Wood ends two-decade break
Martin Wood at Donington
After two decades away from racing , Martin Wood has returned to competition in this season ’ s Historic Formula 2 Series . Wood , a former Clubmans champion and British F3 racer , acquired the ex- Nick Fleming Ralt RT1 for his return and has with Dan Eagling , who is running the car from Lifetime Racing .
It all started very well with two excellent races at Donington Park over Easter , with a fifth and a sixth place in two races to easily exceed Martin ’ s own hope for the first weekend back . “ That was the best day ever ,” he said at the end of the second race . “ I loved it : all my Christmases came together !”
Wood started off in banger racing but shot to prominence by winning the Oceanair Clubman title in 1982 in a Mallock Mk22 . He then jumped into British F3 with a Ralt RT3 during the year of Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle .
Over the following 20 years he raced a range of cars including a Rover 216GTi but has raced very little for two decades . A trip to watch his old friend Clive Wood race at Brands Hatch last July prompted Wood ( 68 ) to have one more foray into racing .
“ As long as I ’ m not embarrassing myself too much I ’ ll be fine ,” he told Motorsport News . “ I ’ m still backing off early and braking a bit early and not carrying enough speed . I bought a PlayStation and I ’ m learning the tracks again .”
Wood says he is spending his grandchildren ’ s inheritance . “ I ’ m so grateful to my two sons . I phoned them up and said : ‘ Look , I want to do this , but it ’ s going cost a lot of money and it ’ s your kids ’ inheritance .’ And they both said that I should do it . This last 12 months , if nothing else , has taught us we must do the things we want to do . So hopefully I ’ ll do a few years of this while I ’ m enjoying it and am fairly competitive .”
New home for B16
Seasoned historic racer Jamie Boot is going to concentrate on his two GT cars for racing from now on after putting his Chevron B16 up for sale . He has raced the Chevron for 10 years now , having acquired it from Vin Malkie as a continuation car . Originally , it ran with a Mazda engine but it is now fitted with a BMW unit . “ I ’ m going to concentrate on the GT cars now ,” said Boot who has an E-type and a TVR Griffiths . Chevron enthusiast Hugh Price is now the proud new owner of the B16 . Price sold his ex-Derek Warwick Classic F3 Chevron B38 in order to acquire the sports racer .
“ I ’ ll do some Thundersports races with it ,” said Price who previously owned a Chevron B21 sports-racer . The BMW M10 engine in the B16 only has a limited number of miles left on it , so Price will probably do one race this season before a fuller programme next year .
Eagling goes back to his roots
Forty-nine years after he raced in the inaugural Formula Ford Festival , Glenn Eagling was back in the category for the Jim Russell celebration event at Snetterton . As a 17-year-old , Eagling raced a similar Lotus 61 in the first FF Festival held at his local track back in 1972 . “ There was a 25-lap final , and I made it onto the back of the grid ,” said Eagling ( 66 ). “ It was the longest race I ’ d ever done and we all had to refuel on the grid after the warming up lap . I think I finished 12th in the final after a lot of people fell off .” Eagling went on to enjoy success in Clubmans and now supports his son Dan ’ s Lifetime Racing team . Glenn runs his immaculate Lotus 61 in occasional Historic Formula Ford races and also hopes to do a race or two this year in his Formula 2 GRD 273 .
Glenn Eagling in his Lotus 61
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