The Richard Bell Memorial Trophy

(Incorporating VSCC Hawthorn International Trophy)

Silverstone National, 21st April, 2024

Alexander Takes Trophy!

Richard Bell would have been enthralled with the quality and variety of cars that attended the first race in his memory.  It would be no exaggeration to say that FISCAR, on its own, could have filled this grid, and still have had some reserve entries, such was the desire amongst members to acknowledge his huge contribution to the founding and running of our Club.

I will provide a full account of the race in due course but here I will simply record the fact that David Alexander in his newly substantially rebuilt Lotus Elite became the first recipient of the Trophy , and that another Lotus Elite in the hands of FISCAR stalwart, Brian Arculus, took second after a monumental battle with Scott Quattlebaum in the LECo2. These three had to give best to the fast trio of Hawthorn International Trophy cars but finished 4th, 5th and 6th overall.

For 30 minutes, the circuit was constantly filled with the sights and sounds of all these splendid 1950s sports cars and it was difficult to keep up with the great battles down the field, all of which will feature in the full report. Class winners were David Alexander (C1 - Lotus Elite), Justin Becket (C2 – AC  Ace), Mark Ellis (C3 – MGA Twin Cam) & Richard Frankel (C4 – Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint).  The first 3 on Index of Performance were Dougal Cawley/Mark Groves (Lotus Elite), Reuben Jacob (Morgan +4) and Valerio Leone (Elva Mk5). In the Inter-Marque team event, Lotus were the winners with the Morgan team 2nd.

We were delighted to have Richard’s son, Charlie and his family, Laura and sons, Barnaby and Hamish, representing Clan Bell with us to hand out the Memorial Trophies.  

See ‘Cars for Sale’ regarding a reduction in the price of Mark Hoble’s Turner Mk 1 - JT - 20/04/2024

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Alan House Hangs up His Helmet.

I received this from Alan a couple of weeks ago:-

‘Sadly, I have decided for a variety of reasons, not to renew my licence for this year.  I’ve been to Richard Thorne’s Morgan track day yesterday and that confirmed that my decision was the correct one. ‘

Alan, has been a staunch supporter of FISCAR for a number of years and we will be sorry not to see him competing again in his Morgan. It should be remembered that he was competing, as long ago as the 1960s, so enough said! He is, of course, always welcome to join us in the paddock at future races. JT - 26/03/2024

Very rare Connaught L2 for sale - please see under our ‘Cars for Sale’ section .

JT - 21/01/2024

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FISCAR 2023 Results Tables

I’m finally able to publish all the tables of Results for our season. It’s taken a while to check and double check, so hope that they are accurate. If you spot any glaring errors, or omissions, please contact me! That it has taken time is a good thing, though, since it is a symptom of the number of entries involved which are substantially up on previous seasons.

Congratulations to all those who topped the various tables. Inevitably, those who entered the most races figure well up the leader boards. 3 members entered all 5 races - Andrew Cox, Reuben Jacob and Alan House, and 3 more, Brian Arculus, Barry Dye and Ed Shah entered 4, so they all deserve mention in despatches. 6 more entered 3 races, so the trend has been very much in the right direction this season, and it has, naturally, been apparent in the size and quality of our grids, so all I can say is ‘more, please’. These are all great cars that deserve being shown off, particularly as we attend races that don’t treat spectators as second class citizens!

Fabulous FISCAR finale  at Castle Combe

Marc Gordon imperious in scoring a rare Jaguar victory

This year, The Castle Combe Autumn Classic had a distinctly 1950s feel aboutit, for apart from FISCAR’s superb grid, the HSCC Griffiths Haig Trophy had some great drum braked sports cars in its two 20 minute races, the FJHRA/HSCC Silverline  Championship contained many front engine Formula Junior cars, some from the late 50s, and even the CMMC Classic Challenge, incorporating The Norman Dewis Trophy contained Jaguars mainly from our favourite decade! For those wanting something a bit later and quicker, the 90 minute enduro for GT & Sports Cars put up a terrific grid of Cobras, E-Types, Elans, TVRs, Austin Healeys  and MGBs but even that grid contained a couple of 1950s sports cars! Then there was the Superformance race for Ferraris to bring us a little more up to date!

The weather, for the second year running was sunny and bright, repaying the Circuit organisers for bringing their great Autumn Classic meeting forward a couple of weekends for the second year in succession and where I imagine it will now stay.

Our FISCAR Inter-Marque race, with a wonderful grid of great variety, entertained a very large crowd of spectators who watched as Marc Gordon emerged from a brilliant early 3 way battle to stamp his authority on the race in his splendid dark green Jaguar XK 150. Once established, he only lost the lead briefly during the mandatory pit stops and went onto win, unchallenged, by the unusually large margin of almost 17 seconds.

The Shepherd AC Ace was in the thick of things throughout. Andy battled Geoff Turrall in the TR3A/B and then, handing the aluminium hued Ace over to son, Murray, who was almost immediately embroiled in a titanic battle with the Quattlebaum LECo. Not Alex this time, who was spectating, but son, Scott, who was a revelation in the little MG XPAG powered car and who mugged Murray on the last lap to take 2nd overall. Overcoming their extra time penalty rather better than usual, and actually getting it to the finish, Richard Tyzack and Nick Taylor took the Kellison to 4th, whilst Brian Arculus was 5th in his Lotus Elite, just holding off the Peter Mann entered Cooper Bristol T24/25 driven by Alistair Pugh. Alistair, too, had to take a longer pitstop and had figured, along with Richard Tyzack, in the early battle for the lead.

The full race account will follow in due course but Class winners were Marc Gordon (1), Scott Quattlebaum (3), Andy & Murray Shepherd (2) and Tristan Bradfield took Class 4 in his Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans, inflicting a rare defeat on the usually all conquering Richard Thorne Morgan.

The Index of Performance winner was Tristan Bradfield, with Andy Cox 2nd, and Scott Quattlebaum 3rd. Aston Martin won the team Inter-marque award, with Morgan 2nd. They were the only full teams but Sunbeam Alpine, with just two cars, finished 3rd.

In the annual Awards, Andy Cox took the Whitehead Cup. Provided he finished this race, Andy was always favourite once Reuben Jacob had to withdraw his Morgan with engine failure during qualifying. Reuben had earned enough points, however, over the season to secure 2nd overall and Alan House was 3rd, also Morgan mounted. Morgans, in fact, have figured prominently in our races all year and were our overall team champions winning the Inter-Marque Trophy with one event to spare. Surprisingly, with just two results, but they were high scoring ones, Aston Martin took 2nd and Lotus, 3rd.

Overall annual Class winners were Brian Arculus (Class 1 – Lotus Elite), Justin Beckett (Class 2 – AC Ace), Andrew Cox (Triumph TR3 Falcon) and Richard Thorne (Morgan +4).

All the annual results tables will be published above in due course.       JT - 27/09/2023

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Mark Hoble Rejoins FISCAR

I’m pleased to say that Mark has rejoined us and will hopefully be at Castle Combe in his Morgan +4. He has raced with us before with Triumph TR2 and Turner Mk1, and both these cars are now up for sale - please see our CARS FOR SALE section. JT - 01/09/2023

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2023 - Scores on the Doors!

After 4 races this is the state of play in our various Cups and Trophies. I have only listed the top 20 for Mark Campbell’s Index of Performance, but there are plenty more on the list. Morgans have the Inter-Marque cup wrapped up which is unusual as this normally goes down to the wire, so congratulations to them.

In respect of the annual Class awards, I understand that neither Jonathan Abecassis nor Paul Woolmer will be entering, so if he enters, Brian Arculus could snatch Class 1 although Class 2 is more open. However, as of now there is not a single Class 1 or Class 2 entry for Castle Combe!

Class 3 is closely contested and two (Andy Cox & Alan House) of the 3 most likely winners have entered already. In Class 4, Shaun Bromley, Reuben Jacob and Mark Shears have all entered, so this one is also still to play out. JT - Amended 02/09/2023

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The Richard Bell Memorial Trophy

As you will know, following his 3rd consecutive victory in the Tom Cole Trophy, we decided that Jonathan Abecassis could retain the trophy. It seems entirely appropriate that, following the recent very sad loss of our Founder Member and Club Secretary, Richard Bell, our new Spring Start trophy should be named in his memory. I am delighted to say that the Bell family have indicated their strong support of this decision. JT - 30/08/2023

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FISCAR Members and/or Compliant cars at Silverstone Festival, 27/08/2023

Apart from the unfortunate Tim Stamper, a number of other FISCAR members and/or cars that have raced with us in the past were at the Festival. The race that was of greatest interest to those of us enthusiastic about 1950s sports cars was the combined MRL RAC Woodcote Trophy and Stirling Moss Trophy. It was the former in which ‘our’ type of cars were engaged in battle, part of a very of large grid of over 50 cars.

The highest placed FISCAR type car was the Austin Healey 100/4 of the Mortimers who finished a fine 12th, 2nd overall in the Woodcote Trophy part, only beaten by the rare Lotus 10 sports racer of owner Martin Paul which he shared with the very quick Will Nuthall. Nicholas Harris was 21st overall in his Austin Healey 100/4, and I note that the Jaguar XK140 Gomm Special that has raced with us in the past, finished 25th in the hands of the Willmotts. Paul Griffin was 26th in the Connaught ALSR and Chris Woodgate was 43rd in the late Jon Gross Ex works Sebring Aston Martin DB MkIII , still owned, I believe, by the Gross family. This car was appropriately enough, the last winner of our Jon Gross memorial Trophy race in 2018. Nick English finished one place behind Chris and I see that the Keith-Lucas family brought two Jaguar XKs to the grid finishing 35th and 36th respectively. Chris Jolly who raced with us in the early days finished 38th in his DB2.

There was quite a high attrition rate in a race which was red flagged for quite a long time to clear up following Tim’s accident, and then restarted. Among the 15 NC/DNFs, I see that David Reed retired his maroon Aston DB2 , the car that he had run with us at Thruxton, and that Stephen Bond who, sadly, has not raced with us for some seasons, also retired the lovely Lister Bristol. Hugh Apthorp’s Keift Climax which I believe was the one formerly owned by Craig McWilliams also retired although I understood from Craig that he has sold it to Rick Haythornthwaite, so perhaps since sold on again? JT - 30/08/2023

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Tim Stamper at Silverstone Festival

Those of you following the Silverstone Festival on live stream yesterday will have been dismayed to see Tim’s Aston Martin DB2/4 inverted, but no doubt equally relieved that he exited the car unscathed. He reports that a half shaft broke and the loose wheel then catapulted the car over. He advises that the car looked after him and it was ‘an excellent testimony to roll cages and why we should have them even though we do not have to.’‘ He says that the body is not as badly damaged as he first feared and that ‘I will try to pull it back as much as I can myself and see what its like from there …… Good news is I had the engine running very well at last so really keen to be back  asap.

This all sounds pretty positive from Tim after such a dramatic exit from the race although it would seem a tall order to have the car ready in time for Castle Combe.

Quite a number of other FISCAR members and former members raced at the meeting and, time permitting, I may report how they fared! JT - 28/08/2023

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Regenmeister King Aces It!

FISCAR Inter-Marque, BDC, Silverstone, 12th August, 2023

In motor racing, rain has the ability to upset the natural order of things. It certainly did so for FISCAR on Saturday.

It was a delight to see David Cottingham return to the FISCAR paddock with his lovely left hand drive AC Ace even though he wasn’t driving. He had entered the car for Adrian King to drive and Adrian fully repaid David’s faith with an outstanding drive. He had qualified the car a good 6th in the dry but come the race, the track was pretty treacherous following a heavy shower and it was still drizzling as the race started. The Kellison, on pole, pitted on the green flag lap with a repeat of its Thruxton exhaust issue, and this left fellow front row man,  Andy Shepherd, to grab the lead in his AC Ace, but this lasted just one lap  as first Geoff Turrall in his TR3A/B, and then Adrian passed him, demoting Andy to 3rd. By the end of lap 2, Adrian had taken the Cottingham Ace, on fresh tyres, into the lead and, metaphorically speaking, he was never seen again. Geoff is pretty quick in the TR but he had no answer, and by the end of lap 4, Adrian had a lead of over 6 seconds and just continued to drive away. Simply put, he was at least a couple of seconds a lap quicker than his closest pursuers, and won the race by almost a minute and  23 seconds. I know we are a small club operating at club level but within that parameter, this drive was hugely impressive. I can only imagine how elated David Cottingham must have felt, still recovering, at the age of 80, from his massive surgery towards the end of last year.

There were some very fine drives all the way down the field and the standard of driving throughout was excellent, and despite a few inevitable spins in the conditions, the gentlemanly conduct ensured that there was no contact damage.  One of those spinners was the experienced Paul Woolmer, somewhat embarrassed by gyrating to the back of the field on the first lap but he then went on to complete a superb recovery drive to finish 2nd in his Elva Courier.  Peter Blanchett had another fine race in the RGS Atalanta to finish 3rd overall.

I think I should mention a few other highly meritorious drives – Justin Beckett, an excellent 4th in his AC Ace, Andy Cox 6th in his TR3 Falcon, Ed Shah who surely surprised himself by finishing 7th in his Elva Courier and Chris Mann who had substituted his Giulietta Spyder entry for the magnificent 1900CSS Zagato, finished an incredible 12th in a car that had finished last at Donington. He professed after this race that he loved the rain and it certainly showed! Reuben Jacob’s drive to 13th in the Morgan was also notable but in reality everyone excelled in these conditions and the only cars that failed to finish did so through mechanical ailments.

Class winners were Brian Arculus (Lotus Elite, Class 1), Adrian King (Class 2), Peter Blanchett (Class 3) and, almost inevitably, Richard Thorne (Morgan +4, Class 4). The index of Performance was won by Andy Cox with Chris Mann, 2nd and Ed Shah, 3rd. No less than 4 marques had full teams - Morgan, Elva, Lotus and AC but both Lotus and AC ‘lost’ a car during the race, so that Morgan just won from Elva.

There were a number of ‘firsts’ in this race which I will allude to in the full report, but is it wishful thinking to suggest a sign of FISCAR renaissance? Castle Combe beckons and time will tell!

  JT - 14/08/2023

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Brian Arculus has pointed me to the impending sale of a TR3 known to us - please see ‘Cars For Sale’ section.

JT - 04/08/2023

Latest from Alex Q

John, getting better and very lucky to have come thru as well as I am………….. (received 17/07)

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Connections!

Abecassis second to Martin Hunt’s HWM

VSCC Redgate Mug and FISCAR Inter-Marque

Donington, 9th July, 2023

It was no surprise that Martin Hunt won outright at Donington on Sunday, to take the VSCC Redgate Mug. Jonathan Abecassis came home 2nd and again won the FISCAR part of the race in his Austin Healey 100/4, and according to Martin, kept the HWM honest, although it would seem likely that he had a bit in hand.  It all seemed entirely appropriate, as Jonathan’s grandfather, George, was a key figure in the development of HWM. Here, almost literally, Jonathan was following in George’s footsteps. The gap between the two cars opened up towards the end after Jonathan spun on oil dropped by the TR3 Falcon of Andrew Cox but he still finished ahead of Jonathan Cobb’s Cooper Bristol. Brian Arculus drove his Lotus Elite to 4th overall, 2nd in FISCAR and was the only other driver to complete the full 20 laps.

Unusually, the race was graced with the presence of two lovely Alfa Romeos, Richard Frankel’s Giulietta and Chris Mann’s incredibly rare and historic 1900CSS Zagato (above), about which, more in the main race report.

Class winners were Abecassis (Class 1),  Alistair Pugh (FNLMR, Class 2), Tony Kilby (Morgan +4, Class 3, below) and Shaun Bromley (MGA, Class 4 above). Shaun had a great race and as a result also took top honours in Index of Performance with Alistair Pugh finishing 2nd. Despite the unfortunate withdrawal of Alan House (see below), Morgan were still able to field  a full 3 car team and duly took the Inter-Marque team award.    

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Alan House recovering from heavy fall

Arriving at Donington on Sunday, it was noted that Alan’s Morgan +4 was sitting forlornly on a trailer in the car park. An enquiry elicited a response from Richard Thorne who advised that Alan had had a fall at the hotel he was staying in for the meeting, causing nasty injuries to his face which required a visit to hospital and several stitches in his lip. The wounded warrior appeared on Sunday morning looking shaken, with a very swollen face and quite unable to participate in the race. It didn’t stop him standing at Redgate watching much of our race before he left for the journey home. It doesn’t end there, either, as yesterday and checking in with him by text, I received the reply that he was now in Ipswich hospital A & E having more stitches - this time on the inside of his mouth! It all sounds very unpleasant and painful, but he made it clear that he would be back racing at BDC in August. We can only wish him a very speedy recovery.

I will shortly put the usual brief race report from Donington up here, and then start the full report asap. I can confirm that Mick Walker has already provided a superb set of photos, so it will again be very well covered pictorially.

JT - 11/07/2023

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News Update - Alex Q

The latest from Alex, received yesterday (30/6):-

John, many thanks for the note and thoughts, Please do stay in touch. I am doing really well given the whack I got. I will be at Castle Combe, God willing and the creek don't rise. 

Alex also has half a page to himself in this week’s Autosport (29June - pg 57)

JT - 01/07/2023

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AC Ace News

In the past we have been well supported by AC owner/drivers but currently only Justin Beckett is a regular campaigner, so I thought that I would update members on why they are currently noticeable by their absence!

David Cottingham - David, a great supporter of FISCAR owns that lovely left hand drive electric blue Ace that he often shared with Adrian King. Unfortunately, towards the end of last year David required some very extensive surgery and is now on a long journey of recuperation. He is not sure that he will race again but has suggested that he may, on occasion, enter Adrian to drive the car. He knows that he is most welcome to join us at meetings whether or not he brings the car and we wish him well in his recovery to good health.

Andy Shepherd - Andy’s Ace had a rather expensive ‘Off’ at Goodwood last year and the damage was more extensive than initially thought. He has told me that the car is coming back together and is hopeful that it will appear at our events later in the season.

Tim Pearce - The dark green Ace which Tim often shared with son, Robin, was one of the quickest. However, after campaigning the car in an impressive 101 races during his ownership, Tim thought it was time for the car to move on and has now sold it.

Mark Morgan - Mark, Comp. Sec. for the ACOC, another FISCAR supporter, has put his Ace up for sale although, if anyone is interested, I can tell you that to date it remains unsold. Mark currently races with us in his little invitation Ginetta G4 provided he doesn’t go too quickly!

Finally, I have agreed that George Passey may enter our races in his Aceca. The car has the later Ford 2.6 litre straight 6 engine and thus strictly speaking falls outside the scope of our regs, so it will enter as an invitation car. Of course, the Aceca was manufactured in small numbers through much of the 50s with AC or Bristol 2 litre engines, so that lovely shape is very correct, so provided it is not too quick (George assures me it won’t be!!) it will be a perfect addition to our grids.

JT - 21/06/2023

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Abecassis Again!

But!

Tollett stars in Thruxton Thriller

 Jonathan Abecassis duly delivered another fine win at Thruxton in his Austin Healey 100/4 but this was no easy victory. He was pushed all the way by a superb and unexpected challenge from Rory Tollett, driving solo in Dad, Glenn’s, 100M. Rory emerged from the chasing pack to make a real fight of it in a duel that lasted most of the race. It certainly entertained the spectators, whilst the very experienced Brian Arculus, despite rueing the passing of years, drove in his usual, quick, smooth and precise style to 3rd in the pretty Lotus Elite, the only other car to stay on the lead lap. Still pretty damn good then, Brian!

There were several new cars to FISCAR in this race which had no less than 4 Aston Martins and 4 Morgans on the grid. In its first race with us, the RGS Atalanta of Peter Blanchett, proved remarkably quick with its MGA engine and after David Reed needed a longer pit stop to change a wheel on his DB2, Peter duly displaced the Aston to take an excellent 4th place, winning Class 3 ahead of David who took Class 2.

Richard Thorne prepared all 4 Morgans including the lovely new blue +4  of Tony Kilby,  but it was the very experienced Richard himself, doing his usual giant killing act, by not only taking his own +4 to Class 4 victory but more impressively finishing 6th overall.

There is so much to cover in this race, which included the unusual sight of an Austin A105 in the hands of guest driver, Andrew Davenall, but you will have to await the dubious delight of my lengthy and detailed account to read about it. I can report, however, that in the important Index of Performance category Peter Baker (DB2), Rory Tollett (100M) and Peter Blanchett (RGS Atalanta) took the top 3 places, and in the Team award, Aston Martin won by a whisker from Morgan.      

It may be a while before I am able to make much headway with the main report, but if, in the meantime, any participating driver wishes to share their experience of the race, please email me. JT - 20/06/2023

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Alex Quattlebaum - Update.

I’m pleased to say that I have already received a reply from Alex as follows:-

John, thanks for the note - not much fun but recovering - only broke 6 ribs, both collarbones and something with spine and what else not knowing yet!   I plan to be at Castle Combe but afraid not before. Ruined the new rear body panel - could have been much worse, I knew nothing until the air ambulance - Close call.

Clearly, Alex is pretty stoical! - 16/06/2023

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Alex Quattlebaum injured at Silverstone

Some of you may already know this but Alan House has recently informed me that Alex suffered quite nasty injuries following an accident at the MG Live event at Silverstone last weekend. He was airlifted to hospital but has since flown back to the States where I understand he was to have his shoulder pinned yesterday. Alex suffered several breakages of collar bones and ribs and must have been in considerable pain. Alan tells me, however, that he is in reasonably good spirits and hoping to get the LECo repaired and back racing soon. I’ve sent Alex a message on behalf of FISCAR saying that his fellow members are thinking of him and wishing him a speedy recovery. I will update, as and when I hear more. JT - 15/06/2023

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Ryan Hodges - JCX

Some of you may recall (scroll down this page to 2019) the wonderful JCX Alfa project that Ryan Hodges was working on. It is sad to report, and I have only just learnt this, that Ryan passed away last year and I have, on behalf of FISCAR, passed on our condolences to friends and family.

The upshot is that Ryan’s estate has put this great project up for sale and I’m really hoping that the parts will be sold together as a project for completion as Ryan would have wanted. I have put a link in on our ‘Cars for Sale ‘ page but I do so again here as I feel this is so worthy of a real look by anyone wanting to acquire a unique and pretty car from our favourite decade. There are plenty of photos on the website (see button below) but little information. I had a number of exchanges with Ryan back in 2019/2020 regarding this lovely car and have conveyed whatever extra information that he disclosed to me to Ross Parker, MD Slip&Grip Automotive who has placed the advert, so it may now be updated.

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Tom Cole Trophy Race, 22 April, 2023

Abecassis Aces it Again!

Jonathan Abecassis secured his third consecutive Tom Cole Trophy win with a fine drive on Saturday. We’ve decided that he can now keep the Trophy! Outqualified by Richard Woolmer in the Elva, it seemed likely that Jonathan would have to work hard for this victory but in the race the misfiring Elva failed to offer the anticipated challenge. Theo Hunt therefore took an excellent 2nd place in his Father, Martin’s, Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica and Alex Quattlebaum an equally excellent 3rd in the LECo.

Class winners were Jonathan (C1), Theo (C2), Alex (C3) and Mark and Jonny Shears in the Morgan +4 Flat Rad (C4), In the Index of Performance, Dougal and Mark Groves took top honours in Dougal’s Lotus Elite, with Alex 2nd and Theo 3rd. The Morgans won the team award, from the Austin Healeys with the reduced Lotus Elite team 3rd.

The race, and therefore the Hawthorn International Trophy was won overall by Martin Hunt, a previous Tom Cole winner, in his HWM Jaguar overcoming an early challenge from Barry Cannell’s Cooper T39 Bobtail. Jonathan Abecassis joined them on the podium, the Austin Healey annexing 3rd overall, albeit some distance behind Martin and Barrie who were very much in a performance class of their own.

A full account of the race with photos and results will follow, in due course. JT - 24/04/2023

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The Sun Shines on Abecassis Victory

Castle Combe Autumn Classic - 24 September, 2022

Jonathan Abecassis stormed to overall victory in his familiar lefthand drive Austin Healey 100/4 at Castle Combe, a track he clearly relishes, on a beautifully hot and sunny Saturday. The fabulous invitation Maserati 250S owned and driven Richard Wilson, not unexpectedly, took the lead from pole, but sadly retired on the second lap when a tooth broke off the crown wheel. Closest challenger had been Richard Woolmer who assumed the lead, driving very quickly indeed in the Elva, but Jonathan kept him in sight and when Richard handed the car over to his Dad, Paul couldn’t quite match his pace and it was enough to enable Jonathan, a model of consistently fast pace, to take the lead and go on to score a fine victory by 9.7 seconds from the Woolmer Elva, with Robin Ellis 3rd in his Lotus Elite. Three different marques in the top 3 is rather pleasing!

Class winners were Jonathan (Class 1), Paul & Richard Woolmer (Class 2), a surprised Simon Jeffries in his Aston Martin DB Mk111 (Class 3) and Richard Thorne in his Morgan (Class 4). In the all important Index of Performance, Simon’s great drive in the Aston gave him the win on the day, but 2nd was Justin Beckett in the glorious sounding AC Ace, giving him more than enough points to make him clear and deserved winner of our annually awarded Whitehead cup. On the day, Morgans took an excellent Inter-Marque victory, but the Lotus team did just enough to pip the Austin Healey team by 1 point to take the annual Inter-Marque Trophy, a cup so large that it seems no-one wanted to take it home!!

In the Annual class awards, newly introduced this year, Jonathan took Class 1 honours. Paul Woolmer, who, once he joined us mid season, set the benchmark in Class 2 and duly took the win, in the Elva. Alan House, who was the only member to race in all our races this year, took Class 3 in his Morgan +4 and a no doubt rather surprised Mark & Jonny Shears took Class 4 in their splendid Flat Rad Morgan +4. Well done to all our award winners throughout the year.

I will start the full race report, which will include the days results and loads of photos, and I have now added the overall final points tables for the full season below. JT - 29/09/2022

Index of Performance - The Whitehead Cup

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FISCAR Members/cars at Goodwood Revival

A number of FISCAR and former FISCAR members raced at Goodwood over the weekend and I thought it would be good to record briefly their exploits.

The first race at the meeting, The Freddie March Memorial Trophy for Sports cars from the late 40s/early 50s, was an hour long race that took place on Friday early evening. Martin Hunt and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards took their Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica to a fine 10th place behind 8 larger engined sports racing cars and a Cooper Bobtail, so a pretty good result. Paul Griffin and Will Nuthall finished in a good 16th place, in Paul’s Connaught ALSR and I note that John Ure and Nick Wigley failed to start in Peter Mann’s Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica.

However, probably our greatest interest lay in Race 2 - The Madgwick Cup for 1948-55 sports cars up to 2-litres. Nigel Winchester took his South American special bodied AC Ace Bristol to 7th, with Alex Quattlebaum in his LECo XPAG, 8th. Nigel Batchelor drove the little Cooper MG T21 (previously owned by Chris Guest) to 14th and the 15th placed Kieft Climax driven by Rick Haythornthwaite looked remarkably like the car that Craig McWilliams has driven at a few of our meetings over the years. Brian Arculus, in his Lotus IX started behind Alex on the grid but late on in the race managed to work his way passed the LECo only then to have gear selector problems forcing him to pull off the track on lap 11 of this 13 lap race. Interestingly, the winning car driven by Miles Griffiths was described as a Kieft 1100, so I was rather staggered to see this car romp to victory. However, my sanity (what sanity?) was restored when Brian was able to assure me that it was fitted with a 2 litre Bristol engine. There were a number of other cars on this grid which I felt would be perfectly acceptable on our FISCAR grids.

Race 6 was for Pre and post war single seater/voiturette cars and in which FISCAR stalwart, Chris Mann entered his lovely Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza. The car was, as the oldest in the field, outclassed against cars such as the Maseratis and whole phalanx of ERAs. Nevertheless, Chris finished an excellent 13th. Finally, I should mention David Cottingham’s son James, one of our quickest historic racers these days, who hauled his Tojeiro-Jaguar up several hard fought places to take the lead after the superb Ferrari 246S Dino of Sam Hancock retired to take a splendid win just from the David Hart Lister Jaguar. JT - 20/09/2022

Scores on the Doors!

2022 Index of Performance (current status!)

Current Team Inter-Marque Scores are:-

1= . Healeys - 15

1=. AC Aces - 15

3. Lotus - 14

4. MGs - 10

5 Morgans - 7

All to play for!

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Interim Class positions 2022

The Kellison J4R

As members will know, Richard Tyzack races his Kellison which he shares with Nick Taylor, with us on occasion. For those who don’t know, this is, in effect and old 1950s Corvette fitted with a period Kellison body. I’m told by other members who know better than I about these things, that the Corvette of this period was a pretty wayward beast under braking at the front end and this Kellison is fitted with old Land Rover disc brakes at the front so as not to scare its drivers or indeed other drivers! It has to be admitted that this car is not your typical FISCAR fare but I have accepted it in the past, as an invitation car, and I think it would be unfair of me, as eligibility officer, to now simply turn it away. Richard is part of our FISCAR community and has supported us in the past. The car does not appear at all our races and has not proved particularly reliable when it has. It has however proved to be exceptionally quick in a straight line, recently. It should be noted that it has only ever won one race outright with us when, a few years back it beat Brian Arculus in the Lotus Elite by half a car’s length in an exciting race at Silverstone. FISCAR has never been about winning races, concentrating more on Classes, Index of Performance and team Inter-Marque. Stating the obvious, I know, but someone has to be at the front just as much as someone will be at the back. However, to acknowledge our concerns about the current pace of the Kellison, Richard has accepted that his pit stop will now be for 75 seconds against the 45 seconds of our other cars. I’m grateful to Richard for taking this on board. JT - 20/08/2022

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BDC, Silverstone, 13th August, 2022

FISCAR Inter-Marque Race

Another Hot One

Our second visit to the Silverstone National circuit was even hotter than the event we experienced just a month ago with the VSCC. It was hot enough to take its toll on cars, and no doubt some drivers. This was a lovely entry, our biggest of the year at 24 cars, but there was fair degree of attrition, so that by the time the race started we were down to 17 cars. It was enough to make a fine spectacle.

The Kellison Of Richard Tyzack and Nick Taylor led from pole but a loss of brakes triggered early retirement and an intriguing and exciting Class 2 battle for the lead ensued between the AC Ace Bristol of Andy and Murray Shepherd and the Elva Courier Mk1 of Paul Woolmer and Paul Mortimer. On the road the Elva took the flag, but timekeepers deemed them to have been speeding in the pit lane, and so unfortunately for the drivers, it was docked 5 places. The Shepherd AC Ace therefore took a fine win. The glorious sounding AC team starred,  taking  1st, 2nd and 7th overall and comfortable team Inter-Marque honours ahead of the Morgan and Austin Healey Teams. Class 1 winner was John Harper and David Brazell in the Jaguar C-Type and Class 3 went to Brian Arculus in the Lotus IX . Class 4 victory went  to Mark and Jonny Shears in the early Flat rad Morgan +4 and the first 3 on Index of Performance were Chris Mann (Disco Volante) , David Cottingham and Adrian King, (AC Ace Bristol) and Justin Beckett (AC Ace Bristol).

The usual full race report will appear eventually accompanied by photos, many taken by Mick Walker.

As an exciting (for me, anyway) postcript, I ‘discovered’ this rather interesting vehicle (below) whilst searching for our club members in the far reaches of the paddock. Spotting the Triumph badge, my first thought was Italia even though I felt there was something wrong with my identification. Now the Italia is really a bit too late for FISCAR, but I should have had my glasses on as David Brazell pointed out to me the ‘Falcon’ script badge on the back. So, now, back on the case, I was able to speak to the owner/driver who confirmed that the car was from 1958. A TR3 then, with a rare Falcon body? ‘Yes’! A quick look around showed the car to be on twin SU’s and nothing untoward, so onto tyres. They were Avons, so more in hope than expectation, I advised the owner that all he needed was a set of Dunlop Ls and he would be very welcome to join FISCAR. His reply was music to my ears - ‘I’m looking for a series to run in and I have a set of Ls back home’. The upshot was that he contacted FISCAR earlier this week with a view to joining, so I’m hoping that Andrew Cox with his Falcon bodied TR3 will be on our grid soon, if not at Castle Combe, then next season. JT - 18/08/2022

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VSCC, Silverstone 16th July 2022

The VSCC Hawthorn International Trophy and FISCAR Tom Cole Trophy Race

A splendid array of lovely 1950s sports cars appeared on the grid for our 30 minute blast around the Silverstone National Circuit last Saturday. The race was to our usual format with a mandatory pitstop which was applied also to the VSCC Hawthorn International entries too to keep everything on an even keel. After the retirement ofTim Llewellyn in the Allard, Chris Keen, took victory in the Hawthorn International Trophy, in the Kurtis 500S, although he could not let up at any stage as, John Ure, who really seemed on a charge in the second half of the race finished just 3 seconds behind in Peter Mann’s Cooper Bristol T24/25. Jonathan Abecassis was 3rd overall and first of our FISCAR cars, and therefore took the The Tom Cole Trophy home for the second year running! Paul Woolmer was very quick in the Elva Courier, taking 4th overall and Class 2 winner. Alex Quattlebaum took class 3 honours but no class 4 car finished, or indeed started, since Martin Stowe’s hard worked MGA went on strike during qualifying and Martin had, sadly to sit this one out and spectate. The Index of Performance award went to Justin Beckett in his AC Ace Bristol. A full and detailed race report, with results will follow in due course and it will include some great Mick Walker photos. JT - 19/07/2022

MG Live

Silverstone GP circuit, 11/12 June 2022

Well, at least we saw some decent weather for MG Live. It was bright but windy! However our input into this meeting which had some pretty large grids was small and only 6 entries across two races were  from FISCAR although there were a number of others who are existing, or were, former members and I will endeavour to highlight them in my usual longer report. I can confirm that on Saturday in the Equipe Libre, Pre 63 & 50s race, we had 4 entries of whom Jonathan Abecassis (also an Equipe member) was the  first home in his Austin Healey 100/4. In fact, he finished 11th overall, and was 2nd only to a Lotus 11 of all the 1950s cars in a big  field which included some very quick cars. Justin Beckett (AC Ace) was 38th and Alan House (Morgan+4) 43rd out of 44 finishers from 54 starters. Alex Quattlebaum, unfortunately, did not even get to the start the race as the head gasket blew on the little LECo XPAG during practice.

On Sunday, in the Equipe Libre & 70s race, Shaun and Josh Bromley finished a very creditable 18th out of 34 starters and 27 finishers, in the Elva Mk4, and a delightful surprise to me was the unexpected entry of Glenn Brackenridge in his Sunbeam Alpine  Harrington Le Mans. Not unexpectedly, he was completely outclassed in this field completing 12 laps and unclassified to the winner’s 15 laps completed, but hats off to Glenn for bringing it along.

I will put together a more comprehensive report in due course, but still collating some of the information (as well as beginning to focus on the VSCC meeting in July!).  There will be plenty of photos but I am less than happy with the quality of mine so am pleased to say that there will be contributions from one of our favourite professional photograhers, Mick Walker. JT 18/06/2022

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FISCAR Inter-Marque Race

Including The Archie Scott Brown Trophy Race

Snetterton, 18th April 2022

Eleven FISCAR stalwarts finally entered our race at Snetterton, and whilst it was a low number there was certainly an interesting mix to our grid. It was a long day for our members, as drivers briefing was at 9.00am, qualifying at 11.30am and the race scheduled to start at 5.30 pm. Fortunately the weather was kind to us.

A full race report will be provided but briefly I can report that Shaun Bromley in his Elva Mk 4 (above) overcame an early challenge from Brian Arculus in the equally lovely Lotus Mk9, to win overall and take the Archie Scott Brown Trophy. Brian retained second to the end and was followed home by Christopher Mann in the splendid and exotic Alfa Romeo 6C3000PR Disco Volante, in a very rare for FISCAR, sports racing, 1-2-3. To understand how this came about you will have to wait for the full report!

Chris had been closely challenged by Ben Norfolk in Peter Swete’s Triumph TR3 which unfortunately failed to finish when it started to lose coolant. Ben’s challenge was then taken up by Martin Stowe in his MGA but the Alfa had this covered. John Waterson in the lotus Elite was 5th with the final classified finisher being Reuben Jacob in his Morgan +4 after Alan House pulled off a lap early when he misinterpreted a marshal’s flag!

Class wins went to John, Chris, Reuben and Martin, with Reuben also taking the Index of Performance award. So 11 entered, 8 started and 6 finished. We cannot claim that this was a glorious start to the season but I will nevertheless enjoy putting the full report together with a few photos, since there was plenty of intertest in our day! JT - 22/04/2022

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Annual Club Cups

As you know, we do not have any official championships. Class winners and Index of Performance winners are awarded at each event. However, we do award two annual Cups at the end of the season to the member who has scored the most Index of Performance points (The Whitehead Cup) over the course of the season and to the best performing marque team (The Inter-Marque Trophy). Below is the table providing the scores on Index of Performance. You get a point just for turning up as you will see since some members scored a point even if they unfortunately failed to finish a race. The rest of the points are based on your expected finishing position, so that you gain points for finishing ahead of this. This is a moving target so that if you score well in one race, your expected finishing position will be higher at the next race. The maximum you can score is 11 points. If you need anymore detail as to how these are arrived at, I have to refer you to Mark Campbell!

Congratulations to Alan House and Martin Stowe who share the Whitehead Cup this year as they finished on equal points. Appropriate really since they were the only members who entered all 5 events (7 races). The best score only from one of the two races at each double header has been counted - hence best 5 count. You will see that 45 members entered at least one race this year, but only 12 entered 3 or more. It was enough to provide some great grids but it goes without saying that they could be even better.

Congratulations to the MGA members who figured well at all of our meetings this year leading to the accumulation of sufficient points to take the Inter-Marque Trophy. It was a real turnaround on previous years when MGAs were pretty scarce on our grids. The leading teams in the past have been from Lotus, AC and Austin Healey, so it’s great to see another classic 50s marque taking the Trophy this year. Of course, we haven’t had any full Aston teams for some seasons, many of the Austin Healeys have preferred to race with Equipe Classic and we have never had sufficient TR entries for Triumph to stage a challenge. Jaguars have also been fairly thin on the ground, partly because many of them are Vredestein shod, but this year we have seen two very quick XK150s race with us. If Paul De Havilland and Marc Gordon (although Marc also races an Elite) turned up regularly and managed to draft another compliant Jag into the team, that would surely mount a pretty formidable challenge. I lay no claim to some of the Marque Team titles!

Whitehead Cup

Inter- Marque Cup

1. MG Maestros 26pts

2. Lotus Legends 23pts

3. Healey Hounds 18pts

4. AC Aces 17pts

5. FISCAR FLIERS 10pts

6. Might Morgans 4pts

7. Jaunty Jags 2pts ___________________________________________________________________________________

Fantastic FISCAR weathers wet Combe!

A truly exciting and eclectic mix of cars made up our final grid of the season and the quality of the on track action and exemplary conduct of our drivers in dire conditions was superb and surely made up for a downturn in entry numbers. At the end of a fascinating race, the 3 front running cars crossed the line separated by just 3 seconds - the Allard J2 of Tim and Oli Llewellyn winning from a brilliant David Alexander in his Lotus Elite and the excellent Marc Gordon, who had stunned in a very wet practice by putting his big Jaguar XK150 on pole. All 3 mastered the conditions with aplomb, but they were not alone and there was some splendid racing down the field. I’ll provide my full race report later but I’d just like to mention class winners - David Alexander, Jeremy Holden & Jeremy Brewster (Frazer Nash LMR - Class 2), Alex Quattlebaum (LECo2 - Class 3) and Tristan Bradfield (Sunbeam Alpine Le Mans - Class 4). Tristan had inflicted a rare defeat on Martin Stowe who has dominated Class 4 recently in his MGA and the pair put on a great show. Index of Performance winners were the aforesaid Frazer Nash LMR pairing, the Harry Naergar Jowett Jupiter and Tristan in the Sunbeam. The Lotus team, the only one to field a full 3 car team, won the team award followed by the MGs and the AC Aces.

In our annual awards, I had expected Lotus, as the only full team to take part on Saturday, to win the coveted Inter-Marque Trophy, by making up their small points deficit to the MGs and Austin Healeys. The latter were out of it, anyway, as they were not represented at all at Castle Combe. However, the MGAs of Rory Tollett and Martin Stowe did enough on Saturday to keep the MGs ahead and take the cup. I was particularly delighted by this outcome because the trophy has been won by the ACs, Austin Healeys or Lotus teams in the past and we have really struggled to attract enough MGs to our races to get them to figure in the results. This year however, we’ve seen them out in sufficient strength to make the difference, so very well done to them.

In the Whitehead Cup, our trophy for the best Index of Performance results over the season was, for the first time, shared between two drivers. Alan House had been leading for most of the year following a very good score at Spring Start but it had been consistently eroded by Martin Stowe over the following races and at the end of the race, on Saturday, he had done enough to draw even with Alan, both finishing on 30 points. It is entirely appropriate that they should share this trophy as the only two drivers to have raced at all 5 events (7 races - only the best result counting at each of the double headers). Just a single point behind was Christopher Mann in the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000PR Disco Volante, and it was a case of what might have been for Chris, as he missed Snetterton, a track that he much enjoys, for business reasons. JT - 04/10/2021

Snetterton in September!

Snetterton always seems to have a problem generating big numbers at club events both in terms of entrants and spectators and September there is particularly vulnerable to other more high profile events. However this MGCC event to which Equipe contributed several grids and to which FISCAR were invited provided sufficient entries to provide some entertaining racing. A bonus was that we were blessed with unexpectedly good weather all weekend.

There were a number of FISCAR compliant cars entered although I did not identify how many were entered as FISCAR cars or as Equipe cars. It doesn’t really matter - the fact is that they were there and gave a good account of themselves amongst the Pre 63 cars, during the course of the weekend. Drives by Lotus Elite pilots Marc Gordon (on Saturday), Robin Ellis (Saturday in the Equipe GTS race) and Brian Arculus (on Sunday) certainly livened up proceedings and made their presence felt. Marc finished a fine 8th overall in the combined pre63/50s race on Saturday and Brian an even better 5th overall in the repeat race on Sunday. Martin Stowe put up his usual fine show in his MGA but Alan House struggled to get to grips with his local circuit in the Morgan but finished both races. Member Mark Ellis, usually an MG stalwart, ran his newly acquired Morgan which is not FISCAR compliant since it is to Super Sport spec and it showed in the race, whilst Chris Wilks qualified his MGA Twin Cam but did not take the grid in either race. I’ll put some flesh to all this in the main report which will appear in tghe normal way. JT - 18/09/2021

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Successful Silverstone!

Well done to all our members who provided yet another stunning grid for our race at the wonderful Bentley Drivers Club meeting at Silverstone, despite quite a bit of attrition on the run up to the race itself. The weather forecast was not that encouraging but in the end we had only a couple of brief showers during the course of the day, one of which occurred about 2 or 3 laps from the end of our race but without creating serious drama. We welcomed another new car to the grid in the form of Reuben Jacob’s Morgan Plus 4, and I understand that this was Reuben’s very first race!

As expected, particularly after Brian Arculus had to withdraw his Elite during qualifying with gearbox maladies, the splendid Llewellyn Allard J2 took victory, although at one stage our Class 1 winner, Nicholas Harris got pretty close in his Austin Healey 100/4. Third overall was taken by Paul Kennelly in his Austin Healey 100M. 4th overall and Class 2 winners were the Shepherd, Father & Son team in the AC Ace, whilst a great drive by Alex Quattlebaum took Class 3 honours in the LECo and 6th overall. Equally impressive was Martin Stowe’s drive to Class 4 win (again!) and 9th overall. The FISCAR FLIERS team of Alex, Paul Griffin (Connaught ALSR) and Stuart Dean (DJS Coupe) surprised everyone, including themselves, by winning the Team award, and the Index of Performance winners were David Cottingham and Adrian King in David’s AC Ace. Everyone appeared to have enjoyed themselves and I will endeavour to provide all the stories behind the race in detail as usual accompanied by a terrific selection of shots from Mick Walker who has done us proud. - JT

We welcome another New Member

A warm welcome to Chris Pring who joins us with this splendid Allard J2. A very original car with the 3.9 litre Mercury V8 with Ardun heads, this has a lovely history. ‘ Exhibited at the Festival of Britain before being delivered to Ulster racing driver Desmond Titterington in Belfast later the same year. The car was fitted from new with an Ardun OHV conversion to a V8 Mercury flathead (side-valve) engine. Desmond Titterington finished 6th in the Allard on its debut in the Wakefield Trophy at The Curragh in 1951 and went on to win Ireland’s major road race, the Leinster Trophy, in OZ 4444 in 1952. In all he bagged 14 podiums from 24 starts in OZ 4444. The car was subsequently taken to race in India by a Scotsman, Jimmy Braid, and was the winner of the Calcutta Grands Prix in 1958 and 1960 at the hands of third owner, Allan Ramsay. The car returned to the UK in 2001 and was restored by Chris Pring and the Leiter Motor Co in Dorset over the course of the following 10 years.‘ Just fantastic - JT 07/07/2021

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Silverstone - Hot in Every Way!

(MG Live - 2021)

The weather was hot, the track was hot, we were hot and the racing was hot! Two fabulous days in which the pair of joint Equipe Classic and FISCAR grids contributed enormously to MG Live’s racing weekend on the GP circuit. To endeavour to sum up two races with such a variety of cars and classes, or to pick a couple of typical images is almost impossible, so this report will be particularly brief and you will have to await the full report for any real detail. The grid on Saturday was a particular delight and there was some truly fantastic racing throughout the field. Although the 1950s cars were up against some Pre 63 cars for overall honours, FISCAR compliant cars (I emphasize compliant since not all those entered were FISCAR members and others are members of both Equipe and FISCAR) they nevertheless gave a very good account of themselves - Lotus Elites and Austin Healey 100s featuring towards the front, Jonathan Abecassis leading the charge to finish 4th overall in race 1 and 3rd overall in Race 2 although he didn’t have it all his own way by any means, as we shall see. All in all 1950s cars took 5 of the top 10 places in Race 1 and 6 in Race 2. Pretty impressive, but the race at the front, especially in Race 1 would probably have overshadowed all others from a spectators point of view. Since it involved one of our members, Nigel Winchester, albeit not in a 50s car, I cannot but help record that under enormous pressure from the beautifully driven pole sitting Austin Healey 3000 of Mark Holme in both races, the first of which also involved Roberto Giordanelli in an E type, Nigel powered his beautifully prepared Shelby Cobra Mk 1 to victory and it should be noted that this is not one of those fat tyred hairy 289 versions that you will see at Goodwood and elsewhere, but a genuinely early original 260 cu inch car. More of all this anon, and I will make a start on the full report - I have much scrutiny of the lap charts to do but at least on this occasion, I don’t have to factor in pit stops! JT -19/06/2021

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Tom Cole Trophy Index of Performance and Marque Team winners.

Mark Campbell has now cast his experienced eye over the results and applied his usual calculations to them and has revealed the following results:-

Index of Performance

1st - Neil Burnside - MGA Twin Cam

2nd - Mark Shears/Philip Tisdall - Morgan +4 (early)

3rd - Alan House - Morgan +4 (late)

Marque Team Positions

1st - Ist MG Maestros - Mark Ellis/Mark Daniel/ Neil Burnside

2nd - Lotus Legends - David Alexander/Robin Ellis/ Barry Dye

Congratulations to all the above. It’s an absolute delight to see a full MGA team (in fact we had 5 in the race - one retired) after a long absence. Please keep turning up, gentlemen. - JT 21/04/2021

Abecassis takes Tom Cole Trophy

By finishing 4th on the road, Jonathan Abecassis was surprised to find himself the winner of The Tom Cole Trophy. He may have been confused by the fact that ahead of him were two previous winners of the Trophy - Martin Hunt & Patrick- Blakeney Edwards in Martin’s HWM Jaguar and Chris Keen in the Kurtis 500S. They again finished 2nd & 3rd overall, as they had in 2019 and their increased performance in 2019 made them now too quick to be eligible for the Tom Cole Trophy and in fact they were only beaten last Saturday by the Lotus XV of Bernado Hartogs who therefore won the VSCC’s Hawthorn International Trophy.

This was a lovely grid with so much variety and some excellent fast but gentlemanly driving with close racing down the field. A full race report will follow, in the usual way, but well done to class winners, Jonathan Abecassis, (Austin Healey 100/4), Paul De Havilland (Jaguar XK150S), Alex Quattlebaum (LECo2 MG XPAG) and Martin Stowe (MGA) - see photos below. A number of our competitors left the circuit quite quickly and didn’t pick up their awards, and given our limited resources at the event, the time consuming calculation around our Index of Performance and Team awards means that they will be announced later. - JT 19/04/2021

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Welcome to new member David Ferry and his lovely Triumph TR3A. This is actually a 1962 car but retrofitted with a 1959 spec 2 litre engine. The eagle eyed amongst you may have noted that it is fitted with Avons but these are its road tyres, and for racing with us it will have our regulation Dunlop L tyres. (JT - 01/01/2021)

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A warm welcome to Martin Stowe with his lovely MGA (below) which has run with us occasionally in the past. It seems that our race at BDC and an encouraging chat there with Shaun & Josh Bromley has triggered Martin’s enthusiasm to join us despite having a couple of other competition cars to play with! Martin is the first to register for 2021, although existing 2020 members continue to be registered gratis for 2021. (JT - 22/12/2020)

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Castle Combe Autumn Classic Cancelled

Well, Day 2 of it anyway!

It is rare for a race meeting to be cancelled on the day but this is exactly what happened on Sunday, 4th October, due to a flooded track. Saturday’s races went ahead in pretty trying conditions but incessant overnight rain adding to the already waterlogged conditions rendered the track unsafe to use and by 11am, many of the races, including ours, had been cancelled, although the circuit had some small hope of running the HRDC races later. Even this hope was dashed however, and by early afternoon the meeting had been cancelled.

We had 25 entries, although in the event two, David Cottingham and Richard Tyzack had to withdraw on the run up to the event, but all 23 of those remaining braved the elements and turned up at the meeting in the hope that they would be able to enjoy their usual thrash in FISCAR’s annual finale. Unfortunately, rather than race, they were subjected to a battering from wind and rain but at least we were all able to catch up and mull over this extraordinary year. I think most were pleased not to be out on track in such conditions because with so much standing water that in places covered the track from one side to the other, it was too much to subject these lovely and valuable cars to such a lottery.

Richard Culverhouse’s gazebo in which tea and coffee was dispensed nearly took off on several occasions, and I am grateful to Richard and his team for their efforts in very trying conditions. Also to my partner, Jackie, for spending much time in preparing a lot of food which, sadly, stayed in its containers and returned home with us. I now have a large quantity of quiche and cake to consume over the coming days ……. or even weeks!

Had the race gone ahead, it had been decided that we would award the Inter-Marque cup and the Whitehead Trophy but under the circumstances there was little point based on just BDC Silverstone plus the half points for HSCC Brands (due to low entry level). However, it was likely that with the withdrawal of David Cottingham’s AC Ace Bristol, reducing the AC team to just two cars, the way was clear for the Lotus team, with no less than 5 Elites entered, to recapture the Trophy they last won in 2017. The Whitehead Cup was more open but Shaun and Josh Bromley went into the race as favourites, after a superb result at Silverstone in the MGA earned them 12 points. Second was Paul De Havilland in his XK150S, on 11 points earned at both Brands Hatch and Silverstone, but he had decided, quite understandably, to run the Jaguar in the Norman Dewis Trophy, so the Bromleys closest challengers were Harry Naerger/Tom Leopold in the Jowett Jupiter and Barry Dye (again!) in the Lotus Elite, both on 10 points. It seemed likely that honours would go to one of the above although both Ed Shah (TR3A) and Richard Thorne (Morgan +4) were on 9 points, so not out of it, by any means.

All the above is academic now, of course, and it brings to a close FISCAR’s (along with many other clubs) truncated season. It has been a pretty dreadful year but our disappointments are nothing to those who have suffered both illness and loss during the course of this year. Let’s hope for better in 2021 and from our club’s point of view, we are working at putting together a proper racing season of 6 or 7 events. JT - 06/10/2020

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BDC, Silverstone - 22nd August 2020

Allez Allard!

Despite the complete absence of Aston Martins and Austin Healeys, a truly excellent grid of cars turned up to grace our grid on Saturday.  This was our first FISCAR only race of this truncated year and members did not disappoint. A couple of new members, Zaheer ‘Ed’ Shah in his Triumph TR3A and Glenn Brackenridge in his Sunbeam Harrington Alpine Le Mans joined us, the Harrington a new shape to our grids, as was the extraordinary looking Bristol 450 Le Mans Coupe recreation which Andrew Mitchell brought along for its racing debut. Attrition attended both qualifying and the race which was also full of drama. Despite stalling on the grid, Oliver Llewellyn romped through the field in the Allard J2 to win fairly comfortably. However, FISCAR attaches as much importance to its performance equalising classes, Index of Performance and team awards, and there is much to report on these and all will be revealed in the usual detailed report which will shortly be commenced once the  writer receives and collates the photos and full results! JT 24/08/2020

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HSCC Brands Hatch - 12th July, 2020

Six FISCAR stalwarts joined the HRS grid at Brands on Sunday and they all finished and appeared to enjoy themselves on the GP circuit. So well done, David Alexander (Lotus Elite), Brian Arculus (Lotus Elite), Paul De Havilland (Jaguar XK150), Dan Smith (Peerless GT), Alan House (Morgan +4) and Harry Naerger (Jowett Jupiter) who finished in that. This race was one of FISCAR’s official races this year but since the numbers were so low and no marque teams, there will, of course be no team awards or points. However, I think that we will award half points towards the Whitehead Cup, in recognition of their entries and efforts in the race. Although I did not attend, I was able to track the race on TSL Timing site, and have had feedback from our competitors and I will put together a brief race report and have a set of photos which professional photographer Jeff Bloxham has provided along with some lovely photos from Dominic House, Alan’s son - JT

Austin Healey heading back from the States

Peter Bower who raced his ‘left hooker’ Austin Healey 100/4 with us a couple of seasons back was sadly forced, for personal circumstances, to sell it. However, he clearly missed it so much that he got involved in a bidding war on this fine BN2 and on 23 January, found himself the unexpected winner at a figure which to me looks like an absolute ‘snip’ if the description and details on the auction site are accurate. The car is currently on Hoosiers, so we’ll have to ask Peter to change these for Dunlop L tyres. It has had an interesting and illustrious 25 + year racing career in various American historic categories, its last appearance being at Sonoma Historics Motorsport Festival in June 2018. I suspect there may be a few changes that Peter will need to make but he has yet to inspect the car since it is still sitting on the docks in the US but hopes to see it shipped here in early April. (JT - 31/03/2020)

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Zaheer Shah reports that his TR3A is now ready for this season’s campaign. The car is back to all steel wings, has steel wheels shod with Dunlop L and had the SUs fitted in place of the Webers. Well done, Zaheer; it can be done! See photos below (15/03/2020):-

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Those of you who raced with us in the early days of FISCAR will remember Steve Wright and his Porsche 356, which he shared with Ian Clark. Steve and Ian left us to race in other series since they wished to run in longer races. At the time Steve had also acquired this very interesting project. The above picture was taken in 2014. Built in the late Fifties, it has a Porsche 1282cc engine, Porsche drum brakes, ally body, and was a one-off build but otherwise used all production parts. At the time, those of us involved in the FLIER project were very interested in seeing its completion, since it would be a good fit for the new class. Unfortunately, like all such projects, completion took longer than expected and it was only finished last year and has now competed in some ice racing in Austria - see photos below. He still also owns the 356, and I’m delighted to report that he is hoping to race with us a couple of times this season so it will be great to see both Steve and Ian back with us. As he says ‘I now have the lovely problem of choosing which car to race’ . (14/03/2020)

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Zaheer reports that 3 new steel wings have been fitted to his TR3A (see below) and the final wing plus steel front apron are in the process of being fitted. The Weber carbs have already been replaced by SUs. All work is being undertaken by Mark Woodhouse,  so great progress being made. (03/02/2020)

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As well as a number of new members, Richard Bell reports plenty of membership renewals including returnee from some years ago, Richard Gane, in his Jowett Jupiter, so along with Harry Naerger, we may yet see two Jupiters on the grid again. (03/02/2020)

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Another New Shape joins us!

Warm welcome to another new member. John Abel has joined us with this Daimler SP250, another model that has not run with us before (but see below) which will enhance our grids. John will be sharing the driving with AC Ace exponents, the Shepherd family; it could be Andy, Murray or Ted joining him behind the wheel.   JT - Feb 2020

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Sean Mooney Rejoins Us

Some of you may recall Sean turning up at the Castle Combe 2016 Autumn Classic with his very smart Daimler SP250 Special. It was a very wet day and I rather feared that this coupled to clutch problems had literally dampened his enthusiasm for motorsport. However, on contacting him recently, I learned that he had been campaigning it occasionally abroad and the lovely photo above was taken at Ollons-Villars. He has now renewed his FISCAR membership and hopes to join us at some of our events this year. Welcome back, Sean - JT - Jan 2020

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