Rouse and Hall on top at Brands
The ODL Securities Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge finished on another high at Brands Hatch over the weekend (October 21/22). Despite some truly testing weather conditions, another packed grid of cars produced some fine racing and it was the Chevrolet Camaro of Peter Hall and Andy Rouse that claimed a brace of wins.QualifyingWith an early morning time slot, qualifying was always going to be fascinating and, so it proved with several cars topping the times as conditions dried a little. Last time out winners Andy Rouse and Pete Hall in the latter’s Camaro ended up fastest, eventually by over a second.
Rouse’s pace wasn’t without incident, however, and he was called before the clerk of the course to explain a yellow flag infringement. Andy escaped punishment and would start the sprint race from pole. Sharing the front row was the Richard Cooke/Simon Verschueren VW Golf GTi, which actually posted its best lap while travelling backwards across the finish line! Pitched into a spin after riding a painted white line, the Golf kissed the barrier and sustained a minor dent in a rear corner. Not so lucky was Ricky Cann’s crew, which faced a major front-end rebuild to the Aston Martin DBS V8 after charging the tyre wall coming down Graham Hill. Amazingly, they got it repaired in time for the race.
Row two was occupied by Tom Alexander (DB4) with Chris Scragg (DBS V8) while David Yates, whose Mustang suffered a problematic front end ball joint, filled the first part of row three. Alongside, and a most welcome sight, were Alan and Jason Minshaw sharing their monster Chevrolet Malibu which was making its first race track appearance for eight years.Alan, who would do the sprint race, set the time, but as Jason quipped: "We put a real driver in it when the conditions were at their worst." That was doubtless a reflection that it was his opening lap that topped the time sheets for about a minute! Race oneOn a day when conditions swung between extremes, blue skies at lunchtime gave way to rain of biblical proportions an hour or so prior to the sprint race. Thankfully, the sky was bright again, albeit with a damp track as the 27-car field lined up.
Given his margin of superiority during qualifying, it was a surprise that Rouse’s margin of victory was just 0.43s. But that’s how close it was thanks to a fantastic drive by Verschueren.
Rouse burst into the lead ahead of Verschueren, Alexander, Yates and Minshaw Snr, while Scragg rounded out the top six. Verschueren cheekily outbraked Rouse into Druids on lap two, although his tenure of number one spot only lasted until Rouse blasted back past on the run to Paddock.
Try as he may, Rouse couldn’t give the much newer and more nimble Golf the slip, and he paid the price again on lap four when Verschueren dived past him again into Druids. By now Minshaw was up to third place ahead of Yates and Alexander. But already out the race was Zoe North who’d spun the family Jaguar XJS into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend.As Verschueren set the pace up front, so Yates appeared to miss a gear coming down Graham Hill on lap seven, his hesitation converting fourth spot into sixth place before he gathered momentum again. The fight-back was soon underway.
Yates was back up to fourth by lap 10, but that was as high as he was destined to go, although he did have half an eye on Minshaw’s third place at one stage. It was around this time that Rouse ousted Verschueren on the run to Surtees.
Verschueren had one more, very brief, spell in front a few laps later, but it was Rouse who would triumph, albeit narrowly. "The Camaro does not have the brakes of the Golf," admitted Rouse. "I tried, tried and tried again," said Verschueren.
Minshaw was 2.5s away in third with Yates perhaps a shade lucky to hold on to fourth. He got into a big tank-slapper exiting Graham Hill Bend on lap 19, and the Mustang went from one side of the track to the other before he gathered it up. Scragg was set to capitalise, only for the red lights to come on for Tony Bartholdi’s off at the exit of Clearways.
Bob Searles (DBS V8) was sixth just ahead of Alexander while there was over half a minute back to Ian McCallum. Leo Voyazides was ninth, a slender 0.2s ahead of Cann who rewarded his hard working crew with a fine charge up from 25th grid spot.
Class winners included Verschueren, Peter Lloyd (Jaguar E Type) and Norman Ricketts (BMW 1602), who proved too fleet for local man Gordon Streeter’s Anglia in the Classic Saloons. The final class winner was Pat Thomas in the ex-Willment Lotus Elan 26R.Results – race one (18 laps)1 Andy Rouse (Chevrolet Camaro) 17m29.647s (74.08mph); 2 Simon Verschueren (VW Golf GTi) +0.430s; 3 Alan Minshaw (Chevrolet Malibu); 4 David Yates (Ford Mustang); 5 Chris Scragg (Aston Martin DBS V8); 6 Bob Searles (Aston Martin DBS V8); 7 Tom Alexander (Aston Martin DB4); 8 Ian McCallum (Aston Martin DB5); 9 Leo Voyazides (Ford Mustang); 10 Ricki Cann (Aston Martin DBS V8). Class winners: Rouse; Verschueren; Peter Lloyd (Jaguar E Type); Norman Ricketts (BMW 1602); Pat Thomas (Lotus Elan). Fastest lap: Rouse 56.956s (75.78mph).Race twoConditions were truly horrible for the feature two-driver race on Sunday and it was great credit to every driver in the race that it ran for 45 minutes as planned without any safety car laps.
Hall started the Camaro and shot straight into the lead, with Alan Minshaw going after him in the massive Malibu. They built a small margin over David Yates and John Bussell, who had started Chris Scragg's Aston Martin V8. However, Yates was soon having trouble stopping the Mustang and plunged into the Druids gravel on lap eight. Meanwhile, Mike Youles was driving a remarkable race in the Lotus Elan and was diving up the order as the more powerful cars struggled with the standing water.
Minshaw gamely kept in touch with the leading Camaro, but the Cooke/Verschueren Golf was sliding down the order with a badly misted screen.
Minshaw senior was an early pit-stopper to hand the Malibu over to Jason, while Bussell had also handed the Aston over to Chris Scragg. Unfortunately, trying to cope with standing water and backmarkers, Chris slithered into the gravel at Druids, narrowly missing Yates's Mustang in the process. "Patience would have paid off," admitted Chris. "David was glad that I had more skill in the gravel than on the track!"
A very rapid pit-stop by the leading Camaro put Rouse back into the lead with a bigger advantage and he was able to reel off the remaining laps to win by more than half a minute. However, there was a scare for Rouse when he clipped the back of the Searles/Jardine Aston at Druids when the Aston had to brake hard to avoid a spinner. "The wipers were tangled in a knot, so I could just about see where I was going," admitted Rouse.
The Minshaws joined Rouse/Hall on the podium after a great run to second. "If I hadn't had the sat nav, I'd have been in trouble," joked Alan of the very poor visibility. Although a lap down, Searles/Jardine completed the podium party after a great run. "I'm chuffed to be on the podium; well done to Bob and the boys," said Jardine.
However, drive of the race went to Youles, who actually led overall before his pit stop in the little Lotus. Sadly, Thomas hates the wet and he slipped down the order over the second half of the race, but they still took a class-winning eighth. "That was good fun," said Mike. "I hated it," added Pat!
Another star drive came from John Bussell, now at the wheel of Ian McCallum's Aston Martin DB5. He charged up the order, building on McCallum's strong opening stint, and bagged fourth place having closed to within 10s of Jardine at the flag. "That was fantastic fun, but there were some deep puddles out there," said Bussell. Leo Voyazides/John Young took fifth in their Mustang as the Cooke/Verschueren Golf recovered to sixth once the screen had been cleaned during the pit stop.
A cracking seventh overall and class win was reward for a fine drive from Norman Ricketts (BMW), while Peter Lloyd/Stephen Hayward took a class-winning 11th in their Jaguar E Type. Like Youles, Lloyd had revelled in the rain and ran as high as second before the pit stops. Results – race two (44 laps)1 Peter Hall/Andy Rouse 45m20.617s (69.83mph); 2 Alan Minshaw/Jason Minshaw +34.810s; 3 Bob Searles/Tony Jardine; 4 Ian McCallum/John Bussell; 5 Leo Voyazides/John Young; 6 Simon Verschueren/Richard Cooke; 7 Ricketts; 8 Pat Thomas/Mike Youles; 9 Conor O'Brien/Charlie Kemp (Aston Martin DB4); 10 Pat Cooke (Aston Martin Vantage). Class winners: Hall/Rouse; Verschueren/Cooke; Peter Lloyd/Stephen Hayward; Ricketts; Thomas/Youles. Fastest lap: Pat Cooke 57.860s (74.60mph).
