The weekend of 4th, 5th and 6th of November saw James RS venture down to the Victorian Historic Racing Register’s (VHRR) Historic Sandown meeting which was held to honour the achievements of the fabled Sir Black Jack Brabham on the 50the Anniversary of Sir Jacks brilliant Drivers World Championship/Constructers World Championship double back in 1966. To celebrate the occasion the Brabham BT19 race car that Sir Jack used to win the championship that year was on display.
In the Historic Touring Car Group N Category Group Nb for cars up to the end of 1964 and Group Nc for cars from 1965 to the end of 1972 were well subscribed and the organisers elected to split the fields roughly along performance potential lines and run a combined Group Nb under 4500cc/Group Nc up to 2000cc series of three races and a combined Group Nb over 4500cc/Group Nc over 2000cc series of three races over the weekend. Friday the 4th of November was dedicated to practice for the various classes present. It was the combined Group Nb under 4500cc/Group Nc under 2000cc practice and races that had the most interest for Type 49 Racing for that’s were the little Escorts were competing and there were at the beginning of Friday’s practice no less than four very tidy Mk 1 coupes present. Down from NSW was the father and son pairing of Jerry and Mark Lenstra running their pair of BDA powered Mk 1 RS 1600 coupes. Also present was the recently re-shelled BDA powered Mk 1 RS 1600 coupe of Victorian Peter Owen and the final Escort in the field was the ever-competitive little Lotus Twin Cam powered Mk 1 Escort coupe of Peter Van Summeren also from Victoria.
Other Ford Escorts were also present in the form of two entries in the regularity part of the meetings proceedings with the square nosed Mk 2 RS 2000 Frank Lowndes built Pinto powered coupe entered by Scott Graham and the original Group C race car Lotus Twin Cam Escort of Cole Spender that normally runs in the Heritage Tourers Group C/Group A races held around the country. Both Scott and Cole are based in Victoria and where not present for Friday’s practice sessions but were present for both Saturday and Sunday.
The Friday practice sessions for the combined Group Nb/Nc fields were held over a morning and an afternoon session and while the morning session was uneventful the afternoon session was noted by an engine malady for Mark Lenstra in his RS 1600 that lead to Mark having to retire from the remainder of the meeting with a suspected broken piston and a nasty engine knock which was a shame and it was disappointing for Mark to have to load the car back onto the trailer after the long trip down to Sandown from NSW. Then there was five!!
Whilst Friday had been sunny and quite warm to hot Saturday was overcast and mild and there was the odd spot of rain during the day but nothing of any consequence. In the regularity practice session in the morning Scott Graham recorded a best time of 1.40.66 and Cole Spender recorded a best time of 1.52.23. Both elected to nominate faster times for their target times in the regularity heats to be held on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon of 1.38.00 for Scott and 1.45.00 for Cole. The first of the three regularity heats run on Saturday afternoon saw Cole finish in 6th place on the combined time sheets with a series of laps ranging from 1.45’s to 1.49’s and Scott finished in 13th on the list with laps ranging from 1.41’s to 1.44’s. On Sundays first regularity heat the nominated times for Cole and Scott remained unchanged and Cole was 15th on the list with times ranging from1.44’s to 1.50’s and Scott was excluded from the results. In the final regularity heat held on Sunday afternoon Cole re-nominated his target time to be 1.44.00 and he topped the times sheet with a very consistent series of laps in the 1.43 to 1.44 range and Scott finished 9th on the list recording times in the range of 1.38’s to 1.40’s. A fine and consistent showing from both Cole and Scott in the regularity portion of the meetings events and their respective Escorts looks a treat as the circulated among the large and eclectic regularity field.
In the combined Group Nb under 4500cc/Group Nc up to 2000cc portion of the meeting the qualifying sessions was held on Saturday morning and the under 2000cc front runners topped the time sheets with a gaggle of Alfa’s Datsun’s Escorts and BMW’s filling the top five places. The session was topped by David Brown in his alarmingly fast Datsun 1600 (1.28.05) form Rob Burns in his indecently quick 2 litre Alfa (1.29.53) ahead of Jerry Lenstra in his RS 1600 (1.30.18) in fourth and Peter Van Summeren in fifth (1.30.49). Peter Owen in his first event in his recently reshelled and shaken down RS 1600 recorded 13th fastest time with a 1.35.52. In a portent of things to come Jerry Lenstra’s RS 1600 was leaving a haze of oil smoke in his wake and Jerry elected to continue in the car that appeared to be in a little less than in pristine health but still making good power as it circulated the long Sandown straights and twisty bits.
The first race over 6 laps of Sandown for the combined Group Nb/Group Nc boys was mid-afternoon on Saturday and Rob Burns prevailed in his Alfa from David Brown in his Datsun 1600. Jerry Lenstra recorded a third-place finish with a best lap time of 1.30.02 with Peter Van Summeren bringing his mighty little Twin Cam Mk1 coupe home in 5th with a best lap time of 1.29.70. With no more than 185 horsepower available to Peter in his 1598 cc Lotus powered Twin Cam Peter was doing a fine job of pedalling the little red terror along at a prodigious rate and making up for in the corners what he was losing out to the more powerful cars in his races on the straights. Giving away in the region of 40 to 50 horsepower to his direct rivals and still keeping in touch with them was a fine effort from Peter in the Cam Automotive/Auto Marine entered Lotus Twin Cam Escort.
In a very sad note to the race the Mk 1 Escort RS 1600 of Peter Owen was afflicted by an under-bonnet engine fire and some pretty tardy work by the fire marshals saw what was initially a pretty small blaze really take hold and the fire did a fair amount of damage to the refettled brown RS 1600. The rebuild will be extensive with the engine having to be removed and stripped and cleaned of fire retardant and the bonnet and engine bay to be repainted prior to a full refurbishment of all electrical and plumbing in the engine bay. A nasty end to the cars first showing in anger and poor reward for the efforts of Peter and Colin Van Summeren of Cam Automotive in re-shelling the car for Peter to drive in Group Nc events
Sunday was warm and sunny and a fine day was in offering for the large crowd that was in attendance to enjoy the races and the entertainment on offer from the VHRR managed event. Race two for the combined Group Nb under 4500cc/Group Nc up to 2000cc field was held on Sunday morning and was to be a journey of 7 laps and once again the 2 litre Alfa of Rob Burns prevailed ahead of David Brown in the Datsun 1600 with Peter Van Summeren recording a fighting 3rd place finish and recording a best lap time of 1.29.74. Jerry Lenstra was well placed in the early to late stages of the race but received the black flag for dropping oil from his RS 1600 and he pitted and lost a lap. Jerry recorded a best time in the race of a 1.29.60 which saw the car was still pulling strongly at this stage but pumping out a fair haze of oil smoke in its wake as it circulated Sandown.
The final combined group Nb/Group Nc race for the weekend was held over eight laps and it was at the top of the order a carbon copy of race two with Rob Burns winning from David Brown with Peter Van Summeren again punching above his weight for third. Peter recorded a best time in the 8 lapper of 1.30.15. For Jerry Lenstra his wows continued with his powder blue Mk 1 RS 1600 recording a DNF as his engine maladies continued and the donk started to tighten up and eventually ground to a halt near the end of the eight-lap journey. A tough weekend for the Lenstra’s and scant reward for the long trip down the Hume from Sydney. Peter Van Summeren’s efforts over the course of the meeting were first rate and if he ever gets a BDA and another forty horsepower to play with he will really shake the field up!!
So that was Historic Sandown for 2016 and a fine meeting it was and well enjoyed by the large crowd that attended over the brilliant 3 day weekend of racing and entertainment.
