Qualifying

Qualifying took place on Sunday 4th May on an overcast and windy afternoon and proved to be a very close affair at the front. Pole position eventually went to Mike Littlewood in John Fenning's Wolf with a time of 1:08.473sec. with Peter Williams posting 1:08.546sec. in his March 761, only 0.073sec adrift. Ian Giles' qualified his Eagle Chev. 3rd fastest with a time of 1:09.080sec. and young Ed. Jowsey posted 4th quickest time with 1:09.505sec. in his Lola T400. Places 5th to 7th were occupied by F1 cars with Frank Lyons, Rick Hall and Terry Sayles making up row 3 & fastest on 4. Sid Hoole claimed 8th on the grid with a time of 1:16.541sec to take F2 "pole" from Irvine Laidlaw in 9th with 1:16.655sec. The top 10 was rounded out by Peter Wunsch's BRM 261 from 1967.

Sadly Chris Perkins' weekend came to a premature end when he had engine problems in the pitlane. Mike Wrigley was unable to qualify his Lola as he was racing at Spa in Belgium on Sunday and would therefore start from the pitlane for Monday's first race. 

Race 1 (14 Laps) Monday 5th May (AM)

As the lights changed, Mike Littlewood got the power down in the Wolf making best use of his pole position and led Peter Williams, Ian Giles, Ed. Jowsey and the rest into Redgate for the first time. Mike Wrigley was released from the end of the pitlane and set off on his quest to work his way through the pack in his Lola F5000 car. As the cars roared across the line to complete lap 1, Mike Littlewood held a slim lead from Peter Williams, Ian Giles, Ed. Jowsey, Frank Lyons in 5th, Rick Hall 6th, Terry Sayles 7th, Sid Hoole 8th, Peter Wunsch 9th, Irvine Laidlaw 10th, Mike Scott 11th, Jim Bennett 12th in the Lotus 76 and the rest. 

On Lap 2 Frank Lyons deposed Ed. Jowsey for 4th place and Ed. was noticably dropping back. Further back a dice was going on involving Irvine Laidlaw, Mike Scott, Jim Bennett, Peter Austin, Rob Harvey, John Delane &  John Moulds the like of which has not been seen since the days of 1 litre F3 racing!

Lap 3 saw Peter Williams close up onto the gearbox of the Wolf and also heralded the end of Ed. Jowsey's race as he toured into the pits having stripped 4th gear. He was sadly followed in by Chris Ball who had his rear brake pipe burst as he braked for the Old Hairpin and then sensibly toured around into the pits. By the end of lap 3 Mike Wrigley had worked his way up to 8th place having deposed Mike Scott and Irvine Laidlaw during the lap, by the end of lap 4 he was past Sid Hoole and into 7th. As Mike Littlewood braked for the Chicane nearing the end of lap 5, Peter Williams lunged down the inside line in his March to wrest the lead from the Wolf and set off on his 6th lap as the leader. As Ian Giles led Frank Lyons across the line in 3rd and 4th places they were followed by a new 5th place man, as Mike Wrigley had passed Terry Sayles and Rick Hall to move up, but as Rick and Terry raced towards Redgate for the 6th time Terry took the initiative and took 6th place from Rick. On lap 8 Mike Wrigley took 5th place from Frank Lyons McLaren M26 into Redgate, whilst further back John Delane had moved his F2 Lotus 69 past the F1 Lotus 76 of Jim Bennett, the Lotus 69 of Irvine Laidlaw and Peter Austin's Surtees to take 11th place.

Sid Hoole maintained his lead of the F2 class with 8th place. By the end of lap 9, Rob Harvey had moved his Chevron up ahead of Mike Scott's wingless March 702 and into 9th place but Irvine Laidlaw was the F2 driver on the move as he deposed both Peter Austin and John Delane to take 11th place. Two laps later Irvine Laidlaw moved into 10th place ahead of Mike Scott, and held the position to the end. During the last 3 laps of the race Mike Littlewood made repeated attempts to wrest the lead back from Peter Williams but was un sucessful and crossed the line 0.641sec. behind the March at the flag. Ian Giles finished 3rd some way back having held a lurid slide at the chicane some laps earlier with Mike Wrigley taking 4th after fighting through from last place at the start. Frank Lyons brought his McLaren home in 5th ahead of Terry Sayles' Surtees 6th, Rick Hall's Surtees 7th, Sid Hoole winning the F2 class in 8th, Rob Harvey 9th with Irvine Laidlaw rounding out the top 10. Mike Scott took 11th place and with it the class B1 win for un-winged F2 cars. 

 

Race 2 (14 Laps) Monday 5th May (PM)

The grid assembled in the finishing order of race 1 but we were lacking the race 1 winner who's March had been jumping out of gear during the latter stages of the race, so Peter Williams took no further part, also missing was Ian Giles with the Eagle and  Ed Jowsey (after his 4th gear had stripped). Chris Ball had made repairs to his brake line and was back out for race 2 with his Brabham BT28. So it was that the front row comprised Mike Littlewood again on pole with Mike Wrigley alongside in his Lola.

When the lights changed Mike Littlewood again led the field into Redgate with Mike Wrigley on his tail with Frank Lyons in 3rd, Sid Hoole making a cracking start in the F2 Brabham in 4th, Rick Hall in 5th, Terry Sayles in 6th and the rest. As they crossed the line to complete the lap Mike Littlewood led from Mike Wrigley, Frank Lyons, Rick Hall now 4th, Sid Hoole, Terry Sayles, Rob Harvey in 7th, Mike Scott 8th, Peter Austin 9th,  John Delane 10th and the rest.

As the field neared the end of lap 2, Terry Sayles deposed Rick Hall for 4th place as they braked for the Chicane having already passed Sid Hoole for 5th earlier in the lap. Once again Jim Bennett in the Lotus 76 was dicing with John Delane, the two American drivers passing and re passing each other. As the cars completed lap 4, Mike Littlewood suddenly slowed more than usual in the braking area for the Chicane, thus allowing the hard charging Mike Wrigley into the lead. The oil light came on in the Wolf and Mike quickly switched off and coasted into the pits and retirement. Mike Wrigley now set off to take an un opposed win in the Lola T332, but behind Jim Bennett was on the move, he had passed John Delane on lap 3 and this time made it stick and set off after Mike Scott who he duly passed on lap 5, then Peter Wunsch's spiritedly driven 1967 BRM P261 on lap 8 to move into 8th place.

On lap 9 Irvine Laidlaw retired his Lotus 69 to the pits to enable him to take the grid in the following Sports Car race, having shadowed Jim Bennetts moves for the previous 3 laps.
As the remaining laps were counted down, Terry Sayles sensed a chance to wrest 2nd place from Frank Lyons and gradually closed the gap but Frank responded and Terry eventually finished 2.327sec. adrift from Frank at the flag. So it was that having started race 1 from the pitlane in last place, Mike Wrigley won race 2 in his Lola T332 DWR Chevrolet from Frank Lyons in 2nd, Terry Sayles in 3rd, Rick Hall in 4th, Sid Hoole 5th (taking the F2 Class), Rob Harvey in 6th, Peter Austin 7th, Jim Bennett 8th, John Delane 9th and John Moulds taking the un-winged F2 class win in his Brabham BT23 in 10th place ahead of the rest. 
 

See you there!

Ian Woodhouse on behalf of The FORCE.

Pictures Courtesy of PAJ Photography:

1. Peter Williams (March 761 DFV) leads Mike Littlewood (Wolf WR1 DFV) through the Donington Chicane on his way to win race 1.
2. Mike Wrigley (Lola T332 DWR Chevrolet) on his way to winning race 2.