2021 Race dates, reports & results

Class ? - All 6 cylinder cars up to 3000cc (Triumph GT6)

Class E - Cars over 3000cc

Class F - All Swinging Sixties Group Two cars running on Dunlop Historic Tyres

Class V - Cars with original V8 engines (TVR Tuscan)

Class H - All Lotus cars (Seven, Elite, Elan, etc.). Lotus Sevens only, have a mandatory pit stop of 30 seconds. Any race winner penalty will be added to this.

Class M - All Marcos Volvo-engined cars

Class J - Invitation class for Swinging Sixties Group Two Cars

 

30th May 2021 - Donington - CSCC Swinging Sixties & CSCC Classic K  TVR Tuscan and TVR Grantura

Yet another mixed results meeting which was a real pain especially after the huge amount of work done on the Tuscan over the 2020/2021winter recess.  The weather was super-lovely and nearly the whole team turned out for the day and with the RV in good fettle after a lot of work, it was a really nice weekend despite the mixed outcomes. Even the RV generator is working now complete with a £8 Ford Mondeo crank speed sensor to replace the original Kohler type because they wanted £150 for one!

Swinging Sixties Group 2 was a bit of a mess for us. Warm-up Dave managed about 3 or 4 laps (and got up to 3rd  place on the grid) when the engine began smoking and making a nasty ticking noise so we pulled out of the session; later investigation in the paddock found nothing serious but the noise was not great and despite my wanting to race I took everyone's advice and decided against racing which was just as well as it turned out. So our first DNS for quite a while but it did make the day less packed and we could concentrate on the Classic K race.

2021 Donington Swinging Sixties TVR Tuscan - Dave in one of his few laps of practice before the engine failed             Photo: Howard Wolfe

 

2021 Donington paddock; Tuscan V8 engine investigations. Lewis, Frank and Stack.

Classic K was a much better affair and we both had really great 30 minute stints with plenty of close racing for both of us. We finished 13th overall but, most significantly, won the class quite comfortably and collected some more CSCC silverware. The car was excellent although it's now getting closer to its engine life limit so we'll probably only use it a few more times this year.

2021 Donington Classic K, Dave hustling the TVR Grantura out of the old hairpin (which isn't actually a hairpin)       Photo: Howard Wolfe

Back at team HQ the V8 engine was stripped out of the Tuscan on the Monday morning after the meeting and by noon was in bits and the issue was obvious - one of the pistons had picked up on the bore and left some nasty marks on the piston skirt and scored the bore - a set of 8 slightly new oversized pistons on the way but that will be 6 to 8 weeks out of action. We are hoping to have it reassembled for Snetterton in August but in the meantime I have swapped my June 12th Cadwell entry to Classic K in the Elan.

2021 Donington Classic K trophies and some of the team (Howard, Noreen, me, Dave, Lewis and tasha)                   Photo: Howard Wolfe

A huge amount of work has been completed on the Elan since Dijon 20 months ago, including new front hubs (previous ones has spun their bearing tracks), a repaired Chapman strut, new rear discs and caliper seals (following a brake issue at a track day at Goodwood in October 2020), the passenger door has been realigned and refitted, a long range petrol tank fitted so we can run for 3 hours without a fuel stop, new brake master cylinders, replacement steering rack and a few other bits.

 

12th June 2021 - Cadwell Park - CSCC Classic K  Lotus Elan

Following the Tuscan spoiling our day somewhat at Donington and with no chance of getting the V8 engine back together for a couple of months (hopefully by Snetterton) I switcherood my race entry from Swinging 60s to Classic K in the Elan as an ideal run-up to the Knockhill extravaganza early in July. It was a 40 minutes race (Classic K is normally 60 minutes) and I had decided to do this one solo to get to know the car better. It was a pretty modest race entry which is a real shame because it's such a great circuit despite being in quite a rural setting, many winding roads away.  With the RV playing up slightly on the A1 on the way up (lost power at Buckden) we made a team decision to avoid the massive hill just before the circuit and instead make a big detour through Boston (the real one not the silly made-up one in Massachusetts that the Bee Gees were so keen on) to approach from the north. It adds about 30 miles and an hour's travel but seemed prudent.  Later investigation in the circuit paddock confirmed that that diesel lift pump had failed so one is on order; the RV runs OK without one but makes it harder to start and can cause full-load fuel-starvation issues.

With just one car to run and a late morning start, Stack came up on his new BMW 1200 GS on Saturday morning (brilliant bike) but Jared decided he wanted to do other things that strangely he wouldn't tell us about. Anyhow, practice was about 11:00am and went really well for what was only the car's third race; so well in fact that we were gained an outright pole position but by just a small margin. The car was great and with no sign of the horrendous braking issues we had experienced at a Goodwood track day back in October 2020 where the rear brake pads caught fire...and a wheel fell off...and the passenger door fell off.

2021 CSCC Cadwell Park;   Jon, Stack and Dave just prior to practice

The race was awesome with close chasing off the line after my good getaway got me into a clear lead by turn 1. I spent 10 minutes creating a 4 second lead over the mighty-quick MGB of Beresford and Morrison and came in for the mandatory pit stop at 11 minutes (the earliest it's allowed in a 40 minute race) and rejoined after the enforced 2 minute gap at pretty-much the back of the race. Back in the lead 4 laps later and managed to maintain about a 4 second lead for the duration of the race resulting in my first outright win for many years. I am sure that to anyone watching it looked pretty straightforward but from where I was sitting it was anything but that!  I had to work hard to maintain a 4 second safety gap and the pit team were excellent in that regard, continually feeding me accurate information I needed through the board; I am so privileged to work with such a great support team without whom these successes wouldn't happen.

I was delighted to learn (later) that I had also been awarded Driver of the Day, so that was a bonus.

2021 CSCC Cadwell Park; On the way to pole position in the tiny Lotus Elan

 

2021 CSCC Cadwell Park; Classic K overall winner's cap and trophy; most excellent

 

3rd and 4th July 2021 - Knockhill - CSCC Classic K  Lotus Elan

One of those massive effort for zero results weekends which is probably best forgotten - the Elan was great except when it mattered, that being both races where it suffered ignition issues resulting in failure very early in each race. After Cadwell we decided to pull the gearbox out (which, bizarrely, everyone says is impossible on an Elan without taking the engine out) and found that the gearbox nose/front cover had snapped off making gear changes very notchy - the guys had heard a tinkling noise towards the end of the race at Cadwell Park and I am sure it was the clutch slider jangling about on the input shaft which had wrecked the clutch release (throwout) bearing. Thanks very much to Kelvedon Lotus for getting new part to me very quickly.

Broken front cover from Ford 2000E gearbox in the Elan

We arrived at the circuit on Thursday afternoon to a lovely clear paddock after the 9 hour, 399 mile drive from Wolfitt HQ. We had a nice setup having taken the Defender TD5 (rather than RV) with Noreen, Lewis and Tasha bringing the VW Camper up on the Friday. Stack drove most of the way which was great and we had an excellent lunch stop at the always delightful and some what surreal Tebay Services on the M6

2021 Knockhill, camp Wolfitt Racing

Friday testing - well it was great and we learned a lot but also failed to show up any serious issue with the car. We had a very dramatic situation during the first test session when the left rear wheel came off and disappeared into a gravel trap; luckily I had realised something was loose and had taken to the grass which saved the suspension. Click here to see it happen! We were exceptionally fortunate because one of the very few marshals that were there, saw the spinner come off and was able to find it after a short search. Without that spinner we would have been out - no spares and I would have had to get one couriered overnight! Subsequently we used split pins to at least stop the spinner coming off even if it slightly loosened.

Knockhill 2021, Lotus Elan recovery (by super-helpful Fred) from testing session1

Friday morning was clockwise testing with anti-clockwise in the afternoon - it genuinely is a completely different circuit when you drive round it the other way and it's the only UK circuit that has a two-direction race and testing licence. I must say, the car was great and we experienced no further 'wheel-coming-off' issues and given that we have done nearly zero setup work it's remarkably nice to drive.

Race days were Saturday clockwise and Sunday anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise if you're an American and therefore use some weird form of our language). The race was a merge of Classic K and Swinging Sixties Group 2 and I was able to gain Classic K pole by a good margin and really high hopes of a great result despite the 20 second winner's penalty from Cadwell.  As it transpired an horrendous misfire set in from the start and I lasted 1 lap before binning the car into the kitty litter as the ignition faltered and I tried to carry more speed to avoid gear changes. Hey ho.  On investigation we found some dodgy crimp connections to the distributor and thought we had found the issue, alas not.

 

2021 Knockhill; the end of race 1 and in the kitty litter after ignition failure - at least the brake lights work

Race 2 - like before, the car was great in practice (pole again by 2 seconds) until the end when a slight misfire set in - on inspection we found that the distributor had lost its central carbon spring-tip; fault found, or so we thought. Race was an immediate DNF as the flippin' ignition packed in again after about 400 yards!

2021 Knockhill; the end of race 2, parked up and contemplating

So, in summary it was pole to DNF followed by pole to DNF and with a weekend that included 3 recoveries by the Knockhill incident team. Incredibly annoying and a real downer on the weekend, probably the worst single race meeting ever although on the upside the car was awesome when running well and the gearbox fix we did after Cadwell has improved the gear change immeasurably.

Much to contemplate and improve for the Elan's next outing whenever that is.

 

15th August 2021 - Snetterton 300 - CSCC Classic K and CSCC Swinging Sixties  TVR Grantura and Triumph GT6

A real mixed bag meeting - As ever the Grantura was ace but the GT6 broke again, this time with a barely audible engine rattle at about 1/4 distance so I pulled off into retirement just in case it got worse; it's probably not much but I am not inclined to risk the motor for trophy at this stage; the car had not been out since the dnf at Pau in 2018 and although we did a lot of prep I think it needs a quick engine internals check now.

Classic K was my 350th race and it was great to finish with a class win in nice warm and dry conditions. We qualified in class pole and lead the whole way crossing the line in 9th overall but then dropped to 11th after a severe (53 second) pit stop penalty was applied - we are still disputing the application of that penalty so there may be more on that later - either way we still won the class by a good margin.

Swinging sixties got going in a huge dust cloud because right at the end of the previous race a car dropped all its oil on the start-finish straight - see the video of the first few laps. The car was great right up to when it suddenly wasn't; it definitely would have been better on new tyres but it didn't seem worth using a new set for just a one-off outing. We really need that Tuscan back up and running!

 

2021 Snetterton    The venerable old Triumph GT6 in the paddock

 

28th August 2021 - Brands Hatch GP - CSCC Classic K   TVR Grantura

Challenges with three of the cars meant we were just doing Classic K in the mighty Grantura, the Elan is still untested since the electrical problems from Knockhill, the Tuscan engine was missing a vital set of components those being the entire actual engine and the GT6 was making peculiar noises! The meeting was the club's annual summer trip to Brands Hatch but because some weird deal had been done with the European Fanatec GT3 championship thingy we were on the GP circuit rather than our normal use of the short, 1.2 mile Indy circuit; this was good but meant we had less overall track time and loads of CSCC grids were combined with other series.

We were in a huge, combined-grid entry of Classic K and Swinging 60s Group 1 with a number of reserves included in the qualifying session - there were over 50 cars out on track albeit an hour later after the school-child drivers of the Fannytec championship had binned loads of million quid cars in the Armco. Our session was duly shortened by 5 minutes as a result which is quite a big deal when you only have 30 minutes to start with. Anyhow we did OK and were 3rd in class and about 26th on the grid, just slightly behind Joe Ward in his super-lightweight Grantura and quite a way off Luke Wos in his super-rapid (if somewhat unreliable) Turner GT.

2021 Brands Hatch collecting for qualifying for combined Classic K and Swinging 60s Group 1

As usual for Classic K, Dave started the race and it was a huge swarm of cars through Paddock Hill Bend and Druids where two cars (a Mini and an MG Midget) parked into each other resulting in both retiring. That brought out the safety car for a lap while we were trying to work out the truly unnecessarily complex online lap timing system. We largely gave up and just gave Dave the class position until the halfway point. We were truly miffed about the CSCC's insistence that my outright win at Cadwell in the Elan gave us a 30 second pit stop penalty in the Grantura, so after our 2:30 minute pit stop (yawn yawn) I made my way past a handful of cars on the way to finishing 2nd in class and 23rd overall (13th in Classic K) which we were very happy with and came home with another trophy. Luke Wos won our class by a country mile!

A strange rattling noise from the car developed during the race which later transpired to be the exhaust and exhaust heat shield coming loose, also, oddly, all four rear drive shaft universal joints were showing signs of wear which is unusual for GKN items which were only changed a couple of years ago.

The whole race plus the Group 2 / Future Classics races are available on YouTube.   Saturday PM 2 | Classic Sports Car Club Brands Hatch GP Live 2021 - YouTube

Mark Peter's official CSCC compilation video Brands Hatch Grand Prix Compilation 28th/29th August 2021 - YouTube