It was an outstanding opening round for the VSCC’s inaugural Speed Championship with another successful edition of the Curborough Speed Trials on Sunday 1 May.
An impressive capacity entry of over 130 Pre-war Racing and Sports-Cars descended on the Staffordshire venue – home to the Shenstone and District Car Club – for our traditional May Bank Holiday Speed Trials.
With the introduction of the Club’s inaugural MSA-registered Speed Championship this year, there was one significant change for the event with the adoption of the Club’s standard 16-Class structure, which saw another extraordinary array of cars accommodated across the day’s entry.
Winner of last year’s trial Speed Series, it was a strong start to the 2016 season for Jo Blakeney-Edwards, who scored an impressive Class victory amongst the Sports-Cars in her Frazer Nash Super Sports, just ahead of husband, Simon – sharing the ‘Nash – and the Riley TT Sprite of Club President, Tim Kneller.
There were also wins for Joe Tisdall (Austin) and John Fack (Railton) amongst the Standard & Modified cars, whilst Kevin Morton (Riley), Pomeroy Trophy victor Dudley Sterry (HRS) and Greg Lerigo (Riley) triumphed in the Specials standings – the latter taking top Sports-Car title ahead of the much-fancied Morgan/Riley of David Pryke.
Mark Walker delivered an expected Edwardian Class victory in the ever-entertaining 1905 Darracq 200HP, whilst Geoff Smith’s Sturtevant-powered Piccard-Pictet was the pick of the Pre-1918 Non automobile-engined cars.
In one of the closest contests of the day, the Lagonda Richmond Rapier of Anthony Garner edged Matt Johnston’s Austin/MG LA Special by just half a second in the small capacity Racing Car class. A regular Frazer Nash Sports-Car Competitor, Yushan Ng claimed a handicap award on debut in his 1922 GN Akela racer with Robert Cobden a familiar name atop the same Class in the Riley Falcon Special.
As anticipated, the day’s overall champion came down to a battle of the larger capacity Racing Cars of Class 15 (1501-3000cc) and Class 16 (over 3000cc); following his ‘FTD’ success last year, Tony Lees lay down the gauntlet in the famed ex-Ron Footitt AC/GN ‘Cognac’ with a best of 37.74 seconds, good enough for Class victory.
However, Julian Grimwade improved the mark by 0.3 seconds in the Alvis-powered Frazer Nash Norris before an incredible run for Tom Walker in the Amilcar-Hispano Special saw the Leicestershire-man claim the spoils, with a best time of 36.53 seconds on his final run of the day.
Download the full Provisional Results at the VSCC website (CLICK HERE).
