Rivals rally round to help Dick Coffee get onto the grid
Historic Road Sports at Mallory Park staff at Silverstone to look after the club ’ s finances and accounts as club treasurer Derek Downing announced that he would retire from office at the 2003 Annual General Meeting . There was also a plan for another move of club office , away from the building adjacent to the Silverstone Club . The plan was to stay at Silverstone and move to bigger premises with space for a board meeting room .
The end of Downing ’ s term as treasurer marked an important period in the club ’ s finances as resources were rebuilt from the perilous situation of the mid-1990s . Chairman Nick Overall paid tribute to Downing ’ s role in that recovery in his AGM report in the spring of 2003 . “ On behalf of all the members , Derek , I cannot thank you enough for your support and expertise . You will be a hard act to follow . I have enjoyed working with you . The Board takes great pleasure in offering you life membership together with some tokens of our gratitude .” In his final report as treasurer , Downing reflected on the success of the plan to attain and maintain a sound
financial base for the club . Despite further increases in circuit hire costs , the accounts showed a small profit on the 2002 season . Downing ’ s commentary was : “ I am very pleased that , due almost entirely to the Club having its most successful racing season ever , in financial terms as well as in the prestige brought to the Club , that any loss was avoided , and a small profit resulted .” Historic Formula Ford racer Anthony Goddard took over the role of club treasurer from the 2003 AGM .
Over the weekend of 5 / 6 July the annual Brands Hatch Super Prix was a resounding success with 470 entries for races that included guest grids for the Orwell Supersports , Gentlemen Drivers and BRDC Historic Sports Cars . Richard Eyre ( McLaren M8F ) won both Supersports races while the hour-long Gentlemen Drivers race fell to the Jaguar D-type of Win Percy and Gary Pearson . Notable winners from the HSCC championships included Laurence Bailey ( TVR Griffith ) in Historic Road Sports , Ian Jones ( Lotus 59 ) in Classic Racing Cars after a mighty battle with Edwin Jowsey ,
Charles Barter ( Datsun 240Z ) in 70s Road Sports and Martin Stretton ( Lotus Elan ) in Classic Sports .
The weekend ’ s final race was a round of the Legends-supported Historic Formula Ford 1600 Championship , which featured a tremendous battle between Oliver Smith ( Merlyn Mk20 ) and Neil Fowler ( Lola T200 ). Smith just got the verdict after a fine contest as Jason Minshaw , Paul Sleeman , Stuart Tilley and James Murray rounded out the top six . In mid-August , more than 50 club members took their cars to Dublin for the annual Phoenix Park road races with non-championship grids for closed and open wheel cars . Local racer Tom McKinney won the first open wheel race from John Bladon and Robin Longdon , while local legend Tommy Reid won the second race in his slick-shod F2 Brabham . Chris Ball recovered from a couple of moments in the opening race to take his Brabham to second ahead of Bladon . Double closed wheel honours went to John Monson ’ s Elva , with Bruce Stapleton second in his Morgan Plus 8 .
Edwin Jowsey heads the DBT field at Donington Park
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