Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge
Four times British Saloon Car champion Andy Rouse showed that a two-year lay off hasn’t blunted his ability when he returned to action and won both races in the ODL Securities Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge at Brands Hatch (September 23/24).
As a packed BTCC crowd watched some great Heritage action from a tremendous field, Rouse partnered Pete Hall to victory on Saturday and then drove solo in Hall’s Chevrolet Camaro to win the sprint race on Sunday.QualifyingPole position margins of two seconds around the Indy circuit are rare, but Rouse put Hall’s Camaro on the number one slot by just that amount. Just as well he did, however, as Hall endured a somewhat less illustrious session.
Hall was on his third lap when he spun at Druids. Having gone to the inside, Hall then tried to turn around and carry on, only to end up in the gravel trap on the outside of the corner! "Let’s call it a misjudgement! There wasn’t that much gravel up there when I used to race here 20 years," said a sheepish Hall. The red flag flew for a second time while the chequered flag was also shown, cutting short the session to ensure that the timetable remained on schedule.The McCarthys, Roy and Russell completed the front row, while Ford Mustang duo David Yates and Graham Scarborough and August Brands winner Phil Hollins (Morgan Plus 8) made up row two. "The car is reasonably competitive, we didn’t get into the groove," said Scarborough.
Dave Loudoun replaced John Young as the number two driver in Alec Hammond’s Camaro while the similar car of Arthur Thurtle/Roger Bennington completed the third row. Arthur was happy but also frustrated that the session was shortened as they were qualifying a third driver with son Boysie doing the solo race on Sunday.
The Aston Martin V8s of Chris Scragg and George Miller/Les Goble filled row four, Goble sustaining steering damage after being sideswiped by a Jaguar while trying to avoid John Rhodes’ Mini on the exit of Druids.
Bob Searles’ DBS V8 and the remarkable Golf GTi of Richard Cooke/Trevor Reeves rounded out the top ten. The biggest disappointment was the failure of the series debuting ex-Tom Walkinshaw Mazda RX7 of Kevin Doyle/Andy Britnell to post a time before its differential seized. Race OneHall made a superb start to lead Yates while Roy McCarthy was doing his utmost to keep 3.9 litres of MGB V8 up with the American muscle cars. Just how hard he was trying was reflected in a monster tank-slapper at Druids on the first lap. "I was out wide, on cold tyres and with a full petrol tank," McCarthy Snr explained.
His moment dropped him to fifth behind Hammond and Hollins.Over the next twelve laps, Hall and Yates traded the lead back and forth; by now the recovering McCarthy was back in the fray and when Hall became the first of the front men to pit, McCarthy was all over the race leader Yates.
Yates repelled the threat until pitting at around mid-distance. However, the race would slip away from the Mustang man during the stop. A recalcitrant starter motor left the four man pit crew plus what Yates described as 'a knackered old driver', to bump start the car. Thirty seconds, perhaps even more, was lost.
As the pit stops unfolded, so McCarthy then Hollins led. When Hollins finally did stop, it left Russell McCarthy in front but with the flying Rouse making inroads into his advantage. Having sized up the leader in a side-by-side manoeuvre through Paddock, Rouse slipped through on the run down to Surtees on lap 34.Once ahead, Rouse drew clear while Scarborough cemented third spot, but there was a sting in the tail for Goble who surrendered fourth place to Hollins in bizarre fashion on the very final tour. "I was shown the blue flag for Rouse and thought it was two cars. I let Hollins through as well," confessed Goble with refreshing honesty.
Hammond/Loudoun were sixth while solo driver Chris Scragg was seventh ahead of Bennington/Thurtle with Searles and Pat Cooke rounding out the top ten.
The Ant Scragg/Ciaran Butler MGB GTV8 took Class B honours while Chris and Charlie Williams survived an incident at Paddock Hill Bend and a further barrier tapping off en-route to Class D spoils.
The Cooke/Reeves Golf GTi slipped to 15th after running as high as seventh when driven by Reeves, but as sole Invitation Class starter, finishing was the target. With its sole Class C rival an early retirement, the ex-Willment Lotus Elan 26R of Pat Thomas and Mike Youles was nursed round at tender pace to ensure a finish.
Thomas showed exemplary track manners, almost coming to a halt on occasion to let faster cars past. Thus the Kelvedon Motors boss wasn’t best pleased to be inadvertently clipped by an unidentified Aston Martin. The impact with his front wheel almost tore the steering wheel from Thomas’ grasp and the resultant coming together of elbow and roll cage left him to finish the race in some discomfort.Results – race one (43 laps)1 Pete Hall/Andy Rouse (Chevrolet Camaro) 40m25.698s (76.51mph); 2 Roy McCarthy/Russell McCarthy (MGB GTV8) +6.383s; 3 David Yates/Graham Scarborough (Ford Mustang); 4 Phil Hollins (Morgan Plus 8); 5 George Miller/Les Goble (Aston Martin V8); 6 Alec Hammond/Dave Loudoun (Chevrolet Camaro); 7 Chris Scragg (Aston Martin V8); 8 Arthur Thurtle/Roger Bennington (Chevrolet Camaro); 9 Bob Searles (Aston Martin V8); 10 Pat Cooke (Aston Martin V8). Class winners: Hall/Rouse; Ant Scragg/Ciaran Butler (MGB GTV8); Chris Williams/Charlie Williams (Rover SD1); Richard Cooke/Trevor Reeves (VW Golf GTi); Pat Thomas/Mike Youles (Lotus 26R). Fastest lap: Hall/Rouse 53.301s (80.95mph).Race twoMost prominent of those missing from the grid for Sunday's sprint race was the Thurtle/Bennington Camaro from row four, after a braking problem proved to be insurmountable on the day.Russell McCarthy leapt into the lead but less than half a minute later John Rhodes was clipped and spat out of the pack as the field exited Graham Hill Bend. The '60s Touring Car star was little more than a passenger as the Conor O’Brien owned Mini Cooper S hit the barrier heavily.With Rhodes clearly shaken up and considerable damage to the tyre wall, the race was quickly halted. Fortunately, Rhodes was able to walk to the ambulance.
When the field lined up for the restart, it was not from a fresh grid as the stoppage was described as a race suspension. Thus the field went round in Indian fashion round behind the safety car, with the clock ticking.
But Richard Cooke’s Aston Martin V8 failed to fire up and it took a team of burly marshals to push the heavy car out of the way.
The 17-minute re-run thus became a thirteen and a half minutes dash, but it was packed with the most superb lead scrap between McCarthy and Rouse. On paper it was one-sided; six litres of Camaro driven by a four times champion against 3.9 litres of MGB handled by a very competent club racer. In reality, it was a very, very different affair!
It took Rouse quite a few laps to get past McCarthy, but Russell wasn’t yet beaten and fought back to pass his more experienced rival. It happened several times before Rouse finally made it stick on lap 11.
Even so, the winning margin was just a tenth of a second! Such was the focus on this glorious battle that Goble’s well-executed drive from fifth to third went unnoticed by many. Yates’ increasingly smoky Mustang was fourth while Hammond, who’d held third until around two-thirds distance, slipped to fifth.
Hollins rounded out the top half dozen, clear of Searles and Scragg who likewise had a healthy margin to Invitation Class winner Cooke and Tony Lees’ Morgan which completed the top ten. Having missed Saturday’s race, Gary Britnell stormed the unique TVR-powered Escort Mk1 to eleventh spot, in a fine drive from the back of the field.
One place and about a quarter of a second behind Britnell was Steve Davis whose Jaguar XJS had posted a first race retirement when a rear suspension arm failed in spectacular fashion. His charge up from row eleven netted him Class B honours.
John Hindhaugh’s very smoky Ford Capri was the only Class D car to survive and with Mike Youles’ retiring the Elan, there were no Class C finishers.
Race winner Rouse surely paid Russell McCarthy the ultimate compliment. "The lad in the MG really surprised me. He was great to race with, very clean."Results – race two (17 laps)1 Rouse 17m17.775s (70.74mph); 2 Russell McCarthy + 0.162s; 3 Goble; 4 Yates; 5 Hammond; 6 Hollins; 7 Searles; 8 Scragg; 9 Cooke; 10 Tony Lees (Morgan Plus 8). Class winners: Rouse; Cooke; Steve Davis (Jaguar XJS); John Hindhaugh (Ford Capri). Fastest lap Rouse 53.667s (80.40mph).Final rounds:October 21/22, Brands Hatch.
