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International Gold Cup Meeting - Saloon Car Race

Oulton Park, Great Britain

Date: 17/9/1966
Track length: 4.443 m
Attendance:
Entries accepted: 20 (A), 18 (B)
Starters:
Finishers:

Pole position:
Fastest lap:

Distance: 19 laps
Average speed: 135,11 kmh (A); 139,93 kmh (B)
Weather: Dry
Ruleset: Group 5
Car info: 1966 Cars

 

Up to 1300 cc Race
In practice John Rhodes had shaken everybody with the speed of his works 1293 Mini Cooper S, and the well established Superspeed Anglias of Mike Young and Chris Craft, having had trouble with their latest downdraught aspirated engines, elected to run their more conventional 130 bhp sidedraught motors instead.
At the start Mike Young was first away leading into Old Hall from John Rhodes, Steve Neal (Arden Mini Cooper S) and team-mate Chris Craft. But before completion of even a single lap Rhodes, who had been timed a t 100 mph on the straight, forced his works Cooper into the lead.
But Chris Craft after a mediocre start in his Anglia was really having a go and by the second lap he had passed not only his team-mate Young but also the leader. John Fitzpatrick in the 1000 cc Broadspeed Anglia, fitted with substantially modified and angled Holbay motor, was already dominating the 1000 cc class and had pulled out a good lead over his nearest rival, the Alan Fraser Imp of Bernard Unett.
The chopping and changing going on all down the filed was nobodies business. Steve Neal and John Handley, the latter in the second works Mini-Cooper S, were having a great dice just ahead of Bob Smith and Gordon Spice in another pair of Mini Coopers.
By the fifth lap Young had forced his way into second place but less than 2 seconds covered all three. The next time round Rhodes was back in front again, and so it went on. Bob Smith called at the pits with a broken gear lever, letting Spice up to join battle with Handley and Neal, who had swapped places. John Lewis was having problems with his new BMC crossflow head and fuel injection and in trying to make up some time had several nasty moments.
Meanwhile Craft continued to lead and his team-mate Young had repassed Rhodes to make it 1-2 for the Superspeed cars. The picture looked rosy for Fords as Fitzpatrick was now miles ahead of the Fraser Imps. Fitz's team-mate Anita Taylor had split the Imps until a burst engine oil seal has showered her rear tyres with oil and caused her to spin.
By half distance Craft, who was driving on top form, had succeeded in opening up a 3.6 seconds lead but Young was still being pressed very hard by Rhodes. Steve Neal had retired the Arden Mini with a distinct lack of gears and Bernard Unett lost his electrics when the condenser fell off. Nick Brittan's car was the only Imp to go through untroubled, Calcutt having piston trouble and Bill McGovern suffering overheating.
The three leaders got very close together in the closing stages and there was great excitement when with only two laps to go Rhodes, driving right on the ragged edge, passed Young for second place. On the final lap Young tried hard to regain his position but did not quite make it, finishing a fraction behind. The 1000 cc class went to Fitzpatrick who was nearly a minute ahead of Brittan at the finish despite repeated signals to slow down from Ralph Broad.

Over 1300 cc Race
The Lotus team had an expensive time in practice, with Jim Clark blowing up one engine in a big way; this meant transferring Clark to the spare car, and depriving John Miles of his first works saloon-car drive. One interesting new entry was the Red Rose Racing Alfa Romeo Sprint GTA for Brian Redman to drive. Brian has certainly made his name in the big Group 7 sports-racers this season, but this was his first Saloon Car Championship drive. The GTA was brand new, Conrero-tuned, and Italian registered. Much of Friday's practice had been spent "sorting" its tyres and suspension.
The big saloon car race was just as hair-raising. Robin Smith broke his Lotus Cortina's gear-lever on the warming up lap. Jimmy Clark made his usual superb start in his works Lotus Cortina, chased hard by the Mustangs of Jack Oliver and Richard Bond. Brian Muir got the Galaxie all sideways at the start and lost valuable time. Bill Bradley did not even make the first corner, his fuel injected Triumph expiring on the grass at Old Hall. The power of 4.7 litres of modified Cobra engine told on the straight and Jack Oliver whistled by to take the lead from the works Cortina, while Muir shot past Richard Bond's ex-Sir Gawaine Baillie Mustang to take third spot. Oliver was timed at 128 mph down the hill into Knicker Brook. Behind Bond came Sir Gawaine Baillie in his supercharged Ford Falcon and then Peter Arundell in the second factory Lotus Cortina, ahead of Teddy Savory's Mustang and Brian Redman in a GTA Alfa Romeo.
On the second lap Peter Arundell and Teddy Savory made contact at Deer Leap - Savory Stuffed it into the bank and Arundell had the Cortina on its side but righted it and continued after a quick pit stop. On the following lap Brian Muir got the 7-litre Galaxie ahead of Clark and started off after Oliver. Further back Gawaine Baillie, who obviously did not like the idea of being behind his last year's mount, passed Bond into fourth place. Brian Redman tried a new line at Esso in the GTA but it proved a wrong one and he spun, dropping back behind the lotus Cortinas of Brian Newton and Ralph Graveley and Alan Foster's BMW 2000 TI.
At the halfway stage Oliver, despite a record lap in 1 min 52.4 seconds, was not getting away from Muir, and Jimmy Clark was performing his usual acrobatics and closing up under braking on the Galaxie at every corner. The three leaders had pulled well clear of Gawaine Baillie who, in turn, was comfortably ahead of Richard Bond. Muir made a big effort, braking the lap record on the twelfth lap and closing on Oliver, but both were obviously suffering from brake problems. Further back Redman and Foster in Alfa and BMW respectively had disposed of the local Lotus Cortinas. The circuit was getting more slippery every lap - as Richard Bond found, spinning the Mustang at Old Hall without contact and continuing without losing a place.
The dramas came four laps from the end when Oliver had a stub axle go, losing a wheel and igniting the grass with the red-hot brake disc. This let Muir into the lead with Clark hard on his heels. Then two laps later, with only two laps more to go, Muir arrived at Old Hall pumping the brakes hard to find the pedal right on the floor. The car went off into the wooden sleepers at a great rate, damaging itself badly before bouncing back across the circuit. Clarks' reactions were instantaneous; as quick as a flash he nipped round the back of the Galaxie to go on to an unchallenged victory.
This quick change of events saw Gawaine Baillie's Falcon in second place and winner of the big car class with Richard Bond third overall and second in class. Brian Redman's enthusiastic drive in the Alfa was rewarded by second place in the 2-litre category ahead of Brian Newton's Lotus Cortina. Peter Arundell lost a whole lap after his contact with the Savory Mustang but still managed to climb up to fourth place in the class before the finish.
 


Race A: 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 79 Superspeed Conversions Ltd.
Ford Anglia Super
Chris Craft, GB
1298 L4 B 19 laps, 37.29,4     1.57,0  
2 2 69 Cooper Car Co.
Austin Mini Cooper S
John Rhodes, GB
1293 L4 B 19 laps, 37.31,0        
3 3 78 Superspeed Conversions Ltd.
Ford Anglia Super
Mike Young, GB
1298 L4 B 19 laps, 37.31,0        
4 4 70 Cooper Car Co.
Austin Mini Cooper S
John Handley, GB
1293 L4 B 19 laps, 37.51,6        
5 5 77 Gordon Spice
Morris Mini Cooper S
Gordon Spice, GB
1293 L4 B 19 laps, 38.31,2        
6 1 60 Team Broadspeed
Ford Anglia
John Fitzpatrick, GB
997 L4 A 19 laps, 38.31,6        
  2 64 Alan Fraser Racing Team
Hillman Imp
Nick Brittan, GB
998 L4 A 19 laps, 39.23,1        
  3 63 Alan Fraser Racing Team
Hillman Imp
Ray Calcutt, GB
998 L4 A 19 laps, 39.25,8        
    62 Team Broadspeed
Ford Anglia
Trevor Taylor, GB
997 L4 A          
    67 Roger Nathan Racing
Hillman Imp
Roger Nathan, GB
998 L4 A          
    68  
Austin Mini Cooper S
John D. Lewis, GB
1293 L4 B          
    71  
Austin Mini Cooper S
David Buckett, GB
1293 L4 B          
    72 Alexander Engineering Co.
Morris Mini Cooper S
Tony Lanfranchi, GB
1293 L4 B          
    73 Higham Advertising
Austin Mini Cooper S
Ken Costello, GB
1293 L4 B          
    74 Vitafoam Developments
Morris Mini Cooper S
Harry Ratcliffe, GB
1293 L4 B          
DNF   75 Vitafoam Developments
BMC Mini Cooper S
Bob Smith, GB
1293 L4 B         Accident - car went into the lake
DNF   61 Team Broadspeed
Ford Anglia
Anita Taylor, GB
997 L4 A         Oil seal
DNF   65 Alan Fraser Racing Team
Hillman Imp
Bernard Unett, GB
998 L4 A         Electrics
DNF   66 Paul Emery
Hillman Imp
Bill McGovern, GB
998 L4 A         Overheating
DNF   76 Equipe Arden
Austin Mini Cooper S
Steve Neal, GB
1293 L4 B         Gearbox

Race B: 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 87 Team Lotus
Ford Lotus Cortina
Jim Clark, GB
1594 L4 C 19 laps, 36.12,0     1.52,4  
2 1 95 Gawaine Baillie
Ford Falcon Sprint
Gawaine Baillie, GB
4728 s/c V8 D 19 laps, 36.53,2        
3 2 94  
Ford Falcon Sprint
Richard Bond, GB
4728 s/c V8 D 19 laps, 38.02,6        
4 2 82 Red Rose Racing
Alfa Romeo 1600 GTA
Brian Redman, GB
1570 L4 C 18 laps, 36.15,6        
5 3 85  
Ford Lotus Cortina
Brian Newton, GB
1594 L4 C 18 laps, 36.57,6        
6 4 88 Team Lotus
Ford Lotus Cortina
Peter Arundell, GB
1594 L4 C 18 laps. 37.08,0        
    83 Goodwin Engineering Racing Division
Ford Lotus Cortina
Ralph Graveley, GB
1594 L4 C          
    90 Alan Foster
BMW 2000 TI
Alan Foster, GB
1990 L4 C          
    80 Molyneux, West & Co. Ltd
Ford Lotus Cortina
Ken Coffey, GB
1594 L4 C          
    81 Molyneux, West & Co. Ltd
Ford Lotus Cortina
Cyril Williams, GB
1594 L4 C          
    84 Curtis Smith Racing Team
Ford Lotus Cortina
Robin Smith, GB
1594 L4 C          
    86 Race Proved by Willment
Ford Lotus Cortina
Tony Dean, GB
1594 L4 C          
    96 Superformance Racing Team
Ford Mustang
Basil van Rooyen, ZA
4728 V8 D          
DNF   91 W. Bradley
Triumph 2000
Bill Bradley, GB
1998 L6 C          
DNF   93 Rackham Motors
Ford Mustang
Ted Savory, GB
4728 V8 D         Accident
DNF   97 Race Proved by Willment
Ford Mustang
Brian Muir, AUS
4728 V8 D       1.52,2 Brakes
DNF   92 DR Racing
Ford Mustang
Jackie Oliver, GB
4728 V8 D       1.52,2 Axle