FEATURE : THUNDERSPORTS
A typical Thundersports mix : Oulton Park , April 1984
Days of thunder
A personal reflection on Thundersports by Marcus Pye , who was in at the start in 1983 and helped relaunch it as an HSCC retrospective .
In the early 1980s , sportscar racing was focused on the rise of Group C on the world championship stage and , in the USA , IMSA ’ s GTP variant . Can-Am was gone in its traditional sense at the end of ’ 74 ( succeeded initially by Formula 5000s with closed wheel bodies ), the European 2-litre Sports Prototype championship had died suddenly in ’ 75 , and a final attempt to revive the RAC British Championship in its wake failed miserably . When the charismatic Group 6 remnants - effectively two-seater F2 cars - were no longer eligible for Le Mans after ’ 81 , the few stalwarts still standing were left looking at obsolete machinery . Having seen competitive events dwindle to nothing , thus car values plummet , many owners had grabbed any offer and seen their pride and joy re-emerge as Special / Super Saloons , reclothed in fibreglass ( typically Skoda coupé ) caricature bodies .
But this purist ’ s hell was not the end of the road . Brands Hatch circuit group boss John Webb - Britain ’ s greatest racing promoter in very different times - identified opportunity among this wholesale obsolescence . Why not attempt to recreate the racing of yore , throwing down the gauntlet to owners of any type of sportscar in a more exciting showcase than Germanbased Interserie , support for which had become random ?
Thus , was born Thundersports , which came on stream at the start of 1983 and certainly captured racers ’ imaginations . Apart from anything else there was healthy prize money on offer . For seven seasons a remarkable spectrum of machinery turned out . Old , new , reimagined , all were welcome . And they came in their droves , including Clubmans cars with larger fuel tanks and the ex-Mick Hill BMW M1 Donington GT contender , based on Richard Scott ’ s F5000 Durex Lola T400 .
In the best traditions of endurance racing a veritable Who ’ s Who ? of professional drivers provided yardsticks for amateur weekend warriors to measure themselves against . While the most talented , and best resourced / equipped usually won , occasionally the form book was turned on its head . Indeed , Richard Dutton Racing “ won a fortune ” when its Sports 2000 Royale drivers finished on the podium overall .
36
Former HSCC chairman John Foulston in his Can-Am Lola