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Mallory Park

Mallory Park, Leicester, Great-Britain

Date: 26/9/1971
Track length: 2.173 m
Attendance:
Entries accepted:
Starters: 6 (race 1); 17 (race 2)
Finishers: 4 (race 1); 17 (race 2)

Pole position: Fitzpatrick (race 1); Matthews (race 2)
Fastest lap: Fitzpatrick in 1.00,8 (race 1); Matthews in 1.01,6 (race 2)

Distance: 20 laps
Average speed:
Weather: Wet (race 1). Drying track (race 2)
Ruleset: Group 2/70
Car info: 1971 Cars

 

Race 1
Only six cars turned up for the first of the SKF Trophy Races, a qualifying round of the British Touring Car Championship. The over 2-litre class had but two entrants, Brian Muir's Camaro and Dennis Leech's Mustang while the 1300 to 2000cc class was made up of the Escorts of John Fitzpatrick, John Bloomfield, Willy Kay and Zekia Redjap. There was little to report technically, bar the fitment of another Ted Grace mill to the Camaro and, in a dampish practice session, Fitz put the Broadspeed Escort on pole with Muir and Bloomfield alongside.

As the cars lined up on the grid, the heavens opened and the rain poured down. The start was delayed to allow everyone to change to rain tyres and put in three exploratory laps, as a result of which Dennis Leech decided it was just too wet for the Mustang. He put in a couple of laps half way through the race but was promptly black flagged. Rather than his usual full boot blast away from the grid, Muir had to lift off a bit on this occasion but nevertheless squirmed and slid into the lead with Fitzpatrick splashing along in his wake. Fitz pressed hard for two laps but, on the third, he made rare mistake and over-cooked it at Gerards. He recovered quickly but not before Muir had built up a ten-second lead and Bloomfield had gone by. Fitz now injected life into the race as he set about cutting back Muir's advantage, but it was a slow process as Muir was handling the big car superbly in the terrible conditions.
By half-distance the gap was down to only 4s and at 15 laps 2s. It looked just possible for the Escort to snatch victory but Muir was driving like a master and at the finish still had virtually a one second lead. Bloomfield drove steadily throughout to annex third while Willy Kay in fourth was the last finisher as Zekia Redjap had had a slight argument with the sleepers at Gerards.

Race 2
A much better field appeared in the British Touring Car Championship event for the small saloons, with 17 cars coming to the grid. Dave Matthews had put the Broadspeed/Castrol Escort GT on pole and he shared the front row with the incredible Bevan Imp of Bill McGovern and the Escort GT of Vince Woodman.
The rain had virtually stopped when the field was flagged away and into an immediate lead went Matthews with Woodman, Brian Peacock (Escort GT), Jon Mowatt (Mini), Mo Mendham (Mini) and McGovern in hot pursuit. While Matthews consolidated his lead, Mowatt was revelling in the conditions and had moved past both Woodman and Peacock while McGovern, who had had gearbox selector trouble in practice, was having his work cut out to stay in front of Peter Baldwin's 1.3 Cooper S and eventually succumbed. Nevertheless, a second British championship was his.
Matthews appeared to have the race well sewn up but on the 12th lap he spun away from Mowatt who, was nicely placed ahead of Peacock, Woodman and Matthews. The Broadspeed car picked off Woodman at three-quarter distance and moved into second on the 19th lap but was too distant from Mowatt to offer a challenge so that for the first time in two years, a Mini won a Gp2 race outright. McGovern took his class yet again and was over a lap ahead of his nearest rival Terry Watts (Imp).

Touring Cars class C-D
Pos Pos in class # Team / Entrant
Car- Engine		 Drivers, Nationality Engine
vol. (cc)		 Engine
Type		 Group Distance,
time		 Qualifying position Qualifying time Fastest lap Reason out,
remarks
1 1   Malcolm Gartlan Racing/Wiggings Teape Ltd.
Chevrolet Camaro Z28		 Brian Muir, AUS
 4956 V8 D 20 laps, 21.00,2     1.01,0  
2 1   Team Broadspeed Castrol
Ford Escort RS 1600		 John Fitzpatrick, GB
 1800 L4 C 20 laps, 21.01,0 1   1.00,8  
3 2    
Ford Escort RS 1600		 John Bloomfield, GB
 1800 L4 C 20        
4 3   Willy Kay
Ford Escort RS 1600		 Willy Kay, GB
 1800 L4 C 20        
DNF      
Ford Mustang Boss 302		 Dennis Leech, GB
 ca. 5000 V8 D         Blackflagged: did not start but joined the race much later...
DNF     Mobil Racing
Ford Escort TC		 Zekia Redjep, CY
 1594 L4 C         Accident

Touring Cars class A-B
Pos Pos in class # Team / Entrant
Car- Engine		 Drivers, Nationality Engine
vol. (cc)		 Engine
Type		 Group Distance,
time		 Qualifying position Qualifying time Fastest lap Reason out,
remarks
1 1 111  
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Jon Mowatt, GB
 1293 L4 B 20 laps, 21.20,6        
2 2   Melton Racing with Broadspeed
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Dave Matthews, GB
 1298 L4 B 20 1   1.01,6  
3 3   VMW Motors
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Brian Peacock, GB
 1298 L4 B 20        
4 4   VMW Motors
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Vince Woodman, GB
 1298 L4 B 20 3      
5 5    
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Mo Mendham, GB
 1293 L4 B 20        
6 6    
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Peter Baldwin, GB
 1293 L4 B 20        
7 1   George Bevan
Hillman Imp		 Bill McGovern, GB
 998 L4 A 20 laps, 22.15,8 2   1.04,6  
8 7    
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Paul Hutton, GB
 1293 L4 B 20        
9 8    
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Mike Drinkwater, GB
 1293 L4 B 19        
10 9    
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 John Littler, GB
 1298 L4 B 19        
11 2    
Hillman Imp		 Terry Watts, GB
 998 L4 A 18        
12 3    
Hillman Imp		 Melvyn Adams, GB
 998 L4 A 18        
13 10    
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Jeremy Nightingale, GB
 1298 L4 B 18        
14 4   C.A.M. Potters Bar Ltd
Hillman Imp		 Adrian Webb, GB
 998 L4 A 18        
15 11    
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Richard Ellice, GB
 1298 L4 B 18        
16 12   VMW Motors
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Ted Savory, GB
 1298 L4 B 17        
17 5    
BMC Mini Cooper		 Jeremy Bean, GB
 998 L4 A 17