TWFC: Silverstone

Given a 1967 F1 cars love of sweeping fast corners, it's perhaps no surprise that the TWFC circus follows the blasts of Snetterton with the challenges of the Silverstone circuit.

In Qualifying Ronny Nunez put in an impressive time, narrowly failing to get into the 1m39's to get pole ahead of Deutsch and Nigel Metcalf. Several drivers found the going tough amongst them Ralph Maiph and Mark Abbot both found themselves somewhat further down the pack than they expected.

The pack was nice and clean round most of that first lap with just minor bumping off the start, until the leaders streamed through the challenging bridge corner.

Simon Baggett had been pressing the 3rd placed car of Metcalf but lost a little momentum through bridge corner. Snow following a little behind got the corner right and misjuding the car infronts speed clipped Baggetts rear tyre. The end result was a flip for the red eagle and first retirement of the race. (left).

Another loser on that opening lap was Mario who with a combination of a bad start and mistake on lap 1 was soon down to ninth from 5th on the Grid. By contrast Juan made a startling start and gained 10 places during that first lap.

The field now settled down, the top 19 all staying in position for the next two laps while returnee Steve Shelley started to move through the field.

Jos was the next driver to lose places, battling hard he couldn't keep three cars, including the lime green Wojahn pairing (right), behind him as he dropped to 10th.

Meanwhile Steve Shelley was continuing to gain places, reaching 18th. Up Front Nunez was was serene building a solid gap to those behind and when Deutsch had an incident on lap 5 Metcalf had a comfortable drive to finish second.

Snow recovered from the first lap bumps to finish 3rd ahead of Bret and Ralph. An impressive win for Nunez, but the question is, could he repeat that in the feature.

Within seconds of the start that was a resounding no as he jumped the start, but at least he didn't have the nightmare that Mario did. Rounding turn one the lime green car started to slide, Mario caught it but the car slapped the other way into the path of Paul Langford and Mitch Simon.

Baz, following just behind breifly found himself with a wall of spinning metal, but like a parting of the waves he was able to slip between the Ferrari and Lotus. (left)

Mario's spin, took him off track and Don Fleming, following Baz, just avoided the Ferrari but slid into the Lotus.

From that cars flew left right and center with nearly half the field actually spinning or being involved with a collision the field got very randomized. Below Don Fleming collides with Mitch while Palfreyman takes avoiding action in front of Baggett.

At the end of the first lap, after Nunez pitted for a drive through, Deutsch led from Snow and Jef Vannijlen. Antonio had also benefitted from his team mates spin and gained a lot of places, as did Steve Shelley.

All this jumbling of positions meant that early on there was a lot of battling. Simon Baggett being one who soon was making progress through the field. Up front, however, the lead 3 were embroiled in a frantic battle. Lap 2 Deutsch slid wide in T1 and although Snow almost followed him over the curbs (right) both Jos and Snow slipped through.

A Lap later Deutsch had made it back in front but he wasn't allowed to rest by Snow who put him under pressure for the next few laps.

Antonio looked secure in fourth but Nigel made a mistake on lap 11 and looked like he'd lost his shot at a good finish. A stunning recovery, including several laps of battling with Baggett, and a last lap pass on the Lime Green car saw him finish an impressive fourth.

At the end of 22 laps of intense battling Snow recorded an impressive win after passing the Cooper for the lead on lap 15, with Jef in 3rd.

Despite the first lap carnage, amazingly 23 cars finished on the lead lap and both of the retirements were not due to accidents or incidents.

TWF1 Green Hell (Attempt 2)

Seems it's not just the track that's Hell after my first report got comprehensively eaten by blogger.. so here we go..

Green Hell report, attempt 2!!

The TWF1 moved on to the twisting turning and highly challenging circuit known by the appropriate nickname of 'The Green Hell", but more accurately the Nordschliefe. This legendary circuit hosted the 4th round of the championship, but the question is, who would come out on top and who would succumb to the challenge.

Out on top, thanks in part to a tow, in qualifying was the McLaren of championship leader, Rouke, but within in a minute of the start he was down to third behind the impressive Mike Perray and rapid Timo.

A minute later, however, Rouke was out and Timo delayed after the latter made a small mistake and unfortunately clipped Rouke. Rouke lost control as a result, hit two barriers hard and retired on the spot, Timo was damaged and had to pit at the end of the lap.

Rouke wasn't the only one in for an early bath as both Ivor and Paul retired following a collision also involving Eric who dragged his damaged car round most of the lap to the pits. Eric had spun early in the lap and Paul was unable to avoid the car that finished broadside on across the track.

That left Perray pulling out a comfortable lead in the gripless RS01 ahead of Simon Baggett and Patrick Dobner. Meanwhile Shazy and John Wallace were battling hard with the former taking 3 laps before he broke from from Ahmed as he faded down the order towards the end of the race.

Wallace wouldn't see the checkers, however, as a technical hitch made him retirement number 10 and the first retirement to actually score points.

So Perray led from Baggett who swapped places a couple of times with Dobner, the fading Shazy and charging Timo.

Peltola was driving absolutely on the limit, and frequently beyond the limit, as he strived to gain a fastest lap. His determination was rewarded with fourth place but at the cost of a car that probably won't race again such was the damage to it.

Further back Corrado was having a steady race, putting in consistant laps and benefitting from others mistakes he was soon in a lonely fifth place.

Suddenly, however, the race came alive. Perray went off, damaging the suspension and immediately the two behind started hacking into his lead. Lap after lap the pair behind strived to close down the leader who was driving with courage and determination.

He would finally cross the line after 8 intense lap, of which 4 were spent with an ill handling car, for a might impressive win. Simon Baggett was unable to quite take the place after might impressive run to second ahead of Dobner.

Peltola finished a solid 4th ahead of Corrado and Ralph Maiph who had a quiet race to sixth place. Further back several cars finished but had to make pitstops, most notable was Mark Abbott who pitted a total of three times to fix damage.

Overall the Green Hell lived up to it's reputation as half the field retired but Mike certainly deserved a highly impressive win.

TWF1: Brno Report

A healthy field of 29 cars lined up for the second round of the season and McLarens proved to be the car to have with two M29's locking out the front row. Costa just pipping race one winner, Rouke, to pole with the impressive Eric lining up third.

Rouke made the better start and soon took the lead with Costa lining up behind and the pair soon building up a little cushion ahead of John Wallace and Fulghum who was soon under pressure from Patrick Dobner.

Further back Nigel Metcalf was holding 6th after leaping 4 places off the grid, while returning driver, Rob Swindells, Kat Scott, Paul Langford and Sal Tallini all also made up a good number of places off the start, the result of this was battles all the way down the field.

Initially Kuhl put pressure on Scott, the two going through several corners side by side, before the yellow Ferrari prevailed. Kuhl would soon drop back from what soon became a pair of Ferrari's running a few seconds apart as Scott started to chase Tallini while Corrado put pressure on the former.

This wasn't the only intense battle, however, early on pressure was being put on drivers throughout the field. On Lap 5 Nigel succummed to Fulvio, then Leo worked his way past a few laps later. Just behind that pair Swindells and Rick Stratton were swapping places lap after lap then what might have been the inevitable happened, first Katier, trying to outbrake Corrado, ran into the back of Tallini.

In doing so Corrado and Mike Perray, power sliding his way round the track in his RS01, both got past; however only a few corners later the former lost it in a big way. Scott avoided the spinning car but Perray, who was looking for a way back past the Ferrari, had no-where to go and thumped the green car putting him out of the race.

Retirements were coming thick and fast. Mark Abbot crashed out, Sal Tallini lost it after apparantly pushing too hard just over a lap after his collsion with Katier, Kat herself also retired and by lap 21 9 drivers were out.

Up front, however, the battle was intensifying as Costa got back ahead on lap 11, he lead till Lap 17 before Rouke got back in front. Costa also lost out to John who was unable to truly challenge the new leader but was close enough to exploit any problems.

By Lap 19 the field was settling down with position changes being rare. Dobner and Fulghum were running close together with Leo in close attendance until the latter slipped back behind Fulvio who was steadily moved up the order.

Fulvio eventually moved into fourth after first Costa, on lap 24, then Eric on Lap 26 both dropped back. Fulghum only lost a couple of places but Costa's good drive ended with him losing an entire lap and limping home in 18th.

Rouke completed an impressive second win, just over 5s ahead of Wallace who did well holding off Dobner behind. Eric came in 5th ahead of Leo and Nigel.

Overall an exciting and excellent race with lots of close battling and some impressive drives, but I think driver of the event must be Rouke after a near faultless drive.

TWFC Spa Report

31 cars lined up for what promised to be an action packed pair of races at the slip streaming paradise of the 1967 Spa Franchorchamps circuit. Christopher Snow lined up a superb pole ahead of the equally impressive Ralph Maiph who had got his Cooper perfectly suited to this high speed circuit.

Due to the length of the circuit and risk of collisions off the start it was decided to do a rolling start with the race starting at Les Combes on lap one. Unfortunately several drivers misunderstood the instructions, others got away erratically and in seconds there was a huge pileup in exactly the same spot that David Coultard caused one in torrential rain.

Fulvio was the big loser, ending up having to start the sprint from the back of the field while Frenchman, Benoit Hocq seemed to completely ignore the instructions and by Les Combes was already up to 10th from 23rd. His race wouldn't last much longer as a spin at Masta Kink ended his race. By that time Larry Thomas, Jos Swarthoff were both out and Baz West also retired after contacting Hocq's stranded car.

That wasn't the end of the carnage, before the end of lap 2 10 cars were lying scattered around the track missing parts or stranded in the undergrowth.

Up front the carnage helped Snow build up a lead but behind Simon Baggett and Jef Vannijlen were both embroiled in a battle that saw them swap places on nearly every lap. Just behind them Ralph was trying to recover from a poor start but found himself embroiled in a ferocious battle with Deutsch and Mario.

Those who had managed to keep on the track in contact with other drivers seemingly enjoyed huge battles for position with drafting possible around much of the circuit.

Ultimately Snow won from Baggett and Jef. 13 drivers failed to finish of whom onto 2 completed enough laps to score points.

The feature race got away much more cleanly, although not totally clean, with four drivers failing to make two laps. By half distance a further 7 drivers had retired with no points but out front Ralph was making up for his race one disapointment.

Ralph, Mario and Snow were  enjoying a huge battle with the three of them swapping positions on every single lap before Snow retired on lap three. His retirement didnt' effect the lead two as the cars behind failed to put any pressure on the intense lead battle.

Deutsch held third but retired after only a couple of laps letting Nigel through but he was unable to close in on the lead battle. Behind Swarthoff moved into fourth, but retired letting Baggett into the position ahead of Martin Cooper.

For many of the drivers now it seemed survival was the important element but not for the lead two, the continued to swap places until on lap 11 of 13 Ralph finally got a bit of breathing room. He lead for the last two laps to register a well deserved win ahead of an excellent drive from Mario. 

Nigel Metcalf, Simon Baggett and Fulvio all managed solid drives to fill out the positions behind have a race meeting that many drivers would rather forget.