Qualifying took place at 9:30 on the morning of race day (as although the meeting was 2 days it was effectively 2 separate race meetings) in overcast conditions.
From the start it was a 4 way fight for Pole between Andrew Wareing in the Williams, John Delane in Tyrrell 001, Peter Wuensch in the Brabham BT37 and a surprise substitution in Sandy Watson's Lotus 69 F2 car - Martin O' Connell. The ex. F3 Class B "hotshoe" was determined to make a fight of it from the off, despite giving away a lot of horsepower to the F1 cars, the F2 proved very nimble around the tighter parts of the circuit which made up for it loosing out to the F1 cars on the faster sections.
At the end of the session, the top 3 were within 0.607sec. of one another as Andrew Wareing (Williams FW06) finally made Pole position his property with a time of 1:39.196sec. with John Delane (Tyrrell 001) having to settle for 2nd fastest with 1:39.781sec. (only .585sec. slower).
In 3rd place came Martin O' Connell (Lotus 69) with a time of 1:39.803sec., Peter Wuensch would line up alongside the fastest F2 car in 4th place on the grid in his F1 Brabham BT37 having set a fastest time of 1:40.631sec.

Frank Lyons had been quick from the beginning of qualifying but sadly on his 8th lap Frank felt the engine note change as he exited the double apex "Druids Corner" , he floored the clutch and coasted around to the pitlane to minimise engine damage but a piston had failed! so his further involvement in the event was out of the question. Despite the engine failure and only completing 7 "true laps" Frank had recorded 5th fastest time of 1:41.205sec.so that slot would be vacant. Malcolm Carter posted 6th fastest time of 1:41.475sec. in his ex. Pescarolo March 711 which raced in the 1971 Gold Cup.
Terry Sayles qualified his Surtees TS 20 in 7th place with a time of 1:41.912sec. with Andy Middlehurst qualifying 8th (and 2nd F2 car) in his first outing with the Lotus 69 with a time of 1:42.055sec.Andy felt the car was somewhat soft for his liking and needed more time to get the set-up sorted.

Aba Cogan and Mike Littlewood qualified 9th and 10th fastest with times of 1:44.447sec. and 1:44.544sec. respectively. Aba. made a number of stops for adjustments during the session whilst Mike was uncharacteristically low down on the grid due to him loosing 3rd gear early in the session, (Tom Denyer, setting to work straight after qualifying to ensure that Mike had all gears in working order for the race in the afternoon).
Philip Walker set 11th fastest time with 1:44.591sec. having his first outing of 2003 with his Brabham BT26, whilst qualifying 12th fastest was Rob Harvey who was having his first outing with his recently acquired Lotus 69 BDA which he felt was down on power and there was much more to come from the car. Rob set a time of 1:48.843sec.on his first outing.
FORCE "new-boys" Keith Norman (Palliser) and Anthony Goddard (Surtees TS11) were to fill row 7 having set 13th & 14th fastest times with 1:53.090sec. and 1:54.489sec. respectively.
Nick Rini qualified 15th with a time of 1:55.741sec. in his ex. Alan Jones Surtees TS 19, (his preparation team, Lenham having sorted the electrical problems which plagued the car at Nurburgring 2 weeks earlier), and Ron Maydon set 16th fastest time with 1:56.866sec.
Mike Scott was using qualifying as a test session in order to bed in his rebuilt engine in his Lola T300 F5000 car but set a time of 1:57.237sec.to take 17th place and David Brown set a best time of 1:57.780sec.in his BRM P126 V12 to take 18th place on the grid.
The final row of the grid was to be filled by Chris Ball in his Brabham BT28 BDA with a time of 1:57.808 and Judy Lyons on 2:18.633sec.

Race  (20 minutes) Monday 25th August (P.M.) 

After the Lunch break during which Jackie Stewart demonstrated Tyrrell 001 (see article on "Home Page") and races for Classic F3 and Sports Cars, the FORCE grid formed up ready for the off lacking Frank Lyons' McLaren due to the piston failure in morning qualifying.
 All cars assembled on the 2 by 2 grid and waited for the off. Once the drivers were shown the 1 minute board they began to restart their engines, but on the front row the Hall and Hall crew were having difficulties starting the Tyrrell which had little over an hour earlier been circulating in the hands of it's original driver. With John Delane's hand in the air and yellow flags denoting the stationary car the rest of the field set off on their green flag lap.

The Hall and Hall crew tried to push the car to the pit lane but the brakes had seized on! As the field returned from their green flag lap, they were held with engines running at "Deer Leap" (which did not help the engine temperatures or the health of the clutches). The rear brake bleed nipples were loosened to free off the brakes on the Tyrrell and the crew pushed the car (with John still sitting in it) into the pitlane. The field were moved up onto the grid and a second green flag lap was declared (the original start having been abandoned).
As the cars set off for their second green flag lap, Andy and Rick worked to get the Tyrrell to start but the Spark Box which had failed on the line refused to play and a disappointed John Delane climbed out and the car was pushed away.

At the second time of asking the lights changed and the "Rickett Grant Gold Cup" race was away, with Andrew Wareing (Williams) making best use of his pole position to lead the field into "Old Hall Corner" with Peter Wuensch (Brabham) 2nd, Martin O' Connell 3rd, Mike Littlewood in 4th (up from 10th on the grid), Malcolm Carter 5th, Andy Middlehurst 6th and the rest streaming off along the "Avenue" and down into "Cascades" in hot pursuit.
As the field re-appeared over "Hilltop" and down into "Knickerbrooke" it was still Andrew Wareing in the lead but now from Martin O'Connell in 2nd who had moved up past Peter Wuensch, with Mike Littlewood and the rest following close behind.
As the leaders chased off uphill over "Clay Hill" into "Druids" on this 1st lap, Philip Walker and Andy Middlehurst came into contact with each other at the "Knickerbrooke Chicane" as Peter ran into the rear Left wheel of Andy's Lotus 69 launching his Brabham BT26 into the air damaging the front suspension and taking the rear wheel off the Lotus!
The rest of the field managed to avoid this incident but both drivers were out of the race on the spot, but fortunately unhurt with marshalls working hard to clear the Lotus and Brabham from the track before the rest appeared for their second lap. 
A little further along the circuit, Nick Rini lost control of his Surtees into "Druids Corner", the car slid off the track across the grass, struck the barriers hard and bounced back onto the track on the racing line! fortunately Nick was unhurt and was helped out of the car to a place of safety by the marshalls.

Up at the front Mike Littlewood had moved up another place and was now 3rd with Peter Wuensch now 4th, the leaders unaware of the incidents going on behind them. 
So it was that as Andrew Wareing led the field across the line to start lap 2, Martin O' Connell was 2nd, Mike Littlewood 3rd, Peter Wuensch 4th, Malcolm Carter 5th, Aba Cogan 6th then a gap created by the "Knickerbrooke" incident, then Terry Sayles 7th, Ron Maydon 8th, Chris Ball 9th, Mike Scott 10th, David Brown 11th, Anthony Goddard 12th and the rest.
On lap 2 the leaders all had to take action to avoid the stricken Surtees stranded on the racing line through "Druids", but all managed to avoid the car given ample warning by the marshall's waved yellow flags!

As Andrew Wareing braked for "Lodge Corner" on lap 2 he was out braked by Martin O' Connell who moved through into the lead and therefore led Andrew (who was not intent on having his lead taken away without a fight) across the line in 2nd with Mike Littlewood 3rd, Malcolm Carter now up to 4th ahead of Peter Wuensch in 5th place, Aba Cogan 6th, Terry Sayles 7th and the rest. 
As the cars set off on their 3rd lap the race officials decided to despatch the Safety Car to enable a flat bed truck onto the track to collect the Surtees out at Druids rather than red flagging the race and starting it again over a reduced duration. Once the Safety Car had picked up the leader the field circulated for 5 laps at reduced speed with the cars engines getting hotter and the tyres getting colder!

As the Safety Car led field arrived at "Lodge" corner on lap 6, the flat bed truck carrying the Surtees was ahead and the crowd and commentator hoped that the Safety Car would stay behind the truck and follow it into the pit lane to allow the cars to race again. Unfortunately this was not to be as the Safety Car promptly led Martin O' Connell past the truck and off onto another slow lap!
On lap 6, Anthony Goddard retired his Surtees TS 11 Chevrolet F5000 car from the race as the engine was running hot.
Eventually, next time around (end of lap 7) the Safety Car returned to the pits and the race was on once again (but with the race being determined by track time in minutes not number of laps we would be lucky to get 2 more laps of racing!).

With the cars being released after  5 slow laps which allowed their tyres to cool off grip levels were not good and sadly Chris Ball locked up his Brabham BT28 BDA into "Old Hall Corner" and skated off into the tyre wall doing a great deal of damage to the car but fortunately climbing out unhurt!
So it was that we did get 2 more laps of racing but despite challenging hard Andrew Wareing could not get past Martin O' Connell no matter how hard he tried, most other positions remained unchanged except that of 4th place as Peter Wuensch managed to retake Malcolm Carter on the last lap.

The chequered flag came out after 9 laps (4 of racing and 5 behind the Safety Car), with Martin O' Connell taking the win from Andrew Wareing in 2nd by the narrowest of margins - 0.158sec.!, Mike Littlewood was 3rd, Peter Wuensch 4th, Malcolm Carter 5th, Aba Cogan 6th, Terry Sayles 7th, Mike Scott 8th, Ron Maydon 9th, Rob Harvey 10th (suffering a misfire), David Brown 11th and Judy Lyons 12th. 

Andrew Wareing took the fastest race lap as consolation for 2nd place with a time of 1:40.826sec.(96.11mph) on his last lap during his fight back at the winner. 

Don't miss it, be there!

Index of Pictures

1. Martin O' Connell (Lotus 69 BDA) dives inside Andrew Wareing (Williams FW06 DFV) to take the lead of the race under braking for "Lodge Corner" on Lap 2. The next lap the Safety Car would pick up the leaders and the "race" would be reduced to 2 more racing laps after a 5 lap Safety Car period. The manoeuvre  proved to be the race winning pass for Martin.

2. John Delane sits in Tyrrell 001 on the outside of the front row, waiting for the race to start, flanked by Rick Hall, Andy and Sir Jackie Stewart (who had lapped the circuit in the car shortly before the race). Soon after this picture was taken the difficulties of starting, then moving the car began to manifest themselves and sadly, John took no part in the Gold Cup race with 001.

3. Mike Littlewood (Wolf WR 1 DFV) on his way through "Lodge Corner" on his way to 3rd place after fighting through from 10th on the grid at the start.

Pictures Courtesy of PAJ Photography

Ian Woodhouse on behalf of The FORCE.