VRA Historic Super-Touring Car Championship Rounds 7-8, Silverstone National Circuit
The Super-Tourers headed to one of the most iconic venues on the calendar this week. On the border of both Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire lies an airfield, and upon this airfield lies the circuit known as the home of British Motor Racing, Silverstone. The venue of Silverstone hosts pretty much every type of motorsport imaginable throughout the year, and the weekend past played host to the VRA. The National Circuit was to be used this weekend, so none of the multi-million-pound renovation was to be seen or used by the tourers or the drivers, tiny camper vans were and the occasional front seat of a golf were to be called home instead. The idea of using Copse as turn one was a somewhat daunting task for some of the newer members of VRA who were expecting a large first corner crash seeing as Copse is notorious for this throughout the world of motorsport. The track was expected to favour the more powerful Lotus Carlton, seeing as it is almost 3 long straights separated by 3 hair pin turns, allowing the sheer power that the Carlton possesses to be unleashed. However, would the British weather affect things?
The grid for this event grew further still. Almost all the pit boxes were taken here in the old pit-lane, with Alfa Romeo and Volvo bringing 3 works cars. Phillips was joined in the Alfa team by Osborne and (geofire17814). A singular privateer Alfa was also being run by Paul Buckley, driving for Martin Racing. Whilst Owst in the Volvo was joined by Owst… Ryan’s brother Jamie now also found a seat with the Volvo team, as did Matthew Thompson. New driver A J Manning had also chosen to be rather brave, and was running in the Vauxhall inspired Lotus Carlton. That wasn’t all the newcomers though, as last but not least Jordan Field was representing the Andy Rouse Engineering Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 and found it equally as tail happy as the other drivers. The stewards had been in talks with some of the drivers after the somewhat disgraceful showing at Lime Rock. The drivers who received penalties included Owst (Ryan) and Paul Mitchell, for their contributions to the turn 1-2 mayhem, and to Howard, who’s scuffle with de Jong had not gone down well with the stewards, even after his pleas were heard. All drivers mentioned previously, received a stop and go penalty, which meant within the first 3 laps of the race all 3 had to come to pit-lane and serve their time.
Qualifying Report
Only half the field managed to set a ‘clean’ lap in the 1 shot qualifying session. The weather didn’t help matters for the drivers as the track was littered with deep puddles which caused severe aquaplaning and some spins. Some of the usual front runners were included in the list of drivers who didn’t set a clean lap, including previous pole sitter, Speight, whose lap would have given him 3rd position, but his efforts landed him a 9th place start. Pole went to Howard, who initially stated he wasn’t going to qualify and was going to start last due to his drive through penalty, but upon seeing other front runners fail to set times, he decided to set a lap, and what a lap it was, over a whole second ahead of the field. Best of the rest in qualifying went to Johnston. Mitchell and Ryan Owst lined up on row 2. An all Factory Alfa team row 3, with Phillips and newcomer Osborne lining up side by side. Taylor and Gale made up row 4 and made the last of the drivers who set clean laps. Speight and Cowie started 9th and 10th, with Tovey and Buckley just behind, meaning there was some serious pace starting mid-grid. Judd and Jamie Owst start 13th-14th, Thompson and geofire make an all newbie row 8, with Nowak, Spencer Manning and Field making the remainder of the drivers who set times. RustyEuro failed to set a time and therefore started 21st and last.
Race 1
Due to some technical issues, the grid did not line up in the correct qualifying order, but due to time restraints, the race went ahead anyway and the pole position point was awarded correctly to Howard. The front row which started the race was Gale and Judd, with the Sierra starting right next to a substantially sized puddle on the inside of the circuit. This puddle played its part almost instantly in the race, causing the Sierra and the BMW of Howard directly behind both to aquaplane and slow down. This caught out the fast starting Volvo of Thompson, who was considerably less affected by the puddle as it sped into the rear of the BMW. It would be Gale who had a handsome lead into Maggots for the first time, with Buckley behind and Howard in close proximity. More contact for the Volvo of Thompson saw him lose control of his car after he sharply turned right into the door panels of Phillips’ Alfa. In an attempt to avoid the sideways Volvo, the works Alfa of Osborne goes right. However, the puddle he then passes over causes him to slide into the side of the Carlton of Manning, which in turn pushes the Mercedes of Mitchell into the barrier as an innocent bystander in the melee. The first lap also saw Cowie off circuit, but in a much less costly way, as he avoided the carnage at Maggots by going off to the left. The pack remained tightly fought with every driver trying to pick out moves in the torrential rain, making the most of inevitable mistakes. All 3 drivers with drive trough’s chose lap one to serve it, as Howard peeled off from 2nd, Ryan Owst joined him, and then the wounded Mitchell followed suit soon after.
Gale led a string of cars for several laps but was unable to pull away from a very quick Buckley, Tovey, and Speight. All 4 were very evenly matched and battled for the first 5 laps none-stop. Just when the Alfa thought he’d made enough ground to try a move, the power of the Mercedes allowed Gale to pull a tiny margin. Lap 6 saw Tovey dispatch Buckley under the bridge and into the braking zone before Brooklands and Luffield. Tovey then quickly closed in on Gale and tried to make it 2 places gained in 1 lap. However, he needn’t go for the overtake, as the same braking zone saw Gale run wide into a puddle meaning he had to concede the position. He was lucky it was only 1 spot he lost, as Speight had made his way past Buckley into the podium positions and thought about a move on the out of positions Mercedes. Spencer also found the conditions tricky, as his car aquaplaned out wide at Woodcote with his BMW narrowly missing the guard rail.
This battle was closely followed by Johnston and Cowie in the Mercedes and Sierra respectively, with Thompson in the battered 850R looking to take advantage of any slip. The power of the Volvo saw Thompson pull alongside the Sierra, then a very aggressive move barged Cowie out of a spot, but overall he didn’t lose any positions as Speight had also gone wide and let all the battling drivers through. The move by Thompson caused several words to be said by the Geordie which I cannot write here. The move also seemed to spur on Thompson who then breezed past both Buckley and Gale who seemed to be having their own personal battle. Maybe Thompson wanted to put as much distance between him and Cowie as to not receive a retaliation move. Between the 2 of them, was a battle between Buckley and Speight, and an unfortunately timed slide on behalf of Buckley saw him sideways in front Speight who had nowhere to go, resulting in slight contact and Buckley off into Luffield’s gravel trap, dropping the Alfa to 6th.
Meanwhile all this battling was going on up front, championship leader Howard, was trying to rescue his race after the penalty, and was attempting to have the best recovery drive out of himself, Ryan Owst and Mitchell.
After his trip into the gravel, Buckley found himself battling with fellow newcomer, also in an Alfa, Osborne. These 2 had a solid few laps of back and forth, which ultimately was slowing them both down. Howard was upon them with several laps of the race to spare, and made it past Buckley, only to find himself being forced out wide into a puddle, allowing Buckley to regain his position. This move would only work once though, as the very next lap, Howard attempted the same move, as did Buckley. The contact this time wasn’t enough to stop the stampeding BMW from coming through and moving onto his next target, Osborne. Osborne made Howard’s life a lot easier by not defending the position nearly as much as Buckley, moving Howard into 7th. Ryan Owst meanwhile was battling through the pack at a similar rate to Howard, although he got caught battling Phillips who had had a torrid race and wasn’t pleased with several moves. Jamie Owst was also less than impressed, around 8 laps to go, something on his car failed and he was forced to retire from the race.
Down the order saw a battle for single digit points, seeing Phillips, Judd and Mitchell battling for 12th overall. Just because the points were less, didn’t mean that the intensity was. These three were almost inseparable between laps 6-18. Nowak and Rusty Euro were also in close proximity, but several mistakes from both drivers dropped them back further, and both were eventually lapped by the leaders.
The final laps of the race saw Gale with a train of cars behind him again, as some very good defensive driving saw him keep Howard and Osborne behind. However, a defensive line into Copse saw Gale slow on exit, allowing Howard to pull alongside on his left. This put Howard in a less than ideal position, as this side of the circuit is where a lake lay. Said lake is positioned right before the braking zone to arguably the most challenging corner of the National Circuit. Gale gave plenty of space expecting either Howard to back off, or spin off, but he did neither, and instead, Howard held it across the puddle and took the position around the outside. Howard then managed to pull away from what turned into a 4-way battle, with Gale at the head, followed closely by Buckley and Osborne respectively and not forgetting the sole remaining Owst. These 4 battled profusely until the chequered flag dropped.
The battle for the lead was even more intense. The Volvo of Thompson had passed the 2 Mercedes’ of Speight and Johnston, and a slight incident while passing lapped traffic slowed Tovey down enough so that he could only look on at the fight ahead. The final lap saw the front 3 covered by roughly a second, and over the line that gap was the same, with neither Mercedes able to mount a last lap challenge to the Volvo, making it Volvo’s 3rd win of the season and 3rd win in a row, ahead of Johnston and Speight who took the bottom steps of the podium. Tovey narrowly missed out, and was only 4 seconds off the Mercedes’ over the line, with Cowie finishing in a more than respectable 5th after his off at turn 2. It was only just 5th place though, as in the final laps, Howard was closing quick, but not quick enough, so it was 6th place for him in the BMW after serving a drive through penalty. Gale held off the chasing pack for 7th from Buckley, Osborne and Ryan Owst rounding out the top 10. The remaining points scorers were Taylor in 11th, from Phillips, Judd, Mitchell and Rusty Euro. Narrowly missing the points and finishing a lap down was Manning, followed by Spencer, geofire and Nowak, with Field coming home in 20th and 2 laps down, with Jamie Owst the only DNF.
Race 2
For the 2nd race of the weekend, the skies had cleared and the drivers could drive their cars to their full potential. The grid again was not lined up as Race 1 dictated. It should have seen the 2 Chris’ together on the first row, with Speight ahead of Howard. Instead, the front row consisted of geofire and Ryan Owst. The first corner was a relatively clean affair, with Jamie Owst and Howard among a few others running out wide in order to give space to those inside.
Maggots, however, was less clean. One of the other cars that ran out wide at Copse was Taylor, who upon returning to the circuit ran 3 wide with Osborne and Gale, resulting in slight contact between the 3, and seeing Gale perpendicular to the rest of the field, before colliding with Taylor and putting them out wide. As Osborne gathered his car, he and Nowak had a slight tangle as both tried making the most of the cars off circuit. Ryan Owst was unable to make the most of his front row start, as around Luffield he missed his braking point and ran wide, allowing the pack to close in.
Race 1 rivals, Thompson and Phillips found themselves together again, but this time Thompson decided to make contact with Cowie down the straight coming into Maggots. This contact would ultimately be the first of what was a calamitous series of events which saw several drivers crash. Braking into Maggots, Ryan Owst was clearly riled after running wide previously, so began to brake very early for the turn, catching out Howard and the 2 Mercedes’ of Speight and Mitchell who were all within a sniff of each other. The BMW therefore ran into the back of the Volvo, and in doing so, Howard ran out wide as his loss of momentum could cause more collisions. Because of this, he allowed both of the following Mercedes’ to overtake him and also run into the slow Volvo pushing all 3 cars out wide. After gathering himself, Howard tried the cutback move to get back the positions he had just lost, but it turned out that Cowie had similar aspirations. Both went inside of the 3 cars and made it 5 wide at one point. However, both Cowie and Howard were unsighted of anything past Speights car. Howard then lifted off to allow both Speight and Cowie through as he believed there to be more cars out to his left. As Owst re-joined the circuit, Mitchell gave him room, but in doing so, clipped the front quarter of Speight sending him into a spin, which unfortunately for Cowie, also meant into him. This pitched Cowie to his left and back into the Mercedes. As these 2 careened across the circuit, Thompson, who thought the outside line might be advantageous in trying to pass this melee, found the door panel of a Mercedes. This collision bumped Cowie free of the entanglement, but pushed both Thompson and Mitchell into the barrier. Speight and Howard managed to drive away from the mayhem relatively unscathed, and thus proving that backing off can often be the wise choice. All cars involved in the incident did continue the race and went on to finish, but Mitchell lost out the most in terms of time.
Osborne and Jamie Owst had a little battle resulting in the Volvo running wide into the nose of the Alfa on his outside, putting him into the grass on the outside of the track. And by this time, Cowie had recovered himself and re-joined the train of cars following Gale, Manning and Jamie Owst. Coming into Maggots, Gale was ahead of a group of cars, but a failure on his car locked his rear wheels and effectively slammed on his brakes, making the Mercedes an unavoidable object sat in the middle of the track. Osborne, Cowie, and RustyEuro were all caught out by the stopped car and collided with it or each other, but luckily no one suffered damage from it. A few seconds later though, the problem with Gale’s car seemed to fix itself, as the car spluttered back to life and he resumed his race from dead last, with a mountain to climb. The same corner and lap however saw a misjudgment of braking by Spencer, as he ploughed into the rear of the RS500 driven by Field sending him broad sideways. Nevertheless, with some serious car control, he held the slide and the position.
Up front, Tovey in the Listerine BMW was holding a lead to Ryan Owst in the Volvo. Meanwhile, Ryan’s brother was having a much more stressful time, as he was being hounded by the BMW of Howard. As they both went to lap the car of Gale, the BMW got alongside and powered by down the straight, holding it around the outside and then securing the position through Luffield. The battle of the Alfas was closely following and Buckley was very patient in his attack, sitting in the draft down the long straights waiting for an opportunity. He didn’t want to be too rash, as sitting behind him was the hard charging Cowie, somewhat disgruntled by being involved in several incidents all weekend long, none of which were his fault. He got past both Alfa’s in 1 lap, as Phillips ran wide, and the power of the Sierra allowed him to get Buckley down the straight.
A mistake from Phillips at Luffield saw him join fellow Alfa’s, Buckley and Osborne, making it a 3-way battle with some inter-team conflict thrown in for good measure. The mistake clearly threw teammate Osborne out of his rhythm, as at Maggots (where else), he locked up his brakes and ran wide into the dirt, allowing the Tic-Tac machine of RustyEuro to gain. There was a fierce battle for the final point developing, as the Marlboro BMW of Nowak was closing in on the cars ahead, but his task of catching and overtaking was made much easier, as Spencer and Judd had a miscommunication when going through Woodcote, and in making slight contact, the pair slid off into the run off area and eventually the grass. The 2 managed to avoid the barrier at least, but this collision cost them both the position, enabling Nowak to breeze by.
Back at the front, the gap between Tovey and Ryan Owst remained a constant, with the Volvo driver driving his race to keep the gap. These 2 had a comfortable lead over 3rd placed Howard at the time as all 3 were very equally paced. The 2 Mercedes of Speight and Johnston had been inseparable all weekend long it seemed, and through much of this race, that statement was also true, with mere tenths separating them.
The Mercedes of Mitchell had now recovered some of his race, and joined the Italian battle, first navigating his way past Osborne, then Phillips and finally, with an excellent move into Maggots, Buckley.
Navigating traffic was now part of the race for most drivers. Some we much more capable at this than others. As Ryan Owst came to lap Judd in the very tail happy Sierra, the Ford rounded Copse but got loose on exit with the Volvo in close proximity behind. The Sierra gathered itself but moved towards the centre of the track, colliding with the quicker Volvo. Judd then lost control of his vehicle and ended up facing the wrong way in the outer gravel trap, much to the disgust of both drivers, who blamed each other for the incident. Owst saying that the blue flags were showing, with Judd saying he lost the rear of the car because he was trying to give room. Both provided valid points, but the stewards will have to decide who is deemed to be at fault for a very unnecessary collision. The very next lap, Owst again faced lapped traffic at Copse. The BMW of Nowak proved much politer, but taking no chances, the Volvo driver took to the run off area to completely remove the possibility of a similar incident. Dealing with lapped traffic became the name of the game from this point onwards. Howard successfully passed RustyEuro, not without a helpful nudge on the rear of the Tic-Tac car, as he only gave room for ¾ of a BMW to pass.
The final 3 laps were a closely fought one for the top 4, who had pulled away from the following drivers, and formed a multi-car quartet. Owst led, but Tovey was very close behind, with Howard and Speight in their own battle and only 1 second away. Any mistakes by the any of these drivers would more than likely result in losing a position, losing a win, or losing a podium. The 4 drove very quick but cautious final laps, with the only move attempted by Speight, and that was one of desperation over purpose, as it left him out wide and losing the back of the BMW so he could only muster 4th position. This left the Volvo to defend from Tovey for 2 laps. The BMW of Tovey couldn’t try anything rash however, seeing as Howard was closely following them both. The Volvo driver managed to hold off the advances of the BMW’s and held them at bay for his 3rd victory of the season, with Tovey and Howard making up the rest of the podium. Speight was a very close 4th position, with Cowie in the Sierra making it 4 manufacturers in the top 5. The Volvo of Thompson brought it home in 6th ahead of Johnston, who fell off the pace, and the track, late on, moving him away from Speight at last. Jamie Owst managed 8th with healthy margins all around him, 9th was Mitchell who recovered well from his crash. Buckley then rounded out the top 10 and was the highest placed Alfa in this race, a feat he was very pleased with. Phillips was 11th after a rather dismal weekend at Silverstone for him and the works Alfa team. Taylor finished 12th and was the final driver on the lead lap. Osborne, Manning, RustyEuro, Spencer, Gale and Nowak all finished 1 lap down and finished 13th to 18th respectively. Geofire finished 2 laps down in 19th, with the very unhappy Judd in 20th and Field who had a hard time taming the Sierra in 21st rounding out the field.
Full results from the HSCC on Forza 6 4th September - Silverstone National
HSCC– Qualifying
HSCC– Round 7
HSCC– Round 8
HSCC Drivers Championship Standings
HSCC Manufactures Championship Standings
Next stop Road Atlanta 18/9/2016!!!
Highlights of HSCC Super Touring Car Challenge in Association with TCRE from Silverstone National. The VRA will be showing races live when possible to watch these follow Racing1egend83 on twitch TV.
Round 7 - Silverstone National
Round 8 - Silverstone National
Next stop Road Atlanta Full 18/9/2016!!!
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