REVIEW : HISTORIC TOURING CARS
Nigel Cox heads an HTC battle
Back to full strength
It was good to be back with a full season of Historic Touring Car racing after 2020 ’ s restricted programme of only four meetings , says Peter Wray .
Dan Williamson was the star of the early season races , winning all three double headers at the Snetterton , Silverstone GP and Donington Park meetings in his fabulous Ford Falcon . The wheels came off his tilt at the title at the Brands Hatch GP meeting in July with a non-finish whilst in a good position behind Steve Soper ’ s Mustang with only one lap to go . At this half-way point in the season Mike Gardiner led the championship in his Lotus Cortina with a healthy 20-point lead over Williamson as Dan suffered from a lack of entries in his class with 2019 champion , Bob Bullen , a point further back in third . The Oulton Park Gold Cup came next with both races being won by Warren Briggs ’ Mustang though he was hard pushed in both races by the Cortinas of Gardiner , Pattle and Cullen , Mark Burton ’ s Mustang and Neil Wood ’ s Anglia .
A poorly supported Mallory Park followed where Gardiner and Wood had a great battle in race one which went in Mike ’ s favour by a quarter of a second , but alternator failure led to a non-start in race two leaving Woodie a
comfortable victory . The championship had been clinched by Mike Gardiner prior to the Silverstone Finals meeting and damp weather for practice gave the Minis their chance to shine taking first and third on the grid . Newcomer to the series , Tim Sims , won the first race in his Mini from Pete Hallford ’ s Mustang whilst Dan Williamson , returning to the fray after missing the Mallory and Oulton meetings had a spin early in the race and finished fifth in the damp conditions . He made amends in the dry race two with a comfortable win almost 20 seconds ahead of the Hallford Mustang and Gardiner ’ s Cortina .
Allan Ross-Jones had a consistent season in his Appendix K Cortina taking four class wins and second place in the championship . Had he not missed the Mallory meeting he could have arrived at Silverstone with a chance of taking the title . Equal third were Bob Bullen and Dan Williamson just a point ahead
“ Allan Ross-Jones had a consistent season in his Appendix K Cortina ”
of Pete Hallford in fifth . Neil Wood had a good second half to his season following engine problems at the first Snetterton race , which caused him to miss the next six races , and his points tally exceeded all other championship entrants - he would surely have been a contender without that misfortune .
Other championship class winners were Peter Hallford , Paul Wallis , Roger
Godfrey , Steve Platts and Bill Sollis . Honourable mention must be made of Harry Phelps ( son of Bob Bullen ’ s mechanic Mark ) who had an outstanding first season of racing in an immaculate Ford Anglia - one to watch in the future . The seven meetings comprising the championship saw an average of 19 cars at each event , down on the average of 23 at each of the four meetings in 2020 ( which probably reflected the lack of opportunity to race ) but better than the numbers at each meeting in the 2018 and 2019 seasons .
Dan Williamson ’ s Ford Falcon
Bill Sollis was a welcome addition to the grid
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