Mallory Park can rarely have looked nicer than it did first thing in the morning of our race on 9th August. Warm early morning sun made the lakes look particularly attractive and tranquil, almost as if the Queen tribute band concert the night before had never happened.

Historic FF2000 was scheduled to be the eighth of nine races in the programme, and the slick way in which qualifying was run ahead of schedule was sadly to be a sharp contrast to the events of the afternoon. As has become the norm, Neil Fowler headed the times with a 47.777s lap, ahead of Scott Temple on 48.200 and, the last member of the 100mph club, Tom Mills making a rare, but welcome appearance. Most drivers were complaining of a lack of grip from the circuit, and some people had predicted much faster times before the meeting.

Next up was the ever-immaculate Reynard of Colin Wright on 48.785, followed by Mark Pierce, who was finally showing what he and the Sparton were capable of. Behind Mark was Wil Arif, going well as usual in the Royale RP30 and David Wild in the sister car to Neil’s. David is gradually finding the speed in Historic FF2000 that sees him near the front in FF1600.

Another driver to put in an excellent performance in an unusual car was James Ledamun in his Crosslé. James headed a gaggle of cars in the mid 49’s, next up being double Spa winner, Antony Raine. Peter Denham is slowly recovering from his early-season problems, so he should be flying by the time of our finale at Brands. Neck and neck behind Peter were Iain Rowley and Stuart Boyer, Iain on a set of tyres well past their best, and Stuart in a car with a mysterious braking problem.

Alan Gape had an excellent run to qualify 13th, followed by John Wilson’s immaculate Royale RP27. On the evening before the race John supplied a selection of excellent pizzas which were greatly enjoyed by the overnight contingent. A couple of similarly immaculate Deltas were next. Derek Smith, who is continuing to improve, was ahead of John de Ritter. David Clark was enjoying his longest unbroken run in the unusual Dulon next, followed by John Bowles, who sadly had to scratch the lone Supervee after an electrical fire. Seamus Doyle was suffering from handling problems in his Lola, and was the final qualifier.

A succession of serious incidents in the early races led to the last race, the Guards Trophy being cancelled and all other races being reduced to just ten minutes each. With the programme falling further and further behind schedule, it was beginning to look as though our race might be abandoned, but at the last minute a decision was taken to swap races seven and eight, so there was much last minute activity and visits to the toilet. The race was almost over for Seamus before it started, when his nosecone was run over in the assembly area, necessitating some hurried repairs.

The remaining eighteen cars assembled on the grid, and as the lights went out both Scott and Tom managed to make better starts than Neil, and it was Scott who led around Gerards. Neil just kept ahead of Tom, but in the run to the corner, the three cars had been millimetres apart. The rest of the field all got round Gerards safely and it was Scott who led the first lap by just 0.035s,  despite the strongest pressure from Neil. Going into the Esses for the second time, Neil was not to be denied, refusing to back off despite only just being given enough room by Scott – it was racing of the highest quality. Tom dropped back slightly, but then set about closing the gap to Scott. The margin came down to 0.3s by the end, but Tom couldn’t quite find a way past.

Behind the enthralling action at the front, Mark Pierce had made an excellent start to complete the first lap in fourth. He was gradually to drop back to eighth at the end in what was still a very encouraging performance. Colin Wright got past Mark on the second lap, as did David Wild, who was none the worse for being the innocent party in one of the FF1600 incidents. Behind David was Wil Arif, but he was to get past on lap nine. On the run to the hairpin on the first lap, Wil, using his vast experience, braked early, anticipating potential trouble, and was unfortunately hit by James Ledamun, who retired with a damaged nosecone. Behind David Wild was Antony Raine, who despite some new tyres was not quite able to match the pace of the slippery later cars around the quick confines of Mallory Park

Behind Mark Pierce, Stuart Boyer and Iain Rowley enjoyed an entertaining tussle throughout the race, with Iain trying every trick in the book to force Stuart into a mistake. Stuart held things together very well, and maintained his advantage to the end. In eleventh, unusually far back, was Peter Denham. Peter had the misfortune to knock his ignition switch off at the hairpin on the first lap, and by the time he had realised what had happened, was right at the back. Having accepted that there was no way to get a good result in the abbreviated race, he set about having a dice with Derek Smith, which they both enjoyed, Derek finishing twelfth. John de Ritter had an apparently untroubled run to thirteenth, and David Clark got that elusive first signature by finishing fourteenth in the pretty Dulon.

There were four non-finishers. First to retire was James Ledamun with the damage sustained in the altercation with Wil at the hairpin. John Wilson stopped with a broken rosejoint in the steering, Alan Gape was seen after the race removing a large quantity of grass from his radiator inlet, and the Lola of Seamus stopped with a total loss of drive.

All in all it was a very good race which has drawn praise from several different quarters. To cap things off, the Seventies Roadsports drivers, who were understandably miffed when their race was moved after ours, ended up having a full fifteen minute race, so everyone ended up happy...