9th-10th April 2022 - Goodwood
Hibberd Completes Goodwood Triple
Andrew Hibberd is a tough nut to crack around Goodwood, as wins in Formula Junior and Historic Grand Prix cars also attest, but nobody came close to toppling him at the 79th Members’ Meeting. Beaten into second by exceptional featherweight Ben Mitchell (driving Robs Lamplough’s Brabham BT28) in 2019, the last time the 1000cc F3 race was run before the ghastly Covid 19 interlude, Hibberd scored a third Derek Bell Cup victory in the Chequered Flag Brabham BT18, having won in 2016 and ’17.
Reigning HF3 champion Jeremy Timms, making his Goodwood debut in the ex-works Chevron B15 raced in period by versatile Swede Reine Wisell [1941-2022], ran Andrew closest. Occasional racer Peter Thompson completed the podium in the North African-provenanced Brabham BT21A in which he’d finished third in the inaugural DBC contest at the 73rd Members’ Meeting in 2015 and ’17, and second in ’16.
OFFICIAL PRACTICE
Hibberd dominated official practice - as qualifying was known when it was a contemporary formula - laying down a strong 1m24.603s, an average speed of 102.12mph for the unchanged 2.4-mile circuit on the old RAF Westhampnett perimeter circuit. While this was well short of Mitchell’s 1:22.916 race lap record set in 2019, a scant 0.708s spans Andrew’s four F3 poles at the venue to date. The period record, incidentally, stood to Irwin at 1:26.6 on Easter Monday (April 11) ’66.
Quickest through TSL’s Lavant Straight speed trap at 132.1mph, Steve Seaman (Brabham BT21) ran Hibberd closest, his 1:26.726 heading off Timms (1:27.077), who had former champion Simon Armer (March 703), Simon Diffey (BT21) and Thompson within 0.774s when the first three grid rows were ratified. Armer was fortunate escape a big impact when he spun avoiding a slower car entering the braking area for Woodcote and clonked the bank. His rear suspension was deranged, but repaired. Diffey’s effort was meritorious, reunited with Crosthwaite & Gardiner’s Brabham in which Portuguese Carlos Gaspar won his national F3 Grand Prix at Montes Claros in ’67 and Spain’s F1 supporting race at Jarama a year later.
Paul Kite - guesting in Historic Sporting Trials guru Martyn Halliday’s unique, and for sale, ex-John Ralph Chevron B17C - was next up, pursued by European visitors Enrico Spaggiari (ex-John Miles Lotus 41X) from Italy, the urbane Swiss Christoph Widmer (Brabham BT18A) and Frenchman Francois Derossi (B17), plus American veteran James King, 2013’s last-gasp winner again in engine builder Tony Mantle’s B17. Anglophile James was the last competitor to circulate inside 1m30s.
Sadly, Spaggiari and King were rendered non-starters after they hit oil at St Mary’s - dumped when the Ford MAE engine in Paul Waine’s De Sanctis grenaded - and tangled. The unique Gold Leaf Team Lotus’s chassis was damaged and the Chevron’s rear suspension buckled, neither being repairable in situ. Worse was to befall Waine who was ejected from his rolling vintage Frazer Nash, ironically within yards of the scene, in the following day’s marque race. Paul was airlifted to Southampton Hospital where he underwent surgery on multiple chest and shoulder injuries, but thankfully we can report that he continues to make a good recovery at home, and will run the gorgeous “baby F1 Ferrari” De Sanctis for others.
Period 1000cc F3 racer Howden Ganley’s protègé Horatio Fitz-Simon was enjoying his category debut as Michael O’Brien’s replacement in SpeedSport’s Chevon B15. With his understated striped overalls, Ray-Ban shades and pretty girlfriend Eleanor on his arm, Horatio looked the period part. Indeed, he only needed fashionably longer hair to have been plucked from a 1969-’70 racetrack scene and set down among Goodwood’s wooden paddock shelters. He managed 1:30.011 and 12th with engine bugs to iron out. Waine would have been next, with just seven laps on his slate.
Sri Lankan-rooted American Harindra de Silva (Tecno 69), previous champ Leif Bosson (ex-Sten Gunnarsson Gullringshus BT28) from Sweden, Simon Haughton (ex-Rene Ligonnet B15), UK-domiciled American Steve Nichols (B17) and Simon Etherington (ex-Manfred Mohr BT15) were next up. Bill Cowing in his intriguing Ginetta G18, Werner Pircher (Lotus 41), Andrew Thorpe (Lotus 21) and Rachel Lovett (Merlyn Mk10) completed the 22 qualifiers.
Andy Jarvis - third in 2019 - couldn’t get his March 703’s engine to run sweetly, thus did one lap, but was permitted to join the pack the following day, as was Ian Bankhurst whose Alexis Mk8’s coil packed up as he left the assembly area and turned through the gate onto the track, leaving no option other than coast to the first marshals’ post before pulling off.
RACE
Hibberd was in no hurry to get away as the Union Flag was dropped to start the race and several rivals passed his white and black Brabham before Madgwick. Timms’ red Chevron led at the end of the opening lap, with Seaman, Hibberd, Thompson, Armer, Fitz-Simon - an excellent start - Widmer, Boston, Kite and Bankhurst, going great guns pursued by the equally ardent Jarvis, and Haughton rounding out the top 12. Poor Diffey pitted at the end of the opening lap, his race run.
It took until Magdwick on lap two for Hibberd to usurp Seaman and he regained the uppermost hand by diving past Timms into Lavant at the opposite corner of the circuit less than half a minute later. A spin for Seaman on lap four dropped him to 10th, leaving Timms, Thompson, Fitz-Simon and Armer to spearhead the chasers. But Hibberd was into his stride and would not be caught. Bolder in traffic, Timms made ground to keep him focused, but Andrew was in control and took the chequer 5.958s clear, with fastest lap of 1:23.909 (102.96mph) on his slate.
Twenty seconds behind the winner, Thompson, Fitz-Simon - who lost out with a slight fuel pick-up issue - and Armer enjoyed a slipstreaming battle for third. Simon was un-nerved when his ex-Tom Walkinshaw March “swapped ends” inexplicably exiting Lavant on the last lap. He recovered but fell to seventh, behind the overjoyed Kite and Widmer. Christoph claimed European honours and his third sixth place finish in the Derek Bell Cup race to add to 2019’s fourth in the ex-Wal Donnelly Brabham.
The recovering Seaman was the final unlapped runner in eighth, ahead of Haughton who outfoxed Bosson as they were doubled by winner Hibberd last time round. De Silva and Nichols also covered 13 laps, one more than Pircher, Cowing and Thorpe. Lovett was also classified as a finisher, but Bankhurst and Jarvis - whose charges reached sixth and ninth respectively - Etherington and Derossi fell by the wayside.
Bankhurst, having spent four laps finding a way past circuit expert Kite “in the widest F3 car at Goodwood,” was running strongly when fuel starvation blunted his challenge on the final lap. “I’d lost several places and as I turned out of the chicane I thought about trying to push the car over the line, as heroes did in period, but didn’t want to risk getting banned so peeled into the paddock.”
Marcus Pye
DEREK BELL CUP: 1000CC FORMULA 3 1964-70 (14 LAPS)
1 Andrew Hibberd (Brabham BT18); 2 Jeremy Timms (Chevron B15) +5.958s; 3 Peter Thompson (Brabham BT21A); 4 Horatio Fitz-Simon (Chevron B15); 5 Paul Kite (Chevron B15C); 6 Christoph Widmer (Brabham BT18A). P Hibberd FL Hibberd 1m23.909s (102.96mph)
