REPORT : SNETTERTON , 17 / 18 APRIL
Benn Simms heads the HFF2000 field in his Lola T670 and Shaun Hollamby fourth as Murray Shepherd headed the URS Classic FF2000 runners .
However , at the end of Saturday afternoon , it was a different story as a fast-starting Hancock dived ahead on the opening lap as Tilley pushed Smith back to third . Tilley then set about finding a way around the Lola and , once ahead , tried to make as much of an escape as he could . A couple of laps later Smith found a way past the Lola and set off after Tilley at a ferocious pace . It was nose-to-tail stuff over the final laps but Tilley drove a superbly defensive race to fend off his rival and score a famous win , with a fifth of a second splitting the cars as they rushed over the line .
In the opening Historic Formula Ford race Cam Jackson was the class of the field in his Winkelmann and charged clear in the early laps from the challenge of Tom MacArthur and Linton Stutely . While Jackson went clear , MacArthur and Stutely battled hard for second place , with MacArthur doing most of the running until Stutely squeezed ahead late in the race for second place . Samuel Harrison was a clear fourth in his Elden
“ Jackson completed the double on Sunday in similar fashion ”
from Simon Toyne while Horatio Fitz- Simon battled up to sixth in the first of the Speedsport Merlyns .
Jackson completed the double on Sunday in similar fashion as MacArthur and Stutely again battled mightily for second . This time McArthur , racing at
Snetterton for the first time , got the verdict by the smallest of margins as the Titan beat the Royale to the flag by just 17 thousandths of a second after a wonderful contest .
Benn Simms laid the foundations of his first Historic Formula Ford 2000 victory before the first corner in the opener on
Saturday . Simms jumped clear at the start and was away and gone before the first lap was out , pulling away at up to two seconds a lap while a mighty contest raged for a second . Ultimately Graham Fennymore and the increasingly impressive Greg Robertson made the running and at the flag Fennymore had just a second in hand over his rival .
Andrew Storer , Adrian Reynard and Steven Glasswell made it an all-Reynard top six with Adrian racing one of his cars 42 years on from designing the hugely successful SF79 . Best of the non-Reynards was Adrian Langridge in seventh in his Crossle 41F . On Sunday , the top three was unchanged as Simms again set a ferocious pace at the head of the impressive pack .
Two races for the Historic Touring Car Championship featured a good grid and battles all down the order , but no one could match the pace of Dan Williamson ’ s Ford Falcon . Mike Gardner was the best of the Lotus Cortina Park . Peter Hallford twice put his Ford Mustang on the overall podium while the Ford Anglia of Neil Wood was right in the mix until retiring in the first race .
The opening race for the new 80s Production series featured a modest grid , but it was an encouraging start as the Peugeot 205GTi of Chris Dear ran home a convincing winner after an early battle with the Vauxhall Nova of Jason Wood . With growing interest in the series , more cars are expected for the next race at Silverstone in May .
Other guest races during the day included two races for Heritage Formula Ford , both won by Max Esterson , two races for Classic Clubmans where the spoils were shared by Mark Charteris and Adrian Holey , and a 40-minute mini-enduro for the new Ecurie Classic Racing series which was won by the hard-charging Triumph TR4 of Allan Ross-Jones .
Benn Tilley fends off Andrew Smith
Stutely and McArthur battle in HFF
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