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Oceanair Concorde Raceday

Thruxton, Great-Britain

Date: 19/6/1977
Track length: 3.792 m
Attendance:
Entries accepted:
Starters:
Finishers:

Pole position: Dron in 1.31,6
Fastest lap: Percy and Dron in 1.31,6 = 149,01 kmh

Distance: 20 laps
Average speed: 149,01 kmh
Weather:
Ruleset: Group 1B
Car info: 1977 Cars

 

Practice for the fifth round of the Tricentrol British Saloon Car Championship was one forty minute session which started out very damp but getting drier for the second half when most drivers opted to intermediates and then full slicks for the last ten minutes. On pole, and determined to make up for Easter Monday, was lanky Tony Dron who whirled the Broadspeed Triumph Dolomite Sprint round in 1m31 .6s. The motor noter's only real problem came towards the end of the session when Stuart Graham spun his Capri right in front of the Dolomite at Church, Dron claiming that he missed the errant Capri by a whisker while the phlegmatic Graham thought it was more! Just 0.4s slower than Dron was the inevitable Chris Craft in his Hammonds Sauce Capri, and then came a similar gap before Graham who stayed on intermediaries too long. Three cars tied on 1.33,0 with Gordon Spice's Capri recording it first from Win Percy's Samuri/Bradshaw Plant Hire Capri and the ebullient Gerry Marshall (2.3 DTV Vauxhall Magnum).
First place was never in doubt from that moment that the flag dropped because Chris Craft scorched off the line behind Dron, and shadowed him all the way round to Club where he squeezed through on the inside and that was that. No mechanical problems this time, Craft controlled the race from the front keeping just enough over the others. A tremendous scrap evolved for second and on lap three Dron had a tenuous advantage over Percy, Spice, Graham, Walkinshaw (BMW 530i) and Colin Vandervell (Capri). The next lap and Percy pushed through a non existent gap at Club leaving Dron to hold off the others and by quarter distance these two had opened a gap to Graham, Walkinshaw, Spice and Vandervell. Spice began to drop even further back and he called into the pits on half distance to change a punctured tyre while Percy was also having to cope with evil handling, soon dropping to the tail of the dice and then falling behind Vince Woodman's Capri before retiring on lap thirteen with either a faulty tyre or something amiss in the rear suspension.
Graham had re-caught Dron and was himself passed by Walkinshaw with Vandervell dropping away but out of the reaches of Woodman. For the latter half of the race Walkinshaw harried Dron, the two drivers closing the gap on Craft, but there was still a second in it at the flag. Graham was finding it hard going on his tyres and he also suspected the front suspension was out after clouting a kerb early on so Vandervell moved up to fourth while Woodman speeded up and rapidly caught Vandervell/Graham but he left his challenge too late and finished a couple of cars lengths behind.
Brian Muir's Dolomite had a lonely race in seventh having eased away from Gerry Marshall who was a spirited third coming out of Seagrave on the first lap but then lost ground due to the power difference and the tyres on his Magnum which have to be a hard compound to last the race.
One of the best dices of the race was for small class honours where Richard Longman, having thrown down the gauntlet at Silverstone, chased and passed Bernard Unett's Chrysler Avenger. On his home circuit Longman was formidable and for lap after lap the Mini and the Avenger would come into Club side by side as the Chrysler man made yards on the straight. Unfortunately as they chased through Club for the twelfth time the two inevitably touched, Unett's Avenger sending Longman spinning and then hitting the Mini on the passenger's door. Unett recovered quickest to take another class win with Longman recovering just five seconds behind.
Richard Lloyd took the class honours after, what for him, was a boring drive. The feared challenge from Martin Brundle's Toyota Celica not materialising because the Toyota had a bad practice and was then baulking in second gear causing Brundle to swipe the armco at Club heavily, luckily without injury.


Touring Cars class A-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   Hammonds Sauce Group
Ford Capri II 3.0S
Chris Craft, GB
2993 V6 D 20 laps, 30.53,8 2 1.32,0    
2 1   British Leyland
Triumph Dolomite Sprint
Tony Dron, GB
1998 L4 C 20 laps, 30.55,4 1 1.31,6 1.31,6  
3 2   BMW racing with Castrol
BMW 530i US
Tom Walkinshaw, GB
2985 L6 C 20        
4 3   Triplex
Ford Capri II 3.0S
Colin Vandervell, GB
2993 V6 D 20        
5 4   FabergĂ© Racing
Ford Capri II 3.0S
Stuart Graham, GB
2993 V6 D 20 3 1.32,4    
6 5   Esso Uniflo
Ford Capri II 3.0S
Vince Woodman, GB
2993 V6 D 20        
7 2    
Triumph Dolomite Sprint
Brian Muir, AUS
1998 L4 C 20        
8 3   Dealer Team Vauxhall Castrol
Vauxhall Firenza Magnum 2300
Gerry Marshall, GB
2279 L4 C 20 6      
  1   Mopar
Chrysler Avenger 1300 GT
Bernard Unett, GB
1295 L4 A 20 laps, 31.36,2     1.38,0  
  2   Patrick Motor Group
Mini 1275 GT
Richard Longman, GB
1275 L4 A 20 laps, 31.41     1.38,0  
  3   Marshall Wingfield
Alfa Romeo 1300 GT Junior
Barrie Williams, GB
1290 L4 A          
  1    
VW Golf GTI
Richard Lloyd, GB
1588 L4 B 20 laps, 31.46,8     1.39,0  
  2   Napolina Alfa Romeo Dealer Team
Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT
Peter Hilliard, GB
1570 L4 B          
  3    
Toyota Celica GT
Martin Williams, GB
1588 L4 B          
      Gordon Spice Group
Ford Capri II 3.0S
Gordon Spice, GB
2993 V6 D   4     Puncture
DNF      
Toyota Celica GT
Martin Brundle, GB
1588 L4 B          
DNF     Samuri Racing with Bradshaw Hire Plant
Ford Capri II 3.0S
Win Percy, GB
2993 V6 D 12 5   1.31,6 Handling