Chris Merrick
Lotus Elan ( Class C )
A former front-running hillclimber in powerful single-seaters , Chris Merrick has more recently raced in Formula Junior . He switched to an HRS Elan for the 2021 season .
“ Formula Junior is , and always will be , a fantastic formula . But it ’ s good to do something different and to have the opportunity to drive a car on slightly stickier tyres again . My background is slicks and wings . So to have the opportunity to do that and to have a little iconic car from the 1960s is just wonderful . And it ’ s kind of going back to basics .
“ I ’ ve got this love of the 1960s cars because that ’ s when I first started watching them when I was a youngster . The Elan ticks all the boxes . Having said that , we ’ ve got a fantastic variety of cars from the Jupiter to the Morgans , to the
TVRs to the Lotus . That variety is what makes it delightful .
“ We ’ re still relative newcomers , but the HRS people have been so welcoming and the driving standards seem to be very good . So all in all , it ’ s a great formula . I ’ m a great believer in the cars that we race being as near period as they can . And that ’ s the greatest measure of all , because a lot of people have raced them before us .
“ We ’ ve been having a great time this year . We love our racing abroad and there ’ s not quite so many opportunities for racing in Europe with that car , because it ’ s not Appendix K . But we ’ re blessed with some pretty good circuits in Britain , like Brands GP and Silverstone GP .
“ Wherever you are on the grid , you ’ ll have somebody to race with , which is fantastic . You ’ re racing with like-minded people , people are enjoying the cars , enjoying the racing and having a beer afterwards and then going home with
everything in one piece .
“ There was a get together at Oulton Park and everybody was talking about pretty well everything but the cars themselves are obviously the main focus . There are lots of things to compare and we ’ ve got different types of Elans with the lighter ones and the heavier ones , but it ’ s great talking to the other drivers and I ’ ve learned a whole load of stuff . I ’ ve also learned I have a real job to keep up with the Elan S1s but I don ’ t think I ’ ve got the talent to do that anyway ! People like John Davison , Fraser Gibney and Rupert Ashdown are mega quick and they ’ ve been doing it a long time .
“ You can ’ t buy a new Elan now , so we have to look after it . It ’ s important to look after them both for safety reasons and , obviously , in order to keep them going . But they ’ re not too bad to look after and Iain Daniels has been a real help to me .”
Variety ! The Triumph TR3 of Neil Jenkins
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