Record Breaking under the sun
The sun was shining as I arrived at the Aintree track, scene of five British GPs which ended with the last visit in 1962. Racing continued into the 1970s whilst nowadays the venue hosts two sprints, three car trackdays and four motorbike race days.
Liverpool Motor Club, who run the 4-wheel action on the venue, assembled a fairly representative entry with Classic Marques, AMOC, Morgan SCC, Jaguar Drivers Club and the National Historic Speed championships adding their support.
In the Introductory Class we had two drivers making their competition debuts but it was Michael Davies who took the class win. Next were four budget Standard classes for unaltered cars where two other members of the Davies clan stood out.
In the Series Production classes there was a great battle in the Over 2 Litre class as Stuart MacMaster and Razvan Rosca battled for the win. Rosca led initially then MacMaster took a slender lead on the second run before Rosca fought back on run number four and extended his lead on his final run.
In Mod Prods there was an absolute stunning victory in the two-litre class for Crystal Palace supporter Justin Andrews. Andrews had last year got to within 0.91 seconds of the class record however, on his first run he lowered Dennis Crompton’s record of 48.04 that had been set in September 2000. Andrews’ record-breaking run stopped the clocks at 47.65 and on his second run he posted a 47.66 – at this point he stopped as it was mission accomplished. It was great to see Bev Fawkes back out in Blue Thunder in the over two litre class but without any opposition to push him he cruised home finishing within a second of his 2024 record.
In the Racing Car classes Eve Whitehead took her customary win in the 1100 division despite “running in” the OMS 2000M. Glyn Sketchley took a solo win with his Force PT Turbo in the two-litre class and this was our 2nd FTD. FTD went to Dr Ian Rowlance in his Gould GR55B now in its second season with the 2.8 litre Cosworth XD engine.
In the Classic Marques the scratch battle was between Glen Shaw’s 350Z and Peter Sherratt’s BMW M3. Sherratt just held off Shaw after a stunning second run PB. In the AMOC class Peter House fought back with a fifth run that saw him just pip Tim Price for the class win whilst Tom Whittaker took third in his new Vantage F1. Simon Baines, three times Morgan SCC champion, took the expected win in his V6 Roadster.
Bravo to Liverpool Motor Club for keeping the venue alive despite financial constraints. On the day the team managed to provide the 102 entries with 642 starts and we were all finished well before 5pm.
Results can be found here: https://www.liverpoolmotorclub.com/wp-c ... esults.pdf
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