FEATURE : HISTORIC ROAD SPORTS
An HRS pack at Silverstone
The appeal of
Historic
Road Sports
The Historic Road Sports Championship is one of the HSCC ’ s longest established and most enduringly successful race championships . Grids in 2021 have been as good as ever , topping 30 cars at some tracks . We take a look at three drivers who are enjoying life in HRS with three very different cars , including one running to FIA Appendix K , and get their views on why the championship is such a good place to go racing .
Brian Arculus
Lotus Elite ( Class E )
60
As one of the most experienced racers in this type of car , Brian Arculus has raced in a variety of series and events but has come back to Historic Road Sports in his Appendix K Lotus Elite .
“ I ’ ve come back to Historic Road Sports in the last couple of years . I raced with the HSCC back in the early 2000s when I was running a Jaguar XK120 in the XK Challenge , and that was being run at HSCC events .
“ I did a number of HRS rounds with the XK120 and then subsequently did some HRS rounds with the Lotus Elite when we got that in 2004 . In fact my wife Pat ran it for three years and did some races with HRS . Unfortunately she had to give up her licence because she has a balance problem and can ’ t race anymore .
“ So I really adopted the car because when she was racing the Elite I was racing a Triumph TR3 , some of the time with HRS . I did other things for a few years and then I came back because it ’ s such a friendly environment and nice atmosphere with nice cars and also good coverage of circuits .
“ The Elite has been FIA Appendix K specification all its life and if you try and run it on tyres other than Dunlop racing tyres it doesn ’ t really like it . Too much grip on the tyres tears the suspension apart and you ’ ve just got to remember it ’ s a fibreglass monocoque . It needs to drift so you need Dunlop racing tyres .
“ I thought I couldn ’ t run in HRS previously because I couldn ’ t run these tyres . Then for last year , they came up with this mechanism whereby they would introduce Appendix K cars in certain classes .
“ It holds its own against bigger cars but it does struggle with cornering speeds , because the other cars have got so much more grip . Last year if I ’ d done the Oulton Park meeting it ’ s possible I could have won championship . The difficulty I face is in my class as in some of the races there haven ’ t been enough other competitors and so I ’ m on reduced points .
“ There are a number of options where you can go racing and that ’ s the beauty of a proper Appendix K car . It ’ s very usable and in their category , they are pretty quick . it ’ s an economical way of going racing in good places .
“ It ’ s a lovely series . In fact , what was nice is when I came back people remembered me and I was made very welcome . It is important at this level of motor sport to be around like-minded people . You want to have fun , have a nice race , have a drink and go home . It ’ s all part of the weekend and it ’ s just a very comfortable environment to be in with good clean racing .”