Inter-Marque Race

BARC, Donington

2nd September, 2017

Preamble and Qualifying

Despite the popularity and central location of Donington, we continue to struggle to put together a decent grid there. It is hard to decide whether this is simply a lack of interest from our members, the format of the meetings we attend there, or, this year, merely part of the downward trend in grid sizes seen across the board. The bald stats to our grid are 12 entered, 10 arrived, 9 started.  It was very disappointing.

Not unexpectedly, Brian Arculus, who had substituted his Alfa Romeo for the Elite, put the Lotus on pole, 2.5 seconds clear of Kevin Kivlochan in his AC Ace Bristol. Just behind Kevin was Nigel Winchester in the special bodied AC Ace sharing the second row with Jim Campbell in his Austin Healey 100/4. Less than a second covered Kevin, Nigel and Jim, so potentially a good battle was in store. Stuck in no-mans land was Alex Quattlebaum who was nearly a second behind Jim but over 5 seconds clear of the rest of the field, the first of whom was Keith Hampson in his Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans. Keith was followed by John Waterson (Lotus Elite) , Mark Morgan & Andrew Mitchell (sharing Mark's AC Ace) and the two Triumph TR2s of Paul Ziller and Mark Hoble. Neither was where you would expect them to be but they had their reasons. Paul had, incredibly, repaired the damage following his roll at BDC, Silverstone (see report) but the car did not feel right on track and clearly needed fettling. He only did 5 practice laps. Mark fared even worse since after only 2 practice laps, the transmission failed as he was heading into Redgate. Everything locked up as he went straight on into the gravel and was consequently unable to take the start.        

Race

Nine lovely cars lined up for the start of this race but at 30 minutes long it was unlikely to provide much excitement for the few spectators that attended this meeting. However, the start was enlivened by Nigel Winchester's stonking start from the second row in the South American derived special bodied AC Ace who burst through into the lead from the second row. Alongside him, Jim Campbell had also started well but was unable to follow Nigel, so settled into 3rd place, whilst Paul Ziller in the TR2, also made another superb start. Within the space of 200 metres, the race order didn’t exactly reflect the grid starting order!    

Nigel managed to hold onto his lead for about three quarters of the lap before Brian Arculus took the Lotus Elite passed him, and as they completed the first lap, Brian, Nigel and Jim came through in close order having already opened up a gap to the fast starting Paul Ziller, now being challenged by Kevin Kivlochan who was just getting into his stride in the AC Ace and trying to make amends for a start which took him from the front row to 5th. Alex Quattlebaum (LECo2) came through in 6th, already over 4 seconds clear of Keith Hampson (Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans Coupe) and Mark Morgan (AC Ace).  

Nigel Winchester’s race in the special AC Ace was to last just one & a half laps, as a driveshaft let go as he headed down the Craner Curves and he pulled off and parked adjacent to Starkeys Bridge. So we were down to 8 cars and it promoted Jim Campbell to 2nd in his Austin Healey 100/4. Meanwhile, Brian Arculus was already drawing away in his Lotus Elite, and behind Jim, the slow starting Kevin Kivlochan had got the better of the fast starting Paul Ziller to take 3rd place in his AC Ace and Paul started coming under pressure from Alex Quattlebaum in the little LECo2. At the end of lap 2, John Waterson in his Elite was already almost 7 seconds behind Alex but seemed clear of Mark Morgan who had just taken his AC Ace passed Keith Hampson’s Sunbeam Alpine.

Over the next couple of laps Brian consolidated his lead over Jim before being the first to pit at the end of lap 4. Kevin was doing his best to close the gap to Jim, but the Austin Healey, now leading, appeared, at this stage, to hold the AC Ace at bay by about 4 seconds. Alex Quattlebaum was next up, as Paul Ziller pitted the TR2 on the same lap as Brian Arculus, albeit nearly 50 seconds behind. John Waterson, in the second of the Elites was beginning to be caught by Mark Morgan who was now pulling clear of the Sunbeam and so able to focus ahead on going after John.

At the end of lap 5, Jim Campbell had a 4.1 second lead over the AC Ace of Kevin Kivlochan, who was over 9 seconds clear of 3rd place Alex Quattlebaum in the LECo2. The gap to 4th place John Waterson in the Lotus Elite was even larger at 21 seconds but John had been caught by Mark Morgan, who took that position when John pitted the Elite at the end of lap 6. John was followed in by Keith Hampson in the Sunbeam Alpine as former leader got under way and rejoined the race. Paul Ziller’s race was run however, and he didn’t return to the track , after pitting, the car just not fully recovered from its major accident at Silverstone. Paul had done a remarkable job getting the car back on track but it simply wasn’t quite race ready.

Two more to pit at the end of lap 6 were Jim Campbell, bringing in his Austin Healey 100/4 and Keith Hampson in the Sunbeam Alpine. With Jim bound for the pits, Kevin Kivlochan assumed the lead on lap 7 in his Ace, and it was a position which he was to hold for several laps. Alex Quattlebaum was up to 2nd, over half a minute clear of Mark Mitchell in the second of the AC Aces, although the size of the gap was partly due to Mark pitting at the end of lap 7 to hand over to Andrew Mitchell. Brian Arculus was up to 4th at this stage and it seemed unlikely that he wouldn’t eventually reassume the lead. He was up to 2nd by the end of lap 8, as Alex pitted the LECo from that position.

Kevin Kivlochan continued to lead well into the second half of the race, the AC Ace going really well, but Brian Arculus was closing on him at about 1.5 seconds a lap. It was just under 51 seconds at the end of lap 9 but was down to just over 42 seconds by the time Kevin pitted at the end of lap 13. In the meantime, Andrew Mitchell had retired Mark Morgan’s AC Ace with 11 laps completed (cause not recalled) which meant that 6 cars were now circulating. Jim Campbell was in 3rd but over 20 seconds behind Brian on lap 13. Alex Quattlebaum had the LECo in 4th, still just about on the same lap as the leader, with John Waterson (Lotus Elite) and Keith Hampson (Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans) a lap down. However, a measure of excitement was instilled into the race when Kevin emerged from his pit stop just in front of Jim and they produced easily the best moments of the race since Jim, terrier like, stayed pretty much glued to the tail of Kevin’s Ace virtually until the flag, Kevin just pulling out a 2 second gap over the Austin Healey in the last couple of laps. Brian had taken the flag just over 15 seconds ahead of them. Alex had stayed on the lead lap to take 4th, and John and Keith finished a lap down and some way apart.

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