Round 5 of the Elise Trophy held at Silverstone on June 16-17 2007.
Just one week after supporting DTM at Brands Hatch the Elise Trophy headed to Silverstone in Northamptonshire. A full entry list of 40 cars plus reserves meant that we expected to field our biggest grid yet. The National configuration suits cars with lots of power so we anticipated that the difference between the 3 classes would be very apparent, more so than the other circuits we’ve visited this year.
A few cars attended the test day on Friday 15th, a mixture of wet and dry conditions during the day ensuring that they would be well prepared whatever the weather over the weekend. Once again we had 2 new drivers on the entry list, Jamie Allason in an Elise S1 and Ian Smith in an Exige S1.
Sponsored by:
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Qualifying (Sat 16th June)
The forecast for the weekend was thundery showers on Saturday with Sunday (race day) due to be dry. In the end, as we lined up for our qualifying session, it was dry. However just before we went out, the marshals in the assembly area warned us that part of the track was slippery, although they weren’t sure where. As we went out for our first lap it became obvious that some rain had fallen on just one part of the circuit, Becketts corner! However, after a few laps the corner dried out and, despite there being 37 cars on the 1.6 mile National circuit, most people managed to make some space for themselves to set a clear lap.
As expected the front of the grid was dominated by class C cars, with the top 6 spaces being occupied by supercharged Hondas, with Chris Randall and Andrew Walsh topping the timesheets. In class B, Neil McKean and Steve Williams qualified 7th and 8th overall respectively, separated by just 0.14s. Michael Edwards, clearly fired up by his success at Brands Hatch the week before won the battle of the class A cars, qualifying 15th, just ahead of Gavin Kirby.
Scratch Race (Sun 17th June)
Race day dawned dry and bright and while we were not due to race until 1pm, it seemed like no time at all before we were ready to go. The 37 cars looked fantastic lining up on the grid, and seemed to go all the way round Woodcote corner. Unfortunately Edwards failed to capitalise on his qualifying performance when he didn’t make the start of the grid due to a mechnical failure.
When the lights went out, Russ Treasure had a flier from 6th on the grid and was in the lead by the 1st corner, Copse. By the end of lap 1, Walsh and Randall had got back past him and were fighting for the overall lead. As the leaders went into Becketts for the 2nd time, Walsh was pushed wide and Randall & Simon Scuffham went through. Treasure retired at the end of lap 1 with a mechanical failure.
The class B battle was dominated by Williams and McKean. Williams dropped back at the start but was soon on McKean’s tail and the two of them battled to the flag. David Skeggs, whose car had been rebuilt since his start line crash at Brands Hatch DTM the week before, had qualified 17th after some brake issues, but battled his way through the field to take 3rd in class B and 9th overall.
Once again class A was a maelstrom of individual battles, with Gavin Kirby returning to form by taking the class win, followed home by Paul Harding and James Knight.
On lap 7 Andrew Kell spun out of 5th place with a rear suspension failure, causing a period under the safety car while his car was recovered.
Battle was resumed after the restart, albeit briefly as Hans Baumhardt also spun out at Copse with a mechanical failure on lap 13, ending the race with a red flag.
Race summary – 40 entries (FULL), 37 starters, 31 finished.
Handicap Rce (Sun 17th June)
Once again the handicappers had applied their magic formula to work out, theoretically, how to get all the cars to cross the finish line at the same time! To achieve this the cars were released from the grid in 7 drops, up to 55s apart, with some of the slower cars being given credit laps. In a scratch race the field typically spreads out as you get further in to the race, in a handicap race the opposite is true – the field starts off spread apart and gets closer and closer together as you get nearer the end of the race.
This race was no exception, and the spectators were treated to a fascinating spectacle as the whole field bunched up over the last 2 or 3 laps. Chris Pearson had clearly fooled the handicappers by switching from his usual class B car to a class C one, but nonetheless drove a fine race, carving his way through the field to take the overall win. Behind Pearson, 38secs covered the next 23 cars at the flag, with notable drives from Doug Setters and Williams to take 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Walsh carved his way through the field to take 4th, closely followed by Christian Watkins, some recompense for putting his car in the gravel in the scratch race. Martin Roberts upheld class A honours to take 6th, crossing the line just 0.2s ahead of David Harvey’s 340R, which in turn was just 0.18s ahead of Malcolm Sanders’ Exige. Other close finishes included John Thorne, BJ Chong & Tess Howell, who crossed the line with just 0.8s separating the 3 of them.
Race summary – 40 entries (FULL), 34 starters, 31 finished.
Conclusion
Well it’s been a hectic couple of weeks, with just one week separating the Brands Hatch DTM and Silverstone races. All the more impressive that we had 37 starters at Silverstone.
Look out for further television coverage of Elise Trophy races on Motors TV over the next few weeks (the first showing of the Brands Hatch DTM races is on Fri 6th July at 8pm). For further details of our television coverage and to see a short promo, please check out the Race Television web site.
Our next race meeting is at Castle Combe on the 15th July 2007. Bring it on!
