Qualifying

Qualifying took place on Sunday 25th May at 9:27 on an overcast but dry morning and proved to be a very close affair at the front. Pole position went to teenage driver Edwin Jowsey with his ex. Ed. Swart Lola T400 with a time of 1:06.839sec. with Ian Giles' qualifying his Eagle AAR74A Chev. 2nd fastest with a time of 1:07.571sec. only 0.732 sec adrift from young Ed. So it was that row 1 was an F5000 "lock out".
Making a welcome return to FORCE events was Malcolm Carter driving his ex. Pescarolo March 711 DFV which he duly qualified in 3rd place with a time of 1:10.539 sec. narrowly beating Frank Lyons who qualified 4th in his ex. Mass / Hunt McLaren M26 DFV who posted 4th quickest time with 1:10.644sec. only 0.105 sec. separated 3rd and 4th places (row 2).
Chris Perkins qualified his ex. Watson Surtees TS16 DFV in 5th place on the grid with a time of 1:10.812sec. (3rd to 5th being separated by only 0.273sec.), and F2 driver John Moulds claimed 6th place with a time of 1:16.039sec. to complete row 3, John qualifying ahead of a number of F1 cars and "winged F2 cars" in his beautiful "unwinged" ex. Jack Brabham, Brabham BT23 BDA.
Places 7 to 10 were taken up by Nick Rini's Lola T300, Rob Harvey's "winged" F2 Chevron B17C BDA, Terry Sayles' Surtees TS20 DFV and Mike Scott's March 702 BDA. 
During the qualifying session various drivers made stops for tyre pressure checks and other adjustments, but Malcolm Carter's qualifying was cut short by spark box problems and Chris Perkins' Surtees was suffering with apparently low oil pressure and the car had shed a bolt from the rear wing stay causing the wing to lean into the apex of Redgate Corner at the start of each lap.
However at the end of qualifying, no major problems had manifested themselves, 17 cars had qualified and everyone had a race. 

Race 1 (12 Laps) Sunday 25th May (13:22)

As the cars came out onto the track for the formation lap around to the grid, Aba Cogan's McLaren failed to fire up in the pitlane, requiring quick work by his crew to get the car going and resulting in him setting off  way behind the others (without his airbox). He eventually joined the grid but would now have to start from the back.
As the cars were ready to set off on the green flag lap, more drama as this time Malcolm Carter's March would not restart, despite the best efforts of his team and some able marshals. Malcolm was pushed off down the straight and off into the pitlane as the start was delayed.
At the second time of asking, the field set off for the green flag lap, returned and waited on the grid for the lights.
As the lights changed, Ian Giles' Eagle jumped out of 1st gear and for a split second he was engulfed by the field as cars jinked around him, he got away  in the mid field and thankfully no one had run into his momentarily stationary car and everyone was safely away!
Out front it was Ed. Jowsey making best use of his pole position (and the confusion caused by Ian's slow start) as he led away into Redgate Corner from Frank Lyons in second and Chris Perkins in third place.

As the cars returned to complete lap 1, Ed Jowsey held a good lead over Frank Lyons 2nd, Chris Perkins 3rd, John Moulds upto 4th, Ian Giles in 5th place (having recovered from his slow get away), Rob Harvey 6th, Terry Sayles 7th, Mike Scott 8th, Aba Cogan 9th (beginning his move through the field), Ron Maydon in 10th and the rest. What had happened to Nick Rini who eventually came through in 17th place someway behind the rest of the field? Nick had suffered an off at Starkeys Bridge where a slippery patch of track had caught him out and he spun across the grass without hitting anything, gathered it all together and set off again to catch the others.
By the end of lap 2 Ed. Jowsey was stretching his lead as Chris Perkins had taken Frank Lyons for 2nd place at the Chicane, (a place Frank wanted back!), Ian Giles continued his climb back through the field as John Moulds had to give best to the V8 power of the Eagle's Chevrolet as Ian moved upto 4th. Terry Sayles had also moved up a place having deposed Rob Harvey for 6th place.
As the leaders raced towards Redgate at the start of lap 4, Ian Giles out dragged Frank Lyons for 3rd place and Terry Sayles had moved up one more place by deposing John Moulds' F2 Brabham for  5th place.

Further back in the field Nick Rini was making steady progress towards the front, 15th on lap 2, 14th on lap 3, 13th on lap 4, then 12th as he out braked Graham Willcox's beautiful McLaren M14A DFV for Redgate Corner on lap 5. Graham was himself dicing with Ronnie Haines in his F2 Cooper and on lap 8 deposed the F2 car for 11th place. Also on lap 8 Rob Harvey took the lead of the F2 Class by deposing John Moulds for 7th place with his Chevron B17C.
Aba Cogan had until now been steadily working his way back towards the front of the field and by lap 8 had moved through into 6th place, after starting from the back of the grid.

At the front, Ed. Jowsey continued on his winning way with Chris Perkins in second desperately holding off a hard charging Ian Giles in 3rd ahead of Frank Lyons in 4th, Terry Sayles 5th and Aba Cogan 6th, but then as the cars appeared to start lap 11, Terry came past the pits "fishing for gears", and sadly he pulled off into the end of the pitlane as Aba Cogan went through into 5th in his McLaren M23 DFV ahead of Rob Harvey, John Moulds and Mike Scott in their F2 cars. Terry later stated that he thought the diff was at fault, as on subsequently stripping the gearbox he found nothing wrong in there.

So it was that at full distance (12 laps) Ed. Jowsey took a well deserved win in his F5000 Lola T400 DWR Chevrolet from Chris Perkins' Surtees TS 16 DFV in second, Ian Giles Eagle 3rd, Frank Lyons McLaren M26 DFV in 4th, Aba Cogan 5th and Rob Harvey taking the "winged" F2 Honours with 6th place in his Chevron B17C BDA and John Moulds Brabham BT 23 BDA beating Mike Scott's March 702 BDA for "unwinged" F2 honours in 7th place.
Nick Rini finished in 9th place in his Lola T300 Chevrolet with Graham Willcox rounding out the top 10 in his F1 McLaren winning his class in doing so and beating a hard charging Malcolm Carter who had worked his way up the field to finish 11th only 1.255sec. adrift of Graham at the flag.
 
Ed. Jowsey took fastest race lap in addition to the win with a time of 1:07.359 sec. (104.60 mph).
 

Race 2 (12 Laps) Sunday 25th May (16:37)

The grid assembled in the finishing order of race 1 but we were lacking the Surtees TS 20 of Terry Sayles who had "diff" problems in the first race.

 This time there were no difficulties and race 2 started cleanly at the first time of asking.
When the lights changed Edwin Jowsey led the field into Redgate for the first time followed closely by Chris Perkins, Ian Giles, Frank Lyons,  Aba Cogan and the rest.

As the cars crossed the line at the end of lap 1, Ed. Jowsey led from Chris Perkins, Ian Giles, Frank Lyons, Aba Cogan, Malcolm Carter in 6th, John Moulds 7th, Rob Harvey 8th, Nick Rini 9th, Mike Scott 10th and the rest.
Ed Jowsey was beginning to pull out an advantage over Chris Perkins and Ian Giles who were battling for 2nd place (with Chris managing to stay ahead by the narrowest of margins) by the end of lap 2, followed by Frank, Aba, Malcolm and the rest. During lap 2, John Moulds succumbed to the attentions of first Rob Harvey and then Nick Rini, falling back into 9th place, but John was not going to take that lying down and continued to chase hard.
 
Nick Rini out dragged Rob Harvey's Chevron down the pit straight and took 7th place under braking for Redgate Corner as they set off on lap 3 as everyone else held station.

By lap 4 a three car F2 train had formed with Rob Harvey, John Moulds and Mike Scott circulating nose to tail and on lap 5 John Moulds fought his way back past Rob, but as the cars crossed the line to complete lap 7, Rob had returned his Chevron B17C  back into the lead of the F2 Class ahead of John's Brabham. Where was Mike Scott?, he had dropped back from the F2 train and had suddenly lost power on lap 7 and he rolled to a halt on the straight and pulled off by the Dunlop Bridge, his race over.

Up front Edwin Jowsey still led but as we waited for 2nd place man at the end of lap 8, Ian Giles appeared in 2nd and then Frank Lyons in 3rd and Aba Cogan in 4th, where was Chris Perkins? He had total electrical failure coming out of Coppice Corner and rolled to a halt near the Dunlop Bridge to join Mike Scott.

So it was that as the laps counted down, Edwin Jowsey took his second win of the day from Ian Giles in 2nd place, Frank Lyons 3rd, Aba Cogan 4th, Malcolm Carter 5th (taking Class A2), Nick Rini in 6th place, Rob Harvey 7th (1st F2 home), John Moulds 8th, Graham Willcox 9th with Ronnie Haines rounding out the top 10 in his F2 Cooper followed by Richard Spelberg, Ron Maydon, David Brown and Judy Lyons.

As with race 1 young Edwin Jowsey took the fastest overall race lap with a time of:1:07.355sec. (104.61mph). 
 

Next race - Pau May  30th / June 1st .

See you there!

Index of Pictures:

1. Ed. Jowsey on his way to victory in his ex. Ed. Swart Lola T400 Chevrolet.
2. Chris Perkins was second in Race 1 and won the A3 F1 Class in his ex. Watson Surtees TS 16 DFV.
3. John Moulds' Brabham BT 23 won F2 Class B1 in both races.
4. Rob Harvey on his way to 7th in Race 2 in his ex. Steve Thompson Chevron B17C, on his way to winning F2 Class B2 in both races.

Pictures Courtesy of PAJ Photography.  


Ian Woodhouse on behalf of The FORCE.