19th-20th May 2012 - Silverstone
Niki Faulkner takes the Methley Merlyn to a superb second overall and HF3 win
HSCC Silverstone International Trophy
Classic Racing Cars supported by the Cubicle Centre
May 20th 2012
An excellent entry of eleven Historic Formula Threes was received, ten were familiar faces, the eleventh was Niki Faulkner out in David Methley’s familiar Merlyn; David was out in Formula Junior Brabham BT6 so had offered Niki an outing.
Qualifying took place in cold and windy conditions and saw Faulkner fastest F3 by some 3.5 seconds from Tim Kary who had found some extra revs since Cadwell; Stuart Tizzard was next up, but had some handling issues which were attended to over lunch. Leif Bosson had dramas in Friday’s testing when he became involved in someone else’s accident, removing a rear corner from his immaculate Brabham BT28 in the process. Jeremy Bennett and crew whisked the car back to base for attention, and had it back in time for Leif to take fourth; next up was Chris Holland who was troubled by a mysterious electrical problem; Jim Chapman and Steve Seaman were closely matched in sixth and seventh. Peter Froude’s Tecno appeared to be circulating happily which is more than could be said for the similar car of Geoff O’Nion who had a multitude of problems; Andrew Thorpe’s very pretty was next, while Grant Saunders brought up the rear, having only completed two laps before being stopped with an electrical fault; Grant was most upset as the car had run faultlessly at Cadwell the previous week where they were involved in filming ‘Rush’
There was plenty of time between qualifying and the race, Chris Holland and Grant Saunders sorted their electrical problems while the rest of us huddled together for warmth!
Ian Jones in his Lotus 59 twin cam took the lead from the start, but if Mike Scott and Antony Ross thought that they would be able to have a private battle in their twin cams they had overlooked Niki Faulkner. Faulkner had the Merlyn right in amongst them, being left behind on the Hangar and Wellington straights but making life very difficult in the twistier parts; this battle continued throughout the race and was only settled on the last lap when Faulkner pipped Mike Scott’s BT28 by .02sec to take second place overall, his fastest lap being less than .5sec outside winner Ian Jones best lap. Behind this epic battle was another between Tim Kary and Stuart Tizzard, initially Kary had led but was caught and passed by Tizzard who had the bit between his teeth. To add to the excitement they were joined by the Lotus 27 Junior of Fennel which was fairly evenly matched with the two F3s, Fennel found a way past Tizzard who was then past by Kary who took the battle to Fennel. Tim Found a way past in the complex and pulled clear leaving a clearly frustrated Tizzard to battle Fennel, the matter was only settled on the last lap when Tizzard found a way round the outside exiting the complex on the run to the flag. Jim Chapman and Chris Holland had been having an entertaining dice, but Jim gradually pulled clear to be fourth F3 home. Leif Bosson had gradually dropped down the field and eventually fell into Steve Seaman’s clutches, Steve pipping Leif to sixth by less than a second, Grant Saunders had started at the very back of the grid after his qualifying problems but soon had the March on the move, from thirty second to a final seventeenth and eighth F3, without his problems he could have been well in the mix. Peter Froude spent his race surrounded by Formula Fords, but came home in one piece, Andrew Thorpe had son Robert ahead of him for much of the race but a late spin by Robert dropped him behind by the chequered flag. Geoff O’Nion was the final runner home making it a 100% finishing record.
Another entertaining race, Niki Faulkner had driven superbly in the Methley Merlyn and had thoroughly enjoyed himself; next stop is Snetterton on June 9th and 10th when no doubt the sun will be shining as it always does.
Mike Faloon
View Results and Timings (as a PDF document) [PDF]
Warming up
