Castle Combe Autumn Classic. Norman Dewis Trophy Race for pre 66 Jaguars 2019

The JEC pre66 Jaguars retuned to Castle Combe on the 5th of October for the 2019 Autumn Classic race meeting,

A good mixed selection of the Hawthorn Challenge cars, the JEC XKs & Classic E’types totalling 20 cars had entered for this annual prestige race.

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Qualifying

19 cars took to the track in damp conditions for the 20 minute crowd pleasing & without incident session, The E’type of Martin Hunt taking pole position with a 1.19.640 second lap just ahead of Alan Bull in his FHC E’type with a 1.20.090 lap time.

John Young in Nigel Webbs MK1 appeared to be in trouble and was running slowly, only for us to realise he was finding space to set a quick lap of 1.22.889 for 3rd followed by Julian Bronson in the newly built E’type taking 4th & Richard Butterfield in his Mk1 took 5th

The quickest XK being Andre Keith-Lucas in the family’s XK150, Graham Love once again brought out his lovely MKV11 taking 17th from Kevin Doyle in his MK2 & Simon Seath rounded off the field in his MK1.

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Race

The competitors & crowd had to wait until 5.25 for the race due to time consuming incidents in previous races, but the Jaguars didn’t fail to bring an exciting & competitive race & the crowd cheered the cars as they all gave a superb performance throughout the field.

At the start the E’types made a mess of the start resulting in Julian Bronson wasted no time to take the lead followed by John Young, however they got themselves sorted out and Martin Hunt recovered to take the lead that he held onto until the race end.

Grant Williams in the MK1 BUY1 as always gave his entertaining drive with plenty of his corner slides, sadly a mechanical fault forced him to retire on lap 11 with only 2 laps remaining.

The main MK1 battle was between Richard Butterfield, Glen Pearson & Jack Young filling in for Nigel Webb in the Lister Mk1, followed by Michael O’Shea, this time in the E’type as racing partner David Hall was in the Ex Crays Mk2 with Andrew Keith-Lucas in the 150 being hotly pursued by Derek Pearce Mk2 & David Hall.

Marc Gordon ran most of the time in a space while Geoff Ottley in his 120 was doing battle with Simon Lewis in his Mk1 followed by Kevin Zwolinski XK140 & Graham Love in the huge MK V11 spent most of the race battling with Kevin Doyle in the MK2 & Simon Seath in the MK1.

The overall result after 13 laps was as predicted with the first 3 places taken by

1st Martin Hunt 3.8 E’type

2nd Alan Bull 3.8 E’type + Fastest Lap

3rd Julian Bronson 3.8 E’type

1st Mk 1 home was John Young in the Mk1 + Fastest Lap

1ST XK Home Andrew Keith-Lucas XK150

1st Mk 2 Derek Pearce 3.8 MK2

David Hall in the Mk2 & Marc Gordon in the XK150 both managed to steal the fastest laps from the respective class winners & Graham Love took fastest lap in class HD.

Special mention has to be given to Richard Butterfield & West Riding Jaguar who managed to the partially repaired & normally immaculate MK1 following is unfortunate roll at Goodwood 2 weeks prior, And also to Julian Bronson who took the newly & just in time built E’type to Spa the previous weekend resulting in some damage, But the car was repaired & made it to Combe for the weekend.

Driver of the Day Award was given to the ever-improving Glen Pearson in his Mk1.

The Norman Dewis Trophy was awarded to everyone’s delight to Graham Love in his Mk V11

The Norman Dewis Trophy race was the last race of the season for the classic Jaguars but the JEC Saloon & GTs round of the season at Donington the weekend of the 26th & 27th

of October.