With the racing calendar fairly quiet at present we’re taking the opportunity to take a look back at events past on DSC.
This week in 2009 would see confirmation that no fewer than three factory Lola Aston Martins would enter the Nurburgring round of the Le Mans Series – the trio would sweep the overall podium the following weekend!
This week in 2003 meanwhile saw the The British GT Championship Richard Thorne Motorsport Cup Class Morgan Aero 8 take pole position at Thruxton in the hands of the late Neil Cunningham.
That would see the first pole position for the Morgan marque in a contemporary national or international event since…..
The answer to that question turned out to have been 40 years prior, in 1963 at the Spa 500km. The answer came from Morgan’s Chris Lawrence who, rather neatly, had been at the wheel of the Morgan at Spa setting that 1963 pole time!
Also in 2003 we had the first sight of the livery for the Racing Team Belgium Audi R8 that would headline the FIA SCC round at Spa that would see the SR1 and SR2 cars of the John Mangoletsi-run Series share the grid with the British GT Championship cars, a race that would see VAG’s most halo of cars, the Audi R8 running I the same race as the VW Golf GTi Turbo of Stuart Scott and Steve Wood.
Neil Cunningham’s Cup Class pole for the Richard Thorne Motorsport Morgan Aero 8 at Thruxton yesterday marks a very significant event. The first pole position for the Morgan marque in a contemporary national or international event since…..??
We asked Rob Wells, who drives the #46 Morgan Aero 8, to assist in completing the sentence. Rob rang Morgan’s Chris Lawrence – recuperating on his narrow boat – and discovered that the last Morgan pole position was 40 years ago, in the Spa 500 Km race: and the man who set the pole was Chris Lawrence himself. He was obviously delighted to learn that Neil Cunningham had secured the pole at Thruxton.
Back in 2012 this week saw the London 2012 Olympic closing ceremony with a number of British musical stars performing.
Also involved though were Tommy Erdos, acting as a cabbie for the Spice Girls – whilst fellow British GT Championship legend, and later The Stig from BBC’s To Gear, Phil Keen led out a Mods and Rockers parade on a suitably adorned scoter with Kaiser Chiefs front-man Ricky Wilson as a pillion passenger.
Back in 2009 there had been mid-season controversy for the British GT Championship after a protest from Godfrey and David Jones had seen the MSA Court determine that the Moslers of Rollcentre Racing had been allowed to compete in the headline GT3 class in error. The court decided that the cars should be classified in an Invitational class only and that points awarded to that stage in the GT3 class should be withdrawn.
The cars had scored wins in the first three races of the season with Dan Brown just 9 points astray of the Championship lead at the time of the decision. The cars would withdraw as a result – The Jones Twins went on to win the title in their Ascari.
In 2010 this week there was a meaningful test at Silverstone for the four front-runners for year two of the Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge – A competition amongst competitors in selected UK National Championships with a long name but an extraordinary prize – A top class seat at the Rolex 24 Hours.
Inaugural winner Derek Johnston was on hand to assist the quartet in understanding what the Daytona Prototype was all about. The car, owned by Zak Brown, was a Crawford Porsche (which had contested the Rolex 24 as far back as 2006 with Lexus power).
Jody Firth, Matt Griffin, Ross Kaiser and Jean-Eric Vergne are all still names familiar to many DSC readers and it was Radical racer Kaiser that snatched the win, and a seat in a Doran Racing Dallara DP where he would impress – but sadly would score a dnf.
