Silverstone International Trophy 9th May 2009 -
Race Progress Report from Andy Shepherd

On Saturday morning the weather was sunny but windy - since it was blowing along the pit straight towards Copse that was good news for the Seven in its struggle against more aerodynamic vehicles. Which means all vehicles... I've never won overall at Silverstone, but have finished a close second, (to Morgan Plus 8s and a 240Z), on GP, National and International circuits.

I waved Paul Tooms by in qualifying, this time staying a safe distance behind his occasionally wayward Elan - but today he was well in control, the long power sections from the Beckets-Ireland complex to Abbey and then the Luffield-Woodcote to Copse straight letting him use his power and slippery shape to good advantage. Occasionally I'd gain on him a little in one part of the track only to slip back elsewhere. My strong suit was late braking and speed through Copse, braking and turning for Beckets-Ireland and carrying speed through Bridge.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find myself faster than the Elan when the grid was published, with James Paterson's Morgan on pole with 1m38.7s, a previously unseen Cobra on 1m39.1s alongside on the front row with your intrepid author in third slot at 1m40.4s. Averaging nearly 81mph around a circuit with three hairpins isn't bad going for
the forty-seven year old car... Paul's Elan was three tenths slower, next to me on the second row, with Peter Shaw's Elan a further six tenths behind, Martin's Seven S3 half a second adrift of him. Then a couple more Plus 8s...

On the dummy grid, before the green flag warm up lap, the Cobra was wheeled away with an oil leak - I must remember to arrive in the collection area at the very last moment if I have any drips - his pool of 20-50 was all too obvious to the marshals...

I don't know if the red lights stayed on longer than normal, but I was slow reacting when they blinked off, dropping to 5th behind both Elans and Martin's Seven. I made life even harder for myself when I discovered that trying to pass Martin on the outside through
Maggots-Beckets was not on - the change in line being one car's width further out from the apex meant that I was one car's width off the track at the braking point for the right hander towards Ireland... The resulting oversteer needed to be corrected about four times before the car was stable enough to turn, by which time three seconds had been lost. Concentrating hard on a clear track a recovery began with my fastest race lap on the third tour to get within a second of the duelling pair as we crossed the line. A lap later just seven tenths bracketed all three of us.

This fight for third place was fierce, while a few seconds ahead Paul Tooms was being given a valuable driving lesson by James's Plus 8, progressively lapping quicker and quicker as the master showed him how, the latter staying well within his limits, going just fast enough to be comfortably in front.

On lap five Martin dived inside Peter's Elan at Abbey and so managed to take the outside line on the approach to Bridge, with Peter recovering on his right and me alongside Peter... Three abreast through Bridge was not advisable, so sensibly each of us conceded,
with Martin now in third, then Peter and me. But having dropped back
for the apex I'd got back hard on the power and so flew through the corner exiting well to the left and out braked Peter into Priory. Staying defensively left for Brooklands I felt I could make it stick through Luffield, but would Peter come blasting past on the pit
straight?

No he didn't - I had a six tenths advantage on him across the line, which meant that I didn't need to be defensive through Copse and compromise my exit speed. Which was just as well, because Martin was already off and away, 1.2 seconds in front. Now free from the Elan he was clocking regular 1m41s, repeatedly beating his qualifying time
despite having to lap back markers, and I could only just keep up. Lady luck must have rolled for me, though, because at the end of lap 8 only half a second separated us, and I was able to dive inside him at the Abbey hairpin on the next lap. As we closed on the apex I thought Martin squeezed me a little, so I tightened my line to avoid him - but
that only bounced me over the apex kerb, throwing me wide. Mercifully Martin opened his line and we were both able to exit the corner without touching.

Since our Sevens' aerodynamics are equally dire, I reckoned I could out brake Martin into Copse so didn't need to be defensive there, and began to build a small buffer. But then I made a mess of my braking point into Abbey on lap ten and Martin was right on my tail again. Time to be careful and drive at 98%, not 102%...

As I took the chequered flag in third place I caught Paul Tooms very quickly - it turned out he was having fuel problems on the last lap and wasn't confident of finishing until the final corner, but he was a well-deserved second after his best drive to date. The Morgan Plus 8 was first - but I don't believe he could have had half as much fun as I'd had, simply leading from lights to flag, managing the gap in his mirrors and never going within 1.8 seconds of his qualifying time...

The 23's day out was less successful, but at least qualifying showed that the Doninton problem was probably just low fuel. A slight misfire was traced to a loose plug lead, but come the race, after a good opening few laps the upper seat mounting brackets snapped under the strain of cornering forces... For a while I thought it might be another one of those things that endurance racers have to learn to handle, but soon realised that at any moment the lower brackets were going to fracture too, and could cause a potentially dangerous incident. So I called it a day and pulled into the pits to retire. We'd had a prety good share of excitement already...

Andy Shepherd