and Andrea Guarino’s Elva 100, promoted when Nick Taylor’s BMC-engined version retired. Russell suffered transmission failure in Sunday’s getaway, freeing Pickering to beat Taylor and Trevor Griffiths’ rare Emeryson ‘pusher’.
Best of the ‘modern’ races were the Classic Citroen 2CV slipstreamers in which champion Nick Crispin doubled up in the Figjam Racing car after late paint-swapping skirmishes with Andy Bull at the Esses and Devil’s Elbow on Sunday’s final lap. Crispin’s winning margin over Bull totalled 0.787 seconds, with Ethan Sparrow shadowing them.
Darlington & District Motor Club racers enjoyed super bouts, Scott Hubel delighted to beat Saturday victor Mike Williamson’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo4 on Sunday in his stunning rear-engined tubeframe Peugeot 205 T16R. There were stout CMMC Intermarque Silhouette battles too as Reuben Taylor (Ginetta G40R) twice outran Warren Farazmand, debuting the ex-Malcolm Blackman Vauxhall Tigra, and Keith White (BMW Z4).
Dave Cowan won both CMMC Super Saloon races, his BMW E46 M3 too torquey for Martin Reynolds’ Ford Escort-Holbay with poleman Rod Birley’s Escort WRC broken. Jack Ashton twice outran Tim Shooter in the MG Metro Cup and Iain Blackley outgunned Jon Glover in the six-car Ford Puma parade.
Taylor was twice at the head of the Intermarque Silhouettes field
Photo by: Mick Walker
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– The Autosport.com Team
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