Celebrating the organisation’s diamond jubilee, the Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) would return to Castle Combe for a mid summer weekend of racing; the track where it all began some 60 years ago with the mid May running of the Griffiths Formula race.

Leading directly to the creation of the HSCC, The Griffiths Formula race had been organised to encourage 50s Sports Cars to continue racing and fittingly an excellent grid of these machines had been gathered for the headline event of the weekend, the 50 minute Griffiths Haig Trophy.

Indeed, not one but three fabulously turned out D Type Jaguars would head a high quality 24 car field into Folly on lap 1 with Christian Albrecht soon getting the better of pole sitter Gary Pearson to lead for the majority of the opening stint in the very same Jaguar D Type that claimed Griffiths Formula Race victory all those years ago!

However, Gary Pearson would deliver an excellent middle part of the race and find himself well clear of Kyle Tilley (taking over from Albrecht) once the pit stops had unwound; the long time Jaguar associate immaculate in traffic throughout the closing stages to claim a well earned 33 second victory.

Perhaps putting in drive of the day, David Alexander would spoil a potential big cat strangle hold of the podium positions with an fine drive to third. Managing to stay on the lead lap throughout the Lotus Elite man would quickly find a way past the 3rd D Type of Ben Eastick on lap 1 and never look back, comfortably defeating much more powerful machinery in the process.

Open wheel racing from the past would also feature heavily on day 1 of the meet with a special grid celebrating the 40th anniversary of Classic F3 coinciding with Saturday’s excellent free to the general public lunch time grid walk; thus providing a fabulous opportunity to get up close an personal with these fabulous cars from the 70s and 80s.

Chasing the Marcus Pye Trophy, so named after the popular journalist’s heavy involvement in the creation of Classic F3 back in 1986, Chris Hodgen would line up on pole (Chevron B38) with the March’s of James Hadfield and Ben Tilley second and third respectively. But, despite setting the pace in qualifying and indeed the early stages, Hodgen would soon start to suffer with what appeared to be a loose rear wing allowing Tilley to slip into the lead at Quarry on lap 6. Tilley had earlier picked off Hadfield (March 743) and despite the Leicestershire man also getting past Hodgen the victory never really looked in doubt as Tilley put in a brilliant debut drive aboard the March 803B.

Earlier Ben Simms starred in the Historic Formula Ford race with the Jomo JMR 7 pilot just coming out on top of a thrilling battle with Oliver Chapman and Robert Wainwright. Plagued by an underpower cylinder following a quick rebuild after Brands Hatch Simms would frequently lose position on the straights. Inventive lines and massive commitment would however give the man from Melton Mowbray the edge, taking victory by a mere 0.368 seconds in what turned out to be a red flag shortened encounter.

If possible the Classic Formula Ford race for slightly newer machinery was even more entertaining as Tom Gadd (Van Diemen RF81) showed why he tops the championship points table with an excellent drive to claim victory. Only 4th on the grid, the Lincoln man would take a back seat as Oliver Chapman and Cal Bennett battled for the lead early on. This proved exactly the right tactic however as the lead tussle would allow Gadd to first get the run on Chapman and then find a way past Bennett one lap later. In fact Chapman and Bennett would go at it hammer and tongs for the majority of the race with Bennett finally getting the better of Chapman before the latter suffered a late spin allowing a great drive by Grace Parkington to be rewarded with a debut podium.

2025 champion Peter De La Roche would once again prove to be the man to beat in Saturday’s Historic 1 litre Formula 3 encounter. Starting on pole the Alexis MK17 man was never really troubled as Jeremy Timms got the better of the inter cousin battle to claim second in his Chevron B15 whilst Jason Timms rounded out the podium positions aboard his Brabham BT21.

Ben Glasswell’s undefeated start to the Historic Formula Ford 2000 championship would come to a dramatic end with the 2025 championship runner up the cause of a race shortening red flag. Already up against it following the one off appearance of pole sitter Jordan Harrison (Lola T580) and a slow start, the Suffolk man was inching closer to the long time leader before perhaps pushing too hard and ending the day in the Gooch’s TECPRO. Harrison was however in a league of his own and would go on to claim victory by more than 11 seconds from the Reynard SF79 of Andrew Storer with the similar machine of Greg Robertson rounding out the podium positions.

Elsewhere Luke Cooper and Tom Hawkins would take a Castle Combe Racing Club FF1600 victory apiece. This after Cooper looked to be on for double victory after slipping past Hawkins in race 2 only to be forced into retirement shortly after. Meanwhile Dave Scaramanga (Ferrari 488) and Sacha Kakad would each take a CCRC Avon Tuning GT Championship victory.

Sunday’s HSCC action would see repeat victories for Jordan Harrison, Ben Simms, Ben Tilley and Peter De La Roche whilst Cal Bennett would buck the trend to claim Classic Formula Ford victory aboard his Van Diemen RF80, just defeating series leader Gadd by the narrowest of margins. Meanwhile Mark Godfrey (Lotus 7) and John Shaw (Morgan Plus 8) would share the Road Sports honours as Elliot Paterson topped a relatively poor Guards Trophy turnout aboard his Ginetta G16.

After a quite brilliant celebratory weekend in Wiltshire attention now turns to the Oulton Park Gold Cup, which, now back in it’s tradition August bank holiday weekend, looks set to be a cracker.

FULL RESULTS

GALLERY