STEVE HARTLEY TAKES MAXIMUM POINTS

Martin Stretton won the second FIA Masters Historic Formule One race of the weekend at Brands Hatch, but as his Tyrrell 012 was in the invitation class Steve Hartley took maximum points from the race. His Arrows A4 kept Stretton honest from start to finish, which came under the safety car after Max Smith-Hilliard and Mark Hazell collided into Stirlings, ending a race-long fight prematurely. Polesitter Michael Lyons had retired after just one lap, driveshaft broken on his Williams FW07B.

“The car went soft a little bit”, said Hartley about his inability to threaten Stretton after an initial couple of fastest laps of the race. “The funny thing is that I was trying hard to catch him but I didn’t need to catch him [for maximum points].”

Nick Padmore finished third to win the pre-77 class in his Shadow DN5, trailing the leading pair by five seconds before the safety car came out.

Padmore finished ahead of Simon Fish (Ensign N180), Christophe d’Ansembourg (Williams FW07C) and Joaquin Folch (Brabham BT49). After the opening crunch, Fish had a lonely race in the gap between Padmore and the pursuing group that apart from Folch and D’Ansembourg also included Greg Thornton (Lotus 77). Initially, the Belgian was at the tail end of this group but took care of Thornton and Folch on two consecutive laps midway through the race.

“I couldn’t get the gap down to Nick”, said Fish, “and that’s when it became lonely. But even driving by yourself is a challenge on this track!”

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