After what seemed like a long wait, the weekend of the inaugural Historic FF2000 race finally arrived, and despite gloomy weather forecasts, the weather at Cadwell Park was bright, if a little chilly and breezy. Testing was available on the Saturday evening, and many Historic FF2000 runners took advantage of the three single seater sessions to learn, or reacquaint themselves with, the unique demands of Cadwell. Surprisingly, several cars failed the 105db noise test, although most seemed to find a solution by the time the sessions started.

Unfortunately, the Historic FF2000 organisers caused the sessions to be punctuated by red flags. Iain lost his nosecone in an altercation with Ken Thorogood (and promptly wrote “Ken Hit Me!” in marker pen on his nose), and then hit a kerb, which caused the bottom mounting of a front upright to fail. Alan (having his first single seater drive since the Seventies) missed a gear and blew his clutch and shed the flywheel.

After much work in the paddock, Seamus Doyle’s misfire was still present, and the head gasket was replaced. After much (bald) head scratching, the problem was identified as a distributor which was not advancing. The overheating problem which prompted the head gasket change was still present in the race, so expect to see a refurbished radiator on his car at Silverstone.

Most other runners seemed to survive unscathed, and made the barbecue. What can I say about the barbecue? “If you can remember it, you weren’t there”. Terry Swinson made strenuous efforts (both liquid and solid) to ensure that his position in the Heavyweight Class was not in danger, and hats off to the girls, who put in a sterling effort to drink all the Champagne, generously provided by Peter Richards.

Sunday dawned bright, but still with a bit of a nip in the air. Scrutineering was not until 10:55, so that gave the Delta Motorsport team time to complete the clutch and flywheel replacement on Alan’s Royale. The only scrutineering hiccup that I am aware of was when Dallas found a crack in Iain’s chassis. Fortunately it was in an area that was only used when it carried an Imp engine in F4, so he scraped through.

There were a few changes to the published entry. Due to pressure of time, Alan Morgan’s new Delta was not ready, so he was due to revert to Iain’s trusty car from years gone by. When time got even shorter, Alan took over the Royale that Iain was due to race, and Iain ended up doing a hurried prep on his Delta on Friday night  (the car had not turned a wheel since Spa in 2002).

John Goldsmith had sold his Jamun immediately after Donington the previous Sunday, but the new owner, George Fowler, also took over his entry for Cadwell. Nick Pearce’s engine wasn’t ready, and Andrew Storer was a late entry, so it was still a grid of 22 cars.

Scrutineering problems for Iain

Ready for qualifying

Qualifying was run in warm, dry conditions and expected frontrunners Colin Wright and Peter Meyrick were joined by Adam Ormandy in the first three places, just 0.378s apart. Slightly further back, but still very close together, were Andrew Storer, Peter Richards and Iain Rowley. Most of the other runners got in a reasonable number of laps, with the exception of Alan Morgan and Lou Watts, who managed 1 and 2 laps apiece, Alan due to a detached water pump pulley.

Andrew Storer's car working hard chasing Peter Meyrick in qualifying

Roger Price rounds the hairpin

Pos     Name                            Time              Laps

1        Colin Wright                   1:34.889        7

2        Peter Meyrick                 1:35.030        9

3        Adam Ormandy               1:35.277        6

4        Andrew Storer                1:36.321        6

5        Peter Richards                1:36.372        8

6        Iain Rowley                    1:36.456        9

7        Eric Hoult                       1:37.162       9

8        Alan Parker                     1:37.267       5

9        Steve Gardiner                1:37.754       9

10       Ken Thorogood               1:38.278        8

11       Roger Price                    1:38.279        8

12       George Lambton              1:38.369       9

13       Paul Dukes                     1:38.451       6

14       Terry Swinson                1:39.408        8

15       Jeremy Main                   1:40.128       8

16       George Fowler                1:40.947        9

17       Simon Aldworth               1:42.881       8

18       Stuart Olley                   1:46.499        7

19       Seamus Doyle                 1:47.154       8

20       Alan Gape                      1:51.155       5

21       Lou Watts                      1:54.077       2

22       Alan Morgan                    2:03.746       1

With the race not scheduled to start until 17:15, and rain being forecast for late afternoon, most people were keeping an eye on the skies, and some took the precaution of pumping up their wets. The rain held off, however, with just a brief shower at the prizegiving later.

The Historic FF2000 race was towards the end of the meeting, and judging by the animated commentary coming over the PA system, the preceding races had been close and action-packed. Our inaugural race had a lot to live up to…

Just a few minutes late, the cars left the assembly area and formed up on the grid. When the lights went out, poor Alan Gape was left stuck on the line – clutch? The rest of the field charged round Coppice, led by Colin Wright. By the end of the lap, Peter Meyrick had got past Colin, as had Adam Ormandy. These three had a small lead over the Deltas of Peter Richards and Iain Rowley. Just behind Iain was Andrew Storer, clearly taking to single seaters like a duck to water. As the three Reynards scrapped for the lead, Peter Richards was able to take advantage, and close up to them, taking Iain and Andrew with him.

With six cars fighting hard for the lead, it was almost inevitable that something would happen, and lap eight was when it did. Despite being involved in an intense battle with each other, Adam Ormandy and Colin Wright had eroded the small lead that Peter Meyrick had built up, and the three Reynards tangled at Mansfield, leaving Adam in the bank on the left, and delaying Peter and Colin. So, what was a Reynard 1-2-3 became a Delta 1-2, with Peter Richards inheriting the lead from Iain. Peter’s lead was to be brief, however, as he spun at Hall Bends right in front of Iain. Iain managed to avoid his customer, and carried on into a lead he was to hold until the end of the race.

Charging recovery drives by Peter Meyrick and Colin Wright netted third place and fastest lap respectively, while Peter Richards got back up to eighth by the end. All this activity at the front left Steve Gardiner in a delighted fourth place, with Alan Parker fifth and Colin Wright sixth. Other retirements included Paul Dukes, who suffered a loose wheel, and parked his immaculate Reynard (in evocative Dukes Pallets livery) on Park Straight and George Fowler, who stopped after eight laps, still affected by the elusive misfire which had dogged previous owner John Goldsmith at Donington the weekend before.

Paul Smith of Dupaul Engineering had generously donated some handsome trophies, and HSCC Executive Director, Grahame White, agreed to present them after racing finished. The top five all got a cup, with Terry Swinson winning the Heavyweight class, and George Fowler winning the Pre 78 Trophy, providing some compensation for his disappointment in the race. Colin Wright also got a bottle of Champagne for pole.

Grahame was very encouraging, saying that more races will definitely be on the cards for next year, and Marcus Pye did a fabulous writeup in Autosport, both in his race report and “Humble Pye” column. It looks as though we’ve set ourselves a very high standard to maintain…

Race Results

Pos Name               Laps  Time           Fastest Lap

1    Iain Rowley       12     19:28.105    1:35.306

2    Andrew Storer    12    19:29.700    1:35.926

3    Peter Meyrick    12     19:30.562    1:35.174

4    Steve Gardiner   12    19:40.535    1:36.588

5    Alan Parker        12     19:41.843    1:36.217

6    Colin Wright       12     19:44.654    1:34.725

7    Eric Hoult          12      19:56.235    1:36.768

8    Peter Richards    12     19:58.000     1:35.239

9    Roger Price        12     20:03.146     1:37.758

10  Terry Swinson     12     20:24.689     1:38.599

11  Jeremy Main        12     20:25.917     1:39.101

12  George Lambton   12    20:26.762     1:39.146

13  Simon Aldworth    12    20:26.984     1:38.873

14  Stuart Olley        12    21:12.327     1:42.067

15  Seamus Doyle      11   19:39.230      1:44.501

16  Lou Watts           11    19:52.134     1:44.951

17  Alan Morgan        11    20:03.173      1:43.395

18 Ken Thorogood       9     15:01.245     1:36.933

Not Classified

19 George Fowler       8      14:18.513     1:41.554

20 Adam Ormandy      7       11:22.930     1:34.864

21 Paul Dukes            7      11:47.568      1:38.585

22 Alan Gape             0

Fastest Lap

Colin Wright  1:34.725

The Winner!