Practice

Scrutineering at 7.00 in the morning, practice from 9 and the race from 11 to 5. Quite a day. The handicaps and grid positions had been established in advance from the best times of each driver on the circuit, so practice was just that. No heroics, no qualification times to set. The track was wet and very slippery. I was last out, and completed my minimum three laps and came in to the pits. Everyone else had finished too so I was sent out for a bit more practice. Tippy-toeing round Luffield a Lotus 11 spun gracefully in front of me, cutting off my escape route round the outside. By the time I had braked to a standstill my nose was against his flank, mercifully with no damage. Reverse gear. Start off again. 3 laps behind the safety car. Pratice is was.

Race

I was sixth to go in my team of six, with each car/driver doing about 20 minutes at a time. So I had an hour and half before having to get into the car; time to photograph lost of other cars in action. And action it was. The overtaking manoeuvres were hair-raising, especially when two cars were contrarily matched... one fast in the straights, like the Caterhams, and one fast round the corners, like our Mallocks. There must be all of an inch between Peter Burnham (No.39A for the Rovers Return team) and the BMW in the photo here. Peter had braked a split second later and is just beginning the turn in to Copse at about 125 mph. Hairy stuff.

The track had pretty well dried when I got out, but the amount of traffic made it very difficult to get into a rythm. With lap times varying between 1'09 and 1'12 dependiong on traffic, I sought vainly a gap in the traffic. Every single corner I came to there was a slower car on the racing line. It was like being on the dodgems at the fair because even when my own car was vaguely in control, I knew that contact with one of the others was not in my control. Worst of all, some of the bigger cars and saloons can hardly see us low slung cowboys in their mirrors, so we have to find a line which keeps off the line we think they are going to take. I got one clear lap at the end of the stint and recorded 1'08.71, against my best 1'07.661 best in the March K Sports 1600 championship race.

In my second of two sessions (I was the slowest in the team and the faster guys got to go three times) I had two frightening moments. Firstly, Ian was exhorting me to greater speed from the pit wall, and at the next corner, Copse, blind, I came across two cars, sort of Caterhams, that had connected, one of them almost stationary on the racing line. I was forced to brake, in mid-corner, and spun in a cloud of tyre smoke, missing the two cars by inches. Two further cars, Caterham like, careened round the same corner towards me at top speed (yellow flags? Nah, don't bother mate) and missed me by inches as they spun off. Secondly, that great big Jaguar XJ12 eventually committed the inevitable cardinal sin. He did not see me alongside him at Luffield, the long slow 180° bend before the pits, and he gently pushed me off the track! Excuse... me...!

My times in the second session got a bit better. I was under 1'09 three times, towards the end, with a best of 1'08.74 on my onboard lap timer. But I lost the team 40 seconds with the two spins (laps of 1'36 and 1'21 for those two incidents). John Kelly went off at Copse with Pete Richings (see photo). There were another two or three smashes, accompanied by Safety Car procedures which cooled everyone off from time to time. Then in the last half hour the Morgans and the Caterhams, battling for 2nd place scratch and a possible win of the handicap race, unleashed a frenzy of wheel to wheel racing. From my position at the end of the pit wall as they turn into Copse it was a fantastic spectacle. The photos hardly do them justice!
 

Statistics
 

Circuit	Silverstone national	Fastest test lap	No testing
Fastest qualifying lap	1'23.06 wet, unofficial	Qualified in position	handicap set in advance
Conditions	Wet practice, dry race	Number of cars participating	252 (42 at a time)
Fastest race lap	1'08.03 (unofficial)	Number of cars at start	252 give or take a few
Finishing position	7th scratch, 35th handicap	Number of cars finished	252
Number of laps behind	5 scratch, 9 handicap	Average speed

Paddock chat

Tons of chat, but the picture says it all. This is the Hart Attacks fan club saluting Howard Payne as he comes into the pits after taking the chequered flag. Scratch champions, fastest team in the race!