Moss in Oz

Touring Car Mad

The latest part of my Stirling Moss tribute takes us Down Under and back to 1976. That year, the annual Bathurst 1000 touring car race at Mount Panorama marked the return of Moss and Triple F1 World Champion Jack Brabham. The pair were entered in an Esmond Motors Holden Torana in the Up-to-6-Litre class and qualified 10th out of over 60 entries.

Moss nearly didn’t even get to race after Brabham spun and almost collected fellow Holden driver and Triple British Touring Car Champion Frank Gardner on the Conrod straight. The drama continued in the race as clutch and gearbox issues caused Brabham to stall the car and was promptly rear-ended. Moss took over the driving after a three-hour pitstop to repair the damage and soldiered on to the crowd’s delight until a broken valve sidelined him and Brabham after 37 Laps. Moss (and Brabham) would later return to racing…

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Stirling and the Four Rings

Stirling and the Four Rings

My tribute to Sir Stirling Moss continues. Last time, I covered his F1 World Championship debut at the 1951 Swiss Grand Prix. This time, I’m covering his touring car exploits of the early 1980’s.

Stirling had sporadically competed in British Saloon Car racing in the early 50’s, prior to the inauguration of the BSCC in 1958. The 1980 British Saloon Car Championship would mark the British all-rounder’s return to full-time racing since his career-ending crash at Goodwood in 1962. His chariot would be the 1600cc Audi 80 GLE run by GTI Engineering with Akai sponsorship. At first, his team-mate would
be series regular Richard Lloyd but later in the Season, a 3rd Audi was entered for Tony Lanfranchi.

This being the age of the multi-class system, Moss was competing in the 3rd tier class (the lowest class being 1300cc) so his best performances came at meetings where a separate race was run for the lower classes. His first outing at Mallory Park ended in retirement from a broken throttle linkage and it took him until the 5th Round at Silverstone to score points (Only the Top 4 in each class were awarded points back then) and fastest lap in class despite another throttle linkage problem.

Moss’s season was slowly improving however and he scored his best result at the BSCC’s 2nd visit to Mallory Park where he came 2nd outright, ironically, to new team-mate Lanfranchi but he did set fastest lap in his class. Moss would score 2 2nd’s and a 5th in his class in the remaining 3 races (his best outright result was 10th).

Stirling Moss would continue in the BSCC in 1981, this time with future Formula 1 Driver and Commentator Martin Brundle as his team-mate and now competing under the Team British Petroleum banner. 1981 got off to a promising start for Stirling, he came 3rd in the lower-classes’ race at Mallory Park behind Brundle and race winner John Morris’ Volkswagen Golf but the season was much like the previous one. His best result was once again 2nd outright, this time to the Toyota Celica of future double Champion Chris Hodgetts at Oulton Park, thereafter his best result was 3rd in class at Silverstone. The end of the 1981 BSCC marked the end of Moss’ comeback but he and his Audi remain iconic to this day.

The Brit at Bremgarten

The 2nd F1 World Championship kicked off at Bremgarten in Switzerland on May 27th 1951. There were 21 Entries, consisting of mostly Italian Alfa Romeos, Ferraris and Maseratis and French Talbot-Lagos and Simca-Gordinis. The few exceptions were local hero Peter Hirt in a German Veritas and British marque Hersham and Walton Motors with co-founder George Abecassis in one car. In the other HWM was a promising young British driver in his early 20’s. He was the reigning British F3 500cc Champion and was destined not to become an F1 World Champion but a Motor Racing Legend just the same. For now, this future Motorsport hero had to be content with qualifying the highest of the 3 non-French-or-Italian cars in 14th place and being the only one to finish, coming a twice-lapped 8th out of 14 finishers. His name was Stirling Moss.

R.I.P Sir Stirling

 

Honda in the BTCC – Part 4

From 2012 onwards, the 9th generation Civic has been a constant presence in the BTCC. The original version secured the outright and Independent’s titles in 2012 and 2013 with Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden and Eurotech’s Andrew Jordan with the Type-R FK2 adding a further two titles in 2015 and 2016 courtesy of Shedden. Matt Neal, Jack Goff, Matt Simpson, Daniel Lloyd, Chris Smiley, Rory Butcher and Sam Tordoff have contributed several wins between them. Butcher even secured the Jack Sears Trophy and Independent’s title in 2019. Jeff Smith and his son Brett have secured podium finishes while Martin Depper, Andy Neate, James Nash and Mike Bushell have also had stints in the Civic.

The Civic even became the first Estate car to win a BTCC race as Team Dynamics ran the Civic Tourer in the 2014 BTCC. Shedden scored the car’s 1st Win at Donington Park and ranked 3rd overall with a further 2 wins. Neal contributed a solitary win at Knockhill.

In 2018, Team Dynamics introduced the 10th generation Civic, specifically the Type-R FK8. It scored 4 Wins in its 1st season in the hands of Neal and newcomer Dan Cammish who had replaced a WTCR-bound Shedden. Neal memorably won the Diamond Double race at Snetterton on the BTCC’s 60th Anniversary while Cammish led a Honda 1-2 twice at Brands Hatch and won the Jack Sears Trophy. A further 2 wins and consistency allowed Cammish to take the fight to the WSR BMW duo of Jordan and defending Champion Colin Turkington. Brake failure on the penultimate lap of the season at Brands Hatch dropped Cammish to 3rd overall while Neal endured his first winless season since 1998 (barring his one-off 2001 appearance). BTC Racing, after running the FK2 Civic in 2018, switched to the FK8 and secured 3 Wins with Josh Cook.

For 2020, Neal, Cammish and Cook remain in FK8 Civics with Tom Chilton and Michael Crees joining the latter while AMD head into their 2nd Season with the FK2 Civics, running Jake Hill and Sam Osborne.

Honda in the BTCC – Part 3

The 2002 season saw the return of the Honda Civic, specifically the Type-R and it was an immediate success in the Production Class. Synchro Motorsport ran 2 Civics for James Kaye and Dave Allan. After 2 near-misses, Kaye took the title with 5 wins and moved up to the BTC-Touring Class for 2003. The Synchro Civics continued into 2003 with Barwell Motorsport and the drivers were Alan Blencowe and newcomer Luke Hines. Despite a slow start, Hines scored 7 Wins to become the last ever Production Class Champion in dominant fashion. Blencowe scored just 1 Win but was consistent enough to finish Runner-Up.

Arena Motorsport ran Civics from 2002 to 2005 and were the official Honda works team until 2004. Former Production Class Champion Alan Morrison and future World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx scored a win apiece in 2002. Matt Neal and Tom Chilton joined in 2003 and Matt won 6 races to rank 3rd overall. Only Chilton remained in 2004 and became the BTCC’s youngest ever race winner at Silverstone, racking up a further 5 Wins by the end of the following season. Chilton’s Civic would continue to race in the hands of Mark Proctor (father of future race winner Senna) in 2006 and Michael Doyle in 2008 before rounding off its BTCC Career with sporadic appearances in 2009 and 2010 with Matt Hamilton at the wheel.

James Kaye and Synchro Motorsport entered an Independent Civic from 2003 to 2006. The highlights were Kaye finishing Runner-Up in the 2003 Independent’s Cup and scoring his first podium at Mondello Park in 2006. Team Dynamics notably ran a pair of Civics in 2004 with Matt Neal and Dan Eaves scoring 4 Wins between them. John George in Mardi Gras Motorsport’s LPG powered Civic and the Team Varta Super 2000 Civic driven by Richard Marsh and Jay Wheals fared less well with George and Marsh eventually switching to Peugeots.

Team Dynamics built and entered the DC5 Integra in 2005 and the car was immediately the class of the field. Matt Neal and Dan Eaves scored 11 Wins between them and a 3rd entry for Gareth Howell at the last 3 meetings yielded one further victory at Silverstone. Neal went to win both the Independent’s and outright titles and Eaves came 3rd overall, having notably won all 3 races at Thruxton. Neal would repeat these successes in 2006, this time with 8 Wins, thus becoming the first driver to win back-to-back titles since Chris Hodgetts in 1986 and 1987. Eaves was replaced by Gordon Shedden and the Scot won 4 races to rank 4th overall and Howell’s 3rd entry returned for the last 4 meetings, scoring 2 Wins at Silverstone. With Team Eurotech’s Mike Jordan winning at Mondello Park, the Honda Integra won half the races in 2006. Motorbase Performance made their BTCC debut with David Pinkney in another Integra. Pinkney fared less well than Jordan but scored his first podium at Knockhill.

The switch to Super 2000 rules for 2007 consigned the Integra to small privateer teams but it remained a regular contender for podiums in the hands of Mike Jordan, his son Andrew and ex-Vauxhall driver Paul O’Neill until 2010. The likes of John George, Simon Blanckley, Alan Taylor, Martyn Bell and James  Kaye were occasional point-scorers in the Integra. George spectacularly crashed his car in the 2008 finale at Brands Hatch. The Integra’s final points came at Oulton Park in 2011 with Lea Wood finishing 7th in Race 1.

Team Dynamics’ Super 2000 Civic proved competitive but only an occasional winner from 2007 to 2009. The car only turned a wheel a week before the 2007 opener at Brands Hatch, although Neal won in its 3rd Race. Shedden contributed a further 4 Wins and took 3rd overall just ahead of Neal who miraculously contested the Knockhill meeting in a completely rebuilt car after a collision with Mat Jackson’s BMW triggered a massive pileup at Brands Hatch. Neal switched to Vauxhall for 2008 in a straight swap with Chilton who didn’t win until the final race at Brands Hatch. Shedden only managed 2 Wins and left the team after the first meeting of 2009. The returning James Thompson and ex-Formula 1 driver Johnny Herbert took turns in Shedden’s car for the remainder of the season. Thompson scored 3 Wins while Herbert took a best result of 7th at Rockingham. Pinkney drove the team’s 2nd entry and his best result was 8th at Snetterton.

Neal and Shedden returned to the Team Dynamics Civic in 2010 and scored 10 Wins between them to come 2nd and 3rd overall. A switch to a Neil Brown-built NGTC engine for 2011 led to the Super 2000 Civic’s most successful season as Neal and Shedden scored 13 Wins between them and achieved a 1-2 in the Championship with Neal winning his 3rd title by 8 points. The two infamously collided with each other at Oulton Park while fighting over the lead. The Super 2000 Civic’s last full Season was 2012 in the hands of Tony Gilham’s Team HARD outfit. The ex-Triple 8 driver scored his first podium at Donington Park but he stood down mid-season, allowing Robb Holland (the BTCC’s first American driver since 1986), Howard Fuller and Aaron Williamson to have stints in the car. AMD Racing and James Kaye gave the Super 2000 Civic a one-off final appearance at Snetterton in 2013.

Honda in the BTCC – Part 2

Honda’s first proper attempt at the BTCC was 1995 as an Motor Sport Developments-run works effort. Running a pair of Accords for David Leslie, a former race winner with Vauxhall and reigning Independent’s Champion James Kaye, steady progress saw Leslie score the marque’s first podium at Oulton Park. The Scot scored Honda’s first win at Silverstone the following year. A further win at Thruxton followed and Leslie finished 1996 an impressive 4th overall. James Kaye on the other hand could manage no higher than 5th in two years of trying. It was Kaye who would represent Honda at the 1996 RAC Tourist Trophy, alongside former Peugeot driver Eugene O’Brien and future 3-time Le Mans Winner Marco Werner.

For 1997, Prodrive took over the running of the Accords from a Peugeot-bound MSD and there were two new drivers in former Vauxhall ace James Thompson and 1994 Champion Gabriele Tarquini. Both drivers managed one win apiece as the Williams-run Renault Lagunas dominated but 1990 Champion Robb Gravett would go on to win the Independent’s Title in a Graham Hathaway-run Accord. The 2 works Hondas would also contest that year’s RAC Tourist Trophy at the end of the season. The drivers would be that year’s British F3 Champion Jonny Kane and New Zealander World Superbike ace Aaron Slight.

1998 and 1999 would be Honda’s most successful seasons of the Super Touring era as Thompson finished in the Top 4 each time and scored 8 wins. Dutchman Peter Kox partnered Thompson during this time. Kox, a former BMW test driver, won at Snetterton in the BTCC’s first night race since 1979 during his second season with Honda. Tarquini made a brief return in a 3rd Accord in 1999. Honda’s presence among the Independents would be maintained by the likes of Gravett, Norwegian Roger Moen, Lee Brookes and Paula Cook during this time.

For 2000, Honda expanded to three cars full-time due to the lack of entries with Thompson and Tarquini joined by Dane Tom Kristensen. A big crash in the season-opener at Brands Hatch sidelined Thompson for 2 meetings with Kox and Leslie making one-off appearances as substitutes. This contributed to Thompson winning only once all season. Tarquini and Kristensen scored 3 Wins apiece with the latter rounding out the Super Touring era with a double win at Silverstone. This season also saw the return of James Kaye, driving a Barwell Motorsport-run Accord in the new Class B category for Super Production cars. Kaye scored 8 wins and narrowly lost the title to Peugeot driver Alan Morrison. Kaye’s team-mate Mark Lemmer and Nick James drove Integras, Lemmer scoring a win at Knockhill but switched to an Accord for the Season Finale at Silverstone, James never finished higher than 4th in Class.

Class B was renamed the Production Class in 2001 and amongst the entries, there would be 4 Accords and 3 Integras during the course of the season. Kaye won 5 times in his Barwell Accord with the sister car contributing 4 Wins thanks to Simon Graves although Peter Cate and Tiff Needell had stints in the car. The other Accord drivers that year were Jim Edwards Jr. and Dave Allan although the latter’s Synchro Motorsport entry was also briefly driven by Lemmer, the former scored a single class win. The Integras, driven by the likes of Nick Beaumont, John (B & Q) Batchelor, Joanna Clarke and the returning Nick James fared less well despite Beaumont finishing 2nd in Class at Thruxton. Only the Accords returned in 2002 with Beacon Motorsport running Spencer Marsh and Mark Thomas and Batchelor’s team running Edwards Jr. in one car with Batchelor, Cate and Australian Hyla Breese taking turns in the other. Marsh scored 2 Class Wins at Oulton and Mondello while Edwards Jr. and Cate managed 4 podiums between them. Only Edwards Jr. continued in the Accord in 2003, managing 3 more podiums before switching to a Peugeot 307 mid-season. The Accord rounded out its BTCC career in the hands of Richard Marsh.

http://www.supertouringregister.com/event/733/

http://www.supertouringregister.com/event/919/

http://www.supertouringregister.com/event/920/

http://www.supertouringregister.com/event/921/

http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1979%20Snetterton.html

Honda in the BTCC – Part 1

As the British Touring Car Championship heads into a new decade, it is inevitable that the fleet of Honda Civics from Team Dynamics, BTC Racing and AMD Racing will be among the front runners. After all, Honda were by far the most successful manufacturer of the past decade with 5 Manufacturer’s titles, nearly 100 Wins and 5 Driver’s titles between 2011 and 2016 shared between Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan. Such success has placed Honda 2nd only to Ford as the most successful manufacturer in BTCC History with over 170 Wins to date.

Honda’s success of the 2010’s could not have been a stark contrast to the Japanese marque’s first BTCC appearance in 1988. That first appearance came at Brands Hatch on July 24th and the car in question was a 2 Litre Honda Prelude driven by Martin Wray under the Hawes Group Racing banner. Competing in Class C for the 1601-2000cc entrants, Martin was slower than even the Class D Toyota Corollas and Ford Escorts, heading only Mike Newman’s Ford Sierra. In the race, Martin was lapped 3 times by eventual winner Andy Rouse and finished 22nd and last but this was still good enough for 3rd in his class, earning 3 points due to the lack of entries. This was to be the Honda Prelude’s only appearance in the BTCC.

1989 marked the first appearance of a Honda Civic in the BTCC with Ray Armes driving a PG-sponsored Civic Si in Class D for the up to 1600cc entrants. Entering the last 7 Rounds of the season as the only non-Toyota driver in his Class, Ray opened his account with 3 straight Class wins with a best outright result of 17th at Brands Hatch and after 2 DNFs, rounded out the season with 2 further Class wins. This put Ray 3rd overall in his Class and equal 12th outright. A move up to the larger Sedan version and the 2 litre Class in 1990 was less successful as Ray’s best result was 7th in Class and 12th outright in the Donington 1 Hour Endurance race, sharing with former Vauxhall driver Jeremy Rossiter.

https://www.touringcartimes.com/2020/01/05/facts-figures-decade-btcc-manufacturers/

http://www.btcc.net/history/statistics/manufacturers/ – This source isn’t entirely accurate, believe me, I’ve done the research

http://forix.com/cmake.php?l=0&d=701&rcm=1964000620&b=1001&c=50

http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1988%20Brands%20Hatch.html

https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/martin-wray/

https://results.motorsportstats.com/drivers/martin-wray/series/british-touring-car-championship

http://www.forix.com/driver.php?l=0&d=701&r=1951122701&rst=1001&c=51

http://www.forix.com/cp.php?l=0&d=701&r=7011989&c=30

http://www.forix.com/gp.php?l=0&d=701&r=19907032&c=2&s=701022

 

Bev and Mike’s Rocky Road Cake

FOREST HALL FOOD

(My mum and I, we made this for Messy Church!)

Ingredients:

• 500g of Digestive Biscuits
• 200g of Icing Sugar
• 2 x Bars of Kinnerton Free-From Dark Chocolate
• 200g of Margarine
• 100g of Mini Marshmallows
• 100g of Seedless Raisins

Instructions:

1. Crumble up the digestive biscuits in a large mixing bowl with a rolling pin.
2. Pour in the icing sugar and mix with the biscuit crumbs.
3. Break up the chocolate into a pan and melt with the margarine on a low heat and mix them together.
4. Pour the mixture of melted chocolate and margarine over the biscuit crumbs then add the marshmallows and raisins.
5. Mix until all the ingredients bind together then pour the mixture into a large rectangular cake tin or bowl (we used a casserole dish!)
6. Smooth out the top of the mixture and then place it in the fridge overnight to set.
7. To divide the cake into smaller segments…

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SHE DIDN’T CRY

I am glad she did not cry,

A pleading look in her eye.

It was now the end of the day,

She begged me not to go away,

After such a great Christmas,

A wonderful time for all of us.

Now it was time to say goodbye,

I am so glad she did not cry.

CUERDAS (2014) – A Review by Michael C. Bungay

This review marks a first for yours truly as I have never reviewed a short film before and certainly not a Spanish one as the title Cuerdas translates as Ropes or Strings. Directed by Pedro Solís García, Cuerdas takes place in a Spanish Orphanage where a disabled boy has just been accepted. Because the boy is mute and has limited mobility, the other kids shun him, the one exception being a curious and imaginative little girl called Maria. Taking a liking to the boy but at the same time, realising his limitations, Maria tries to help him have as much fun as the able-bodied kids do. To do this, she resorts to tying strings to his arms and legs so that he can kick footballs and read books among other things. The film is a tear-jerker however so I shall say no more on the matter other than that it won the Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 28th Goya Awards in 2014.