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.